Quote Staffs FC="Staffs FC"The A1 can be just as bad. Trust me I use both regularly for home games.
I expect the team are happily installed in their hotel right now despite any worries fans may have erroneously had.'"
I've been plowing up and down the A1 from Hull to the South for over 20 years, on the balance of probability and personal expereince the A1 is by far the easier route to use for getting into the capital at pretty much any time of the day or night.
though the M1 can oft be a totally free and easy journey at 12am- 5am if you're tired then the monotonous endless road without having to change gear is an easy situation to switch off. With the amount of on/off roads plus roundabouts on the A1 this reduces this by quite a bit, also you have the off roads which make accident situations easier to deal with as traffic can be re-routed far easier.
I'm sure leaving at the time they did will be fine as I'd be certain they'd be on the Northern outskirts of London anyway, given cost and possibly even somewhere to have a run out in the morning.