I was just looking through MadJohn's in the mad crowd site earlier and came across summat that had me puzzled...

We played Spurs at home in the league cup in October 1990 and had a crowd of over 9,600....i can't remember too much about the match TBH but remember the ground being pretty full.

6 months later we played Northampton in the match where we got promoted and apparently there was 6,957 there. More than 2,500 less than against Spurs!

To me, against Northampton, the ground was absolutely heaving....fooking bedlam!I was even sat at the bottom of the floodlights 'cos we couldn't get right into the Rink End!

I know Northampton didn't bring many but where did that 2,500 go missing??

The ground was only 3 sides then as well so that had me wondering more.

Cleveland County Council and their absurd restrictions maybe ?

Was that not in the days where some of the turnstiles used to count backwards..?

If that was the case then why say there was over 9,600 in against Spurs?!

A friend - who does'nt normally attend, told me at the start of the Wigan game midweek that they'd ran out of tickets at the turnstile (MH Terrace), to which I replied - what with only 3k here?

......anyone else here that?, I'm sure he said they were writing names on a jotter instead

I got in at about 10 minutes before kick off and there was no tickets left. They were just making a mark on a piece of paper for everybody who was let in. There was about 10 to 15 marks already before me.

....Does anyone know whether the turnstile clicking system is actually used to calculate the attendance, or is it just there for effect?

....Another question:- If I go through the turnstile, pay my £18, do not receive a ticket, realise this during the course of the half-time period, (and may need one for an impending F.A. Cup game against Man U) how can I go about obtaining one to prove that I was there?

I was at both matches and remember long queue's before the spurs game an hour before KO It doesn't surprise me to be honest, the game was shortly after Italia 90 with 'Gazzamania' in full flow and I reckon most of the crowd had turned up for a glimpse of Gazza. What is even more amazing, is that we were already 5 down after the first leg at White Hart Lane.

Queues were massive for Spurs, I think that was the match where I spotted Peter Mandelson wearing a bizarrely large and luxurious blue and white scarf while waiting to get in to the Mill House. He might have been eating a portion of chips and guacamole. Remember thinking it was a bit odd to see an MP actually paying to get in rather than going in the directors box, Ted Leadbitter would never have stumped up but maybe Mandy claimed it on expenses.

I reckon the crowd for Northampton was easily as big as for Spurs but I'm sure nobody at the club at that time was at all crooked so they could not possibly have been perpetrating the old don't count them and then trouser the tax free, nothing to the league cash trick.