Blundering Barcelona fan goes to wrong St James’ Park and ends up in Exeter, not Newcastle

While Barcelona just about avoided a disappointing night at Newcastle, one of their supporters had an evening to forget after turning up at the wrong St James’ Park.

Instead of making the trip to Tyneside, the fan ended up in Exeter, around 367 miles away. Newcastle and Exeter City both play at stadiums called St James’ Park and he went to the wrong one.

If there was an upside, it was also matchday in Devon and he got to watch the League One clash between Exeter and table-topping Lincoln City, a game the visitors won 1-0.

Barcelona fan ’embarrassed’ by stadium mistake

Adam Spencer, supporter experience officer at Exeter City, said: “One of our volunteers came to the office to let us know that this guy had turned up expecting to see FC Barcelona.

“His English wasn’t great, but from what we could gather, he’d come from London. My guess is he’d put St James’ Park in his phone and then just followed the directions from there.

“He was pretty gutted and a bit embarrassed. So, we sorted him out a ticket and he got to watch a game at the real St James’ Park. He’d be welcome back any time.”

At the other end of the country, the Spanish giants required a last-gasp penalty to salvage a 1-1 draw with Newcastle in the first leg of their Champions League, round-of-16 tie.

Newcastle had earlier gone ahead through a Harvey Barnes goal.