IAN HERBERT: Sadly, the mindless thuggery at the Hawthorns is not a one-off... as the families of Tony Johnson and Simon Dobbin can attest

West Brom defender Kyle Bartley rushed to rescue his children from the stands Derby clash was halted after Wolves and West Brom fans fought in the standsHave YOU seen what happened? Email [email protected] 

One of the clips of a blood-soaked Wolves fan being led away, as West Brom fans sing ‘let him die’, was posted with the casual observation that English football hadn’t seen such scenes ‘for many years’. Not true.

The episode at the Hawthorns conforms very much to a current reality which, as the families of Tony Johnson and Simon Dobbin can attest, just happens to play out beyond the view of the cameras.

Mr Johnson was a Blackpool supporter who died last year after suffering head injuries during what was delicately described as ‘an altercation’ with Burnley fans. Mr Dobbin, a Cambridge United fan, died after suffering brain damage having watched his team play in Southend in 2020.

And then there was Mike Jones, an unsuspecting Wrexham fan beaten black and blue by seven supporters of his very own club, motivated by an assumption that he must have been a Torquay United fan when they encountered him after a home game.

Bring these cases up and you’re accused by a certain section of the football fraternity of exaggeration, a sense of humour bypass, a failure to appreciate the nuances of tribalism and other shades of nonsense.

One fan was left bloodied following disorder in the stands, which saw the match suspended

Shameful scenes at the Black Country derby left players scared for their loved ones’ safety

Fans were tackled to the ground by police as violent clashes overshadowed the early kick-off

Your browser does not support iframes.

We’re often asked to accept that this kind of behaviour is one big joke, as the response to another of the weekend incidents which shames our football only goes to show. When referee Craig Hicks was chased from the pitch by an irate Port Vale fan, for having the temerity to award Portsmouth a penalty, clips of Benny Hill were posted. My, how we laughed.

A journey through the Black Country last week revealed that humour, spirit and imagination are at the core of one of British football’s great rivalries. Wolves fans gleefully described their nickname for West Brom fans — ‘carrier bags’ because their strip looks like something you’d use to carry Tesco groceries in.

West Brom fans gleefully related how they left behind thousands of them on the seats at Molineux after a win there in 2007. Each contingent described how they had friends on the other side of the Black Country divide.

But most of those individuals were old enough to remember the football landscape of police dogs and riot shields. Those casually throwing bricks at people’s heads now tend to be those with no awareness of football’s bad old days.

Police officers will tell you that some of these perpetrators can’t cope with their intake of alcohol or cocaine, and that others are perfectly sober but just couldn’t care less.

‘The worry for us is that in the past you could ascribe the problems in England to too much drink and cocaine but now you are seeing a generation of young people who don’t fit those criteria,’ Britain’s top football police officer Mark Roberts told me a few years back.

‘There is definitely a greater element of youth risk.’

The situation hasn’t changed since that conversation.

It is hard to see how much more West Midlands Police could have done to prevent the disgraceful scenes which are a stain on our game and ramp up that continental European view that English football has a hooligan problem.

Kyle Bartley rushed to the stands where trouble broke out to rescue his two young children

Albion captain Jed Wallace said certain players were in distress and went to the family area

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said incidents like those at The Hawthorns ‘shouldn’t happen’

The 11.45am kick-off was, in part, designed to limit access to alcohol.

It seems incumbent on the older members of the football fraternities — fathers, grandfathers, uncles — to knock some sense into the perpetrators, most of whom are male. But then you look at some of the social media about a derby which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons and wonder what it will take.

‘Black Country derby violence,’ proclaimed one anonymous keyboard warrior, with a boxing glove symbol.

‘Fantastic scenes. They done the country proud,’ declared another.