Which season was that? We only took small allocation until about 2011, going right back to 2000.A few seasons back City ordered the full 3,000 at Chelsea but sold short of 2,000 ending up having to stump up for the shortfall. Following season City only ordered 1,500. I remember because I missed out on that game.
The club sometimes said we have 3k and then sold out, Chelsea allowing them to be returned if sales where slow. Then when they enforced sale or return we always took the lower allocation.
City started taking the lowest allocation for most clubs enforcing sale or return following Birmingham City in August 2004 when it cost about £40k. Then we played Pompey and only asked for 1,100.