Colchester United have defended the decision to increase Southend United’s ticket allocation for the Boxing Day derby.

The Shrimpers were initially given 1,700 seats for next month’s all-Essex showdown, at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

But after that North Stand allocation was quickly snapped up, Southend requested more seats to be made available for their fans.

And the U’s have granted their county neighbours a further 550 tickets for the League One clash, following talks between the two clubs yesterday.

The seats will be situated in blocks E1 and E2 next to the North Stand, where the bulk of the Shrimpers fans will be based.

U’s general manager Tim Waddington told the Daily Gazette: “We had always earmarked a potential increase in seats being made available for away fans.

“Southend have taken up their initial allocation which is what we expected and we’ve held sensible talks with them.

“Clearly, we don’t want to sell seats that our own fans will want to buy.

“We would rather our own fans were in the East Stand but it’s a case of balancing things up and doing the sensible thing.

“The first option is to have Colchester fans in seats in any game but at the same time, we can’t leave seats empty when they can be filled.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to fill up the ground and hopefully get three points.”

The Boxing Day clash will be the first time that Colchester have hosted Southend at the Community Stadium since February, 2010, with a bumper turnout expected.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 3pm and the Daily Gazette understands that the kick-off is unlikely to be moved to an earlier time.

Waddington said: “It’s been several years since we had an Essex derby like this at the stadium and there are bragging points to be earned.

“I think we’ll be there or thereabouts, in terms of the game being a sell-out.”

Meanwhile the U’s have also defended their ticketing prices for next month’s FA Cup second-round tie against Altrincham.

Advanced adult ticket prices for the match have been set at £16.50, following agreement between the two clubs, with that price rising to £20 on matchday.

Waddington added: “There’s a model in place for cup ticketing prices and that hasn’t changed.

“The home club sets the price and then agrees that price with the away club.”