Last night saw West Ham and Millwall playing a pretty tough game of football. And their supporters having even tougher fights. Now given a rather consistent history here involving both clubs, and especially between both clubs, I can't exactly feign surprise at last nights events. The fact that someone was stabbed is rather shocking since such events have been thankfully uncommon for a few years now, but after the events in Amsterdam recently there must be some intelligence to suggest that football does indeed have issues these days, and if they were going to ignite then West Ham vs Millwall must have been a fairly likely trouble spot.
However, this isn't actually about those events. Nor indeed about most of the trouble inside the stadium. Instead this is simply about the pitch invasions. Fairly harmless compared to the rest of the evening yet ironically likely to become a focus of the charges that will inevitably be made against West Ham. Despite the fact that the police and stewards did an apparently sterling job at keeping the fans apart (more so inside it's true, but let's not pretend they didn't make a difference outside too) the club will most likely be charged with failing to control it's fans because some ran onto the pitch to celebrate a goal, and later victory.
The footage actually shows West Ham players trying to usher fans off the pitch. Realistically the club could have done very little more without immense changes in their security (as in, hiring a few thousand extra stewards). Yet, here we have fans who didn't check their celebrations who will likely costs the club, and with all it's worrisome financial situation, a few thousand pounds at minimum. Would the punishment be the same without the trouble? We'll have to see what gets dished out before we can decide if it's harsh, but the saddening thing is more that the very people who claim devotion to the club will cost it so much in there celebrations.
Edit - some linkage follows.