DAVID CUFFLEY Norwich City fans' appetite for the new season has not been dimmed by the failures of 2005-06 and a quiet summer on the transfer front. Empty seats will be few and far between at next week's opening two Coca-Cola Championship home matches against Preston North End and Luton Town.

DAVID CUFFLEY

Norwich City fans' appetite for the new season has not been dimmed by the failures of 2005-06 and a quiet summer on the transfer front.

Empty seats will be few and far between at next week's opening two Coca-Cola Championship home matches against Preston North End and Luton Town.

There were just 600 tickets left last night for the visit of Preston on Tuesday (7.45pm), while next Saturday's encounter with the Hatters (3pm) is a guaranteed sell-out.

Despite the Canaries finishing ninth, well adrift of the promotion places, in the Championship last term, and making just one close season signing in £600,000 winger Lee Croft from Manchester City, supporters have shown dogged loyalty once again.

Richard Gough, City's customer services manager, said: “Considering this is a time when a lot of people are on holiday, these figures are very, very encouraging.

“The Luton game is just about sold out, so the only way people will be able to get tickets now will be through our buy-back scheme on the day.

“For the Preston game, we have about 600 seats left, and that figure will rise slightly through buy-backs.”

City are also close to hitting their season ticket ceiling, which is set at 20,096, more than 75 per cent of the total capacity of 26,034.

“We have only about 40 or 50 season tickets left,” said Gough, with those still on sale mostly single seats.

Nine out of 10 City fans renewed their season tickets for 2006-07, with those on the waiting list taking up most of the shortfall.

The Canaries sold their entire allocation for today's opening league match at Leeds and, with no admission on the day, those without tickets were warned not to travel.

Both the Preston and Luton games are category B with standard prices for non-members in the Barclay Stand and Norwich and Peterborough Stand £20 for adults, £14 for senior citizens, students and under-16s, and £9 for under-12s.

Further information from the Carrow Road box office on 0870 444 1902.