England fans gathered at Heathrow to welcome the Lionesses home on Tuesday morning, but were left disappointed after security concerns meant the players never came through the arrivals hall. Dozens of supporters had lined the route through the terminal to cheer on England’s women after their World Cup near-miss, the players returning from Australia after losing 1-0 to Spain in the World Cup final on Sunday. But fans were not aware of a longstanding protocol that means England teams exit the airport via a private route and some waited hours only to miss out on seeing their heroes. Lionesses fan Joanne Bruce, 51, travelled from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire to the airport at 10.30pm on Monday night with her niece and sister in the hope of thanking the team for their tournament performance, only to be informed at 7am that the players would not be coming through. “We haven’t slept, we have just laughed and joked,” she said. “It was just the three of us to start with. My sister was like ‘I really want to go early’.” While there are rose-tinted memories of ecstatic England homecomings, concerns over security mean all England teams now return to the country away from the public eye. The protocol is a result of decisions taken by the FA and Heathrow staff are believed to have been informed in advance that the players would be following a private route. When the men’s side returned from Italy after the 1990 World Cup, tens of thousands of people met Gazza et al at Luton Airport, but the men’s team arrived quietly on their return from the World Cup in Qatar last year too. An official celebration of the Lionesses’ achievements is planned for the team’s first home match back in England, a fixture against Scotland at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on 22 September.