King's Lynn step into new territory on Saturday when they make their bow in the Blue Square North against Greater Manchester side Burscough.

King's Lynn step into new territory on Saturday when they make their bow in the Blue Square North against Greater Manchester side Burscough.

They do so as such an unknown quantity in Conference circles that former Northern Ireland international Tommy Cassidy, the man commissioned by the Non-League Paper to give an expert verdict on the runners and riders admitted: "They could win it or they could get relegated - that's how much I know about King's Lynn in terms of how they will cope in this division."

But if the Southern League champions' support has anything to do with it they should have no problems mixing it at the right end of the table.

In fact, crowd rankings published by a non-league website tonykempster.co.uk show that, if clubs were ranked on their average attendances the Linnets would already be in the Blue Square National.

Only 21 non-league clubs had better average crowds than Lynn last season - and 16 of them were, or are now, Blue Square National teams.

And while Lynn chairman Ken Bobbins can only dream of the day when his club might challenge the 4,728 average of Oxford United, there is only one club ahead of the Linnets at present in Blue Square North.That is AFC Telford, who were 21st in the overall rankings with an average of 2,107 as they just missed on last season's play-offs. That has helped make the Shropshire side 7-1 favourites with Blue Square. There is a sharp drop from there to Lynn's 1,148. But that is one of only three four-figure averages recorded by this season's rivals, the other being former Football League club Southport (1,013) - though promoted Kettering (1,497) and Barrow (1,066) all had more in the division they left behind.

To put the level of Lynn's support in perspective, they easily outstripped two of the clubs considered among the best-supported at this level, newly-relegated Stafford (843) and Tamworth (910).

Another relegated club, Droylsdon, were watched by an average of 703.

Stalybridge Celtic, 9-1 joint second favourites with Stafford, averaged only 557.

As for those other Linnets - Saturday's opponents Burscough - they had an average of 433.