A view from the Charlton v Brighton tickets queue

When you talk to most people in the UK about ‘The Queue’ in 2022, they will naturally think back to those who waited 24 hours to see the Queen lying in state following her death in September.

Brighton fans, however, will have a different queue in mind. The Albion faithful will instantly be taken to South East London on a Wednesday evening in December.

Some fans waited for longer than Charlton v Brighton in the League Cup actually lasted just to pick up tickets which had been purchased six weeks ago.

A large number of those missed a big chunk of the first half as well (which might not be seen as a bad thing!)

The official message from the club was due to postal strikes, some tickets had not been delivered to supporters in time for the match.

A reported 900 tickets – from an away following of 6,500 – needed to be collected before the match started. Those in the queue would argue it was a lot more than 900.

It would be wrong to put the blame for this fiasco solely at the feet of Brighton & Hove Albion. Those lucky enough to have their post delivered in and around the strike received their tickets.

There were though a number of ways this situation could have been drastically improved with a little bit of for forethought and common sense.

1) Give fans the option of collecting tickets from the Amex.
The postal strike did not come as a shock. It was not suddenly announced 24 hours in advance. It was well publicised that Royal Mail would be going on strike for a number of days leading up to Christmas.

On the BBC website there was even a calendar listing the various groups who would be striking and on what days.

A simple email to all fans who had purchased tickets giving them a window of time to collect from the Amex could easily have meant a large portion of the tickets would not need to be sent out at all, saving the Albion money on the postage at the same time!

2) More collection windows
Whilst the queuing on the street was at worst frustrating, the same could not be said for the point where you turned towards the collection windows.

This was like being involved in one of those sports a small village in the middle of England plays once a year, with a scrum of bodies all jostling for position to be served as quickly as possible.

It was every man, woman and child for themselves at this point. Tensions were raised as a result.

By grouping the tickets alphabetically, and having separate queues, there would not be the scrum of bodies all pushing their way to the front to pick up their tickets.

Thankfully it was not raining and was quite mild compared to the temperatures the UK has seen over the last couple of weeks.

The scrum would have been a lot worse if people were also trying to get out of the rain or if Brighton fans were not as patient and well-mannered.

3. Print at Home tickets
Okay, so this is not something the Albion have control over. But it is 2022 and although it is a shame to see the end of the traditional paper football ticket, we live in an age of being able to get into most major events using a phone.

Any professional football club should have the option of giving fans a ticket to print at home. Even some Sussex non league clubs have this option, so there is no excuse for Charlton in League One not to offer it.

It should be said that the Albion staff on the night who travelled to the Valley to assist with the ticket collection were doing a brilliant job in very difficult circumstances. None of the issues were to do with them.

The club also did very well on the morning of the game in quickly adding the option to order a reprint via the usual ticketing section of the club website, saving people the hassle of trying to get through over the phone (which had its own issues).

Bear in mind that Brighton were also restricted by what Charlton could offer and when the original tickets were sent to the Amex. It is therefore not as easy as saying the Albion should have just done better.

Hopefully though, the club use this a learning tool and some simple changes to how away fans are able to receive their tickets could stop this sort of madness from happening again in future.

It is one thing missing some of a Carabao Cup Fourth Round 0-0 draw against Charlton waiting in a queue for a ticket when you have only only had to travel to London.

I don’t think the same could be said if half the away attendance are still queuing outside when we kick off our first UEFA Europa Conference League game against Qarabag in Baku next September.