THE biggest crowd of Darlington Football Club's season caused traffic chaos on Saturday, and forced the Quakers to delay kick-off by half-an-hour.

Despite Darlington FC's 96.6TFM Darlington Arena stadium being little over a third full for Saturday's visit of league leaders Carlisle United, kick-off was put back until 3.30pm.

A large attendance had been expected for what was Carlisle's nearest game to a local derby. But fans without tickets forced the club to delay the start of the League Two fixture.

A spokesman for the club said: "Saturday was a busy match with double the normal gate. The crowd congestion took place at the turnstiles as so few people had bought tickets in advance."

"There was more congestion than we have seen before."

About 3,500 travelling supporters from across the Pennines swelled the attendance to its second highest since the club moved to its new stadium.

Saturday's crowd of 8,640 was only bettered when the club's 25,000-seater stadium, then the Reynolds Arena, was used for the first time in August 2003.

Then, 11,600 saw Kidderminster Harriers spoil the party with a 2-0 victory.

On both occasions, traffic resulted in tailbacks stretching for more than half a mile on the A66.

The introduction of new chairman George Houghton, whose grandchildren were among the mascots, also attracted more fans.

But the Cumbrians had not read the script and demolished Darlington 5-0.

Darlington Borough Council doubled the number of wardens to patrol nearby streets, which has parking for residents only on matchdays, and 19 £60 fixed penalty notices were handed out.

Police were also out in force throughout the day to prevent any trouble. The force helicopter was also deployed. There were just six arrests, mostly for public order offences, after isolated incidents, primarily in and around the train station