United boss Paul Simpson revealed at his last press conference that travel to away games, with another batch of mammoth distances and camel rides to overcome this term, was something the club was looking into with a view to making the whole first-team away day experience as smooth as it possibly can be.
And he confirmed this week that there will be a number of the longer destinations which will include the use of the west coast trainline, with the finer details of those journeys still to be finalised.
“The thinking behind this is to be able to get quicker travel and avoid the chaos of the M6 or the M1 on a Friday afternoon, which we had many times last season,” he said.
“It still doesn’t make it a quick journey but when we’ve looked at the fixtures I think there’s nine or ten where we’re going to go down on the train.
“There are a couple where we’ll go into London and others where we’ll go down to Milton Keynes and the coach will pick us up there.
“We’re just looking to see if we can get a little edge, and if that edge is going down on the train to help with our preparations then we’ll do that.
“The dilemma will be about training at our normal time then getting the train later, or train later and reduce the recovery time.
“This is where I’m asking the players their opinion on it and what they think is the right thing to do, but whatever happens it’s about however they play on a Saturday and whether we get a result or not.
“If we can get a little five or 10% advantage by going on the train then we’ll do that. Like I say, I’ve spoken to the players to see what they feel will be right for them.
“I think it’s important to do that. It’s alright me having an idea of what I want to do, but if it’s not right for the players then I’m not doing my job properly.”