- The forward has been unfairly maligned for standing his ground at Brentford
- PLUS: Marco Silva tries to deflect Fulham defeat with tried-and-tested criticism
- It’s extraordinary how people behave in football stadiums… champion Ollie Watkins for what he did to dish it out to the fans – Listen to It’s All Kicking Off
There were five minutes to go at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday when Ollie Watkins, one of English football’s stand-out players this season, leapt high to meet a Boubacar Kamara flick-on from a corner and directed his header into the net.
The goal earned a 2-1 victory that lifted his Aston Villa team, briefly, to second place in the Premier League and the momentum of his jump carried Watkins towards the goal. Surrounded by celebrating teammates, he stood there for a few moments, roaring in delight, his hands on his hips in a defiant, triumphant stance.
Before he turned away, Watkins, a former Brentford player, pointed towards one of the home supporters at that end, an unseen figure out of the camera shot and nodded his head. Brentford’s Saman Ghoddos then shoved Watkins, and all hell broke loose.
By the time the match finished, both teams had had a player sent off, 10 players had been booked and both managers had been cautioned. Some pundits blamed Watkins’ behaviour as the catalyst and said it was an unacceptable way to celebrate a goal.
Maybe I am in a minority but I don’t think Watkins did anything wrong. Nothing at all. It emerged after the match that the fan he had been pointing at had been baiting him throughout the match and screaming foul abuse about his family. Watkins wanted to ram some of that abuse back down his throat.
Do you blame him? I don’t. Like most football players, on most match-days, Watkins was actually remarkably restrained in the face of persistent provocation. He did not leap over the advertising hoardings to confront the fan. He did not attempt to emulate Eric Cantona. He made his point peacefully.
You would have thought from the reaction of some that Watkins had leapt the barriers or that he had made obscene gestures towards the supporter or that he had sworn at him. There was none of that. Again, Watkins was remarkably restrained.
This is not, sadly, an unfamiliar dynamic. Abuse at football is always presumed to be a one-way street. It is accepted that abusing visiting players is part of the match-day experience but if the players so much as look at a fan the wrong way, supporters, and pundits, get a collective fit of the vapors.
Players suffer the most egregious insults from the stands, insults that would get you arrested or beaten up if you shouted them in the street, and then are castigated if they react. They are accused, then, of inciting violence because they have inflamed the passions of the crowd. Which is risible.
Many years ago, I recall something similar happening with another Aston Villa player, Mark Bosnich. The goalkeeper was baited by opposition fans throughout a match. At one point, he turned to the supporters and feinted, jokingly, to throw the ball at them. He was reported to the police.
On Match of the Day 2 on Sunday night, the former Arsenal and England forward Ian Wright alluded to that happening to him, too, in the past. ‘There’s a certain amount of people who complain and then police will come to the dressing room,’ Wright said. ‘That must have happened to me five or six times.’
Alan Shearer supported Watkins, too. ‘It’s his right of reply,’ he said simply. And he was right. Watkins, too, was, quite correctly, unrepentant. ‘If he said those things to me again,’ Watkins said, ‘I’d do it again.’
The fault does not belong to the player who reacts. The fault belongs to those who have baited and mocked him for 90 minutes – sometimes in the most unpleasant and upsetting ways – and somehow expect that they should be protected by the unwritten rule that a player is an object, not a human being with feelings.
If Watkins did the same again, I’d back him again. All the way. He did absolutely nothing wrong. As for the fans who are criticising him for what he did, they need to grow up. They need to realise that you cannot act like a moron with total impunity. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out.
Arteta’s charm sees charge disintegrate
The FA’s case against Mikel Arteta for the abuse he aimed at match officiating after Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle last month became, inevitably, bogged down in tedious and laughable linguistic argument about what the Arsenal manager really meant when he called disputed decisions a ‘disgrace’.
Arteta clarified his comment and the Independent Regulatory Commission was charmed by him. He was called an ‘impressive witness’. They just about stopped short of saying ‘has he fragrance’ but his exoneration was permission for those who abuse referees at all levels of the game to carry on ranting.
Sir Kenny’s a worthy winner
I have not watched the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show for some time but it is heartening to see that they have got at least one thing right this year by honouring Sir Kenny Dalglish with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
As he is for so many others, Dalglish is a hero of mine because of the sublime player that he was and because of the strength and support he provided, and continues to provide, for the families of those who lost loved ones in the tragedy at Hillsborough in 1989.
Dalglish was a brilliant footballer, one of the greatest that these isles have ever produced, and he is an even better person. He never won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award itself. He was way too good for that.
Pressure builds on Howe after Champions League exit
Eddie Howe has done a fine job at Newcastle United but the manner of the club’s exit from the Champions League last week has put him under pressure.
Newcastle’s failure even to make the Europa League, a competition they would have had a good chance of winning, means Howe has to get Newcastle back into the top four to prevent the club going backwards.
The emergence of Spurs and Aston Villa as challengers for the Champions League spots has complicated that task. For all Howe’s fine work, if Newcastle fail to take their place among Europe’s elite again next season, his Saudi paymasters may decide it’s time for a change.
Silva’s bid to deflect will not wash
Fulham manager Marco Silva took the tried and tested route after a defeat on Saturday and criticised the referee in order to camouflage his team’s failings.
Silva was upset after his team’s 3-0 defeat to Newcastle United because referee Sam Barrott sent off Raul Jimenez for a bizarre challenge on Sean Longstaff that started off as a flying kick and ended as a milder version of Harald Schumacher’s notorious challenge on Patrick Battiston at the 1982 World Cup.
Jimenez had to go. It was an obvious straight red. And yet Silva aimed scathing criticism at Barrott. He said the referee couldn’t handle the pressure.
Actually, it was Silva who couldn’t handle the pressure.
Odd one out
I turned up for the Dunfermline parkrun in the beautiful surrounds of Pittencrieff Park on Saturday morning.
It was a bitter morning but as a hundred or more of us gathered by the statue of Andrew Carnegie before the start, I noticed I had unwittingly revealed myself as an Englishman. I was the only one wearing a woolly hat.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
