Marine boss Neil Young thanks ‘incredible’ Tottenham fans after 30,000 virtual tickets sold for FA Cup tie

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Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_10 January 2021

Marine boss Neil Young paid tribute to Tottenham’s “incredible” fans after the eight-tier outfit sold more than 30,000 virtual tickets for Sunday’s FA Cup tie.

Spurs, ranked 161 places higher that their opponents in the football pyramid, showed their Premier League class to ease into the fourth-round with a 5-0 win.

The match was labelled the biggest in Marine’s history, but with fans unable to attend because of coronavirus restrictions, the club decided to sell ‘virtual’ tickets for the game at a cost of £10, in a bid to replicate some of the financial boost that such a fixture would have provided in normal circumstances.

Spurs boss Jose Mourinho had vowed to buy a ticket - which also enters the buyer into a raffle for the prize of managing Marine in a preseason friendly - in the build up to the game, while Ian Wright, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker, working on the game for the BBC, did likewise. On Sunday morning, the club announced that more than 20,000 tickets had been sold, and shortly after full-time updated their virtual attendance to 30,697.

"We can be very proud of the cup run,” Young told the BBC. “We've had an eventful week in terms of the media and press, the football community and in particular the Tottenham supporters have been incredible.

“To sell over 20,000 tickets for our club at a tough time when there are many non-league clubs struggling financially. So for us this is really nice."

Mourinho had said that the best way for his side to show Marine respect would be by beating them, and they did so in a professional display.

The Portuguese named a strong line-up, including the likes of Dele Alli, Lucas Moura and Toby Alderweireld, while Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilon both came on as second-half substitutes.

"I'm very proud of them,” Young added. “It was always going to be tough. I've got to give credit to Jose Mourinho and his team, they showed us a lot of respect.

“In the end we were laughing at who was coming off the bench. I can't ask any more of our lads, you're playing against world class footballers who make it look easy. I'm very proud of what we've achieved.”

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