GILLINGHAM FC chairman Paul Scally has ordered an internal investigation following Saturday's ticket fiasco at Portsmouth.

Hundreds of Gills fans were unable to see the all-ticket game after the club chose to return 500 of an 1,100 allocation. The match produced Portsmouth's highest attendance of 19,521 for the season.

In corresponding matches in recent seasons, Gillingham have enjoyed the support of up to 2,500 fans at Fratton Park. On Saturday many travelled to the game in the hope of buying tickets from touts.

Mark Agate, national secretary of the Football Supporters' Federation and the Gillingham Independent Supporters' Club, wrote to Portsmouth club secretary Paul Weld seeking an explanation.

Mr Agate said: "The appropriate part of Football League regulations 31.2.1 states 10 per cent of available capacity should be made available to away fans. By my calculations a total of 1,900 tickets, which would probably satisfy the travelling support based on previous seasons. So there was a shortfall of 1,300 tickets."

In response, Mr Weld confirmed that an allocation of 1,738 tickets was offered to Gillingham which was declined. He said: "On that basis we sent 1,200 tickets, including players' complimentaries, on the understanding that any unsold would be returned as, for obvious reasons, we at the present time would have no trouble in selling them.

"Out ticket office manager rang the Gillingham ticket office on February 9 to be told that only 300 had been sold. She then rang on February 10, by which time the ticket sales had reached 500.

"It was then that she was told there was little likelihood of selling many more and on this basis they would return the unsold tickets to us for sale to our own supporters."

Mr Weld added: "We have had no trouble whatsoever with other clubs all season in regard to ticket sales. In fact Brighton had the whole end, ie, 3,000 tickets. Other clubs have had an allocation of 1,900 tickets and these they have sold.

"I'm afraid this club is not in a position to wait to the day before a match to find out whether a visiting club intends to sell its full allocation of tickets.

"Especially in light of the fact that the letter which was sent to them stresses that this match would be all-ticket for Gillingham fans and they must purchase their tickets in advance.

"Obviously I'm disappointed to hear that there were Gillingham fans who were not be able to attend the match."