By Catherine Etoe

Mansfield's home attendance is usually around the 3,200 mark

Mansfield Town's decision to allow fans to pay what they liked to watch their team saw the average home attendance more than double on Saturday.

Kick-off against Gateshead was delayed by 10 minutes as more than 7,000 supporters took up the club's offer.

The bumper crowd failed to inspire the Stags as they lost 2-0, but spokesman Mark Stevenson told BBC Sport the club was delighted with the fans' support.

"The scenes in the first-half brought back memories of the 1980s," he said.

"The players appreciated the huge crowd. Unfortunately they had an off-day but they would love to play in front of that many people every week.

"We hope that people, despite the result, had an enjoyable day and will return - we are becoming a hub of the community again."

Extra police and a full quota of staff were brought in on the day to marshal the crowd at the Field Mill ground, which has a capacity of 9,400.

With fans paying as little as three pence and as much as £50 on the day - usual ticket prices are £16 -Stevenson said he expected gate receipts to be up.

Believed to be the first of its kind in English football, the club will evaluate the day before they decide whether to run the scheme again.

606: DEBATE The brave decision of the club to allow supporters to decide their own entry fee into Field Mill on Saturday has to be applauded Stag_In_Ireland

Stevenson added: "We are just delighted to know for certain that there are more people out there."

The Blue Square Premier side is currently owned by fans Andrew Perry, Andrew Saunders and Steve Middleton.

The trio clubbed together to buy out owner Keith Haslam in 2008 and decided to allow fans to pay what they liked to boost the crowd and thank the people of Mansfield.

The resulting crowd of 7,261 was 4,000 more than usually come through the turnstiles at Field Mill.

It also beat the 2007 high of 6,500 for the visit of Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, although demand was even higher with some fans turned away as the ground filled up.

"We had to use the away stand to seat home supporters which has never been heard of in recent times," said Stevenson.

"There was no trouble and both sets of supporters appreciated the fact that everywhere was choc-a-block."

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