It was billed as a home game, but it was the loosest definition of the term. Even Patrick Vieira admitted as much. “We treated it like an away game,” the New York City FC head coach said.

On Saturday, New York City fans endured up to seven-hour round trips to East Hartford, Connecticut, for their ‘home’ game against the Houston Dynamo, a match they drew 1-1.

Such was the 110-mile distance from Yankee Stadium, where the Major League Soccer franchise are mere tenants, to the Pratt & Whitney Stadium that it was actually closer for NYCFC fans based in Boston to get to the game than it was for supporters in Manhattan. Or, to put it another way, it was the equivalent of Leicester City having a home game at White Hart Lane in north London.

Even star player David Villa put out a plea, in suspiciously fluent English, for fans to come to the game. “As you know our next MLS fixture... is kind of far away from Yankee Stadium. I know it is hard for everyone to travel over there,” Villa wrote on Twitter last Thursday.

“It is hard for us as well, believe me.”

The reason for the switch was because the New York Yankees, co-owners of New York City along with City Football Group, had a scheduling conflict after a rain-delayed game back in May. As it takes ground staff 72 hours to turn Yankee Stadium from a soccer field into a baseball field, Vieira’s men were forced to find a new venue for their game against the Dynamo.

East Hartford! The New York City of Connecticut! #NYCvHOU pic.twitter.com/2YEpPWXT5l — Houston Dynamo (@HoustonDynamo) September 23, 2017

So unfamiliar was the Pratt & Whitney Stadium, the home field of the University of Connecticut Huskies football team, to New York City that Vieira took the team to the ground on Friday to get used to the environment and stayed in a hotel the night before the game.

The announced attendance of 10,165 appeared generous to the actual number in the stands but, to their credit, the club did their best to boost crowd figures by making game tickets around the $20 mark and providing buses from various locations around the five boroughs for fans to get the venue and home again. With public transport options limited, many also drove to the ground.

This is the crowd from a press box view at Pratt & Whitney Stadium six minutes into the match #nycfc #NYCvHOU pic.twitter.com/8VFvDat7dw — Michael Lewis (@Soccerwriter) September 23, 2017

The fans, for their part, seemed to enjoy the experience. Kate Reilly, a NYCFC supporter, told the Guardian: “I would describe the fans as sort of ironically upbeat, like cheering for the team but mixing in some ‘Come on, Hartford!’ type stuff into chants. The crowd was thin, maybe half of the announced 10,000, but the fans who showed up tried to be loud, which helped. It felt a bit like a cross between an away match and an Open Cup match.”

Of the team’s need to relocate due to the Yankees’ demands, she added: “I think it refocused the fans on the need for our own stadium. People are reticent that this will happen again, perhaps in the play-offs, which would be worse. Generally the fans have been happy at Yankee Stadium, which made us complacent I think, but this shows how vulnerable the team’s position is.”

Another fan, Juan Carlos Rubiano, told the Guardian: “We showed up to support our club when they asked us to make lemonade out of lemons. Those of us there can hold our heads up proud and will be able to say, ‘we were there!’” He added, though: “Not sure you could convince all of us to do it again.”

When it was announced that New York City FC would be playing a match in deepest Connecticut, it caused much amusement in MLS circles: particularly from the rival New York Red Bulls. But it also reaffirmed the uncomfortable fact that one of the league’s star franchises are no closer to securing their own venue than when the club were announced back in May 2013.

The club remain in active search for their own soccer-specific stadium but have not yet chosen a site, let alone paid for the land. As many as 35 sites have been under potential consideration at one point.

David Beckham has suffered similar problems in Miami but whereas the former England captain was put under strict instruction to find a venue – something still not finalized – before his team were admitted to MLS, New York City FC were given a pass by commissioner Don Garber just to get the club up and running.

Of Saturday’s switch, NYCFC president Jon Patricof said recently: “I wouldn’t say it [the rescheduling] changes anything we’ve been doing [in the search for a stadium site], because the level of dedication and seriousness has been exactly the same and it’s remaining exactly the same. Does it change the dialogue and my need to talk a little bit more actively about it? Yeah, I think that’s the case.”

With both New York City and the Yankees reaching their respective play-offs over the weekend, this unwanted situation could repeat itself in the next few months. But at least there would be some benefit to the NYCFC fans, should they have to make the journey back to deepest Connecticut. “The [Pratt & Whitney] stadium had much better sight lines for soccer,” Reilly noted.