Football fan Jonny Heywood's 56 tickets to travel from Newcastle to Oxford

The 19-year-old Geordie was planning on taking his sweetheart to watch his team Newcastle take on Oxford in the FA Cup – her first away game.

Closely looking at the route and examining the railway system, he was able to buy a whopping 56 train tickets – saving himself £30 – while being able to stay on the same service.

However, the wait to see her first game goes on as Ms Cassidy tripped on the concourse at Oxford station, and spent three hours at the John Radcliffe Hospital being treated.

Mr Heywood said: “We ended up paying £200 to sit in a hospital.”

To make matters worse, his beloved Magpies were beaten 3-0 and knocked out of the FA Cup.

Ms Cassidy has now recovered and the couple used their many tickets to trudge back home on the last train leaving for Newcastle.

Although the day could have ended up being more expensive had he just bought one return trip, Mr Heywood said the tip from a friend to use split-ticketing was the ‘worst advice ever’ but with a bit of organisation they made it worth the effort.

Luckily, they were also able to avoid changing seats at every single station. He said: “I couldn’t believe it when they showed up.

“But with a little bit of organisation – we split them into four envelopes, one for each of us for each leg of the journey – it was actually fine.

“The only hassle would have been changing seats every stop, but we just sat in two unreserved seats for the full journey. So I think I’d do it again.”

Split-ticketing has become a popular method used by passengers to keep costs down.

Tickets from Newcastle to Oxford were priced on mainstream websites at about £88 per person. Using online booking services RailEasy and TicketSplit the pair were able to get the cost down to £59 each.

Mr Heywood won support from other football fans when he tweeted a picture of all 56 tickets laid out. Another fan said the method also saved him £30 when he went to see Southampton.