Tavistock Football Club says not enough fans are coming to their home games and so they are aiming to go out and get them.

Staff at the Western League club want to give their supporters a lift to their Langsford Park ground so local people can get behind their team as they aim to climb another rung up football’s ladder.

Thanks to a scheme proposed by first-team boss Stuart Henderson, the Lambs are effectively planning to start up their own bus service.

If enough interest is shown by local supporters, the club will arrange for a bus to pick up fans from designated points in villages in the area and ferry to them to the ground for home matches. Then, after the match, the club will get them back home again.

Henderson has often said he is working within a tight budget and he finds it difficult to compete with clubs who have a few more quid in their coffers to attract and keep players of a quality good enough to help propel the Lambs to the Southern League.

That problem was magnified during the off season when several key players decided to up sticks to try new pastures, leaving Henderson with the task of attempting to rebuild his squad on the eve of Tavistock’s Western League campaign.

So far, that has been a success, with the Lambs putting an uncertain start behind them and winning a string of games to put themselves in the frame for promotion this season.

However, with just one team normally being promoted from the league, Tavistock do not have any margin for error after narrowly missing out during a Covid-19 interrupted season last time out.

Henderson said it was vital for the club’s future prospects that Tavistock have at least 200 fans at Langsford Park for home games but it was also about showing people what a great club it was and offering great entertainment.

’Basically, the bus plan depends on getting a good level of interest to cover its running cost. Given that level of interest, we are aiming to get a bus to go around all the outlying places in the area, pick up fans and get them to the ground.

'Given the size of this area and the potential number of supporters, we have often been puzzled by the fact that we aren’t getting a lot more supporters through the gates, particularly as this has been a successful club for the past four or five years. So we thought we would go and get them and see how that works.’

The club says, depending on the level of interest, they would be looking at villages like Yelverton and Milton Abbot. Anyone interested should contact the club direct, giving contact details and where they live, or via the Tavistock Times at [email protected]