Caley Thistle manager John Hughes believes the club should continue to do all it can to entice supporters through the gates, following the success of the “pay what you can” scheme at last night’s 2-0 win against St Johnstone.
A crowd of 3,161 watched Inverness cruise to a deserved victory against the Perth side at the Caledonian Stadium, thanks to first-half goals from Billy Mckay and Marley Watkins.
The initiative was the latest of several trialled by the club this season, with Hughes thrilled to see a reward for the club’s hard work in the local community.
Leith-born Hughes fondly remembers his early memories of watching local club Hibernian as a child, and is hopeful supporters who witnessed a positive Caley Jags display and result will be attracted back for future matches.
Hughes said: “I can always remember as a young kid, running up the terracing for a night game when the floodlights were on. I never paid, I climbed over, but after that I was hooked.
“We’re hoping a lot of the young kids from the city have come along, maybe for the first time, seen the floodlights and that kind of performance, and they’ll be hooked.
“I totally understand the peer group will be all Celtic and Rangers in their schools. But their local club isn’t doing too bad now, so they might just come along and support us.
“It was a great incentive from the club once again. Hopefully we’ve attracted more supporters along for the future.
“The most important thing is we’re a real family club. The season ticket holders pay up front, so when you get incentives like this they might feel hard done by.
“But I’m hearing stories that even they were coming up and putting money in the bucket. We’re unique, as they understand we’re all in it together and we just need to keep moving along.
“We have to keep going for it. We work very hard in the community, they’ve got the biggest office at this club. We need to get into the schools.
“One of my biggest delights at this club since I’ve come here is just seeing the supporters and all the young kids down at the semi-final and final last year. It was all young kids with Inverness strips on, and that’s what Scottish football’s all about. We need to attract them along and make sure they fall in love with their team from their home city.
“We can only do it for ourselves. Over the last couple of months, we’ve come up with about four or five initiatives, such as bring a mate along for a fiver, and get in for half price, so long may it continue.
“I’m absolutely delighted with the turnout we got. The right price is what people can afford, given what families are going through. If I was to go into politics I’d be way over to the left side for the working man. I was listening to the radio, and hearing about guys turning up at foodbanks.
“Scottish football has been a working class sport, with working class heroes, and we’ll never get away from that. Whatever it takes to keep that, I’m all for it.”