If I found that the statement was wrong then I might not have story. The Non-League Paper and TalkSport today have reported the rascist abuse dealt out to Dover Athletic's Inih Effiong, who scored a penalty for the visitors after 37 minutes, in what proved to be a lively match.
Hartlepool United lie 14th in National League and Dover 5th. 3329 attended this match at Hartlepool's ground and a few spoilt the day, Steven Rigg bundled home a second goal for The Whites in the 84th minute and sealed the result for the visitors.
The abuse from part of the Hartlepool crowd was heard by both teams and there was a "eyeball" confrontation which eventually led to an 8 minute delay in the game. What did the referee do? What could he? What did the stewards do? What was the outcome? Actually, so far nothing.
Dover manager, Andy Hessenthaler, has a long history in football and hopes that the home officials will come down heavily on the abusers. Craig Hignett, Hartlepool's boss, also an experienced player, coach and manager, said it had been a sad day for football.
The players threatened to walk off but what would that solve??
Many home supporters rallied round all the players at the time, so these fans must be able to expose the offender or offenders.
The referee, Joseph Johnson, had an interesting day and it is likely that some of the fans' and indeed the player's behavior may have been sparked by his unpopular decisions. Effiong's penalty was disputed which led to a Pools' red card and further "speaking out of turn" led to another sending off. Pools ended with 9 men and the ref failed to give Pools a penalty when Toure was "felled" in the area, Pools hit the woodwork in the second half and had three cleared "off the line".
Following on from the issue of rascist abuse (and others recently in football), Hartlepool United's nickname is the Monkey Hangers.
During the Napoleonic War, a French warship was found wrecked off the Hartlepool coast and when it was boarded by the locals, there were no Frenchmen alive apart from one individual that the locals assumed to be an French sailor. The individual was wearing a French naval uniform and didn't speak English, so he must have been a Frenchman. It was the ship's pet monkey, a mascot on the boat. The poor beast was taken ashore and because it didn't speak English, it couldn't defend itself and so was found guilty and hung as a French spy. The club and town now have a team mascot called "H'Angus" and there are also various children's books, adult novels, songs and films with the Hartlepool monkey as the central theme.
No comments:
Post a Comment