From where I was stood it looked like one of the stewards slipped and collapsed and advertising hoarding, felling the Cas supporter who practically fell onto the pitch. A number of Widnes hooligans who were inciting violence approached him and he threw a couple of punches before been assisted by the stewards back into the stand. Hardly the same as deliberately entering the pitch, walking the full length of the field, attacking the mascot and goading thousands of opposition fans with the traditional hooligan "arms outstretched" challenge to try and provoke a riot.

I am not trying to score any points. I have said more than most on here that I would like all the Widnes pitch invaders to be prosecuted and if needs be the club banned from the CC, made to play in front of empty houses, etc. However, two wrongs don't make a right and the law should be upheld consistently. If the Cas lad was acting in self-defence then that's fine. If not he should be prosecuted too.

At the end of the day, none of this would have happened if the Widnes fans had stayed in the stand. That is the bottom line.

You can bluff and bluster, and blame stewards/police/Cas fans/RFL/whoever all you want, but without encroaching on the pitch we wouldn't have this thread.

It really is that simple.


There is a photo of the ginger haired kicking the mascots head away on FB too.

I think talk of banning Widnes from the cup is way too far for this.
It should be a hefty fine.
If Widnes do sod all about the problems they have and something happens again then there'd be a case for banning them from the cup for a season.

The comparison with Queens isn't fair because Queens are a disgrace of club who should be banned from all RL competitions and so should many of their players, coaches and club officials. Queens have been bringing RL into disrepute for decades.

This sort of post just p*sses me right off.

Anytime there is an incident at a RL game straight away football supporters cop for the blame. It's become a cliche.

Surely RL has to accept it has d*ckheads that follow the sport instead of always passing the buck?

As a season ticket holder at both Saints and Everton it really gets on my nerves it's assumed football fans are all poorly behaved whenever they enter a stadium by people who probably haven't ever been a football game before.

No concept of crowd control, eh?

I work at Kings Cross Underground Station, over 100,000 passengers a day, EVERYDAY, for 17 years, I think gives me some idea of contolling crowds my friend. I NEVER suggested the Police waded into running battles with anyone, the scene at the end spoke volumes, all they had to do was make their presence felt and it COOLS people down and provokes them into engaging their BRAIN!

I agree the MORONS should be identified and banned, but you can't escape the fact that the mere appearance of the POlice at the end, persuaded almost all of the MORONS to vacate the Cas' end of the pitch, an EARLIER appearance would almost certainly have persuaded the MORONS not to enter the pitch in the first place!"

So they should have gone straight to the cas end and not dealt with the flow coming from the Widnes end first?

I think the stewards played it right. They can't just wade in as they would be likely to make things worse, put themselves and others in danger and be on sticky legal ground. Likewise the small number of police officers. By strolling around in a non-menacing line they got the desired result without risking making things worse. Not only that they would be aware that the idiots would all be caught on video and the calmer things were the easier to ID them later.

When will the first arrests be made? Should be about now I'd have thought.

The mascot's head was never knocked off. After being punched, the mascot's head, complete with tiger-head is knocked a fair way to his right. His right foot steps to the right as if to keep his balance. Then he falls backwards to the ground onto his backside. The punch did not floor him, it knocked him to his right. I am presuming this is because the punch didn't land square, it was a partly glancing blow. It was a "proper punch" thrown with a lot of force, but you can see clearly it didn't fully connect, luckily for the mascot.

Shortly after this a fat.t[size.[/sizewat in a white top pulls the tiger-head off the seated mascot.

Here are 2 images. They are lined up. The mascot can have had no idea of an impending blow as he can't see the attacker, so if it was not a "proper punch" then I await theories as to what has made the mascot's head move so far to the right. Maybe a sudden but very localized tornado.



You and the other poster from Leeds are making unsupported assumptions. I am not embroidering anything but simply commenting on what can be clearly observed by anyone from the various videos.

How much was the fine Widnes got last season and which was suspended. I assume this will now become payable too

The 'football fans' stuff irritates me too, these were rugby fans, they had widnes tops on.

I'm just glad it was Castleford and that the Cas players were telling their own fabs to stay put.

If this had been FC fans it could have been a full scale pitch battle.

Bit unfair on FC fans that IMO I've never had any trouble in recent years going to the KC. Nor has there been any trouble when they've come to odsal.

There are always warning signs before these things happen, could Widnes have done more to identify trouble makers and ban them BEFORE this happened, could they have done more to improve the behaviour of their supporters BEFORE this happened?

They're the questions that need answering, it's all very well dealing with it now but the damage has been done and the sport's reputation has been damaged. Widnes need to take a look at themselves and I think they probably deserve a fairly serious punishment as a club.

They're not exactly famous for their restraint though.

from the youtube video prob about 3 widnes shirts, rest had coats on or just no top on at all ! bet they have been to about 1 game this season between them

seems to be a good response from the club, sure they will find them and ban them