Tavernier’s family will feel shaken, says Halliday
ANDY HALLIDAY admits his thoughts were with James Tavernier’s family after the Rangers captain was confronted by a fan on the touchline at Easter Road.
Tavernier clashed with the pitch invader towards the end of the first half of the Ibrox side’s 1-1 draw with Hibs on Friday night in the latest sickening event to blight the Scottish game.
The fan was able to leap out of the same home supporters’ section from which a bottle was thrown at Celtic’s Scott Sinclair last Saturday evening.
An exasperated and embarrassed Hibs chief executive Leeann Dempster immediately offered a personal apology to Tavernier and vowed to ban the moron from Easter Road for life.
Halliday missed his team-mate being confronted and shoved because he had begun to walk to the tunnel for the break.
However, he swiftly turned back to help usher his skipper off and was ultimately grateful that no serious harm was done to Tavernier.
And he couldn’t help but wonder how the defender’s family — wife Melissa and two young children — felt watching the terrifying scene unfold during the live televised match.
‘People can forget in this
that Tav’s got kids,’ said Halliday. ‘And those kids are watching the game sitting at home.
‘They are only young — and they are probably fearing about what has happened to their dad when watching what happened on TV.
‘I was going off the park, heard the crowd get up on their feet. I heard a ruckus, turned around. I actually thought something had happened between Tav and a ball boy, some kind of altercation.
‘I didn’t know what to make of it. At that point, I just wanted to make sure I got my captain off the field, which is why I went over.’
The escalating anti-social crisis, which has Scottish football in its grasp, led to PFA Scotland demanding urgent action to curb the rush of incidents this season and protect the game’s performers.
Players, managers and referees have all been targeted by acts of violence and missile throwing at stadiums this season.
‘There is no place for that in football,’ declared Halliday. ‘On the night, it is one idiot out of 20,000 and I don’t know what was going through that idiot’s mind. Someone would have to ask him.
‘Maybe he’s had a couple of drinks and made his way out on to the pitch. It’s very disappointing and put a poor gloss on a good game.
‘I don’t know why this has been happening so often but I’m sure action will be taken.’
Dempster’s apology and brisk action to front up and discuss the issue was accepted in full by Tavernier and Rangers.
Her club was moved to write to Sinclair and Celtic only last week to say sorry after a glass Buckfast bottle had been hurled midway through the second half of Hibs’ 2-0 Scottish Cup defeat.
Fraser Wishart, chief executive of PFA Scotland, said yesterday: ‘We are at a loss for words after yet another incident at a football ground which has endangered the safety of one of our members.
‘We previously used the term “groundhog day” and we can’t believe we are back here discussing this topic again, just days after a bottle was thrown at a player during a match at Easter Road.
‘We commend James Tavernier for his calm handling of the situation. We also welcome Leeann Dempster’s swift condemnation of the incident and her comments that nothing is off the table with regards to sanctions and action.
‘It is clear the current processes in place are not working and we call for candid discussions between the relevant authorities to ensure these dangerous practices are stopped.’
The back-to-back Easter Road incidents rekindled memories for Hibs’ on-loan striker Marc McNulty of the day he was confronted by one of his own club’s fans storming onto the pitch.
McNulty was with Coventry last season when an angry supporter came onto the field to protest as his team were losing 1-0 to struggling Forest Green Rovers in League Two.
He moved towards Rovers forward Christian Doidge before advancing in McNulty’s direction. He tried to calm down the fan before captain Michael Doyle intervened.
‘We were losing to the bottom team in the league and a guy jumped on the pitch — he was raging,’ recalled McNulty. ‘I just walked away. There are police and stewards to handle these things. Plus, our captain ushered him away.
‘I’m lucky that he never laid hands on me but it’s definitely something that could happen unless this kind of things stops.
‘You can’t think about these things when you go out to play football. But if someone does come on, you don’t know what they might be carrying — or what their intentions are. So you need your wits about you.’ Tavernier has required those
wits on more than one occasion during his four years at Rangers. He was on the Hampden pitch swamped by Hibs fans in troubling scenes for Rangers players after the dramatic 2016 Scottish Cup final.
Then at Ibrox a year later, he was on hand to help push away a Rangers supporter who squared up to Celtic captain Scott Brown.
McNulty, who moved from Coventry to Reading last summer, was astonished that Hibs were forced to deal with another disgraceful scene at Easter Road so soon after the Celtic game.
‘After all that has been highlighted through the week and what happened in the cup tie, it is hard to understand why someone does this at the next home game,’ he said.
‘We are talking about 99 per cent of so many thousands of supporters behaving themselves — but one guy has spoiled it for all of them.
‘It’s unacceptable. You can shout from the stand all you like. But stay there. Don’t cross the line.
‘We know it’s the passion that makes these games. There’s a fine line between giving out stick — which everyone takes as part and parcel of the game — and jumping a barrier to get in a player’s face.
‘When people do stuff like that, it makes things really hard. When police get involved like this, it’s a bit of a nightmare.’
Tempers frayed among players late in a game which saw seven bookings and Hibs defender Darren McGregor sent off in injury time.
That red card sparked a melee in which McNulty clashed with, among other Rangers players, Alfredo Morelos.
‘The game was heated enough,’ said the Hibs striker. ‘There was tension. You get a situation like Darren getting sent off and everybody gets a bit too involved.
‘But that’s what you expect from big matches. With me and Morelos, it was just handbags. I don’t know why I got booked — the linesman seems to have come on and said he saw me do something. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.’
McGregor was dismissed for two yellow-card incidents — an elbow on Morelos then for hauling down Jermain Defoe as Rangers chased a winner.
The visitors should have been out of sight by the hour mark but couldn’t finish off Hibs and the new double act of McNulty and Flo Kamberi made them pay.
McNulty teed up the Swiss striker to slide in a 76th-minute equaliser — the ninth goal between the pair since McNulty made his first start on loan against Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup.
Kamberi was at the centre of a row triggering Neil Lennon’s acrimonious departure but has rediscovered confidence and form, netting in three of his last four league games.
‘Flo is a great lad,’ said McNulty. ‘All the boys in the changing room love him. All I’d say to the punters is, maybe don’t believe everything you hear about him falling out with “him” or not liking “him”.
‘He went through a rough patch when he wasn’t scoring but every striker goes through them.
‘A goal as big as this one will do his confidence the world of good. We’re bringing out the best in each other.’
If someone does come on to the park, you don’t know what they might be carrying — or what their intentions are. You need to have your wits about you