Wolves vs Aston Villa: Midlands derby nearing sell-out
Wolves’ big derby with Villa at Molineux on Saturday is heading for a sell-out with just a few hundred tickets remaining.
Anticipation for the tea-time clash is high and less than 1,100 tickets were left in the Billy Wright and Steve Bull upper tiers as of Monday morning.
Both stands behind the goals have sold out while Villa snapped up their 2,500 allocation last week.
If all tickets go it will be the second sell-out of the season after the full house for the opening-day win over Middlesbrough.
The attendance for that game was 29,692 and if that figure is reached on Saturday it’ll be the biggest Molineux attendance for a Wolves Villa clash since 34,693 watched a First Division game – which Villa won 1-0 – in February 1981.
The Boro figure was the fourth highest at Molineux since the stadium was rebuilt in 1993.
Molineux’s current capacity is 31,700 but due to segregation and certain seats in the North Bank corner being unavailable due to restricted views an attendance is currently unlikely to reach anything above 30,200.
The modern Molineux stadium record was set during last season’s 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Chelsea, watched by 30,193.
The biggest league crowd is 30,110 for the remarkable 6-4 League One victory over Rotherham in 2014.
Before Molineux’s rebuild, financed by Sir Jack Hayward, Wolves last regularly saw crowds of similar figures in 1980/81.
A win for Wolves could send them top depending on Cardiff City's result against struggling Blues.
Villa meanwhile could move ti within a point of Wolves should they win, a result which could also lift them into the play-off spots.
Kick-off is at 5.30pm, with fans also warned of changes regarding parking around Molineux as a result of new anti-terror measures being put into place.
