One wonders if those individuals who invaded the pitch at Villa Park on Saturday evening have spent the last few days basking in the glory of their success, selfies at the ready to impress their mates, perhaps even Fabian Delph’s armband for good measure.
The scenes were embarrassing, supporters evading the stewards to interrupt the final minutes of Aston Villa’s 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup, before hundreds more poured onto the pitch at full-time. The Football Association is investigating the incident and, given the 17 arrests made by West Midlands police, it is fair to say the governing body’s crowd control adviser at the game will have endured a busy 24 hours.
Embarrassing, yes. A throwback to the 1980s, probably not. It was an unsavoury end to a compelling quarter-final, one that provided Tim Sherwood’s side with successive victories over West Brom and a semi-final at Wembley to look forward to following a miserable season that had seen attendances and hope diminish until the club’s recent managerial change.
It is in such context that the chaotic denouement should be viewed. It did not seem like an invasion borne out of mindless anger, a return to the “dark ages” that some have depicted. Instead, it was an overbearing release of elation, supporters so bereft of optimism that they had perhaps forgotten how to deal with the joy of a significant victory.
Pitch invasions are normally saved for heroic acts on the last day of a season, especially prevalent in the lower leagues. Be it a dramatic promotion or relegation survival in May, or perhaps a third-round cup giant killing, the remarkable thing about Saturday was that it was happening at Villa Park, in the last eight of the FA Cup.
It is a reflection of just how much Villa have struggled in recent times. This term the football has often been atrocious and Villa Park a vacuum of optimism. That has changed somewhat since Sherwood’s appointment, but perhaps this incident was the result of monumental, pent-up frustration.
That said, while no players were hurt, there was an understandable sense of trepidation from those on the pitch when referee Anthony Taylor – who sent off two players during the tie – blew his whistle to end the game. “My armband got nicked, someone got my left boot, but I could appreciate the relief the fans are feeling after a result like that,” said Delph, the Villa captain. “It was dangerous. Someone tried to take my boot off. People tried to kiss me and were biting me. It was scary.”
Tony Pulis, the West Brom manager, added: “It’s disgraceful. We don’t want to see those scenes. They’ve beaten us and for that to happen, that’s just mindless idiots. If you’re Villa, you need to look at the stewards as they came over to our fans and there was nobody there. It’s a quarter-final of an FA Cup, it’s a full house and you know that it’s going to be tasty, let’s put it that way.”
Jeremy Peace, the Albion chairman, was said to be enraged following the incident. West Brom have threatened to ban any of their fans found guilty of ripping up and throwing seats from the North Stand, while Villa apologised for those supporters “who could not control themselves”.
The FA is likely to hit Villa with a significant fine, and rightly so. This was a local derby match that kicked off at 5.30pm on a Saturday because of TV scheduling, yet the pitchside security at Villa Park was woefully inadequate. Quite simply, they should have been better prepared.
Pulis added: “The hierarchy at Villa should recognise that you need stewards at both ends of the pitch. To see the supporters coming on with three or four minutes to go – but they were congregating before that time. It puts players at danger. We were seeing that in the 70s and 80s, we don’t want to go back to that.”
There have been other concerning and disturbing stories of football-related violence in recent weeks. Riot police were deployed at Rotherham last month after a number of Millwall supporters attempted to reach home fans during their side’s 2-1 defeat, while on Saturday a 44-year-old Watford fan was attacked by a group of people after the game against Wolves and is currently in hospital with, according to police, life-threatening injuries. One hopes these are all isolated incidents that have occurred in a short space of time, rather than a behavioural trend.
In the case of Villa, the FA must act accordingly and punish the club for allowing the pitch invasion to occur. Some have argued that it was refreshing to watch a partisan crowd revel in a vibrant, cup atmosphere. However, there can be little doubt that those pitch invaders crossed the line, even if comparisons to the 1980s are exaggerated.
