A non league pre-season friendly was abandoned, on Thursday night, after a 22-man punch up which took place on the field of play.
Northern Premier League Division One South East club Stamford took on Grantham Town of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, however the game ended up turning sour.
The hosts became concerned about the safety of their players following a series of ‘poor challenges’ which took place in the opening half.
Stamford v Grantham pre season friendly called off before half time after a 22 man brawl. Never seen anything like this pic.twitter.com/f43ROYZGPT
— Henry ??????? (@henry_mxc) August 27, 2020
Stamford were leading 2-0 at the time, when players reacted to a poor challenge on a home player. It was one of many tackles Graham Drury, the manager of Stamford, was unhappy with and after chatting with the Grantham staff along with the referee, the game was halted.
The Daniels took the lead inside the opening minute when Cosmos Matwasa’s went forward to set up Tom Siddons who hit home past Grantham goalkeeper Jan Budtz.
Stamford then doubled the scoring just after the 30th minute, when a skillful pass from Rob Morgan met Tendai Chitiza who curled the ball into the back of the net.
The hosts were more likely to add to their tally with the Gingerbreads really struggling to get at their opponents.
Drury said: “I would like to apologise to all the supporters about the game being cut short.
“Both managers and the referee decided it was the right decision to call a halt to the game because the conditions were becoming too dangerous.
“I’ve seen the suggestions there was a mass brawl between the players which is an exaggeration. There had been some poor challenges on my players and then one particularly bad one led to my players reacting and the Grantham players also getting involved.
“It was more like handbags at dawn than a mass confrontation. Players were protecting their teammmates and both managers decided it was better to stop the game and the referee agreed. Fairplay to the Grantham manager for agreeing to this.
“The safety of the players was the most important thing. I took the fixture to do Grantham a favour and I only had 13 fit players to start with. A couple were struggling to carry on when the game was abandoned so calling things off was the right thing to do. We have an FA Cup tie in a couple of weeks.”
Looks like the gaffer has taken the Stamford players off after some shocking tackles by Grantham and a huge melee pic.twitter.com/5ppIJkRjQf
— Stamford Goals (@GoalsStamford) August 27, 2020
Fans gave their reaction after the non league pre-season friendly was abandoned after a 22-man punch up, see what they had to say on Twitter…
Enough said! No intention of playing the ball! Stamford did right in coming off! Ref lost control… pic.twitter.com/5xlaktOlrW
— Steve Morris (@Mozzasoft) August 27, 2020
So Grantham should be… shocking… Ref lost control after 20 minutes… 3 tackles left Stamford players injured… Stamford did right in coming off..
— Steve Morris (@Mozzasoft) August 27, 2020
Same old Grantham!
— S. West (@swest_10) August 27, 2020
We did right by coming off… 3 dirty tackles! Stamford were all over Grantham!… they will never find friendlies if that’s how they play!
— Steve Morris (@Mozzasoft) August 27, 2020
Correct decision gaffer. We were a different class and they knew it.
— Andy Hudson (@andy_hudson2) August 27, 2020
Lincs FA may have something to say on this @LincolnshireFA
— Mark Evans (@MarkSumoEvans) August 28, 2020
Don’t blame him. Well done G.
— Paul West (@paulwest222) August 27, 2020
Thr correct decision to prevent serious injuries, very heavy tackles and even with the conditions, they didn’t have an excuse. We were just too strong for them.
— Sam Lang (@speedinggoose) August 27, 2020
Ref had lost control.
— Stamford Goals (@GoalsStamford) August 27, 2020
Agreed – he was focused on Tendai and didn’t see what was happening behind him until too late. But no matter how angry, Graham needed to go straight up to the ref and tell him he was taking the team off, we have to remove ourselves from those situations.
— Sam Lang (@speedinggoose) August 27, 2020
But they didn’t just go off, they had an unnecessary brawl beforehand – fine to take them off, but there wasn’t a need to engage in a fight.
— Sam Lang (@speedinggoose) August 27, 2020
2 of the Grantham players were gonna make sure something happened whether our lads got involved or not, especially their number 7, he was spoiling for a fight from the 2nd minute and tried to start one during an earlier part of the match….unseen by the ref like everything else
— Ben there, done that (@JakeBleu) August 27, 2020
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