A LATE rush of season ticket applications is pushing Ipswich Town up towards last season's impressive total - despite the team's current bad run on the pitch.

A LATE rush of season ticket applications is pushing Ipswich Town up towards last season's impressive total - despite the team's current bad run on the pitch.

Today the club's ticket office has 11,000 applications already in, and many more yet to be opened. With Thursday being the cut-off date for anyone wanting to take advantage of discounts for early renewals, Blues officials are optimistic that the next couple of days will see their postbag bulging with applications.

Ticket office manager John Ford today told the Evening Star: “We have one mailbag unopened - and that's a full bag - and I think that tomorrow and Thursday we will see a rush of applications.

“After the Stoke match we all came into the office expecting a bad reaction from Town fans but we haven't seen that and I'm cautiously optimistic that when all the applications are in we will see something approaching last season's total, which would be another superb show of support from our fans.”

The consequences of the club not reaching last year's total are well known. Chairman David Sheepshanks stated again in Saturday's programme against Stoke that if ticket sales did not come close to last season's total then players would definitely be sold, which would have meant saying goodbye to talented young players like Owen Garvan and Shane Supple.

And after defeats in their last two games against mid-table opposition the club must have feared a massive drop in interest for next season, but today it seems those concerns are unfounded.

In fact despite the Blues failing to feature in the race for promotion this season and heading for their worst league placing for many years, the club have dealt with hundreds of NEW applications for season tickets.

Ford said: “I would estimate that around 5% of the ones we've already processed are new applicants - ie people who do not have a season ticket this season.

“And you must remember that Thursday is not the ultimate cut-off, it's just a price deadline. We will continue to sell tickets after the season has finished and throughout the summer.”