Home crowd at match — in need of a time for police officers? (10)

'police officers?' is the definition.
(inspector is a kind of police officer)

'home crowd at match in need of a time' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'home' could be 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in') and 'in' is located in the answer.
'crowd' could be 'c' and 'c' is found within the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is located in the answer.
'time' could be 't' (abbreviation) and 't' is present in the answer.
'a' could be 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day') and 'per' is found within the remaining letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'for' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?