England fans miss Lionesses match amid 'huge' park-and-ride queues

Jenni Groves decided to walk for about an hour to the stadium

England fans missed the Lionesses' first home game since becoming European champions due to "huge" queues for park-and-ride buses to the stadium.

People going to Tuesday's match at Stoke City, who were at the site at Trentham Gardens, said there were long queues and not enough buses.

They stated while some ultimately walked and missed the start of the 10-0 win over Luxembourg, others went home.

First Bus said its services operated but there had been traffic delays.

Hundreds of supporters were reportedly stranded at Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent Live said.

'Families with kids'

Jenni Groves, who lives near Rochdale, Greater Manchester, left the area at 16:30 BST and arrived at the park-and-ride site at just before 18:00, leaving her 90 minutes to get to the stadium for the kick-off.

She said there had been "just huge queues of people" waiting for buses and at about 19:15 she had decided to walk, arriving at the stadium at the end of the first half.

Ms Groves said: "We missed those five [first-half] goals, which was a massive shame.

"They knew how many people were going to be there, so I feel like there could have been more buses put on."

The fan said staff had stated there had been five initially, but two buses had broken down, so three were "just doing the shuttles backwards and forwards" and "getting stuck in the traffic".

She said: "There were traffic incidents. Apparently there were lots of temporary traffic lights... I've just gone off what I've heard.

"There were families there with kids that were choosing not to walk and other people who were older as well. They were thinking 'we can't make that two-mile walk in that time'.

"There were people that we'd seen in the queue that were arriving after us."

England's Georgia Stanway celebrated after scoring her team's first goal in Tuesday's match

Steph Deakin, from Stoke-on-Trent, was going to the match with a friend but decided to head home at 19:20 and said organisation of the buses had been "really bad".

Ms Deakin said she felt "so let down" and had seen "so many disappointed fans, young and old, all patiently waiting in huge queues for buses that didn't show".

She arrived at about 18:30 and had gone there "thinking we had plenty of time".

Ms Deakin said: "You could tell the queue's long and there were hardly any buses.

"I don't think it's just the park-and-ride [that was] the problem... there seemed to be a lot of traffic."

She added after putting in a complaint to the park-and-ride company, she had received a full apology and refund, which "does go a long way to make you feel better".

A spokesperson for First Potteries said: "We were contracted by the match organisers to operate some of the park-and-ride services to the football event last night and I can confirm all journeys operated.

"However, some of our buses did get held up in the traffic congestion that built up around the ground, causing some fans to arrive late for the kick-off which I can appreciate would be disappointing for those involved."

Stoke City, The Football Association, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Trentham Estate have not commented.

Staffordshire Police said it was not responsible "for the traffic management plan or park-and-ride system", adding: "This was managed by partner agencies."

Eight players got on the scoresheet as the Lionesses dominated their final World Cup qualifier.