A pair of Crystal Palace fans were left nursing holes in their wallets as well as aching legs after cycling two Boris bikes 14 miles home following their team's famous play-off victory.

Gary Fleur, 25, of Hillside Gardens, along with his friend and lifelong fan Joe Gasson, 25, also from Wallington, went to Wembley last month to watch their team return to top-flight football after a nearly a decade.

After celebrating the victory near Wembley, the two managed to get as far as London Bridge by 2am, but could not get any further towards their homes in Wallington - 14 miles away.

The couple saw a Boris bike stand, and as Mr Fleur says, thought: "I'll have some of that". He said: "I put my card in because I saw '£2 for the day', we thought it was a bargain, but clearly I didn't understand what was going on."

"We thought it would only take half an hour to get home, but in fact, we were stopping every half an hour for a breather."

Nearly three-and-a-half-hours later the pair arrived in Wallington, but the next morning faced the problem with what to do with the bikes.

The mechanical engineer, said: "I thought there would be a depot in Croydon or somewhere closer than Victoria, so we had to take them all that way back the next day, and it cost us £52 each! So much for £2."

"It was painful for my legs, and my wallet, but the day is something I will never forget. The whole day was unreal."