Police were called to prevent crowd trouble at a junior football match in Dundee where five players were sent off and a linesman was allegedly threatened.
Lochee United trounced Kilwinning Rangers 4-1 in a bad-tempered Emirates Scottish Junior Cup second round tie in front of 800 spectators at Thomson Park on Saturday.
Three players from the Ayrshire team and two from Lochee were shown red cards and tension threatened to escalate when an away fan was heard shouting at one of the assistant referees on the touchline.
A spectator at the game said: ”There was a fan in a Kilwinning jersey and you could hear him bawling at one of the linesmen and threatening him.
”Then eight police officers turned up and moved into the crowd. The game ended and people started to drift away. It looked like there could have been a nasty incident but it didn’t come to anything.
”So many police officers turning out seemed to calm the thing down and everyone just made their way home.”
The dismissals were for separate offences, including second bookings.
Lochee United secretary LarryDuncan said: ”We knew there was a big support coming through from Ayrshire and we received information that there was a young element coming with them. We did as we have done with other big Scottish Cup games and alerted Tayside Police to the fact that there was the potential for some trouble.
”The game went off and although there were five players sent off, these were mainly for second yellow cards. There were no other issues.”
Kilwinning Rangers chairman William Ralston said: ”We the team and supporters had a great time at Lochee and were treated with the utmost respect.
”I thought the referee over-reacted but it was one of those games. I was with the Kilwinning supporters and there was shouting at the linesman. Linesmen do get a bit of abuse at games but I didn’t hear anyone threaten him with violence.”
A police spokeswoman said: ”We were aware a football match was taking place and we attended. There were no issues and the crowd dispersed without incident.”
Comments from Kilwinning Rangers fans posted on the club’s website were critical of the match officials but an unnamed Kilwinning player took a different view.
”On behalf of the players I just want to apologise for letting a great travelling support down,” he said. ”We can bleat all day about referees but the bottom line was our indiscipline was unacceptable and that and that alone lost us the game.”
John Reilly, East Region secretary of the Scottish Junior Football Association, was a neutral observer at the game. He said: ”Lochee United requested in advance for the police to come in case there was trouble, and they were there at the finish.
”No one was arrested on or off the pitch.”