FOOTIE THUGS HUNTED DOWN
Clubs launch crackdown on supporters who shame the Scottish game
ALEX RAE fears the hooligan element are dragging Scottish football back to the dark days and claims even the pundits are not safe from the tossers.
He has been dismayed to see yobs causing carnage this season with bottles, coins and flares thrown from the stands and seats wrecked.
Rae revealed he was targeted by the thugs in his playing days and was almost on the end of a pie in the puss at Paisley in recent times.
He said: “There have been lots of things thrown over the years. Thankfully nothing ever hit us. I know this is not the outlook that people take but I just used to laugh it off.
“You see players lifting plastic bottles and things and kidding on they’re drinking out of it or eating a pie or something.
“I was doing a bit for BT last year and I was getting pelted by pies and snowballs in Paisley. You are thinking to yourself, ‘Come on, is this acceptable?’
“It is starting to grow and we need to nip it in the bud because we have a good product at the minute.
“This recent spate is as bad as it has been since the mid-1980s when there was football violence involved. I can’t believe some of the stuff that’s going on now.
“It’s a minority but how do we get to the place where someone goes to a game of football thinking he’s going to throw a bottle at a player’s head?”