The potential £500,000 from the trip to Wembley is 'very, very much needed' and will ease the pressure on Barnsley owner Patrick Cryne, says chief executive Ben Mansford.

Mansford confirmed reaching the Johnstone's Paint Trophy will bring several hundreds of thousands of pounds into the club while victory at Wembley will make the total around half a million.

Cryne has owned his boyhood club for more than a decade after stepping when they were in financial crisis and has invested millions into the Reds.

He told the Chronicle: "That money is very, very much needed and it takes an amount of pressure off Patrick Cryne, who stands behind the bank account of the football club.

"We have seen this season that attendances and gate receipts were down because of the run of defeats we went on and the negativity that that promotes. We had the horrific eight-match losing run with the defeat to Altrincham in the FA Cup. This Wembley run does take some pressure off Patrick for maybe the rest of this season but he knows the pressure will come back on him for next season."

Meanwhile, Mansford has described the ‘misinformation’ that Barnsley  have a final allocation of 25,000 Wembley tickets compared to Oxford United’s 40,000 as ‘absolute rubbish’. The Reds will meet League Two side Oxford in the final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on April 3.

Mansford said: “We  can ask for another 5,000 or 10,000 or as many as we want and have them in our box office within 48 hours. On the basis that we took 33,000 to Cardiff (for the play-off final in 2006) we decided to ask for 25,000 to start with then more if we need them. “We can have up to 40,000 in total.”

Prices for Wembley range from £20 to £60 but ticketing company Ticketmaster charge a booking fee of £2.40 per ticket and the same again for each envelope posted. 

Mansford said: “We are in the second year of a long-term contract with the Ticketmaster. That lets us use an interactive seating map, take bookings online and by phone and post out tickets for our 23 league games – all for a very modest fee. The deal also gives us their infrastructure for a big game like this.

"Our four box office staff cope very well with the demands of the 23 League One games but it is too onerous when we have 25,000 tickets to sell as well as thousands of coach tickets so Ticketmaster help us out.  

“That comes at a cost which is why there are some booking fees. Oxford are doing exactly the same with the same fees, but our concessions are a little bit cheaper. I apologise to our supporters if the nature of the operation causes them any offence.”