Revealed: the truth of the ticket fiasco

The true scale of Brentford's ticket fiasco can today be revealed.

The club are already under-fire for an administrative blunder which meant loyal fans were unable to buy tickets for Saturday's FA Cup clash with Southampton.

But now it has emerged that Brentford have also over-sold their 3,200 allocation by around 500 tickets. This means that some fans who thought they had bought tickets via the club's website are being handed refunds and told their bookings are invalid.

It is the latest mishap to cloud the build-up to Brentford's biggest Cup game in 15 years and has fuelled resentment among fans, particularly as the club had previously urged them to buy via the internet. Brentford were yesterday contacting the affected fans to inform them of the mistake.

Roy King, the club's general manager, said: "We are totally over-subscribed on internet bookings. We were selling to people in person, on the internet and on the telephone and did not react quick enough to selling out.

"We are trying to make sure we honour sales to season-ticket holders and members, but it is highly unlikely we will satisfy demand. It was astonishing how quickly we sold out on Monday morning, noone could have predicted it. But we have to hold our hands up, we should have sold to season-ticketholders first."

Manager Martin Allen fears that crowd trouble could erupt with fans set to buy tickets on the black market and sit in the Southampton section.

Hampshire police have also warned supporters not to travel without tickets insisting there will be no admittance for Brentford fans on the day. As a result, the club have decided to show the match on a big screen at Griffin Park, but the move is unlikely to appease the latest group of resentful-supporters. One lifelong fan, who was told his internet booking would not be honoured, said: "I am disappointed - to put it politely. I purchased tickets of behalf of friends and family. These are not casual Cup fans, but long-time supporters well known to the club.