Newcastle United fans smash up Wigan Cosmos FC goals and nick match ball (photos)
BAD news from the Wigan Cosmos Football Club. Claims are that “so-called” Newcastle United fans have been behaving badly. The club have issued a statement:
It is with regret that the club has to report on the following disturbances by a section of around 250 – 300 so-called Newcastle United fans during The Cosmos South Lancashire Counties Premier Division Fixture Vs AFC Leigh Centurions on Sunday 17th March at the Scott Lane pitches adjacent to the Wigan Soccerdome which is situated next to the away supporters’ car and coach park in Wigan.
Wigan whatadome?
After about 15 minutes of the game, at approximately 2.15 pm, several coaches arrived at the car park. As the supporters spilled out of the coaches, which were not managed by the club or police officials, they proceeded to watch the game from the touchline. Some fans then chose to run onto the field of play, dropping their pants, causing the game to be stopped. The situation then magnified as a crowd around 250 – 300 Newcastle United fans followed suit.
What is it with Geordies and dropping their knickers?
Although good natured at first, the fans then started to rip out corner flags as they ran over the pitches and also took the match ball. We never recovered the ball, though we did manage to recover the corner flags.
Were you there?
The so-called fans then decided to charge over to the adjacent pitch where Goose Green Reserves were entertaining Olympic AFC in another South Lancashire Counties Fixture. They again began by ripping out their corner flags. The fans then charged into the goalmouth, jumping onto the goalposts in an attempt to snap the crossbar with the sheer numbers clambering on them. They then started to rip the nets from the posts, tearing them and trying to take them. Our players helped to retrieve the nets. After spending quite some time singing and hanging on the goalposts the fans then ran back over to our pitch whilst singing “we’re Newcastle United, we’ll do what we want.”
Referee! Should Newcastle United pay up?
A match ball that cost us £65 only two weeks prior to the incident, along with corner flags, nets, pegs and clips that did not require replacing but now need replacing due to the mindless vandalism from these so called football fans and more than likely lads who themselves play for amateur sides in the North East.
That’s being gracious. No need. We’d wager the alleged hooligans are not amateur footballers who know how hard it is to keep a club running.
There will be a cost to our club of somewhere in the region of £200 to buy new equipment that would not normally need replacing. This may sound miniscule to a Premier League Club that receives mass income from a variety of sources but it is a significant debt to an amateur non-profit football club that raises its funds from charity events and the weekly charge put on its players to allow them to enjoy a game of sport.
Dig deep, Newcastle.
The disrespect and hooliganism, dragging the good name of Newcastle United through the mud in such a disturbing manner is quite hard to accept to me personally as before Wigan Athletic reached the Premier League
Update:
The club has received a courtesy reply to our email from Wigan Athletic with a promise of a formal reply.
We also spoke to an employee from Newcastle United whilst trying to obtain an email address from the club (we have now also sent a letter). He stated “that Newcastle United are aware of the incident following a number of complaints that they had received and that the matter was now being dealt with by the Wigan Police”, he added “that Newcastle United accept and are aware that they have a minority of fans intent on causing trouble and are working with the Police to identify these fans and were passing on any information and complaints to the Police.” He went on to say that “because of the Wigan away allocation there was a larger number of travelling away supporters”. He also went on to say that “your club (Wigan Cosmos) would not be reimbursed for the damage (by the Newcastle fans) to the nets, corner flags or for a replacement ball.”
We will therefore await an official response from all parties concerned before commenting any further.
Come on Newcastle United – pay up.
Note: these photos seem to show young men away from home on a day out. A few of them appear to have gotten a carried away and behaved like utter dickheads. There was no fighting. No-one got hurt. Apologies should be swiftly made and the Wigan Cosmos pitches and kit made good.
Posted: 22nd, March 2013 | In: Sports Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
