York hoping fans dig deep for Wembley return

More than 8,000 fans watched York beat Newport County 2-0 in last Saturday’s FA Trophy final at Wembley but prior to the match they had sold only 3,000 tickets for this Sunday’s play-off final at the national stadium.

Saturday’s victory has resulted in an upsurge in interest with a further 2,000 City fans purchasing play-off tickets. By contrast, Luton have sold 22,000 tickets for the showpiece game and will have a significant vocal advantage at Wembley.

York accept that geography is against them and that two Wembley trips in such a short space of time is costly for their followers (approx £400 for a family of four inclusive of official club travel).

But given what is at stake on Sunday – a return to the Football League after eight years – the club are confident their supporters will help redress the balance.

“We are appealing for fans to come and support us,” said community and communications director Sophie Hicks.

“We have shown we have got a good team and that we can perform at Wembley.

“And we hope the York fans will follow us down to support us on what will be a momentous day in the club’s history.

“We’ve seen an uptake since Saturday’s win; we’ve gone up from 3,000 to more than 5,000. We took 8,500 to the FA Trophy final and we certainly think we can reach that number again.

“But you cannot underestimate how much geography plays a part in this. When they reached the Football Trophy final in 2009, Luton took 30,000 to Wembley, but when they reached the play-off final last year at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, they only took 12,000. Wembley’s only half an hour down the road for them.

“The betting has also got Luton as the slight favourites, but our record against them this season is three wins and a draw from four games.

“We have played very well in recent games when we’ve been outnumbered by home fans; at Luton in the FA Trophy semi-final and just last week at Mansfield in the play-off semi-final.

“We are perceived as the smaller club and of course we would like to match Luton in terms of ticket sales, but that’s not going to happen.”

Play-off final tickets can be purchased at www.seetickets.com

Gary Mills’s side return to training today. They are also having a civic reception at Mansion House and presenting the FA Trophy to the fans at around 1pm, after walking into the city centre from Bootham Crescent from 12.30pm.