Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer rage over ‘horrible’ scenes at The Hawthorns in West Brom v Wolves
Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have been left enraged by the “horrible” scenes during the FA Cup fourth-round clash between West Brom and Wolves.
Gary O’Neil’s side booked their place in the fifth round with a 2-0 win at The Hawthorns on Sunday (28 January) but the game was overshadowed by crowd trouble in the second half which saw the match postponed with the players leaving the pitch for 30 minutes.
The scenes have sparked outrage all over the country from pundits and supporters alike and Lineker was taken aback by the events which reminded him of scenes from the 1970s and 80s where hooliganism was commonplace.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football (29 January, 25:50) he said: “Obviously one or two Wolves fans were somehow in the West Brom end and it kicked off and it felt like a scene from back in my day, the last 70s and 80s when that sort of thing was commonplace and the last thing we want to see is that back in the game. Hopefully, it’s just a one-off.”
Richards agreed saying: “It needs to be, I mean come on. We all have the passion, we all like to win and we know the history it’s a big derby. The scenes were absolutely awful.
“We’re better than that, football’s moved on from that. I know they’ve not played each other for a long time and the emotion got the better of them, but the scenes were ugly. It’s not good enough, it’s really not.”
Shearer followed up with: “Hopefully it’s just a one-off and we don’t see that ever again. It was just nasty, it was horrible and it was really worrying you know. Jesus Christ man it’s 2024, it’s not 40 or 50 years ago when this was quite a common thing.”
Not good enough
What should have been one of the biggest and most memorable clashes of the Baggies’ season will now be remembered for all the wrong reasons following the events of Sunday’s meeting.
While the Wolves fans should never have been sat in the home end among West Brom supporters, the chaos that ensued in the stands was so ridiculous and not what any supporter on either side would have hoped to see.
Hopefully, as both Lineker and Shearer suggested, this will just be a one-off and will serve as a reminder of the sort of scenes we don’t want to see at matches up and down the country in the future.
West Brom now need to move on and return their attention to the playoff place in the Championship and hope that they don’t receive any further punishment for Sunday’s events.
In other West Brom news, Roy Keane was not impressed by John Swift’s display during the defeat to Wolves
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