Dover chairman Jim Parmenter is calling on the wider community to help the club’s promotion push this season.

Whites are eighth in the Vanarama National League, just two points out of the play-offs, after consecutive wins against Eastleigh and Woking.

And Mr Parmenter believes his team’s chances of reaching the Football League will be greatly improved if new fans come through the turnstiles at Crabble.

Despite the good start to the league campaign by boss Chris Kinnear’s side, home crowds have been far from impressive, with 1,012 for the bank holiday clash with Boreham Wood the best so far.

The last home two games saw 823 for Guiseley and 864 attend Friday’s televised clash with Woking.

They are not the figures Mr Parmenter thinks his side deserves.

He said: “I remember telling a fans’ meeting in the early days when we were in Ryman South that we would need £1 millon a year to compete in the then Conference.

“That is about where we are at the moment but crowds of 800 will not sustain a move upwards.

“Don’t get me wrong, we have a fantastic group of supporters and I know they can’t all attend every game because of shift work and other reasons. But if we are to move towards the Football League we need bigger sections of the community to buy into us.

“We need people to realise the benefits a high-profile football club can bring to the town, take an interest and get to games.

“We have achieved a massive amount, we are active in the community, financially solid and doing really well in the league.

“We have a solid platform to move forward from to give Dover a Football League club for the first time in history.

“But we need more support to get us there and that’s not knocking our regular supporters – they have been fantastic again this season.

“We are ready to kick on but we need a few more to get across the line. The crowd are our 12th man. I hope they can turn out in force – that would be great for the club.”