Queues snaked inside Liberty Stadium from the ticket office

If Swansea win the match on 27 May against Barnsley, they will reach English football's second tier for the first time since 1984.

Some fans were upset because they were unable to buy their preferred seats.

But the club said that many of the seats had been kept by the Football League, which runs the play-off final.

A once-in-a-lifetime game, but twice in two months Swansea fan Malcolm Anderson

Swansea have been allocated 32,452 tickets for the match, the first of which went on sale to the club's 7,200 season tickets holders and some other supporters at 1000 BST on Wednesday.

Fans began to arrive at Liberty Stadium at 0600 BST and long queues were soon snaking from the ticket offices and under the stadium's stands.

Swans fan Andrew Walsh queued for three hours for tickets

But there was anger among some supporters when they realised that some of the better seats at the 72,000-capacity Millennium Stadium were unavailable.

One fan, Andy Grove, 37, of Swansea, said: "They've made a mess of the allocation. I was hoping to get similar tickets to the ones I had at the Football League Trophy final but there's no chance of that."

Swansea City general manager Alun Cowie said he sympathised with fans but the club was only able to sell the tickets it had been allocated by the Football League for the game.

"Barnsley and ourselves have got 63,000 tickets between us," he said.

"We have the better split but there are still tickets held by the Football League for their own purposes - whether that be segregation, hospitality or whatever, I can't comment."

A spokesman for the Football League said that in all such matches it had to retain tickets for sponsor Coca-Cola, other corporate bodies and other clubs in the league.

He felt the allocation of 32,000 to Swansea was a generous one.

Swansea have visited Cardiff previously this season

Despite concerns over ticket allocation, fans in the queue said they were looking forward to one of the biggest games in Swansea's history.

The Swans finished sixth in League One following a post-Christmas slump in form, but went through to the promotion play-off after defeating Brentford 3-1 over two legs.

It is Swansea's second visit to the Millennium Stadium this season following their 2-1 victory over Carlisle in the Football League Trophy final in April.

Andrew Walsh, 38, from Manselton, who had queued for three hours, said: "It would be fantastic to get into the Championship, it's like a mini-Premiership with teams like Sunderland and Birmingham coming down to Swansea."

Season ticket holder Malcolm Anderson, 36, from Weston-super-Mare said the club's second visit to the Millennium Stadium was "a once-in-a-lifetime game, but twice in two months".

He added: "I'm optimistic about the Barnsley match - it's been a good season despite slipping up a bit after Christmas."

Fans agreed that the Barnsley match was among the biggest in the club's history, ranking alongside the victory at Preston in 1981 which sent John Toshack's Swans into the old Division One and the win against Hull at the Vetch Field in 2003 which preserved the club's Football League status.

Gary Giles said the game was among the biggest in Swans' history

Gary Giles, 38, of Cwmllynfell, Swansea Valley, said: "Hull was very big, but this is massive for the club.

"I'm positive about the game and I think we'd do well in the Championship."

Geoff Sommers, 58, from Killay, added: "Hull was the biggest game as we faced going out of the Football League, but this is up there with Preston."