EXCITED Worcester City fans snapped up more than 1,000 tickets for this weekend’s FA Cup first round tie against Coventry City within the first few hours of them going on sale today (Tuesday).
Queues built up outside the Tourist Information Centre at the Guildhall before they went on sale at 10am, with hundreds more fans buying them online.
The interest in Sunday’s (2pm) tie forced League One Coventry to send over hundreds more tickets with early estimates suggesting two to three thousand City fans could make the journey to the Ricoh Arena to cheer on the club.
The mouth-watering match against the 1987 FA Cup winners will see Carl Heeley’s men start as overwhelming underdogs, but a victory would earn them an additional £18,000 on top of the £24,000 they have already bagged for reaching this stage of the competition for the first time in almost a decade.
Worcester City and Coventry have met four times in the competition previously – in 1905, 1907, 1960 and 1983 – but the Blue and Whites have come out on top just once, 107 years ago.
Rich Widdowson, community director at the club, said he was not surprised how much demand there had been for tickets.
“It’s fantastic to sell a thousand straight away, but we’re expecting two to three thousand fans to make the journey because the excitement is huge,” he said.
“It’s been the talk of the town for the last week or so and everyone is now raring to go.”
The game has not been chosen as one of the live games being shown on the BBC or BT Sport, which would have meant a £67,500 payday for City, but fans can get live updates on a new FA Cup edition of Final Score on BBC One between 1.55pm and 4.20pm on Sunday.
There will also be a highlights package on BBC Two starting at 6.30pm.
Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for concessions.
An extended preview, build-up and team news will feature on our website later this week.