Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Derry City fans attacked in North
This is a real shame.Buses carrying Derry City football club fans have been attacked by stone throwers just outside Derry.
The buses, bringing fans from Belfast where their team had played Linfield, were attacked near Altnagelvin roundabout (pictured left) and Drumahoe village.
Ulsterbus, which is run by Translink, said windows on two of its buses were smashed, but there were no injuries. Two private buses were also attacked.
The Setanta Cup match - which ended as a 1-1 draw - passed off peacefully.
The Windsor Park match was the teams' first competitive meeting in more than 34 years.
Billy Scampton, Derry's City's chief steward, was on one of the buses which was attacked.
He said three or four youths had targeted the bus, but that it did not take away from a "fantastic" occasion.
"I'm certainly not going to let three or four individuals detract from a wonderful night," he said.
"I think it's just sad that it happened in our own city seeing as we had such a welcome at Windsor."
This is very sad to see. Just when things seem to be progressing along nicely, a minority of bad eggs come along and try to spoil things for everyone.
We desperately need to stamp out this kind of bigotry from the beautiful game.
It leaves a bad taste.
# posted by United Irelander @ 12:17 AM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
