Birmingham sell over 43,000 tickets for Wembley final
The official Wembley attendance for Posh's 2-1 Trophy final win over Wycombe Wanderers in April 2024 was 42,252
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Birmingham City will have a distinct numerical advantage among their supporters at Wembley for the Vertu Trophy final on 13 April.
Blues have now sold more than 43,000 tickets for the meeting with Peterborough United - more than the entire 42,252 crowd for the dramatic 2024 final.
Blues sold their initial 36,800 allocation, which is more than 10,000 above the 25,180 tickets allocated to EFL Trophy holders Posh.
The American-owned club were then granted an extra 6,490 to take their official number to 43,356 - and, as of Monday morning, they still had a further 10,000 fans waiting in an online queue.
Posh had the larger share of fans for last season's final against Wycombe, when they had over 22,000 in attendance to witness Harrison Burrows' late double.
But one advantage Posh will have is choice of shirts.
Chris Davies's side have chosen to play in their third strip of all black, with red trim.
Ahead of the semi-finals, Posh won the toss to use their home blue shirts at Wembley.
The record attendance for an EFL Trophy final is the 85,021 who watched Portsmouth beat Sunderland on penalties in 2019.
Chris Davies' side will be bidding to match the achievement in 1994-95 of Barry Fry's Blues, who lifted silverware on top of winning the third tier title - as the club hope will again be the case this time round.
And there to stop them will be Darren Ferguson's Posh, the club where 79-year-old Fry still works and has done for three decades, first as manager, from 1996 to 2005, then chairman, and now director of football.
Both sides are twice previous winners (Blues in 1991 and 1995, Posh in 2014 and 2024) and can match Bristol City's record of three wins in the competition.
Four other previous finals have been staged in front of a 75,000-plus crowd:
Wolves' 2-0 win over Burnley in 1988 (80,841)
Barry Fry's Blues beating Carlisle United 1-0 in 1995 (76,663)
Stoke City's 2-1 win over Bristol City in 2000 (75,057 - the last Trophy final at the old Wembley)
The 79,389 who saw Bolton Wanderers beat Plymouth Argyle 2-1 in 2023