Town are in talks with Aston Villa regarding further tickets for the FA Cup third round tie at Villa Park on Saturday 5th January. The Blues’ initial allocation of 2,900 sold out this morning soon after going on general sale, most having been purchased via the usual priority scheme.

In the FA Cup away sides are permitted to take 15 per cent of the tickets, however, Villa only made 2,900 available on a sale or return basis, a common practice in these circumstances.

Ticket office manager John Ford says he is speaking to the Premier League side, who will play a Capital One Cup semi-final only a few days after the Town match, regarding additional seats: “We could have taken 15 per cent [over 6,000 seats] of the stadium capacity, but we would have had to pay for all of those tickets regardless of whether we sold them or not.

“Our current average travelling support is 646 and we had much less than that, 419 to be precise, who went to Leeds on Saturday and this is one of the factors we based our decision on.

“It would have been naive of us to look at taking 6,000 tickets and risk being considerably out of pocket so we took the maximum we could at sale or return.

“Season ticket holders and Silver Club members had until yesterday to purchase their tickets and there were steady sales throughout this period. The remaining tickets went on general sale with the last 200 going in 35 minutes this morning.

“We have spoken to Aston Villa and they have been impressed that we have sold out so quickly.

“We have asked if they will consider providing us with more tickets but that will be dependent on their stadium configuration as they have been selling tickets for the game for two weeks.”

Photo: Action Images

HackneyBlue added 06:06 - Dec 19 I have emailed mr Fords dept in the past when like this they messed up and the response was very short sighted.I am unable to go because i am a ST holder who wants to take 2 sons ,one who is not a ST holder so i waited too. As for the phone system i always got hung up without explanation. Time to look after the fans we have had to put up with so much gloom in the last 5 years .

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BotesdaleBlue added 08:58 - Dec 19 Whatever way you look at it, this has been a gross misjudgement on the part of the Ticket office. Longer term, this business of no longer having sale or return tickets for away fans should be looked at as it is not good for football.
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Lord_Mac added 09:08 - Dec 19 I just love this idea that ALL people who didn't get their tickets before they went on general sale are "part-time supporters" or "fairweather supporters". Both Hackney Blue and I are in the same position of having sons who could go, so we couldn't get our tickets until we could get all of our tickets at once. There will be loads of family members in the area over Christmas who don't normally go, but would once have been regulars and would like the opportunity of going to a one-off match with their families. In fact, you could even push the sales on this basis if you have some tickets left over at the end from the original 6000 that should have been ordered. In any case, successful businesses work on getting customers in on the ground floor, and then upselling them to bigger sales - getting a "part-time supporter" to buy a ticket at Aston Villa should be the first stage in selling that customer a season ticket. It's the perfect opportunity to grow our fanbase. If the club genuinely does not know how many people are likely to go, why not set up a small sample of supporters and survey them quickly, so that they have some evidence to base their judgement on? Say we had 100 supporters, made of ST holders, regular attendees and lapsed ST holders, to see if they were likely to attend (Very likely, Quite Likely, Don't Know, Unlikely, Definitely not). Then just scale up the answers to estimate the likely figure. It's basic marketing.

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mark1969 added 09:45 - Dec 19 The club again has missed an opportunity to encourage its semi dormant fan base.Our marketing is poor considering we are owned by such a prestigious events company.The club in my view should have taken the full allocation and sold the tickets on a great day out policy at a price to include transport from Portman Road , try to rekindle some old fashioned atmosphere. The ticket office operation is very poor , the phone system worse . It all goes back to what is the direction at the top ?

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slowerball added 09:54 - Dec 19 The reasons why many didn't bother going to Leeds was that a) you get treated like sh1t by the stewards and b) it was £34 for adults and £16 juniors. If there is demand for additional tickets, then its a no-brainer that we get more tickets. Crack on both clubs - and ITFC, please provide a 'service' for your fans as there is clearly the demand.
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hughesuk123 added 10:48 - Dec 19 just been on to the villa tickets office and you do not have to be a member to pay on the gate , you can just turn up and pay so if our club dosnt look after its fans see you all in the holt end
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BergholtBru added 10:50 - Dec 19 Why not let people just pay on the gate and avoid all this nonsense!
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JewellintheTown added 11:13 - Dec 19 Calm down dears, we'll get more tickets. Now all of you take your pills. Moaning on here about it wont get us tickets either.
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sebastien1 added 12:14 - Dec 19 To the shift workers , I am one too and have been for 11years and cant get to as many games as i would like. But I have the foresight to buy a season ticket every yeat and i am a gold ticket holder too. Can i afford to do this .. not really but i do it to support my team and for days out like this agsinst Villa.
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