ACCRINGTON officials expect Sunday's Cup-tie against Town to be a sell-out within the next 24 hours.

Town sold all 395 of their allocation within 30 minutes on Saturday - the first to keen fan Andrew Kirk of Wetherby who queued from 3am!

The Conference club were again doing brisk business at the Crown Ground yesterday and chairman Eric Whalley said today:

"There has been a real buzz around the town and we expect to sell the last of our tickets sometime tomorrow.

"This is a brilliant tie for us, with no disrespect to the club at Huddersfield they are only one division above us and we are really looking forward to the game, especially as it's the first time we've been on TV at home."

On tickets, Mr Whalley added: "It is a shame we couldn't give more tickets to Huddersfield, but we are told they have a gang of around 160 troublemakers following them around.

"It would have been no problem for us to give 1,400 tickets, but the safety people don't want troublemakers around and we weren't allowed to give any more than the 400 or so."

Town secretary Ann Hough has appealed for fans not to travel without tickets or, indeed, to try and buy tickets from Accrington.

"People without tickets will not be able to get in and there will be an increased police operation around the ground to stop trouble," she said.

Capacity is 4,400 for the 1pm kick-off and it is possible some Town fans have already bought tickets in home areas. Town will ban any supporters convicted of offences either in or around the ground.

Plans to screen the tie at the McAlpine have been scrapped because it is live on BBC 1.

Town, meanwhile, have had no further contact from Sunderland on Jon Stead after rejecting a bid of £800,000 last week. Manager Peter Jackson said: "I am not thinking about Jon going anywhere at the moment. I am concentrating on keeping Jon Stead at this club and on what he can do to help take us forward."

* Town Juniors have an FA Youth Cup second round tie against Thackley at the McAlpine tonight (7.00).

Match Report