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 found within the answer.
'crowd' could be 'c' and 'c' is present in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found in the answer.
'time' could be 't' (abbreviation) and 't' is found within the answer.
'a' could be 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day') and 'per' is present in the leftover letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'for' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?