Of all the familiar sights and sounds on an average Saturday at Brunton Park, the noise from the club's A Stand has become a particularly recognisable feature.

Dozens of children, singing and chanting, whatever the score. It is the stadium's own pocket of fledgling support and it captures one of the best things Carlisle United do.

Their community ticket scheme opens the club's doors to youngsters from across and beyond the city. It is one of the Blues' most obvious ways of trying to hook fans of the future.

At that age the deeper supporters' concerns, like Keith Curle's signings and the club's ownership, have yet to form. At the outset it is simple and unbridled enthusiasm for the game. United try to meet this with their efforts to be an appealing option for parents and schools.

The club say that, last season, some 76 organisations and 1,830 youngsters took advantage of the scheme. It sees children receive free entry to a nominated fixture, and free entry to the next home fixture, with half-price entry for an accompanying adult.

Andrew Gordon, head of sales for the scheme's sponsors, The Cumberland, explains that it goes further than a free seat that will hopefully form an early habit.

"It's not just getting to the game - it's making the whole experience positive," he says.

"Players go into the schools in the week before the game. It gets everybody excited and so, by the time they arrive at the ground on a Saturday, everyone's already hyper.

"We meet them, give them a tour of the ground, give them the chance to have their photos taken pitchside, have a little play in the dugout - they love all that.

"They can look in the youth zone, a couple of players come up and sign autographs in the stand, Olga [the mascot] comes and gives out goodie bags, and they scream at the top of their voices for 90 minutes and give everybody a headache!

"Most importantly, they go away happy, having had a positive experience. I wax lyrical about this, but they are the fans of the future."

Capturing young support is every club's holy grail, particularly at United's level, where crowd numbers can be volatile and thoughts of an ageing fanbase always spark debate.

The general trends will always be determined by how successful the team is, and what sort of club the people can believe in. At root, though, is a first-time experience for every young fan. It is possibly when support is at its most innocent, untainted by worries or scepticism.

"I always talk about my best moment ever watching Carlisle United," Andrew says, "and it still puts the hairs on my neck up.

"It was Wembley the first time [in 1995]. The moment after we conceded the goal. It went quiet for about five or 10 seconds, then 30-odd thousand people went, 'This doesn't matter - this is our team at Wembley! And everybody went mental. It was unbelievable.

"That's what it's all about. I love this club. I've been coming down here since I was four - painted the goalposts, worked in the pie huts, you name it. I go in the Paddock. But we need more people to come down.

"Getting the kids at that age, having had a good experience and met a few players, they can then go away and hassle their parents to come, brothers and sisters, can I take my mate? Then you've got that engagement.

"When players go into schools, the kids' eyes light up. 'Oh, there's Danny Grainger…' Some footballers aren't the best among a gang of kids, but the ones who can talk, who have a kickabout and really engage with them, it makes such a difference.

"To some extent the game can become a little bit incidental. If you can make it a great experience even if we've lost, so be it. Defeats probably don't hit the kids as hard. It's about more than just a match and a result. If they've had a good experience, in six weeks' time they'll probably forget what the score was. But having sat in the dugout where Keith sits…they actually live it. It's powerful stuff.

"I see it happening, people saying, 'I came down with the community scheme last year'. It makes such a difference."

United return for pre-season training soon and most of the focus will be on what sort of team Curle is going to put together. A close-season when it has often felt that tumbleweed was blowing around has hardly fired the imagination.

The hope is that, come August 5, the squad is fully-formed and ready. Carlisle's first game of the new campaign is at home, and aspects of Brunton Park like the family zone, in the Pioneer Stand, will, as ever, play a part in what they offer to the younger end of their supporter base.

Whatever its issues, United score highly with its community work. Their summer family fun day (this year's is on Sunday, July 9) is always a hit, while their broader efforts earned a family club of the year nomination in last season's EFL Awards.

The Cumberland have supported the ticket scheme, and the associated stand, for seven seasons, with 2017/18 to be the eighth. They are one of the club's longest-standing sponsors, a connection that also helped the club after Storm Desmond swamped Brunton Park.

"We had staff housed at our premises on Fisher Street in a matter of hours," Andrew says. "We were on the phone that day and literally shifted furniture.

"Somebody rang me and said, 'We're going to send a little bit of stock to get you started.' Then this articulated lorry pulled up around the corner! But it worked. That spirit of helping was going on all round the town and that was just an example. We had the capacity to help in that way."

United say 300 tickets are up for grabs in both the A Stand and a section of the Pioneer Stand each home game. Letters go out to schools and community groups before the season and the take-up is always good.

"Schools can use it as an educational thing too - they can get the kids writing stories about it, what the experience was like," Andrew adds. "It's not just a jolly to the football on a Saturday.

"It can be used as a positive thing. There is a lot of football on TV these days and there is a big debate around that, but the kids aren't really aware of us sitting down and cynically saying there's too much money in the game, and so on.

"That's not part of it, to them. It's all about hooking them, getting them excited. To be able to do that here, at Carlisle, is all important."