A GROUP of Grimsby Town supporters felt like they were "in a communist country" after allegedly being hauled off their minibus and sent back home whilst travelling to Tuesday's FA Cup match at Scunthorpe United.
The group of 16 hired a minibus, but despite having tickets, were pulled over on the M180 before being arrested, sent back to Grimsby and promptly being "dearrested".
Humberside Police said the group were sent back "to prevent a breach of the peace".
One of the minibus passengers was 16-year-old Tom Whotton, a student at Grimsby Institute.
He said: "I think it's wrong. I feel like they are making an example of us because the policing was criticised at the first game.
"I feel robbed of seeing a great match, we were all upset and disappointed because we were made to feel like criminals in a communist country.
"We had organised the minibus as a group of friends, none of us are troublemakers and we were only intent on enjoying the game.
"The police said they had written to people with banning orders advising them not to travel and none of us received anything, as we have no such banning orders."
Paul Hardy, 25, was also on the minibus, and said he was "seething" after missing the game.
"They seemed to stop us for absolutely no reason because we are a group of young lads," he said.
"I don't know everyone who was on the bus but we are decent lads who just wanted to see the game.
"I would love to have seen what was one of Town's biggest wins in years but through no fault of our own we missed it."
Many Mariners supporters have also slammed a decision by Scunthorpe United not to delay kick-off after a serious crash near Glanford Park left hundreds of supporters queuing on the M181.
The game, set for a 7.45pm kick-off, actually kicked off 90 seconds early. Many caught in the tailbacks missed the opening 15 minutes which included a Grimsby goal.
Mariners fan Chris Morton said: "We all know fans being delayed to a big game immediately causes tension so we looked to the police to keep everyone relaxed – the easiest way of doing this was a simple short delay to the kick-off time.
"We had a situation with maybe 200 fans walking on a motorway.
"As the motorway reopened, and traffic flowed, there were still people walking on the motorway hard shoulder.
"I hoped that policing of major events had moved on and procedures were in place to react to problems at short notice."
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