MOST BAFFLING SHOW OF FAN DISPLEASURE

It’s been a season of discontent in the Football League – and rightly so. Supporters of Charlton, Leyton Orient, Coventry and Blackpool – among others – have protested using an assortment of attention-grabbing methods, but they haven’t had to resort to propelling small explosives or dead rodents. Well, not yet.

Fans of Serie A strugglers Pescara became so irked by the club’s early-season displays – they had failed to win any of their first 16 matches after gaining promotion in 2015-16 – that they decided to gatecrash the Dolphins’ Christmas party and protest against it.

They hurled fireworks at the restaurant in which their underperforming former heroes were trying to dine, forcing the club president Deniele Sebastiani to step in and boom back: “Football is a sport, not a war.”

The fans didn’t listen, and when the poor form continued, they set alight two cars on Sebastiani’s driveway – he announced he would leave the club by the end of the year.

The local authorities, as well as the players, rallied round the infuriated owner, but that did not lead to an upturn in form. Pescara’s relegation back to Serie B was confirmed before the end of April with just 14 points from 33 matches, three of those coming thanks to Sassuolo fielding an ineligible player in August.

But Pescara’s fans look unimaginative when compared to those of Danish giants Brondby.

With fierce rivals FC Copenhagen visiting for a crucial clash, a small number of Brondbistas lobbed dead rats at any opposing player who dared approach their nearest corner flag. How they got them past security is anyone’s guess.

“Players are used to having beers and more thrown at them,” Copenhagen wrote in their official match report. “But dead rats...” Quite.