The rush for tickets has begun for Oxford United's play-off semi-final, second leg after it was confirmed for Tuesday, May 8 (7.45).

Tickets went on sale on Monday to season-ticket holders and ticket-stub holders from last Saturday's Nationwide Conference game against Stafford Rangers.

But United secretary Mick Brown urged supporters not to panic.

They have been given eight days to get their tickets before they go on general sale on Wednesday, May 2.

There will be a minimum of around 10,800 places available to United fans, and possibly more, after the club confirmed their planned intention to give the visitors just the minimum ten per cent allocation for their supporters.

This works out at 1,256 tickets for whoever it turns out to be - most likely one of Exeter, Burton or York.

Both first legs of the play-off semi-finals will be on Friday, May 4 with one of them, as yet unconfirmed, to be shown live on Sky TV.

Sky will then show both second legs, the first taking place at 5pm on the Bank Holiday Monday, May 7, and the second at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday, May 8.

Police asked for the match in Oxford to be on the Tuesday rather than the Bank Holiday Monday.

With United's game the second of the semi-final second legs, they will know who their Wembley opponents would be were they to be successful.

The U's, and their opponents, will also have the benefit of an extra day's recovery time following the first leg.

United's best attendance this season was 11,065 against Woking on Boxing Day and this looks certain to be beaten.

"We will not have fewer tickets for our fans than we did against Woking," Brown said.

"We've still got to have segregation in the North Stand, but if our opponents are not able to sell 1,256 tickets - we could have a few more."

United's secretary said the phones were busy at the start of the week and there were some queues for tickets at the busier times.

But he said: "There's no need for people to panic. At the same time, I would hope they don't all leave it until the last minute.

"Then there will be quite a reasonable number - based on us having just under 7,000 for the Stafford match - going on open sale that Wednesday morning.

"We just hope that the fans come along in their numbers, and cheer us on, as they have all season."

Meanwhile, United have chosen not to erect a temporary fourth stand for the home second leg of the play-off semi-final After investigating the logistics and costs, they have decided it is not really viable.

"We looked into it very thoroughly, but after considering the size of the stand, the fencing around it, proper turnstiles, toilets and refreshments, we have found that the cost would be considerably more than the revenue generated - and that's assuming we could have sold it out in its entirety," said secretary Mick Brown.

The hope was that, by putting up a temporary new stand for the visitors behind the goal at the car park end at the Kassam Stadium, it would free up the whole of the North Stand for Oxford fans, and give them around 12,500 supporters at the game.

But competition rules determine that they have to give the opponents ten per cent of the capacity, which would necessitate the temporary stand being approximately 1,400 seats.

And tickets for the away team could not be sold at a higher price than those for the home fans - for example, £14 for adults.

"We looked at the maths and it just doesn't stack up," Brown said.

The directors were set to give a more detailed explanation of their findings at last night's fans' forum.

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