diff --git a/Assemble.c b/Assemble.c
index c78a1b1..9fbc53e 100644
--- a/Assemble.c
+++ b/Assemble.c
@@ -369,7 +369,9 @@ int Assemble(struct supertype *st, char *mddev, int mdfd,
 	sparecnt=0;
 	for (i=0; i< bestcnt ;i++) {
 		int j = best[i];
-		int event_margin = !force;
+		int event_margin = 1; /* always allow a difference of '1'
+				       * like the kernel does
+				       */
 		if (j < 0) continue;
 		/* note: we ignore error flags in multipath arrays
 		 * as they don't make sense
diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 7f03ead..a83cb0b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ Changes Prior to this release
 	Thanks to Ross Vandegrift
     -   --monitor now reports which device failed in a 'Fail' message
 	   This broke with 2.6
+    -   Improve chance of array starting properly after a crash.
+	mdadm was insisting the event numbers were identical, but this
+	isn't needed, and is a problem if the crash was while the metadata
+	was being updated.
 
 Changes Prior to 2.1 release
     -   Fix assembling of raid10 array when devices are missing.