Mansfield Town will face a safety meeting with the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) on Wednesday, with a further cut in allowed attendances or a complete closure of Field Mill to fans a possibility.
As previously reported, the Stags mistakenly issued 600 more tickets than agreed under their current safety certificate terms to Chesterfield for their all ticket weekend derby match. It has now transpired that 200 more Chesterfield fans gained admittance to the ground without tickets.
Mansfield chairman James Derry told reporters that he thought the Police had ordered the extra 200 into the ground after they arrived ticketless, a claim refuted by the Nottingshire Police.
Chief Inspector Mark Holland told the local press: "What I can categorically state is that at no point did Nottinghamshire Police ask Mansfield Town stewards to let fans without tickets into the ground on Saturday.
"We will be asking the SAG to examine how the club managed to send 600 more tickets than had been agreed to Chesterfield, and will also be questioning how a further 150 to 200 people managed to get into the North Stand. We do know that the computer system monitoring people coming into that stand was not working, and we will be asking the SAG to examine how that failing may have impacted on crowd safety.
"The combination of these factors resulted in a potentially dangerous situation in the North Stand, and in the absence of any action from the club to address the overcrowding, I took the decision to move a number of fans from that area. As a result, around 200 fans that were blocking emergency stairwells and standing on the concourse behind the goal were moved to the Bishop Street terracing area.
"I will be giving a full account of all the problems faced by the police during Saturday's game, which have highlighted some significant issues for the club and the SAG, at Wednesday's meeting."
The club have already seen the capacity at Field Mill cut by nearly 3,000 after stewarding issues at the end of last season, and the failures in the ticketing and turnstile systems will deeply concern the SAG. It has already refused a safety certificate to the Bishop Street terrace, leaving the stand disused apart from the 200 overspill from Saturday, and could well shut down other parts of the ground - or the whole site - if it feels the club is not capable of good spectator safety.