MOTORISTS trying to get home from the Saints match have criticised highway bosses' decision to restrict a major Hampshire motorway as the final whistle blew.

A section of the M3 northbound was cut down to one lane for roadworks last night, causing major delays for traffic heading out of the city.

Fans trying to get home from the 0-0 draw match at St Mary's Stadium between Saints and West Ham at around 10pm last night encountered massive queues around Chandler's Ford and Eastleigh, some reporting it taking nearly an hour to go only one junction.

Congestion stemmed from the slip road at junction 4 of the M27 heading onto the M3, also involving traffic coming onto the M3 from The Avenue and eastbound traffic from the M27 joinging the M3 at the same point and stretched north towards Winchester.

This was added to the planned overnight closure of Stoneham Way, in Eastleigh which forced drivers onto the M3 to get to Chandler's Ford, adding to the problem.

West Ham and Southampton fans took to Twitter to vent their anger after being caught up in the queues and at the lack of any apparent work being done.

Scott Clark said: “Brilliant. M3 roadworks. Thank you very much.”

Another said: “Highways Agency great idea to close down m3 j14 just before the end of Saints West Ham game.

“Massive unnecessary delays. Well done.”

One Saints fan tweeted: “Who decided to close the motorway out of Southampton after a home game? Great idea that. Took over an hour to get home.”

West Ham fan Benji Lanyado said: “Stuck in horrible traffic on the M3, spent 5 hours in a car to watch a 0-0 draw.”

One fan, who had only gone onto the M3 because Stoneham Way at Eastleigh was also closed, found they were in traffic for around an hour to get from Eastleigh to the M3 turn-off for Chandler's Ford.

She said: “It was incredibly frustrating, especially as we could not see any work actually being done.

“The queue did not move and it was not surprising given you had three sections joining onto the same motorway, which had been cut down to one lane.

“Surely someone should have planned this out better so it didn't coincide with a major football match with thousands of fans trying to get out of Southampton.

“It must have been even worse for the West Ham fans.”

The Highways Agency confirmed it was doing ongoing survey work to check on road surfaces and barriers between junctions 14 and 11 from 10pm to 6am, in preparation for re-surfacing the motorway.

But a spokesman said he understood this had only involved the closure of one lane.

He said: “We do it overnight because that's when the traffic flow is lowest.

“There's a lot of people coming out of a football match but there's still fewer numbers than during the day time.

“We could halt the works but then people wouldn't get the benefit of the new surfaces. It just means it will not get done as quickly, the work gets extended and there's more disruption.”