Tony Brown shares why Kyle Bartley didn’t continue after West Brom crowd trouble v Wolves at The Hawthorns
Tony Brown admits there was no way Kyle Bartley could have continued to feature for West Brom in their 2-0 FA Cup fourth-round defeat to Wolves after seeing his children in trouble during the commotion late on in the game.
The senior West Brom defender rushed to the stands to rescue his two children as violent fan clashes at the Hawthorns saw the Black Country Derby on Sunday (28 January) at The Hawthorns suspended on safety fears.
The match against fierce rivals Wolves descended into chaos in the 82nd minute when an altercation broke out in the home end, with reports a Wolves fan had gained entry.
And Baggies legend Brown, speaking live on BBC Radio WM (28 January, 1m:20sec) shares that the West Brom man wasn’t in the right frame of mind to continue after having to rescue his children from the crowd.
He said: “The scenes that we saw, and what happened, his children are there and they must have been frightened to death, absolutely frightened, even any child that was there, not just his.
“He’s gone and got his children out of the way and obviously he wasn’t in a fit state to come out and continue and play the remainder of the game.”
Awful scenes
What we experienced on Sunday was absolutely awful and no player should have had to go through what Bartley did at all.
The senior West Brom man only brought his family to the game so that they could enjoy a nice day out in what was an important game for him and his team and would not have anticipated the game descending into chaos like it did.
Brown is absolutely right, no child should have to experience what happened and all the shame and blame will have to be brought upon those number of Wolves fans that started all the commotion.
It was absolutely terrible scenes to watch and Bartley cannot be blamed for his actions after he managed to bring his children clear of all the trouble.
No player should have to go through that and massive applause for the Baggies defender for intervening the way he did because it could have been much worse.
Truly awful what happened on Sunday. and the individuals who instigated those scenes must be brought to justice firmly and quickly.
In other West Brom news, a Baggies star has seemingly mocked a former teammate as West Ham complete a new signing.
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