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Bolton Wanderers fan flies 8,000 miles to abandoned game

Teacher Andy Bebbington said the experience was a "bit of a nightmare"

A football fan flew more than 8,000 miles from China to see his favourite team play, only for the game to be abandoned after just a few minutes.

Teacher Andy Bebbington and other Bolton fans only saw nine minutes of the League One game at Cambridge.

Heavy rain caused a waterlogged pitch, with the game called off at 20:10 GMT on Tuesday.

"It was a bit of a nightmare to be honest," said Mr Bebbington, who was on a two week trip home to the UK.

The fan, originally from Kearsley, tweeted: "Gotta laugh or else I'll cry."

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"I have been teaching English in China for the last five years - this time of the year is the Chinese New Year so you get two weeks off," he said.

"I looked at the fixture list and this popped up I thought Cambridge in February what could go wrong - it was just my luck," he added.

Mr Bebbington, who is based in the city of Suzhou, 30 minutes away from Shanghai, decided to look on the bright side because "worse things can happen".

Andy Bebbington Cambridge v Bolton waterlogged pitchAndy Bebbington
The match lasted nine minutes due to a waterlogged pitch

He added: "Obviously I won't be going to the rearranged fixture but I'm hoping to go to the home game with Wycombe next week."

Mr Bebbington also hoped to get a ticket for the club's away match at Northampton on Saturday.

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