Aston Villa midfielder Fabian Delph admitted he was scared after being bitten by fans during a chaotic end to his side's 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.
Delph put Tim Sherwood’s side on course for a Wembley semi-final appearance with Villa’s opening goal in the 51st minute and Scott Sinclair’s late strike finished off their local rivals at a boisterous Villa Park.
But both goals were greeted by small pitch invasions and, with just moments left in stoppage-time, over-excited Villa fans poured onto the pitch in a premature celebration that prompted the match to be briefly halted.
The final whistle brought an even larger pitch invasion as hundreds of jubilant supporters flooded the turf, prompting one of the linesmen to make a determined sprint all the way across the pitch to the safety of the tunnel.
Many of Villa’s players were mobbed by their frenzied fans, with Delph revealing he had lost a boot and even been bizarrely bitten in the wild scenes.
Asked how he felt as he tried to make it back to the dressing room in one piece, Delph said: “It was very, very scary. My armband got nicked, someone got my left boot, but I could appreciate the relief the fans are feeling after a result like that.
“It was dangerous. Someone tried to take my boot off. People tried to kiss me and were biting me. It was scary.”
The Football Association are set to launch an investigation into the crowd trouble which marred Aston Villa’s the end of Saturday’s match.
The first sign of trouble came shortly after Delph’s 51st-minute goal when a smoke bomb was let off by the home fans in the lower tier of the North Stand.
Tensions became further heightened later in the half when West Brom supporters situated in the North Stand’s upper tier tore out several seats, throwing them at the Villa fans situated below them.
West Brom manager Tony Pulis told the BBC: “It’s disgraceful. We don’t want to see those scenes.
“They’ve beaten us and for that to happen, that’s just mindless idiots.
“If you’re Villa, you need to look at the stewards as they came over to our fans and there was nobody there.”
Speaking at his press conference afterwards he continued: “I actually think Villa should look at the stewarding.
“It’s a quarter-final of an FA Cup, it’s a full house and you know that it’s going to be testy, let’s put it that way.
“The hierarchy at Villa should recognise that you need stewards at both ends of the pitch.
“To see the supporters coming on with three or four minutes to go ... but they were congregating before that time.
“It puts players at danger and you don’t want to see that. We were seeing that in the 1970s and 1980s, we don’t want to go back to that.
“I am sure the FA will look at it without me poking my nose in too much.
“If you ask me from a football point of view, if you have a load of stewards then it will be sorted out.
Asked if any of his players had been struck, Pulis replied: “I didn’t ask them afterwards.
“Everyone looked as though they had their heads on, their arms on and their legs on. Nobody said anything to me.”
Villa coach Sherwood insisted he “could not condone the fans entering the field,” yet conceded, “I can understand their emotions.”
He said: “They’ve just beat their local rivals twice in a week and once in the quarter-final of the FA Cup, so the emotions are running very, very high.
“But like I say, the club wouldn’t condone that sort of action, especially if anyone was touched. I was unaware of that.
“What can you do? The stewards did their best, I saw them rugby tackle a few guys.
“But when they are coming on in such numbers it’s difficult to stem it.”
It will be the first time Villa have been to Wembley in five years, their last appearance coming in an FA Cup semi-final in 2010 when they were beaten by Chelsea.
But, in the meantime, Sherwood insists their focus must return to their battle against relegation – which continues against fellow strugglers Sunderland next weekend. Villa are currently just above the drop zone in the Premier League, fourth from bottom and three points ahead of both Queens Park Rangers and Burnley.
Sherwood added: “It’s huge. I’ve had a chat with them and they want to dedicate it to the fans.
“They’ve had some hard times here and everyone at the football club now realises that we’re going to need those supporters.
“We know there is still a lot of hard work to be done. They are a good group.”
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
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Tips for used car buyers
- Choose cars with GCC specifications
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- Don’t go cheap on the inspection
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- Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
- Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
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- If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
CREW
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
MATCH INFO
Alaves 1 (Perez 65' pen)
Real Madrid 2 (Ramos 52', Carvajal 69')
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The biog
Favourite hobby: taking his rescue dog, Sally, for long walks.
Favourite book: anything by Stephen King, although he said the films rarely match the quality of the books
Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption stands out as his favourite movie, a classic King novella
Favourite music: “I have a wide and varied music taste, so it would be unfair to pick a single song from blues to rock as a favourite"
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North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Other IPL batting records
Most sixes: 292 – Chris Gayle
Most fours: 491 – Gautam Gambhir
Highest individual score: 175 not out – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Highest strike-rate: 177.29 – Andre Russell
Highest strike-rate in an innings: 422.22 – Chris Morris (for Delhi Daredevils against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017)
Highest average: 52.16 – Vijay Shankar
Most centuries: 6 – Chris Gayle
Most fifties: 36 – Gautam Gambhir
Fastest hundred (balls faced): 30 – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Fastest fifty (balls faced): 14 – Lokesh Rahul (for Kings XI Punjab against Delhi Daredevils in 2018)
