Look out for lost Liverpool supporters this weekend

It looks as if we will be seeing lots of coaches in Wembley on Saturday for the FA Cup Final or lots of lost Liverpool fans trying to find their way home after this statement from the British Transport Police:

Virgin Trains is warning Liverpool football fans that there are no realistic options for return train travel from London after the FA Cup Final on Saturday 5 May. 

Major route improvement works by Network Rail over the Bank Holiday weekend will mean extensive route closures.

Passengers from Liverpool to London on Saturday 5 May will need to travel via Manchester or Chester, or use Stoke-on-Trent station but the decision by the Football Association for a 17:15 kick-off means there are no options for fans to return north the same day after the game.

With the route out of London closed on Sunday 6 May, the earliest that fans could return to Liverpool would be on Monday 7 May.

A Virgin Trains spokesman said: "We always try and help football fans get to and from matches on our network, and did this very successfully for Everton and Liverpool supporters travelling to the semi-final. However, on this occasion, as we explained to the FA, the choice of both a 17:15 kick off and the staging of the FA Cup Final on a Bank Holiday weekend when Network Rail had already planned essential route improvement works means we cannot offer fans the level of train service they have come to expect."

There appear to have been no advance warning to fans from the police, Brent Council,  the FA or Wembley Stadium about the street drinking ban as there was for the the semi-finals. On that occasion the police turned a blind eye to the public drinking but the late kick off on Saturday gives more than 4 hours extra drinking time compared with that much earlier kick off.