By Dave Woodhall.
At the start of the season there was a lot of talk about how, for the first time since 1986, the region’s four major football clubs were all in the top division. Unfortunately, what should have been a time for celebration has instead shown that some of their supporters are still stuck in the mid-eighties.
Sunday’s Black Country derby at the Hawthorns was by all accounts an exciting affair that culminated in Albion’s injury-time equaliser, which kept honours even if it did little for either side’s relegation chances. Unfortunately, once more the headlines after a game involving two of our clubs concerned supporters’ behaviour. A flare and sundry other missiles were thrown inside the ground, several people hurt, the Metro service disrupted and there were reports of other problems away from the Hawthorns during the evening.
Games between Villa and Blues have also seem problems this season, with fighting before and after the league fixture at Villa Park and a pitch invasion together with yet more missile throwing and widespread vandalism following the League Cup quarter-final at St Andrews. This was the only one of the Black Country or Second City derbies to take place at any other time than early on Sundays for several years, and the possibility of either fixture being staged at a more convenient time in the foreseeable future must be remote.
It’s an accepted fact that Blues have had problems with their supporters in the past, as have Wolves. Yet on the whole both sets of fans have been pretty well behaved in recent years, particularly since gaining promotion to the Premier League. Albion and Villa supporters, meanwhile, tend to be amongst the best-behaved in the country. Two of the local fixtures each club will play this season will pass off without major incidents. So why is it that the two main derbies are so volatile?
There are problems at other derbies, but they don’t seem to be on such a regular basis nor are they played out in front of the TV cameras. Maybe it’s because elsewhere, at least one of the clubs involved have outgrown parochialism and see themselves as players on an international stage. Of all the Premier League clubs, only our four have so many supporters who regard beating their local rivals as the most important aspect of the season. The Black Country derby was recently voted the most intense in the country, and while passion is no bad thing, maybe it’s time we all took a step back and reminded ourselves that it is, after all, just a game.
The West Midlands is not Northern Ireland. There are no sectarian barriers, either visible or intangible. Anyone who throws a missile into another set of fans at a derby might be injuring their friend, neighbour, work colleague or a member of their family. It’s a stupid, cowardly act at the best of times, and doubly so when those you’re attempting to hit are exactly the same as you in every respect except they, or maybe their dad, was born a couple of miles away.