Paterson reveals abuse after netting derby goal
JAMIE Paterson has shared the sickening abuse he received online following Swansea City’s 3-0 win over Cardiff City.
The 29-year-old played a key role in his side’s emphatic derby triumph, scoring the opener at Swansea.com Stadium before registering assists for Joel Piroe and Jake Bidwell.
He celebrated his own strike - his fourth of the campaign - by performing the ‘swim away’ gesture in front of the away supporters.
But little more than 24 hours after the contest in south Wales, Paterson shared a screen grab of a vile message he was sent on Instagram.
Paterson captioned the shot with the message “Wow!” along with the words “Lol pray for this guy.”
It comes after Cardiff defender Sean Morrison’s wife Stacey pleaded with supporters to stop sending her abusive messages online.
“I’ve had to turn my messages off for a bit for anyone that I do not follow as I’m having an influx of messages from some wonderfully kind football fans (heavy on the sarcasm),” she wrote on her Instagram story.
Paterson’s close friend Korey Smith was with his Swansea teammate when he received the now public abuse.
And the midfielder says social media sites must do more to hold online trolls to account.
“We’ve had so much of it at this club, we’ve had so much online abuse and at the end of the day it’s not on,” he said.
“I saw the message, I was with him when he received it. He received a lot of not nice messages, but that one stood out. It’s not right.
“The world is bigger than football and we need to crack down on it. Something needs to be done. It can’t
just keep happening and people getting away with it.
“The things that are going on, there are young players who are going through struggles. The whole football world and the country wants to be behind them.
“All we can do is use our platform to speak up on it and try and say how we feel.
“I do think on social media you should have to have some form of identification to have an account, so if anything is posted you are held accountable and the punishment should be a lot stronger. That’s what I think.
“I’ve had racial messages, my wife even had messages about me, it’s just horrible. People need to be held accountable.”
And on the abuse received by Morrison’s partner, Smith commented: “I know he plays for Cardiff, but it’s bigger than football. It shouldn’t happen.
“No-one would just come up to people in the street and say these things, or in any other work place, it wouldn’t happen
“So I don’t see why it’s acceptable to send anyone else online these kinds of messages.”
Meanwhile, Swansea return to action against West Brom tonight, and Smith is hopeful that his side’s triumph over the Bluebirds can act as a springboard for a run of impressive results.
“I feel like we’re building and we’re only going to get better,” added Smith.
“We’re trying to look up the table, and the league is relentless.
“They’ve had an extra two days to prepare, but that’s not for me to talk about or complain about. We’ve got a job to do.
“It’s a game we’re going into with a lot of confidence after getting the win and the goals [against Cardiff ].”