Brooking fears for Hammers security

Sir Trevor Brooking has admitted West Ham’s security situation could be “out of control” after the ugly scenes which marred the club’s 3-0 home defeat to Burnley at the London Stadium on Saturday.

The Hammers are facing an investigation by the Football Association after a series of pitch invasions and widespread supporter unrest, with Brooking confirming the club’s co-owner David Sullivan was struck by a coin towards the end of the game.

And the former Hammers player and manager believes the club’s stewarding – which is provided externally via the stadium operators E20 – needs a radical overhaul in order to avoid more unrest in the future.

Brooking told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme: “There weren’t sufficient stewards and they couldn’t really cope with what was sometimes going back to the bad old days of 25 years ago.

“The club are obviously going to have to look at things with the local police and make sure that trained stewards and police are in place – you’re almost looking at it and saying, ‘this is out of control’.

“A lot of the stewards who are on duty on matchdays are not West Ham people – they’re actually stadium people and sometimes until they get a job there haven’t had any experience dealing with football crowds.

“They were quite young and couldn’t deal with the aggression they were faced with.”