A young disabled football fan on a birthday treat was left in tears after being barred from watching his Manchester United heroes.
Tyler Short, 14, and father Chris made a 530-mile round trip to Old Trafford in the hope of seeing his favourite player, Wayne Rooney.
But they were refused entry with a wheelchair used by the autistic youngster.
Their tickets were then confiscated in a mix-up over the names on the stubs.
Chris, 51, said “My boy was crying his eyes out.
“I take him up there once a year for his birthday treat. It turned into a disaster.”
Neil Atkinson
This time they waited outside for the game to end to take their North Devon supporters club coach back home to Bideford.
Mr Short and his son , a Manchester United member, bought the tickets through the North Devon branch of the Supporters Club and travelled on their coach.
But the seats were on different rows and would have meant he could not sit next to his son.
To allow them to sit side by side, Mr Short was given another supporter’s ticket on the coach while Tyler retained his original.
Tyler’s ticket was in the name of his older brother, Callum 18, who is also a Manchester United member.
And the confusion over the names printed on the two tickets led to them being confiscated by United officals, to Mr Short’s disbelief.
“I said to them ‘I have come 300 miles . Look at the state of my son, he is crying his eyes out’.”
In desperation, Dean Evans, from the North Devon Supporters Club, rang the ticket office to try and explain the situation, but the officials would not budge.
Mr Evans said: “I could hear his son crying. It was proper sobbing. I was getting quite irate with the bloke on the phone.
“I said ‘I hope you sleep well tonight after what you have done’.
“I said to him ‘It does not look very good when you are refusing entry to a disabled young fan’.”