In less than 24 hours, English shows another example of how short tempered their fans can be when it comes to accepting a defeat. Yesterday, Millwall fans displayed their aggression on the ground after being defeated by Wigan at Wembley, today, it was the turn of Newcastle fans to show how desperate they were to win a game that was eventually won by Sunderland with a comprehensive 3-0 margin. The defeat brought Newcastle into the relegation cap at EPL while Sunderland’s first triumph in thirteen years at St James’ Park gave them a chance to survive at the league. The victory is more a result of hard work done by manager Paolo Di Canio who revived the team to show what they can actually achieve. Now, Sunderland has a clear three points lead from relegation cap and they have five more matches to go, so they are likely to end this season with a better position in the leaderboard. After the match, Newcastle shows their disbelief about their fans behavior which resulted in a massive violence at the ground that was almost uncontrollable by the police initially.
Later, security personnel arrested 29 peoples in connection with fueling the violence and further investigations are on to trace every responsible fan. Arrested fans are charged with affray with the crowd, possession of an offensive weapon during the match, drugs, and assault on the police. Actually, the fans were so doomed that one of them did not mind punching a police horse. Newcastle issued a statement to show its grief about their fans’ behavior; it reads as, “We were embarrassed and appalled by the behaviour of a minority of so-called fans who were involved in disturbances. These deplorable individuals have no place at Newcastle United. Newcastle United have been working with Northumbria Police, and will continue to do so, in order to identify all of the individuals concerned.
“The club will take the strongest possible action against those involved in the disturbances and will impose immediate lifetime bans on all those found guilty. They bring shame on the club and the vast majority of its proper, law-abiding, fans.”
Later, England’s sports minister Hugh Robertson also reviewed the situation and said, “I was very shocked and disappointed. This never goes away and we tend to go through phases when we’ve cracked it, but you need to keep on it the whole time. That said, any suggestion that this is a return to the bad old days of the 1970s and 1980s is wide of the mark. The early indications are this was caused by a combination of too much drink, warm weather and an enormous amount of stupidity from the fans involved. It is absolutely inexcusable and I will be looking for the authorities to take tough action.”