Video: All-aboard! Die-hard Wolves fans off to France

An intrepid band of 50 Wolves fans set off on an epic 1,000-mile round trip last night to watch their side play in Europe.

Their coach rolled out from the Faulkland Street car park in the city centre at 6.15pm to start a 36-hour whirlwind journey to witness Wolves in pre-season action.

Kenny Jackett's boys are up against French second tier side Paris FC at the Clairefontaine football institute where some of France's greatest players learned their trade.

The coachload of die-hards were due to catch a midnight ferry and arrive in Rambouillet, near Clairefontaine, in the early hours of this morning.

They will gather at a bar called The Napoleon after Mark Griffiths – who organised the trip – persuaded its owner to open especially to welcome the scores of Wolves fans.

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Mr Griffiths, aged 49, said: "Even though I've been a Wolves season ticket holder for 40 years I've never seen us in Europe. I just put a message up on one of the Wolves forums and the idea built momentum and eventually we managed to fill up a coach.

"It's a privileged place to go into and it's worth it as I don't think we'll be playing in Europe for many years.

"In 40 years I've never seen Wolves play in Europe and we're a million miles away from getting there, so this is a golden opportunity."

Book-keeper and part-time football tour operator Mr Griffiths thanked the club for sorting out tickets for the match as at one stage it wasn't planned to have the match open to the public. He said Wolves had "pulled out all the stops to secure tickets for the fans".

Most of the fans on the coach are from the Hatherton supporters' club.

They will leave around an hour after the match finishes to arrive back in Wolverhampton in the early hours of Saturday. "It should be a bit of fun, we'll be playing some Wolves DVDs on the coach and having a laugh," Mr Griffiths said.