SHEFFIELD UNITED AND Ireland defender Enda Stevens says players now fear for their safety following a spate of violent incidents in England during pitch invasions in recent weeks.

Stevens was standing by team-mate Billy Sharp when he was headbutted by a Nottingham Forest fan in the immediate aftermath of the Championship play-off semi-final, an attack which left Sharp needing medical treatment. 

The assailant was charged with causing assault occasioning actual bodily harm and jailed for 24 weeks. 

“Shocking”, replied Stevens when asked for his view of the incident. “Over the course of that week or so, it was happening continuously. I was out there with him and it was just an absolute disgrace. ”

Sharp’s was the ugliest incident in a week of ugly scenes on English football pitches: Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira appeared to kick out at an Everton supporter after he was confronted on the pitch after a Premier League meeting two days later, while Swindon Town said their players were “physically and verbally abused” after their League Two play-off semi-final defeat at Port Vale. Entering the pitch is a criminal offence in England, and the English Football League are promising tougher crackdowns on pitch invasions, which may include increased fines or capacity reductions. 

“The thing is, with that, you’re actually fearing for your life”, continued Stevens. “You’re on a pitch and thinking ‘I can be attacked at any moment here’. There was no help for us, nobody there to protect us, there were policemen beside us who didn’t help us and didn’t want to get involved, who saw it happen first-hand and did nothing. Then a few of our lads ended up trying to protect Billy when the second fella came up into his face. Now it seems the police are coming after them and questioning them for what they have done, but all we could do was protect ourselves and help each other out.

“It’s something in football that needs to change. I don’t really blame the stewards because it’s very hard for them to contain 25,000 or 30,000 Nottingham Forest fans but the situation was shocking and it shouldn’t be happening. 

“It comes down to protecting us. We are the ones isolated out there, and we had no protection at all. There were people in place to protect us but they chose not to, you know? They could see it first-hand and they didn’t help us.

“It was up to ourselves to help each other out and try get ourselves off the pitch, whereas they could probably do better in terms of policing it more, more stewards. It is a difficult one for the stewards, I do understand that, but it is something that has to change.

“Obviously [fans] have been away from the game for two years with coronavirus. Emotions were high, it was an emotional game and it’s all well [and good] if you want to run onto the pitch and celebrate but the attacking of opposition players is an absolute disgrace.

“When there are 11 lads or a squad of 20 lads and there are 20,000 people on a pitch running at you from left, right and centre, you don’t know what is going to happen. It could come from anywhere.

“The fact of what happened to Billy, it was clear as day, and Billy wasn’t too far away from the tunnel and that’s where you should be policed the most, in that tunnel. With the stewards, they should be all around there protecting people from getting in. We were right beside the tunnel and again we had zero protection.”