City hope to beat the season-ticket record that heralded Stuart McCall’s return as they prepare for League One.

The club have sold 8,600, including 1,300 flexi cards, so far – compared with the 12,200 total in 2007 that heralded McCall’s arrival as manager and the start of the discounted pricing policy.

The current deal of £199 for an adult ticket runs until the end of the month. Existing season-ticket holders only have until Monday to reserve their own specific seat before they go on general release.

Director of operations David Baldwin said: “The euphoria occurred when Stuart came in and hit 12,200 season tickets at that point in time. What a fantastic target to try and chase down.

“We’re talking about pushing a situation of 3,500 more and we know there are that many within the database who haven’t bought yet. One big positive is that we’ve had over 1,000 new applications.

“There’s a momentum about the club. You see it at corporate level where every box has been sold out for the season, which is a fantastic position to be in.

“There is a good positive vibe and expectation about the playing staff.

“You look at the sequence of events after the play-off final. We very quickly secured the long-term stability of the management team and then the key players we already had options on.

“Then we looked at those out-of-contract we wanted to keep and locking them down and new players who will enhance what is here.

“We weren’t rushing into the market just to fill gaps but have been looking at players we feel are going to have a positive contribution to the team.”

This is the seventh campaign that City have boasted among the cheapest season tickets in the division – and their first back in League One.

They maintain the policy can continue at a higher level if the take-up remains healthy.

Baldwin added: “The marker point to maintain these schemes has always been 10,000.

“Costs go up when you go up a division in terms of player wages and such like. Things like bigger away crowds are great but that also means extra stewarding.

“So in reality that break even line for the cheap deal is probably closer to 11,000.

“We do these deals because it works based on a volume of numbers. Get the number of people in and you can keep the costs down.

“We’ve worked really hard to keep flexi cards and maintain season-ticket prices at the same level as when they were first released. To put it in context, this is a Christmas offer extended until the end of July.

“Like anything with budgets, you are very reliant on incomes and they come from season tickets and paying on a match day. The minute numbers drop, you have to re-evaluate.”

City anticipate a late rush ahead of the cut-off point and are encouraging fans to buy early if possible and cut down on congestion.

Baldwin said: “We need tolerance from people. To produce 10-12,000 cards with all the data on takes time.

“We’ve left this right to the wire to give everybody an opportunity but we go into the first home game on August 10.

“We’re going to have people coming to collect season tickets at the end of July as well as others wanting to purchase. It could create congestion.

“At the minute it’s quiet. If you don’t have to wait, then maybe it’s worth getting in earlier because I can see it bottle-necking at the end of the month.”

Meanwhile, former Swindon and Carlisle winger Jon-Paul McGovern is currently on trial at City.

Boss Phil Parkinson said: “He’s training with us. We are just looking at one or two trialists at the moment.”