Football’s in the gutter when players fear for safety of family in stands
IT WAS supposed to be the moment Wolves celebrated ending a hoodoo that had lasted nearly 10,000 days. Sadly for those in old gold, we will be talking about the appalling scenes that overshadowed this Black Country derby for much longer than that.
‘I’ve seen it bad, but never like this,’ said one lifelong Albion observer as he watched a man led across the pitch, blood pouring from his face. Albion defender Kyle Bartley was seen holding his daughter on the pitch after intervening to ensure she was removed from danger. It was a captivating image: such innocence against a backdrop of such abhorrent behaviour.
The match always had the potential for trouble as it was the first time these rivals had met in front of fans since 2012. But not a 39-minute suspension that placed people, including children, in danger. That is a stain on the game that will take time to be washed away, and few will remember it as the day Wolves won at the Hawthorns for the first time since 1996.
With Wolves leading 1-0 through Pedro Neto’s first-half strike, a spicy atmosphere exploded soon after Matheus Cunha doubled the visitors’ lead in the 78th minute. A heavy punishment for Albion is inevitable, with a partial stadium closure one of the options the FA will be considering.
Moments after Cunha scored, scuffles broke out in the corner of the ground where the Birmingham Road End meets the Halfords Lane Stand, where West Brom fans are housed. There were suggestions that Cunha’s goal was celebrated in that corner, even though it is reserved for home fans, and that seemed to spark the violence. One eyewitness said a fan had climbed on his chair to salute the strike.
Worryingly for the Albion players, that corner of the ground is also where their families watch matches. As dozens of police and stewards charged towards the trouble, so did those players fearing for the safety of their loved ones.
Moments later, Bartley was standing on the pitch again with his daughter. There were unconfirmed suggestions that players’ family members had been spat at.
Both sets of players soon returned to the changing rooms as an announcement over the PA system warned that unless fans went back to their seats, the game could be abandoned. There had already been four such messages urging fans to be calm. About 30 minutes after the original stoppage, the players returned to the pitch to warm up but before that there had been times of huge anxiety, with West Brom players messaging family members to check they were safe.
‘Normally at half-time you come in and get a banana and an energy gel, maybe a bit of treatment,’ said Albion captain Jed Wallace. ‘Nobody would go on their phones. There was a bit of confusion about whether we would come back out or not.’
After the initial incidents, one supporter made it on to the playing surface and walked towards the Wolves supporters holding an Albion scarf above his head. He was quickly escorted from the pitch.
Then another distressing scene: a man led from the East Stand by police and stewards across the pitch to an exit on the opposite side, blood pouring from his head and covering his face. An officer held a cloth over the wound to stem the bleeding and abuse rained down on the fan as he left. That was after more unsavoury events occurred in the East Stand.
Back in the tunnel, Albion head coach Carlos Corberan and Wolves boss Gary O’Neil were deep in conversation with the referee and officials from both clubs.
They agreed that when players returned for the warm-up, they would come back together to try to present a united scene to the supporters and calm the waters. When the match resumed, police and stewards patrolled nearly the entire perimeter of the pitch.
‘It is disappointing that things that happened off the pitch now need to be spoken about and I’m sure looked into,’ said O’Neil. ‘My overriding feeling is that I know there were players’ families and children in that area and I hope everyone is OK.’
O’Neil is a highly promising young manager who has barely put a foot wrong since he took charge less than a week before the start of the season. It is right that he should celebrate victory over Wolves’ greatest rivals but he might reflect that the three Jurgen Klopp-style fist pumps to the travelling fans were perhaps a little over-the-top. Given what had gone before, simple applause would have been enough.
Now the ball is in the court of the FA and the authorities. The FA must decide how hard a punishment to go for, while Albion have already promised a ban for any supporter found to have incited these events.
It will not be enough to erase some grim memories, though. The only consolation is that it could have been very much worse.