Brown Ideye’s dream to play before his mum in the iconic Wembley Stadium suffered a dramatic setback last Saturday following West Brom’s 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa in the quarter-finals of the 2015 English FA Cup.
Ideye, who fired blank during the duration of the game, had pledged to bring his mother to England to watch the FA Cup finals at the iconic stadium in May should West Brom brave the odd and reach the finals. But two second-half goals from Fabian Delph and Scott Sinclair won it for Villa, thus pulling a plug on the dream of the Nigerian striker and his team mates to play in Wembley this term.
However, besides the painful loss of a glorious opportunity to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, Ideye and co got more than they bargained for during the tie. The match was overshadowed by the ugly scenes of pitch invasion by fans during and after the game. Aston Villa issued an apology to ‘the Football Association, the West Bromwich Albion directors, manager Tony Pulis and all his staff and players after the game, promising full cooperation with relevant authorities on the issue.
Seats were also thrown from the Albion section during the melee, prompting the West Brom management vowing to take strong action against any of the club’s fans found to have been involved in disturbances. “West Bromwich Albion will continue to operate zero tolerance to any fans who bring the club’s reputation into disrepute. The club also welcomes the FA investigation into the scenes and how they came about; West Bromwich Albion will co-operate fully,” a statement released by West Brom read.
“Pitch invasions cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. The safety of the club’s players and staff during and at the end of the game was clearly compromised and that has to be a subject of deep concern for everyone involved,” it added.
By Olisemeka Obeche
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