Fan in hospital after trouble breaks out before Birmingham v Stoke

A fan has ended up in hospital this weekend after trouble breaks out before the Championship fixture Birmingham City v Stoke City.

A male supporter was taken to A&E after being assaulted, and while rumours over the incident continue online, it’s been confirmed he has been released.

Birmingham fan, @EClarky97, wrote on Twitter: “What an awful start to our game. Just watched a Stoke fan get decked and had to ring an ambulance. Only a young kid too weren’t asking for it either. Hope he’s okay.

“Nose was pouring with blood and his head hit hard when he hit the deck.“

There are other claims however that the fan – and a few other lads that he was with – were outside Bainsy’s Bar looking for trouble and came off badly.

West Midlands Police have issued a statement, saying that they have launched an investigation after a 23-year-old man was attended to by medics and suffered a broken nose on Barwell Road, Small Heath, in Birmingham, which is a three minute walk from the ground.

Emergency services were called to the scene, taping up the area at around 2:30pm on Saturday afternoon ahead of the 3pm kick-off (August 14).

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “We’re investigating after a man aged 23 suffered a broken nose when he was assaulted on Barwell Road, in Small Heath, at around 2.30pm today.

“We understand a small disturbance broke out involving fans preparing to watch Birmingham against Stoke.

“He’s now been released from hospital.

“No arrests have been made, but CCTV is being reviewed and investigations continue.”

Anyone with information has been asked to contact West Midlands Police via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk or @CrimestoppersUK anonymously on 0800 555 111. Quote log 2,251 of August 14.

They will be reviewing footage in the hope to identify the individuals involved in what happened, as things got rather heated.

On the pitch, Birmingham and Stoke played out a goalless draw, extending the unbeaten starts to the 2021/22 season for both teams.

Stoke boss Michael O’Neill went in with criticism on the time-wasting: “We didn’t do enough to win the game. I didn’t feel like we were ever going to lose it to be honest.

“We dealt with what we knew we were going to deal with, which was a lot of long throws and balls into the box. We dealt with that very well.

“We can’t have 30 seconds for every throw-in, that’s where the time goes. Then we had three minutes at the end. That’s just the nature of the game and there’s a lot of games in the Championship that end up like that.

“If you’re going to get out of the Championship, you have to aspire to be a better team than that and obviously that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Earlier in the day, hooligans of Leeds and Manchester United were seen fighting in the city centre before the two teams faced off in a Premier League fixture at Old Trafford. See more on that by clicking HERE.

Twitter users gave their reaction after a fan was in hospital after trouble breaks out before the Birmingham v Stoke game…

@CallumTxylor: But people were saying we’d killed some innocent kid, people talking out their absolute fucking arse as per to make us look worse 🤣 Bloke deffo tried giving it big licks and got what was expected, couldn’t give less of a fuck now 👍

@ForeverAYellow: Really hope the lad a speedy recovery if it’s true that he wasn’t looking for a fight, however these days it wouldn’t surprise me if he did, bit of a random spot for away fans to usually be

@BluesJack_: Thank fuck man, no one deserves to go to a football game and not return home

@leiell6: Looks like everyone is ok, thank god. But ffs STOP FIGHTING AT FOOTBALL MATCHES 😡

@15heston: Those sort of people, who go football for fights, aren’t proper football fans, they use football as an excuse to get drunk and fight and get away with it!!!

@Andyjack83: Assault, so hope the police catch up with whoever did it, despicable behaviour

@benarowley: Very sad for this Stoke fan. Heard he’s been released from hospital, I’m very glad if this is the case. To restore a little faith in opposition fans, I had a lovely chat with two Blues fans after the game and they got a round in. Fortunately the idiots are in the minority.

@JackGraham08: Thoughts are with the stoke fan who was rumoured to suffer a life threatening injury. Apparently been discharged with a broken nose which you’d hope is all it is. Think I speak on behalf of blues fans when I say, speedy recovery and get back to supporting the potters #bcfc #scfc

@Squareheadrick: Broken nose looking at WMP appeal. Lucky it weren’t worse by sounds of it.

@DominicR26: Speak for yourself. Looking for trouble and they found it

@1875JA: If you’re an away fan going down that way looking for trouble, you’ll get exactly what you’re looking for.

@beechishere: Not being funny but WTF are away fans doing in that area??? Had it coming to them obviously

@jon_pearce: “Had it coming to them” what a stupid comment. They may have just taken the wrong route to the match. You don’t expect to get assaulted waking down the road.