STEVENAGE: Newcastle United’s proud reputation was in tatters after their shock FA Cup defeat at Stevenage was compounded by a spectator’s unprovoked assault on one of the winning team’s players.
Defender Scott Laird was poleaxed by a punch as he celebrated on the pitch after the Division Four team’s shock 3-1 third round win over the Premier League side.
The Football Association will investigate the incident, footage of which was already circulating on the internet although Laird declared himself to be not seriously hurt despite being knocked to the ground by a punch from a man in a white shirt, who then ran off.
Graham Westley, the manager of Stevenage, who are playing in the league for the first time in their brief history, was keen that the incident should not overshadow his players’ achievements during an eventful game.
Michael Williamson had put through his own goal early in the second half, Michael Bostwick made it 2-0 soon afterwards and, after Joey Barton had pulled one back in stoppage time, Peter Winn clinched a memorable victory.
“Scott was stood celebrating with the fans and someone came over and smashed him from the side,” Westley said. “He went to the ground and it’s a shame for it to end in that way.
“He is a bit bewildered. Someone gave him a right-hander and smashed him to the ground. He said to me it was lucky he had a big head and could take it. But it’s a sad way for it to end.
“Footballers take bangs – you can’t suggest that’s the right way for a match to end – but people get kicked and tackles get made. Let’s leave it at that – I wouldn’t want it to take the gloss off the players’ afternoon because the focus should be on their performance.”
Westley also revealed that his pre-match team talk had centred around giving the Premier League side a thrashing.
“Our focus before the game was ‘how would we win 5-0?’,” he said.
“We established that if we did just 20% of what it would take to win 5-0 we would still win the game.
“They took themselves into a mind-set where they believed they could go on and act out a plan. Three wasn’t five but it was a decent result.”
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, who maintained he had been unaware of the Laird incident at the time, issued an apology to the supporters.
“I can only say that we are sorry about the result and we are sorry about the performance because it was the performance level that was the problem,” he said.
“We had talked about what we were expecting and on the physical side Stevenage dominated all night. I genuinely thought too many players were running on empty. The team was a shadow of the team that played against Wigan and West Ham.
“Our energy levels just couldn’t match theirs and that was a big part of the game. In both boxes we got dominated.”
Newcastle’s case had not been helped by a straight red card for substitute Cheik Tiote, who was sent off with his side already 2-0 down for a challenge on Jon Ashton.
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