It is all down to Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan who has to decide if he wants to hand the Toon Army more tickets for Saturday’s massive clash.
Whelan is trying every angle to try and get the Wigan fans into the stadium to help the atmosphere to boost their hopes of beating off relegation ... and he already knows the Geordies usually take over the place!
Geordie fans have already snapped up 4,500 tickets for the away end, and those alone will out-sing the home support.
United – who have been inundated with additional requests – have had a plea for more seats turned down by the Latics.
Alan Pardew: “Wigan’s going to be massive for us. I don’t know how many tickets we’ve sold, but I hope we get some more tickets and fill the place up.
“They could probably do with the money.
“It would be nice to see 8-9,000 Geordies somehow get in there, because it would feel like a home game.”
Wigan’s DW Stadium can hold just over 25,000 fans, but the Latics have an average gate of around 18,000 – meaning there could be thousands of empty seats on Saturday.
Wigan’s highest attendance was for the recent game with West Brom, but they failed to even get close to that for big games with Manchester City and Manchester United – with crowds of 16,026 and 18,115 – when both matches were boosted by healthy away followings.
Wigan have been known to grant their visitors extra tickets in the past by housing fans in the Boston Stand.
Toon fans will be unable to purchase tickets in the home end unless they have previous booking history at the DW Stadium.