Sunderland could request 40,000 tickets for Trophy Wembley

Sunderland are potentially just 90 minutes away from a trip to the home of football in the Checkatrade Trophy Final and, should they reach the hallowed turf, demand for tickets is expected to be high.

Any potential trip to Wembley would be Sunderland’s first since 2014, when they took on Manchester City in the League Cup final.

More than 30,000 fans travelled from Wearside for that occasion – but more may be given the opportunity to attend should Sunderland find a way past Bristol Rovers on Tuesday evening.

The Black Cats potential opponents Portsmouth have been handed 38,000 tickets for the clash, meaning that Sunderland should be afforded a similar allocation for the clash. Pompey requested that figure from the EFL but, hypothetically, Sunderland could request a higher allocation if they felt demand would exceed that amount.

There is no guarantee, though, that the request would be accepted by the governing body, although Wembley has a capacity of around 90,000.

Speaking to The News about the ticket allocation, Portsmouth chief executive Mark Catlin said: “We’ve requested 38,000, which we’ve been given.

“So allocation-wise, we’ve got 38,000.

“It’s fair to say that since we put out expressions of interest to the fan base and asked: are you interested?, we’ve had just shy of 10,000 people already tell us they’re interested and that’s not just on an individual basis – that’s with a lot of them saying I want to order four, I want to order 10, I want to order how ever many.

“So I think we’re confident that if we don’t sell out we’ll be up in the thirties definitely.”

The highest-ever allocation for the final was handed to Southampton in 2010, when they were given 44,000 tickets for their showdown with Carlisle United.

This year’s Checkatrade Trophy final is set to take place on Sunday, March 31 with a 2.30pm kick-off. Portsmouth beat Bury on Tuesday night to seal their final place.