BRISTOL Rovers fans may be feeling the financial pinch and picking their away trips more carefully but the club have taken steps to prevent a crash in support at the Memorial Stadium.

The Pirates expect hundreds of fans to watch their home game against Southend for free later this month after taking advantage of a cut-price admission deal.

Three of the club's next four matches are at home and Chairman Nick Higgs is all too aware of the cost for fans and keen to help them continue their loyal support.

The club are offering supporters a package which will allow them to watch all three matches for the price of two.

"Everyone's talking about the effect (of the financial crisis) on big business and corporates," said Higgs last night. "But we mustn't forget the poor old fans."

Supporters buying advance tickets for Saturday's clash with Leyton Orient and the visit of Oldham (October 21) before 5pm tomorrow will get a ticket for the Southend game (October 25) for nothing.

More than 200 supporters have already taken advantage of the offer and the club expect plenty more buyers over the next couple of days.

"We have been very encouraged by the response," said Rovers' shop manager Steve Burns.

"It means supporters who normally pay £15 for an Early Bird ticket in the Blackthorn End will be able to watch all three games for £30.

"In the current economic climate, we know it might be difficult for some supporters to afford three home games in a fortnight so this is a way of offering them an incentive.

"The club is already looking at other ways of encouraging people to come through the turnstiles in the future."

The three-for-two idea was suggested by Rovers Supporters Club at a meeting with the club's board, and directors gave the scheme the thumbs-up.

Tickets for both the Orient and Oldham games have to be purchased at the same time from either of the club's retail outlets – Pirate Leisure at the Memorial Stadium or the Supporters Club shop in Kingswood.

Pricing for away games is out of the club's control but the Chairman said the club are always looking at plans to help their support and may revisit the offer of a free ticket for home games in future.

"We will see how the three-for-two offer goes and then monitor the situation," he said.

"The main thing is we have got to provide entertainment and we've had a number of entertaining games this season."

There has certainly been no shortage of goals in the Rovers side and in Rickie Lambert they boast the country's top scorer in all competitions so crowds to date have not been unduly affected by the credit crunch.

Finance director Toni Watola said: "Clearly people have less money in their pocket but crowds have been at the level that we expected this season.

"To reflect the credit crunch we have the three-for-two offer and we are looking with the supporters club at other offers we might be able to make."

On top of his shop duties, Burns organises the coaches for away travel and has been fighting to keep prices affordable despite the increases, but has noticed a drop in away support.

He said: "We took a fair amount to Leeds, about 1,400, but it's down on last season.

"Our fuel costs have gone up and we made a bit of a loss on a couple of trips at the start of the season, like the Johnstone Paint Trophy trip to Bournemouth. We are trying to keep the prices down, we are not here to make a profit, we're here to get fans from A to B."

Burns doesn't believe the impact on fans from the current financial troubles will really be visible until the New Year, after Christmas spending.

But he was keen to remind fans of Rovers traditional end of season offer – free travel to the last away game for anyone who has been on 18 trips.

"We've done it for about 20 years," he said. "It's important to help fans."