ANGRY football fans who travelled for eight hours to an away match only to be denied entry because they were late, have criticised a club’s officials.

The four Darlington fans are annoyed that stewards at Aldershot Town refused to let them into the Recreation Ground for their fixture with the Quakers on Saturday for “health and safety” reasons because they turned up after the second half had got under way.

The news has been met with equal disgust from Aldershot supporters, who have even suggested a collection to refund the group’s petrol money.

The Quakers’ fans – David Aiken, 29, David Robinson, 38, Nick Cawood and Nick Richardson, both 19 – left Darlington at 8am on Saturday, but became stuck in gridlock at the intersection of the M25 and M4, turning the four-hour journey into an eight-hour epic.

Arriving at the stadium at about 4.10pm, the fans were refused access to the game on health and safety grounds, despite explaining they had just spent eight hours travelling 290 miles to get there.

Mr Aiken, a website designer from Darlington, said: “We were absolutely shocked.

I’m not an easily riled person, but I was really angry. I just could not believe it.

“I really hope that I never experience that again and I hope none of their fans experience that. It was not nice.

“The reaction from the Aldershot fans shows how much real football supporters care about each other.”

Mr Robinson, a screen printer from Darlington, said: “When they told us we could not come in, I thought they were joking.

“I can’t tell you what I thought when I realised they weren’t. We had gone all that way and got treated like rubbish.

There was no common sense used at all.”

The news was also met with outrage by Aldershot fans.

On the fans’ message board, ShotsTalk, Ian Rust posted: “The bottom line here is this was simply the wrong decision – no question about it. I am appalled that our club refused entry to some genuine footy fans that had suffered such hardship – an absolutely disgraceful decision.”

Ian M posted: “Actually, the club should be sending a cheque to the guy for his petrol money.

“Or, we should be having a whip round on here and sending the dosh ourselves.”

Nick Friar, of Aldershot Town Football Club, said the group had been denied access because another set of Darlington fans who had arrived late had been aggressive towards stewards.

He said: “While they were waiting to be let in, another two Darlington fans came along and were very aggressive towards stewards so they decided not to let them in.”

But Mr Aiken said the other two fans, who were already there when he and his friends arrived, were a completely separate party.

“None of us were aggressive or swore at the stewards,”

he added. “The other two fans were not with us and they had no reason not to let us in.”