Four intrepid Aston Villa fans travelled 3,000 miles over TWO DAYS in a camper van to Bosnia to watch their team’s DEAD RUBBER Europa Conference League clash.
Loyal Chad Crocker spent two months organising the trip for pals Daniel, Rory and James.
There were no direct flights to Mostar and others with stopovers were too expensive.
So they came up with the idea of turning it into a little adventure.
The diehard group rented the camper van for £700 and it took them 48 hours to drive there with breaks.
They spent £350 on diesel, plus £140 on the LeShuttle.
But as they were in a camper van they didn’t need hotels.
They stopped off in France, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia en route.
They set off from Birmingham at 8am on Tuesday, (12 Dec) and arrived at 8am yesterday (14 Dec).
They got there on the day of their final group match against minnows HŠK Zrinjski Mostar.
It was a dead rubber as Villa had already qualified to the knock-out rounds and Zrinjski couldn’t get out of the group.
Chad and his pals didn’t have tickets for the match but managed to get some in the away end when they got there.
Villa drew the game 1-1 after going a goal up thanks to Nicolo Zaniolo after 61 minutes.
But they conceded with just three minutes to go thanks to Matija Malekinusic’s late strike.
Proud Chad said: “I planned it for two months.
“We go to all the away games in England.
“We were looking at the flights but there were a lot of stops and starts, no direct ones.”
The 32-year-old added: “Then we started looking at the cheapest options.
“We thought by doing this we could do a road trip and stop off at loads of places on the way.”
Chuffed Chad added: “We managed to get tickets in the away end just two hours before kick-off.
“We got really lucky.”
The lads face the same distance and journey time heading home today (15 Dec) plus another £350 on fuel and £110 on the ferry.
The total cost of their trip – minus spending money – was £1,650 – or £412.50 each.
In total the trip will take them five days – with a day in Bosnia – and they will travel 6,000 miles.
One jealous Villa fan said: “What a laugh that would be.”
Christine Roper said: “Well done lads.”
Chelsea supporter Thomas Dell joked: “Got the wind in the second half lads.”
Bitter Luke Jones – who follows local rivals Birmingham City – added: “I hope they break down on the way back.”
Watford fan Robert Hewitt quipped: “Could you imagine if the game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.”
