YouTube stars aim to break non-league crowd record

Hundreds of football fans from across the UK and abroad are hoping to break a non-league side's attendance record.

More than 600 tickets have been sold for Witham Town's home clash in Essex against Gorleston, from Norfolk, on Saturday.

It was the idea of Ellis Platten, whose AwayDays YouTube channel has almost 600,000 subscribers.

The 28-year-old said: "Non-league is the backbone of our entire football pyramid and there's nowhere in the world that does it like us."

Witham compete in the Isthmian League North and have a record crowd of 898 people, during a 2014 play-off final.

Platten watched a game there in 2017 and said he was inspired by the support of resident super fan James Beardwell.

Having seen his online following skyrocket since then, Platten said he was looking forward to returning to Witham - a trip that had raised £6,000 in ticket sales by Thursday.

The YouTuber said: "Witham have been as helpful as they can be and they've been really receptive to it, which is great."

Despite being born in Gorleston, Platten insisted he was going to be a fully-fledged "Witham Town ultra" for the day.

"Hopefully it's going to be a really, really good day," he added.

The big day out has been arranged with Platten's right-hand man and fellow content creator Alfie Indra, 29.

"I was worried that we would sell 10 tickets and look really silly," said Indra, who was relieved to see an "incredible" response.

"There's people coming from different countries. It feels like a really big, momentous occasion."

Some of the people heading to the game, from places including Edinburgh, Cornwall and Barrow, have had their transport paid for by Platten.

Jim Purtill, vice-chairman of Witham Town, said Platten was "a nice guy" who was "very popular within the game".

His side usually averages a crowd of about 220 spectators to their eighth-tier matches.

Purtill, 73, said: "Hopefully our visitors think it's good here, that it's friendly, safe and cheap.

"There's a great feeling of optimism and excitement around the club."

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