Oxford United are thrilled with the response from supporters for 2012/13 season tickets, with demand exceeding the club’s own targets in the first week.

More than 800 had been snapped up by yesterday – 20 per cent of the 4,000 total bought for this season.

Fans have until April 12 to take advantage of the ‘early bird’ prices, which have been frozen from this season – even with the club in contention for promotion to npower League One.

Kelvin Thomas, United’s chairman, is delighted with the reaction.

“It’s been excellent,” he said.

“We’re very pleased with it, the figure’s a little higher than we expected, but you can never be surprised by the Oxford United supporters – you only have to look at the numbers we’ve had home and away all season.”

With an average gate of 7,358 this season, the U’s are the third best supported club in League Two and the figure would put them in League One’s top seven.

As Chris Wilder’s side go for promotion, Thomas is urging fans to come out in force for the final four games at the Kassam Stadium – star-ting tomorrow against Morecambe.

He said: “The attendances are up on last season, which is pleasing. We just have to make sure we finish it off really strongly.

“The team’s in great form, it would be good to get as many people in tomorrow as possible to get the place buzzing.

“It’s now a case of fans bringing friends and family out to get behind the team, make a lot of noise and hopefully prepare for promotion.”

The blueprint for the run-in was provided earlier this month, when more than 10,000 United fans roared the team to a famous 2-0 derby win against Swindon Town.

Thomas said: “We’ve had a few sell-outs, but the level of support at the Swindon game was one of the best and they certainly created an atmosphere.

“Hopefully, we can recreate that in our final four home games of the season.

“Everyone saw what the atmosphere did to the players and when you speak to them, it makes a big difference.”