Faithful snap up bargain

Albion fans have given a massive "thumbs up" to the club's decision to slash prices for next week's FA Cup replay against Middlesbrough.

Even though the winners have a juicy home tie against either Manchester United or Reading, the Baggies opted to cut ticket prices to £15 and £5.

And the fans have been flocking to the ticket office to take advantage of the cut -price opportunity to see the Baggies reach for the competition's last eight.

By close of trading last night, Albion had already shifted 17,500 tickets - which means the club has already lured more punters into the home sections than turned up in the 18,802 gate for this week's Championship promotion crunch with Cardiff.Chairman Jeremy Peace and his board will not be ignoring the signals from the paying public - and it could lead to ticket price reductions next season.

Although the Baggies have begun to flourish under Tony Mowbray, the free-flowing football has failed to trigger a major response at the turnstiles.

Albion's average attendance of 20,225 places them ninth overall in the Championship, behind clubs such as Norwich, Ipswich, Derby, Southampton and Leicester.

With similar trends being reported at Birmingham (eighth with 21,342) and Wolves (11th with 19,804), Albion believe the economic downturn in the region is the single biggest factor holding down attendances - and this response to cut price tickets supports that.

Queues were forming outside the ticket office again today while the club had to issue an apology for jammed phone lines which struggled to cope with demand last night.

March brings two huge home games for Albion against promotion rivals Sunderland and Blues and the club are hoping the promotion climax is enough to pack out The Hawthorns.