DEDICATED fans queued for up to four hours to make sure they could share in the biggest day in Wycombe Wanderers' history.

The last 2,000 tickets for Sunday's FA Cup semi-final clash with Liverpool at Villa Park went up for grabs from 4.30pm on Saturday. Some fans missed the last minutes of the match against Wigan, to make sure they got tickets.

Fan Ian Benfell, 35, from Laburnum Close, Marlow, said: "It is the biggest game in the club's history. I would probably crawl all the way to Cardiff if they got to the final."

Philip Mullett, 43, a car valeter from Gibson Close, High Wycombe, queued up from 1pm, not to get a ticket for himself, but for a friend who was working and might have missed out.

Mr Mullett explained why he had queued so long: "I have been a Wanderer for 35 years so why not? It will just be one big party."

The queue died down by about 6pm and the club say there are around 1,000 tickets, priced at £45 each, left. Eighteen thousand tickets have been sold.

Some fans felt they should have been allowed more tickets the first time they were put on sale. Season ticket holders had previously been entitled to two tickets each but were allowed further tickets on Saturday.

Steve Bartlett, 46, a design engineer from Marlow, said: "I feel hard done by because they only sold two tickets to each person. I now have to queue up again and my whole family can't sit together. If we could have got four together in the first place it would have been a lot easier."

Club spokesman Charles Colton said if they had sold more tickets to each season ticket holder in the first place they would have run out.

He said: "It was agreed between our secretary and the FA. If we said anyone could buy whatever they wanted we would have been called unreasonable."

Mr Colton said if people wanted to swap their first tickets for new tickets so whole families could sit together they could do so, but the only tickets that are left are priced at £45.

He said: "I would have thought we have satisfied 95 per cent of the people."

Visit the Bucks Free Press website at www.bucksfreepress.co.uk on Sunday for full match report and pictures

Train firm withdraws cheap ticket deal

FANS are crying foul after Chiltern Railways withdrew a cheap ticket deal for the day of the big match.

Supporters were initially offered a special Groupsave deal to Birmingham which meant they could get up to four train tickets for the price of two.

Chiltern Railways has withdrawn the offer because of safety reasons before the match takes place against Liverpool.

Ian Mobsby, vice-chairman of Wycombe Wanderers Independent Supporters Club, said supporters are 'absolutely fuming about it'.

He said one fan had gone to order 20 train tickets, hoping to take advantage of the offer last Wednesday, only to be told that instead of paying out £232, she would have to fork out an extra £132.

He added: "Chiltern Railways said they had put on extra trains to deal with safety problems so why are they now withdrawing the offer for the same reason?

"It seems they could have thought if they have 4,000 fans going to Birmingham they could be making more money. Supporters are fuming."

A Chiltern Railways spokesman, who said the cheap ticket offer had been popular, said they had delayed engineering works and laid on the special trains for fans. She said: "It is for safety reasons we have withdrawn the offer to stop overcrowding."

When asked if money had nothing to do with the offer being withdrawn, she said: "Well, we are a working railway."

Tickets need to be booked by 8pm Wednesday on 08705 165165.