The season ticket holders have now had their chance, now it is the turn of the club members to purchase their tickets for the League Cup Final at Wembley against Manchester united.

Saints received around 31,500 tickets for the League Cup Final at Wembley on 26th February, with approximately 22,000 going to season ticket holders and another 1,500 or so to a mixture of the club's sponsors, corporate hospitality holders and employees that would leave about 8,000 to go on sale to the club's members.

The problem for those club members are just exactly how many there are of them ?

The club have set down certain criteria for the members, firstly today those who have purchased 8 or more home games get their chance, followed by those on 7 on Thursday.

That is followed by those on 6 on Friday and 5 on Saturday with no announcement about further sales yet made.

That would tend to suggest that anyone below 5 is going to be uncertain of a ticket if indeed it reaches 5.

Given that the initial sale to those on 8 has a portal of two selling days that suggests that there could be a lot of supporters who might qualify for this number as it has a two day period rather than the one.

Although however it is logical that the less games people need to qualify the bigger the numbers might be, that might not actually be the case, membership at £25 is not an outlay that you need to make unless you are intending to go to a fair number of games, indeed there were many on the database who had been to a lot of games but where not members, hence the club offered them the chance to upgrade to a membership and record those numbers.

Given the system for season ticket holders was able to cope with far larger numbers than 8,000 in a one day period, the fact that they have split it into three tranches does suggest that they could possibly sell out to the 5 game qualifiers with some of those missing out.

If there was enough tickets for everyone with 5 games then surely the club would have lumped them in with a higher qualifying group.

But what the club do not know is whether the members will take up their full allocation, certainly judging by the numbers of tickets sold to season tickets, most of them bought their ticket.

After the season ticket sale the lower section at Wembley was sold out as well as the more central sections of the upper level with most season ticket holders opting to be on the lower level and nearer the action.

After the first hour of sale to the members on 8 business has been brisk, as I mentioned only the upper level is available and most of the front rows in these sections have been bought meaning that most seats are in the back half of the upper tier in the £40 section.

So the answer to the question posed in the headline is that it is quite possible that members below 5 games might qualify, but by the time it gets down less than that there will be fewer tickets and it could be a bit of a free for all

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 11:08 - Feb 7 It seems to me that they are doing it as fairly as is possible. I have not been to enough home games so it is fair that I don't qualify. I just wish that given the size of the stadium we got 40,000+ tickets. The other tickets don't go to people who deserve to be there (what's the point of a neutral at a cup final?) and a lot will end up on the touting websites. Good luck to all who are on the fringe here - an anxious day or two ahead I fear.

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john_d added 11:22 - Feb 7 I was told by ticket office that it could theoretically sell out at members with 8 games. I assume this is based on 100% take up though.
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SaintBrock added 11:55 - Feb 7 Let's be honest, most of the half decent seats have gone and rather than scrape around for a dregs of a seat why not just watch in comfort on the box. We were amongst the first in last week and still ended up with crappy seats with no redress at all. Just being at Wembley doesn't tick any boxes for me considering all the hassle to get to and from the place on match day.

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A1079 added 12:42 - Feb 7 Because I live 250 miles away I usually limit home games to when I go back and visit the family but I go to a fair number of away games and ironically have been to all the EFL league cup games home and away but resigned to the fact that I will not be able to get a ticket. Disappointed because of the years of support and used to attend all home and away when I lived down there, but realistic that they need a criteria of some sort and a cut off point and it is one of those things. Was thinking about coming down to Southampton and meet up with family and watch in a Southampton pub or somewhere in the hope there will be some atmosphere. Not sure if there are any venues where something like this may happen.

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legod7 added 12:45 - Feb 7 You would have thought that with all the negative comments from so called Saints supporters about Claude Puel in the local press that there would be loads of tickets left for everyone.Before we qualified for Wembley there were loads of them saying there wouldn't renew their season tickets. That seems to have gone very quiet now. If we happen to lose at Wembley then they will be back again in full force. Btw I have a season ticket and am looking forward to Wembley and I will be renewing mine whatever happens this season.

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SanMarco added 13:01 - Feb 7 A1079 - I would have thought all EFL Cup games home and away should have put you higher in the pecking order. legod7 - your negative comments are just as negative as the negative comments you are negative about. And anyway, I would humbly suggest that if only those who were 100% happy with Puel bought tickets you could all travel together to Wembley in a Vauxhall Astra and have room for luggage. Why would anyone cut their nose off to spite their face and not go to a final just because they don't like the manager. That really would be negative.

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Cjay80 added 13:13 - Feb 7 Annoying to see tickets on resale sites in the Southampton section for over £500. Rather than make a profit, why not just let a fan buy them who actually wants to go?
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SanMarco added 13:59 - Feb 7 The club could put a stop to that if they wanted to Cjay80. A lifetime ban for anyone doing it would be a start and the tickets are uniquely numbered so it wouldn't be difficult to trace the culprits.
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legod7 added 14:53 - Feb 7 SanMarco, If you read my comment you will see that all I stated that the anti-Puel feeling has gone very quiet since we reached the final.
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SalisburySaint added 19:06 - Feb 7 Around 7,000 tickets still left at the moment
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