England's World Cup success left Oxfordshire bus passengers stranded - because drivers had

celebrated too hard.

Dozens of furious passengers flooded Stagecoach Oxford with complaints on Saturday when buses failed to appear.

And an employee made the amazing admission that he suspected the reason was that too many drivers got carried away celebrating England's 2-0 win over Colombia the previous night.

Furious Abingdon man Derek Smith, who waited nearly an hour for a bus that didn't turn up, was told too many drivers were suffering World Cup headaches.

The 56-year-old, who is unable to drive after cardiac surgery, waited in vain for 55 minutes in Elizabeth Avenue, Abingdon.

After walking home to the Peachcroft estate, he phoned Stagecoach Oxford, only to be told that a number of

drivers had phoned in sick and they could only put it down to overdoing the

celebrations. Some services were not running as the company was struggling to find cover.

Mr Smith, who works as an administrator, said: "I am annoyed that was the reason. I've got nothing against people watching and enjoying the football but, if they've got a job to do the following morning, they should not be overdoing it.

"I was told bus drivers were reporting in with headaches because of the World Cup. From my point of view, that's not good enough."

An Oxford Mail reporter who called Stagecoach Oxford posing as an angry passenger was told: "We have got major problems with that route at the moment. The driver has gone sick, probably because of the England game last night.

"Quite a few have gone the same way. All I can say is sorry and advise you to write in."

The official, who later refused to give his name, gave out the name and address of company manager Michael Conroy.

He added that this was the "20th or 30th" complaint he had handled, saying: "Every other phone call has been a complaint."

George Fair, operations manager at Stagecoach Oxford, said : "Sickness rates are high at the moment and it is difficult to maintain all buses in the summer months. But there is no evidence of the World Cup affecting routine sickness.

"Drivers go sick for all sorts of reasons. We are concerned about sickness levels having impact on our services. It is difficult to maintain full services if drivers go sick at short notice."

He said other bus companies were experiencing similar problems. He denied that the company had received many complaints and said no senior member of staff would have blamed the World Cup.

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