THE manager of a pub whose Swindon Town away-day coach services to Carlisle were cancelled in the early hours of Saturday, leaving nearly 90 fans without transport to the match, says he “totally got it wrong”.

Andy Poynter organises the services from the Tap & Barrel pub on Manchester Road to every away match, but failure to secure a provider saw him call off travel to the opening-day fixture in Cumbria just hours before the scheduled 6am departure.

“The mistake was mine, nobody else’s,” he said.

“I get why people are upset, I totally got it wrong.”

After his usual provider, Alex Cars, said they were unable to provide the service for “operational reasons”, Andy continued to search for alternative options.

He said: “I could have told everybody the Monday before, but I thought I can do this, I can sort this. I thought this wasn’t a problem, I thought I’d find someone, but I couldn’t.

“That was stupid. It was basically me praying and hoping that I could sort something, even until the last hour.”

While some fans were able to find last-minute alternative arrangements, others missed Town’s opening-day win – a disappointment Andy said he could associate with, and was doing his best to make amends for.

He said: “That’s the first opening game of the season I’ve missed for years.

“I’ve spoken to nearly everybody, either through social media or in person. Most people have been paid back, everybody else will get their money as and when they get in touch.

“I’m putting on free transport for Tuesday [Swindon are playing at Norwich tonight]. There are 34 going tomorrow, and for the rest I’m offering free transport for Luton away [on 9 September].

“For everybody who bought a ticket for Saturday’s game who couldn’t make it to the match, I’ll cover their ticket for the next away match that they can make it to.”

Some resourceful fans did manage to make it to the match, Swindon’s furthest away trip of the season: a round trip of over 500 miles.

Groups of fans took private cars for the whole journey, drove to Birmingham to catch a train, or went via London Paddington.

Dwarfing their travels, meanwhile, was another extremely committed fan.

Andrew French, 57, who is originally from Stratton, made the journey from the Asian island of Borneo to Cumbria to see the game – a round trip of 8,000 miles.

A computing teacher whose work has taken him far from his roots, Andrew has made the journey to see Swindon Town’s opening game of the season for each of the last six years – and with the final scoreline 2-1 in Swindon’s favour, this was the first time he’d seen them win.