Young football fans left disappointed

Wyrley Juniors, based in Great Wyrley, travelled down in five buses and three coaches owned by National Express West Midlands on Sunday.

But some parents say the double decker buses arrived late to Wembley, claiming they missed the first 20 minutes of the game.

Simon Bailey, aged 39, whose nine-year-old daughter Tegan plays for Wyrley Junior Panthers, said: "It was an absolute disaster.

"It was my first experience of Wembley. We missed the build up to the game and some of the match.

"The driver missed his turn off into Wembley then dropped us off 10 minutes away from the ground."

It went from bad to worse, according to Mr Bailey, on the way home after the game.

One of the buses broke down and all the people from that bus had to get on another, meaning people had to stand in the aisles all the way home.

Mr Bailey, who is a mechanic and lives in Bloxwich, continued: "We got back home at about 11pm.

"We should have got back about 9.30pm. One of the coaches arrived back after midnight I heard. A number of the parents weren't happy.

"We were due to leave in the morning at 9am but the buses didn't come until around 9.45am.

"It wasn't a good experience."

The buses and coaches left Great Wyrley High School on Sunday morning at around 9.45am - 45 minutes later than they should have according to Mr Bailey, who paid £18 for his bus ticket.

A grandparent of a Wyrley Juniors player, who did not want to be named, added: "It was a disgrace. It just wasn't very well organised.

"Eight coaches went down. It was their dream to go, these kids. And some of them missed kick off."

The Saddlers lost 2-0 in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final to Bristol City.

Around 30,000 Walsall fans travelled down to Wembley to see Dean Smith's side play for the first time at the stadium in the club's history.

Jack Kelly, from National Express, said: "We did unfortunately have some of our vehicles caught in heavy congestion around Wembley Stadium prior to kick-off.

"Fans were allowed to leave the vehicle and walk to the stadium, if any missed the kick-off we are sorry for this inconvenience."

Mr Kelly added that nine vehicles travelled down to the ground in total and the majority of them arrived on time.