Dozens of Albion fans were delayed by more than an hour on their return home from Saturday's match - because their train went the wrong way.

The 6.36pm from Sheffield should have delivered about 100 Seagulls supporters, who had watched their team beat Rotherham 1-0, to London St Pancras by 8.45pm.

Instead, they were told by an announcer after 45 minutes that the train had followed the wrong route and would have to retrace its journey.

Many supporters missed connecting trains to Brighton and arrived home after midnight.

Noele Hawker, 36, of Osbourne Villas, Hove, said: "We'd been going for about 45 minutes when the train went through Chesterfield station and then it just stopped.

"We sat there for about ten minutes and then an announcement came over the intercom saying it had been incorrectly routed'.

"We backed up the line and returned to Chesterfield and then switched tracks again."

The Midland Mainline train eventually got in to London's St Pancras station at 9.55pm.

Mr Hawker did not get back to Brighton until about midnight and was late for a party.

He said: "Everyone was in high spirits and quite jolly because of the win but, as the journey wore on, people got a lot more dispirited."

The delay was augmented by other incidents on board the train involving the police.

Andy Naylor, a sports writer for The Argus, was with the fans heading back to Brighton.

He said: "People were pretty fed up but it was more a case of disbelief than anger."

Midland Mainline trains and Network Rail have accepted joint responsibility for the mistake.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said trains following the Sheffield to St Pancras route usually go through Derby. There were engineering works on that stretch of track so services were being rerouted.

Unfortunately a signalman let the 6.36pm train through on to the stretch of track approaching the maintenance work.

The spokeswoman said: "It was caused by human error. The signalman, who is under the jurisdiction of Network Rail, put the train through on the wrong line. The driver on the Midland Mainline Train would also have known about the works and should have queried the signalman.

"There were no safety implications as we have systems in place to ensure the train would not have got near the works."

A signalman halted the train when he noticed it was heading down the wrong route.