Chris Kirkland is sickened at the state of football after being brutally attacked by a crazed fan in Friday’s TV derby between Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds. And it has been revealed that Owls keeper Kirkland stormed into the Leeds dressing room to confront Neil Warnock after the Leeds boss accused him of “going down like a ton of bricks”. Kirkland last night relived the moment the fan came barrelling towards him on the pitch after Leeds had made it 1-1 in the match, which was shown live on Sky. He said: “I am OK now, but I was really shocked at the time. “I was gutted at losing the goal – I had kicked the ball away and was deflated. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this Leeds fan coming towards me. Click here to read more stories from The People “I thought he was going to give me some abuse. Then he laid right into me. It felt like I had been hit by a baseball bat. He caught me a cracker. “Then I am on the floor and thinking, ‘Has that really just happened?’ “The game went on and at the final whistle the adrenaline drained away and the emotions came out. “I had my wife at the game, my daughter has seen it too. But this is not about me. I hope coming out and speaking means that something will be done by the authorities before something really serious happens either to a player or to fans. “It is a sad time for football. There are people out to cause trouble. That guy has only gone to the game for that reason. It’s not about football any more, it’s terrible. “You want families to go to games but I’m not sure you can do that any more. There is too much going on, too much abuse.” Kirkland sensed there were going to be problems at the derby when he came out after the break at Hillsborough “I got hit by something before the second half started,” he said. “The anger on some of the faces was awful. It looked like they wanted to rip my head off. The hatred was incredible. I wasn’t going to go anywhere near them. It’s not right at all. “People have said nice things to me since, I am not trying to look for any sympathy. “I just want the authorities to sort this out and put some measures in place for all of us – players and fans. That is the most important thing.” Warnock’s ill-judged comments afterwards left Kirkland seething. He burst into the Leeds dressing room for an explanation and, according to insiders, gave the Leeds chief both barrels. A Wednesday source said: “Kirky was in a state of shock after the incident. “He was coming round and still trying to take it in. Then he heard Warnock say he had ‘gone down like a ton of bricks’ with a smirk on his face. He had to go and see him for a word.” Kirkland was so incensed that Wednesday staff had to drag him out of the Leeds dressing room. Meanwhile, police say they have identified the attacker and the FA are investigating the incident. Wednesday boss Dave Jones has called for Leeds fans to be banned from away grounds.
Police identified him?? His name was all over facebook and twitter within the hour - some even gave out his phone number
This "fan" is toast...........we all know that. Question is what does FA do with Leeds as regards penalty.....a fine (£) is no good as it does not really influence the common fan. Has to be points deduction or away fan ban. And I don't think anyone should have a go at Warnock for getting players to applaud Leeds fans.........as with every club in this land and others, the majority are good honest fans and a minority are idiots......it's just that Leeds have an abnormally large % of idiot......as do Cardiff and Millwall.
Fine is the only feasible conclusion. Leeds will easily contest points ban. The rest of the league would contest away fan ban citing they need Leeds fans for much needed revenue. Us included
There is an excellent and scathingly scarcastic article in no less a rag than the Sunday Times about Warnock's ill-judged comments. The journo pulls no punches, referring to him as Colin and making a scathing attack on his assertion that only one fan caused the trouble. I had not realised that the chanting was so gross from both sets of fans - Leeds extolling the 'virtues' of Jimmy Savile and Wednesday going on about Turkey where the two Leeds fans died. I can only sympathize with Kirkland and his comments may just be prophetic unless the FA takes strong action. Can you really take kids to matches where that sort of chanting and that sort of behaviour happens? Would you want to any more? The beautiful game is miles away from the wonderful and true sporting spirit of the competitors of the Olympics. If the game does die a commercial death, what would these folks want in its place? Prseumably cage-fighting, or something. I would think it appropriate that FA make Leeds play at least three home games behind closed doors and ban all their fans from away grounds for a good few games, if not the whole season. Football, they say, reflects what is happening in society and, if that's the case, things are bad indeed.
