Football fan travels 5,000 miles to meet hero

Travelling 5,000-mile (8,045km) to watch your team lose may not usually leave many football fans with happy memories.

But for Carl Nixon, the trip from Las Vegas to see Rotherham United beaten 2-1 at Swindon Town was not just about the result.

After binge-watching the Welcome to Wrexham documentary he says he developed an affinity with the Welsh side's ex-striker Paul Mullin, who like Nixon, has a child with autism.

And, following Mullin's move from north Wales to South Yorkshire Nixon took the plunge on a £2,000 trip to watch his first football match and meet his footballing hero.

Mullin became a club icon for Wrexham, scoring 110 goals in 172 games in the five years he spent with the side.

During the documentary, which charts the club progress under Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, the 32-year-old Liverpudlian spoke openly about his son Albi's diagnosis, and has been involved in raising awareness of the condition.

Nixon said: "I really admired Paul and how he works with his son and how being close to home was important to him."

When Nixon saw that Mullin had moved clubs to Rotherham, he looked up the South Yorkshire town and felt another affinity with the place.

He said: "Rotherham is an awful lot like the town I grew up in, Akron, Ohio, in the United States. I spent probably the first 30 years of my life there.

"Industrial town, jobs moved away, trying to reinvent itself. It just fascinated me and I thought, well, OK, why not?

"If I'm going to do this soccer football thing, why not go see a game?"

With his son at university in London, Nixon looked for a game near the capital and settled on Swindon.

He arrived at the match two hours early and was given a hat, shirt and scarf, and was then invited to read out Rotherham's team sheet on the loudspeaker.

He also got to meet Mullin when the players arrived at the ground.

Nixon said: "He came over to me and he has this wonderful charm about him where he made me feel like he had just waited all his life for me to come say hello.

"It's a really rare quality, whatever level of professional athlete or celebrity or whatever.

"He thanked me for coming for the support, which I thought was kind of amusing and just absolutely wonderful."

A Rotherham United spokesperson said: "It was fantastic to learn of Carl's newfound love for Rotherham United and when we found out that he would be travelling to take in the fixture at Swindon Town, we wanted to ensure that his first Millers match was one to remember.

"We are incredibly proud of our association with all of our supporters whether they live in Rotherham or much further afield, and knowing that we now have another flying the flag for us out in Las Vegas is brilliant.

"We would also like to thank our hosts at Swindon for extending their hospitality to Carl, in making his day extra special by allowing him to read out the Millers team over the stadium PA system."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North