Dellhurst park

It is going to be more like a Southampton home game with over 9,000 supporters making the short journey from the south coast.

Saints had sold virtually their full allocation of 9,000 Selhurst Park seats even before their 2-1 win over Leicester.

That prompted a huge demand from other fans who had been waiting to see last Saturday's result before committing their cash.

Since then The Dell switchboard has been jammed with people desperate to buy tickets and the club estimate they could easily have sold at least another 3,000 seats.

Around 1,000 have managed to buy seats in a neutral part of the ground through Dons' agents Ticketmaster.

Wimbledon have been taken completely by surprise at the huge level of demand for what is usually one of their lowest gates of the season.

They have even given away around 4,000 seats to local schools as part of their Football in the Community programme.

But for that they could have given Saints extra seats behind the goal and the fear is that fans with-out tickets will still travel hoping to get in since they can normally pay on the day for this low-key fixture.

Wimbledon though have poured cold water on that idea making it plain they will not get in for what is now an all-ticket fixture.

Secretary Steve Rooke said: "We are looking at almost a capacity crowd which is unheard of for Wimbledon v Southampton. The sheer size of their support is phenomenal.

"We have tried to download as many spare tickets as possible in neutral sections via our Ticketmaster line and I know a lot of Saints fans have already snapped them up. I reckon there will be at least 10,000 travelling supporters at the game.

"In hindsight we would have allocated them the area behind the goal as well but that is taken up by schoolchildren so there is no point fans travelling without tickets as all the spare space is full."

The Travel Club are taking a record 45 coaches to the match with Saints subsidising the cost which is free for members and just £5 for non-members.

It is estimated that will cost the club around £12,500 but that is small change compared with the millions to be gained if the extra support proves the difference between survival and relegation.

It is a logistical nightmare for organiser Terry Marshall who said: "It is the biggest challenge of my life! I think I might get the train - except they will be full too.

"We are taking almost 2,500 fans which is the most we have ever ferried in one go.

"We put on around 28 coaches for the Zenith Data final at Wembley in 1992 but this response is phenomenal. We have had to commandeer every vehicle we can lay our hands on."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.