ROVERS chairman John Williams has revealed that the club's decision to slash season ticket prices is already paying dividends.

In the opening week of March, Blackburn announced a mammoth 25 per cent reduction in adult season ticket prices for the 2007/08 campaign, in an attempt to halt falling attendances and lure back thousands of fans to Ewood Park.

And already, the unprecedented move has shown early signs of capturing the imagination of the town's football supporters.

Although no figures have yet been released, Williams admits there has been a positive response since declaring the price cuts three weeks ago.

What has most encouraged Williams is that among those taking advantage of the cheaper tickets include a significant' amount of supporters purchasing a Rovers season ticket for the very first time. He highlighted that new family groups were included in those snapping up tickets.

Furthermore, decreased prices has also led to many current season ticket holders trading up' their seat for a more expensive seating area of Ewood Park, therby freeing up cheaper seat tickets for potential new customers.

Williams felt drastic action was required for Rovers to try and entice back the 4,000 season ticket holders who have fallen by the wayside since the club returned to the Premiership in 2001.

"We are quite pleased with the response so far, but it is very early yet," said Williams. "We cannot quantify the response fully at this stage.

"But of our first sample we have looked at, there's evidence that there are significant new season ticket holders, people that have not previously held a season ticket.

"A second element is that of those, new groups of families are taking up season tickets.

"These are only small numbers so far, so we cannot get carried away, but these are encouraging signs so early in the process."

Williams added: "There has also been some element of trading up, where season ticket holders have swapped a cheaper seat for a so-called better area of the stadium.

"That is good news and something we are keen to encourage, because it opens up more cheaper seats."

Rovers are passing on savings totalling more than £1m to try and increase attendances, using cash from the new TV deal to help subsidise prices.

In a throwback to last century's prices, the cheapest adult season ticket is just £249 for the CIS stand.

The cost of a season ticket behind the goal in the Blackburn End is £299, a 30 per cent reduction on this season's average price of £425.

The most expensive season ticket is £399 - a big reduction of £196 on this season's price of £595.

Meanwhile, Paul Gallagher is still very much part of manager Mark Hughes' plans as the Rovers boss turned down numerous enquiries for the 22-year-old.

A host of Championship clubs were keen to take the Scottish striker on loan before Thursday's loan deadline day slammed shut.

But Hughes rebuffed all offers as he believes Gallagher has a role to play during Blackburn's end of season run-in, despite him being behind the likes of Benni McCarthy, Matt Derbyshire and Shabani Nonda in the striking pecking order.