England fans who never came home from Mexico 1986 reunite in USA

England fans who went to the 1986 World Cup and never came back were reunited 40 years on at the Croatia game last week.

Gary Allen, Stuart Bates, David Arnold and Garry Hardwicke jetted off to Mexico four decades ago to follow the Three Lions but enjoyed it so much they never returned.

They all went on to forge new lives for themselves across the United States and Mexico, where they settled down in new careers, got married and had 14 children between them.

Last week, Gary, 63, who now lives in Atlanta, and Stuart, 63, who lives in Texas, were reunited at an England game for the first time in decades as they came together to watch England’s 4-2 thriller against Croatia.

Gary and his son were even able to gate-crash a Croatian VIP box where they helped themselves to free beer and food before settling down to watch the match in $3,000 seats at the Dallas Stadium.

They were also able to meet up with Steve Dawson – AKA Texas Steve – who took them in under his roof four decades ago and went on to become best friends.

The three were able to attend their first England game as a trio before having celebratory drinks long into the night after enjoying an emphatic England win and a ‘carnival’ atmosphere.

Gary said: ‘It was amazing to see the lads because it had certainly been a while. The place was absolutely packed around the stadium, all the bars were rammed, but once you got inside, it was just incredible.

‘It is the best stadium I have ever watched England in, and they’ve certainly come a long way since Mexico 86. Back then, they were all raw and ready – now they are absolutely state-of-the-art, futuristic things with the likes of air-conditioning.’

Gary joked: ‘We paid £700, so around £500 each for our tickets, but we were in the Croatia end – all of a sudden we had these $3,000 seats. So we watched the game in luxury, and it was some experience.’

The last time Gary and Stuart were able to reunite was around the time of the US 94 cup.

The pals, aged between 20 and 23 at the time, had set off for Mexico with little more than the bags on their backs and a few hundred quid after losing their jobs in 1986.

Garry even told his partner he was only nipping out to get a pint of milk – and then didn’t return home at all for the next 12 years.

They called themselves The Disco Firm and were all Wolves fans from Stourbridge and Lye, Worcester, apart from David, who was from Solihull and a Birmingham City fan.

The group travelled to Monterrey and Acapulco and watched every England game throughout the tournament before they were knocked out by Argentina and Maradona’s infamous Hand of God goal.

During their hard-drinking and partying adventure, two of them even managed to convince local women they were Peter Shilton and Gary Lineker while pretending to be the squad.

Stuart Bates, 63, a dad-of-four, who lives in Houston, Texas, said: ‘Stourbridge in the 80s was tough, I had been working on a building site at the time and a lot of the lads had lost their jobs.

‘We were watching Duran Duran videos filmed in Rio and Bowie filming in Australia, and I knew I just wanted to travel. When the chance came, I just thought why not even though we knew nothing about Mexico.

‘We had the time of our lives.’

Gary went on to build a company from scratch in the sewage and drain equipment industry, turning over 20 million dollars annually before retiring last year.

Stuart was, and remains, successful in the car industry in Houston, while David stayed in Mexico, where he became head of a school in Monterrey, where he still lives.

Sadly, Rabbit Head, who was a painter in Atlanta who moved to Florida, died two years ago.

The men’s Mexico adventure are now the focus of a new documentary called Lost Down Mexico Way.

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