Plans to probe congestion before Albion home games

Congestion is seemingly causing repeated problems for fans trying to get to West Bromwich Albion games.

Some supporters told The Athletic they missed matches as they were stuck in traffic or chose to turn around.

Supporter Pat Frost told the BBC his journey had been taking almost two hours longer than usual this season.

Sandwell Council said it would investigate around junction one of the M5, close to The Hawthorns stadium, in a bid to understand the problem.

England senior kitman Pat Frost, who follows the Baggies, said it had been "horrendous".

Travelling from Telford, he said his journey normally took an hour, but recently had lasted for almost three hours.

"It took me an hour to do not even 600 yards off the island [at junction one]," he said.

He said he "can't put his finger" on the cause of the disruption this season.

The council said there were a number of unrelated issues that contributed to match-day congestion earlier this month, including a broken-down lorry at the M5 junction.

It said the traffic signals controller at junction one "appears to be working fine" and improvements around the ground to protect residents and spectators "would not have been responsible for the issues".

The local authority said it planned to install a traffic analysis camera on the junction one roundabout to try and understand the cause of matchday problems.

It added it would look to see if public transport capacity could be increased.

A spokesman for West Bromwich Albion said the club believed the problem was connected with the roundabout.

Frank Bird, from Highways England, said it worked with partners to ensure traffic moves as smoothly as possible, but congestion was "inevitable" due to the number of people arriving and leaving at the same time.

The best advice, he said, was to leave plenty of time and to consider getting off at junction two, or to use public transport.

The start of planned works closing the northbound junction 10 of the M6 were also put back until 23:00 BST on Friday to allow for fans travelling back from the club's home match against Queen's Park Rangers.

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