Most football fans get the coach, but one dedicated Eagles follower completed a 425 km triathlon to see a Crystal Palace away match.

Tony Werner, 43, is taking a well-deserved rest after he ran, swam and cycled from Selhurst Park to St Andrews, the home of Birmingham City FC, in the space of a week, in memory of his mother.

Window cleaner Mr Werner, who moved from Addiscombe to Norfolk six months ago, has managed to raise £3,000 to Diabetes UK, after his mother Pamela, also a huge Palace fan from Caterham, died from the disease five years ago.

He said: "Completing this has had two benefits personally - one is you feel great raising money for a cause that will benefit others, but secondly knowing you have set the challenge it really motivates you to achieve - you don’t want to look stupid."

Setting out after Palace were thrashed 3-0 by Nottingham Forest on March 31, Mr Werner carried out kilometer cold water swims in Tooting, Rugby, and Market Bosworth, cycled along stony towpaths along canals from London to Birmingham, and carried out four half marathon runs.

In total he completed 6.4 km swimming, 83 km running and 337 km on the bicycle.

He said: "The difficulty was looking at the fixture list and finding an away match far enough to be a challenge but also where the weather wouldn’t be so awful for the cold water swims.

"I would have liked to have gone further like Leeds of Middlesbrough but the fixture list didn’t fall right."

Making an appeal first on the field at Selhurst Park, Mr Werner was also invited onto the pitch on Saturday April 7, at Birmingham, to call for help.

He said: "The fans there were really good - of course the fact they were winning probably helped."

Travelling back to Croydon that evening, he enjoyed a celebratory pint with friends at The Whitehorse Pub, Selhurst.

He said: "The guys there have been great - they have been very generous with donations and very supportive."

To donate to Mr Werner’s cause visit http://brumorbust.com/