A Thug...A Linesman and Violence at The San Antonio Stadium Ibiza!
County and San Jose teams pre kick off!
It was 12 July 2006 and County
were cruising to an easy victory against UE San Jose in the San An Cup at the San
Antonio Stadium .
The game was in its eightieth
minute and drifting sleepily to its inevitable conclusion when ,with play some fifty yards or so up
field Liam Dickinson was seen
remonstrating with a clutch of Spanish players .
In an instant the soporific
atmosphere evaporated as players came over from all parts to drag Dicko away .
At first I thought “oh bugger
Dicko’s lost it-how unusual !”
The truth could not have been
more bizarrely different however !
Although what had gone before
had been unobserved by most spectators and officials in the stadium , a full
account was forthcoming later mostly provided by the half dozen Hatters who
were watching a metre or so away from where the incident occurred on the
building site adjoining the ground .
Unofficial viewing spot for the game1
It turns out that ,whilst play
drifted up field , one of the Spanish players ran at speed towards the liner on
the far side of the pitch .
Stopping immediately in front
of the official the player firstly wagged his finger in the liners face and
then promptly head butted him .
Not content with this he then
stamped on the fallen man.
Unsurprisingly the liner
stayed on the ground ,apparently motionless , for some twenty minutes or so
tended to by County’s admirable Club Doctor before ,eventually he was taken to
hospital still not showing any conspicuous signs of recovering .
The liner being taken to hospital !
The game was abandoned midst
all the mayhem !
I have never before exhibited
any concern over the health of a linesman or referee-the following day however
I was not alone amongst County fans in wanting to know how the liner was faring
.
The only information from tour promoters Playhard was that he was “ OK”.
By the evening seeking more and better information I
approached the hack from the Stockport Express who somehow managed to maintain
a straight face whilst offering the
dubious explanation that “the liner was
fine…..he was in work ( driving his taxi that morning ) and the incident in
fact was all a complete accident due to
the fact that the liner was prone to panic attacks “
I could not help thinking, in
response, that I too would be so prone should someone chance to give me a
Glasgow Kiss and then proceed to jump on me in an uncontrolled frenzy!
This was perplexing and
disappointing, but on arrival back in UK matters did not improve..........
If you were depending on the
Stockport paper to bring you news from Ibiza you would still be waiting for an
accurate account of the affairs of that evening - no `accident’ …no match
abandoned ….nothing appeared in print,
that week....the week after, or in fact ever to my knowledge.
So .......it never happened
did it? Well .....I was there.....it most certainly did happen ,and I have the pics and some video footage of the
incident to boot(and here they are below)!
There was another tournament
the following week so perhaps you can see ,if not agree with , why Playhard desired to play matters down, but to
this day the silence from everyone else on the incident has to say the least
,puzzled me!
And now those video clips, kindly supplied by County Supporter Derek Bailey, of the aftermath of the assault , and a couple of bonus vids of fans tournament .
Now the Fans Tournament clips( are you in there ?)
And now those video clips, kindly supplied by County Supporter Derek Bailey, of the aftermath of the assault , and a couple of bonus vids of fans tournament .
Now the Fans Tournament clips( are you in there ?)
And this pre kick off clip :-
Big thank you finally to Derek Bailey for supplying the video clips.
hedgegrower
Big thank you finally to Derek Bailey for supplying the video clips.
hedgegrower
Hey,
ReplyDeleteWould you have any more pictures of that game as i was the goalkeeper for stockport that day!!!That was a crazy day and these are the first pics if ever seen :) good job :)
Karl.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the response-a crazy day as you say!
I have a pic similar to the one at the head of this article ,but taken closer in to the team and better quality. Apart from that I am not sure if any others ( of that match exist)but I will make a quick search and am happy to send any I find to you. I do have some short clips of the liner being attended to also, and the ref seeking info from the fans on the building site.
An email address would be appreciated to facilitate this.
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reply :)
Any clips or pics you have from any of the 3 games over in Ibiza would be really appreciated as for some reason I did not bring a camera :(
My email is karlcoleman1@gmail.com
Cheers