Carlisle United’s chief executive has explained why the club did not give Derby County a much bigger ticket allocation last month.

There had been calls from some quarters to give the Rams many more tickets for September's League One clash at Brunton Park.

Nigel Clibbens said that, even though the Blues' decision meant they did not make as much money from the fixture as they could have, there were good reasons behind it.

“We look at allocations case by case,” said Clibbens, asked at the supporters club London Branch’s recent online forum about the decision not to give the Waterworks End terrace to away fans.

“For that particular game we made a commercial decision we felt was in the interests of the club and the team not to have 4,500 Derby fans and 8-9,000 Carlisle fans here.

“Fans help you win, so the more of them that are Carlisle fans at our games and less away fans the better.

“Yes, we might have lost some cash but we knew that was the case.

“We took a broader view that we wanted our fans in the Waterworks End and give our fans the opportunity to cheer the team on.

“It’s nothing against Derby. If we’d offered them 8,000 they probably could have taken it.

“They still had near enough 1,600 fans or so.”

Derby, who won the game 2-0, brought 1,533 travelling supporters to the game.