Police officers were forced to make arrests DURING the opening National League fixture, King’s Lynn v Southend, at the weekend.
Three men were taken into custody in relation to trouble which flared up at The Walks Stadium on Saturday afternoon with a bumper crowd present.
The arrests took place during and after the game, which saw the Linnets start of their season with a 1-0 defeat to the newly relegated Shrimpers.
Sam Dalby found the net early as Southend won the National League contest, with Junior Morias sent off for the hosts in the closing stages.
A specialist operation was there for the game and it saw public order officers deployed in King’s Lynn town centre for post-match patrols with fans saying they’ve never seen anything like it before in their residence.
Police were first called into action at around 4:20pm according to Eastern Daily Press, when a man allegedly became abusive after being refused entry to the stadium bar.
He was arrested at the ground on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, and for being drunk inside a designated sports ground.
Jeremy Wilson, of River Lane, King’s Lynn, was then taken to King’s Lynn Police Investigation Centre for questioning and later charged with the offences.
The 56-year-old was released on bail to appear at King’s Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday the 2nd of September.
A second man, aged 54, was also arrested in the ground after allegedly being involved in anti-social behaviour at around 4:25pm.
Adrian Coates of Oldwyk in Basildon, Essex, was charged with being drunk inside a designated sports ground like one other mentioned earlier in the article.
He was also released on bail to appear at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on the 2nd of September.
After the fixture played out, police were called to The Lord Napier pub on Guanock Terrace in Lynn after receiving reports of disorder.
A third man, aged 57, was subsequently arrested at around 5.30pm on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly after he allegedly shouted at a police dog and was abusive to officers.
Imagine going to a game, then heading to the pub and end the evening by shouting at a police dog?! Idiotic.
He was taken into police custody and was issued with a fixed penalty notice.
Despite the arrest, a spokesman for The Lord Napier said the pub had not been forced to close.
They added: “We welcomed the Southend supporters before the game, who were very well behaved and mixed with our regulars.
“I was very pleased to see a strong police presence. We’re looking forward to the next home game.”
A staff member from the Live and Let Live pub, on Windsor Road, said: “The police were fantastic with us and were keeping us informed so everyone here was safe.”
Great noise from the Southend United fans at King’s Lynn; commentary on @BBCEssexSport 95.3FM and digital radio
📻📻⚽️⚽️ pic.twitter.com/hFJiPgYdSL— Nick Alliker (@BBCNick) August 21, 2021
PHIL BROWN’S POST-MATCH INTERVIEW
“We talked about putting a marker down beforehand, but I thought the supporters put the marker down today,” said Brown on the 1,000+ Southend fans.
“How can you have a crowd of 2,700 and more than half of it is Southend United? They were all over the place. When I was coming off I was getting applauded and I thought was that the King’s Lynn supporters? No, they were Southend supporters everywhere and they’ve put the marker down.
“If they’re going to do that to us all season, we’ve got to respond with performances. Putting blood, sweat and tears on the shirt, which I’ve always been a bit fan of, and I thought that’s what we did today.”
Brown on the chances created: “I could have asked for more goals and a more clinical approach in the final third, but you’ve got to say we had a chance to get a second or a third which would have made me breathe a little bit easier and the players.
“When you’re 1-0 up, even down to 10 men, they were throwing the kitchen sink at us at the end and they could have nicked a point. That’s the game and that’s the way football is at every level.
“I came here for a pre-season friendly and watched a good game of football, and I was thinking we’ve got to try and stop them from playing football, which I thought we did to a certain extent and got ourselves a goal.
“But they played their way into it, and I’m not saying we were hanging on in the end but if that second goal had come, I could have relaxed a bit more. If it’s going to be like that all season, then I’ll enjoy it.”
When speaking about goalkeeper Steve Arnold, Brown said: “a special word to the goalkeeper, he’s had 21 days off with COVID – two spells of it.
“His wife’s just given birth this week and I think they’ve also got a two-and-a-half-year-old, and they’ve all had it.
“He’s has a horrendous time, but he put it all on the back burner with a performance today and he deserved a clean sheet more than anybody.”
“There’s a big dartboard on our backs and people are going to come after us. But as we’ve seen with Stockport [losing at home to Dagenham], you’re targets for everybody in the league to aim for you because of the money you’ve spent, the budgets, the club being in the Football League for hundreds of years.
“Those targets are on your back and you’ve got to be able to play football with that kind of pressure and I think we did today.”
With police forced to make arrests DURING King’s Lynn v Southend, did you see any of the trouble involved? Let us know via our socials.
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