HARRY: PALACE ‘BLEW MY ID’
Hornet mascot fury
WATFORD mascot Harry the Hornet has accused Crystal Palace of “compromising” his safety by revealing his identity. Gareth Evans blasted the club after they played a video of him without his mask on the big screen at Selhurst Park. The Eagles aired the clip before their 1-0 win on Saturday. But Gareth, who has played the role since 2008, claimed it has put him at risk.
The mascot, son of a Watford director, tweeted: “Back home, no thanks to the best efforts of a professional football club compromising my safety, even mates who are supporters of that club said this and are embarrassed. Onto game, You Horns.”
On his Twitter bio he says that he is known as Harry the Hornet, adding: “I dance, I’ve dived, I’ve even stung the opposition and I loved every 90!”
The Watford supporter, who has spoken of his “love for the character”, has had a longrunning feud with the south London team.
In 2016 he dived in front of Palace winger Wilfried Zaha to mock the star’s reputation for going down too easily.
Roy Hodgson, who took charge at Palace a few months afterwards, later labelled the stunt as “disgraceful”. the next