Harriers fans angered at Stockport hooligans rampage!
A group of travelling Stockport fans invaded the pitch early in the second half before confronting Kidderminster players. One of them then punched Kidderminster’s Lee Vaughan, prompting referee Michael Bull to take the players off the field.
The Conference match was held up for nearly half an hour as stewards and police sought to contain the disorder.
Stockport fan Charlotte Perry, one of around 1,500 away supporters at the match, said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful and an embarrassment for the majority of County fans.
A minority of about 50 fans leapt over the barriers. They had been stood at the bottom of the stand for the whole game. They should ban the lot of them. The Kidderminster fans were clapping the rest of the County fans, who were urging them to clear the pitch.”
The Football Association said last night they will await reports from their crowd advisor at the game and also the match officials before deciding what action to take over the third major outbreak of football violence in the last eight days.
The FA and the police are certain to come under pressure to justify why there were no police at the match until the trouble flared. Crowd safety was instead left solely in the hands of stewards, despite fears being raised in advance about the potential for trouble.
With so much at stake for both sides – Kiddermisnter could have been promoted to the Football League while Stockport were relegated following their defeat – there was a capacity crowd of 6,453 at the game.
Even before the pitch invasion, journalist Oliver Holt, who was in the Stockport section of the ground, used his Twitter account to raise concerns over the inadequacy of the stewarding.
And Kidderminster revealed before the match that, on safety grounds, Stockport’s board would not be at the game.
Kidderminster chairman Mark Serrell said: “With the high-profile nature of Saturday’s game in mind we have been asked to confirm that the directors of Stockport County, upon police advice, will extremely reluctantly not be travelling to the fixture. We feel it will help maintain the family-friendly and positive atmosphere.
A view from the Kidderminster end.