West Brom fans' fury after entry to Fulham game refused

Supporters affected only discovered what had happened when they arrived at the turnstiles and found they could not get into the Craven Cottage ground.

Some had travelled more than 130 miles from the Black Country. Fans were today demanding answers from West Bromwich Albion and called for action to be taken.

Life-long Baggies fan Simon Taylor was one of the fans affected.

The 39-year-old National Express worker, of Greenfield Road, Harborne, was left 'kicking his heels' around London for hours after officials refused to allow him into the ground.

He has been left around £60 out of pocket – £30 for the ticket and the remainder in travel costs and food.

"It is not the money which I am upset about so much. It is the fact you spend all the time travelling down and talking up the game with your mates only to find you can't get in," he said.

"What happened was the turnstile would not accept the barcode on my ticket which I bought on-line as the club recommends.

"A member of staff came over and told me to go to the ticket office which I thought was a bit strange.

"Eventually we were told our tickets had been sold twice which was why we could not get in. We were refused entry by the turnstile due to the other tickets already gaining entry before us.

"At this point we were told it was Albion's fault and there was nothing Fulham could do. They then confiscated our tickets because they were duplicates."

Mr Taylor said at the time there was only himself and two other men, aged in their 70s, who had difficulties but he had since learned there had been others.

He said he would be contacting the club to find out what had happened.

Other fans also posted their concerns on Twitter.

One wrote on Twitter: "Me and my father took two 71-year-old twins to the game who hadn't been to a game for a long time.

"We came from around 120 miles away (Warwickshire) so it was a 240 mile round trip.

"When we got to the turnstiles the two old boys tickets wouldn't work."

He added: "When they got to the ticket office they were told that Albion had double booked their seats which is why they couldn't get in as the tickets had already been used for the same seats."

One Twitter user called Kieran said: "Club need to reimburse you for your travel too.

"It's a disgrace they have done this to our own fans."

A West Bromwich Albion club spokesman said: "The club are aware a handful of Albion fans who purchased seats for Saturday's game at Fulham had ticketing problems causing them difficulties in gaining entry at Craven Cottage.

"We are still investigating the root cause of the problem and will be contacting the supporters affected in due course.

"We would like to thank them for their patience at this time."