Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist shocked by ‘horrendous’ scenes at The Hawthorns in West Brom v Wolves
Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist were shocked by the “horrendous” scenes as crowd trouble overshadowed the FA Cup clash between West Brom and Wolves at The Hawthorns.
Stelling referred to the images of players taking their children from the crowd to bring them to safety, with one image of Kyle Bartley sticking in mind, saying we never thought we would see that sort of thing again at the football.
The former Rangers man, meanwhile, compared it to what he described as the worst incident in the last 50 years during a game he played where Rangers and Celtic fans stormed the pitch at Hampden Park.
Speaking live on talkSPORT [06:14], Stelling ranted: “The game was overshadowed by the crowd trouble with the match suspended for 38 minutes.
“Those scenes of players pulling their kids from the crowd to make them safe were the sort of scenes you thought we were never going to see in English football again.”
McCoist then continued: “It was horrendous, wasn’t it? Absolutely horrendous. It took me back a bit, I was at probably the worst in the last 50 years in a Scottish Cup final at Hampden when Rangers and Celtic fans were on the pitch after the game.
“That was probably the worst I’ve ever seen. This wasn’t as bad as that, but it did take my mind back to that. The thing that really affects people watching that is seeing young kids crying and having to be moved, not good at all.”
This cannot be allowed to happen
Stelling is right, everybody thought we were long beyond these sorts of issues. The long wait between meetings between these sides meant the game was more ferocious than ever, but that can be no excuse for the scenes.
It seems the problems stemmed from Wolves fans with tickets in the home section of The Hawthorns, and as their second goal went in, trouble boiled over onto the pitch in the corner between the home and away sections.
How Wolves fans were able to get tickets in the home end makes absolutely no sense. Perhaps they bought them from Albion fans, but which fans would give their ticket in the home end to a rival supporter is baffling. More has to be done to prevent that.
Heavy police presence was not enough to deter the issues, and wading in with batons never helped matters, but fortunately, the fans were eventually calmed and the game was allowed to continue after some disturbing scenes.
In other West Brom news, Sam Matterface reacted live to the crowd trouble.
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