IPSWICH Town’s request to receive extra tickets for next month’s FA Cup third round tie against Aston Villa has been rejected by the Premier League club.

The Blues took the maximum 2,900 tickets available on a sale or return basis for the January 5 clash at Villa Park, with the last of those tickets selling out yesterday morning – the final 200 on offer being snapped up in 35 minutes.

Town then discussed the possibility of purchasing more tickets to satisfy demand but the Midlanders have today confirmed they are not in a position to provide further tickets.

Town chief executive Simon Clegg said: “Our ticket office manager, John Ford, asked Villa whether it was possible for us to have some more tickets.

“We were looking for another 500 or so which we believe would have satisfied demand.

“But unfortunately Villa have said they are not in a position to do that, which we can understand as they are likely to have sold tickets to home fans in areas that potentially would have been used for us.”

Earlier this week supporters criticised the decision taken by the Suffolk club to secure just 2,900 seats for the match at Villa Park, whose capacity is 42,788.

If the club had gone for 6,000 – which it is entitled to under Football Association rules which give visiting teams 15 per cent of the host club’s capacity – and not sold them, it would have been left out of pocket.

“As John has explained previously, we took the maximum number of tickets we could on a sale or return basis,” Clegg added.

“The next figure available was 4,800, rising to the maximum 6,000 and we would have had to buy those tickets upfront.

“That would have left us open to a big risk of substantial losses if we had failed to sell those tickets.

“Our average travelling support this season is 646 and while we knew that the numbers of fans wanting to go to the Villa game would be higher than that, we believe taking the 2,900 available on the sale or return basis was the right option.”