West Brom vs Wolves: Footage emerges from The Hawthorns as police rush towards crowd trouble
Lewis Cox has shared footage from The Hawthorns showing large numbers of police rushing to control crowd trouble at West Brom vs Wolves.
The Express & Star journalist posted a video clip on Twitter on 28 January after the game was halted late on following a goal from Matheus Cunha to put the visitors 2-0 up.
Clashes between fans at the Birmingham Road end soon after, with both sets of players eventually leaving the pitch amid a long delay.
Footage from Cox in the stands showed around 20 police officers rushing down the touchline towards the source of the trouble.
He wrote: “Police rush to incident. Long way away but can see them dealing with individuals pitchside from here.”
Bad news
Whatever was happening on the pitch this sort of development in the stands is the last thing this derby needed and clearly shouldn’t be happening.
There was concern in some quarters ahead of kick-off, and the game started at 11.45am partly to avoid this kind of issue but it clearly hasn’t worked.
Fans should be able to go to a football match without concerns for their safety, and while a heated atmosphere is obviously what makes derby matches special there is a line which can’t be crossed.
The first time this game has been played in front of fans for over a decade – since February 2012, with the last meeting happening during Covid-19 restrictions – was always going to be a big occasion.
But that doesn’t provide any excuse for violence to erupt in the stands, with people spilling onto the pitch and both police and stewards trying to maintain order.
There will undoubtedly be a lot of fall-out from this which benefits neither West Brom or Wolves or English football in general.
The game was heading to a poor conclusion from a Baggies point of view, but events off the pitch have now made the day even worse.
In other West Brom news, a “major” development at the club has seen an exit-linked player’s future decided.
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