17-year-old disabled Middlesbrough fan, Owen Swift was one of the 3,000 Boro fans who made the trip to the London Stadium at the weekend and was caught up in the crowd problems.
He told the Middlesbrough Gazette“We could see West Ham fans drinking alcohol in the stands and they weren’t watching the game,”
“When West Ham scored their fans threw at least ten lager bottles and coins at our fans. A coin hit my wheelchair when Middlesbrough scored. The stewards seemed totally unbothered by what was happening.”
He tweeted West Ham official twitter account saying seeing the funny side by saying: “To the @WestHamUtd fan who threw this at me when we scored, thank you very much! It will go towards my new wheelchairchair #everyPennyCounts“
The Middlesbrough College student is looking to replace his special wheelchair he uses to play for Middlesbrough Powerchair FC first-team and is closing in on having raised 50% of his £8,000 target,
You can check out Owen’s JustGiving page
Good lad, I didn’t see any West Ham fans drinking in the stands in the TB upper but maybe he was the other side, I did see plenty of Boro fans storming in with beers in hand, either way good on him for seeing the funny side.
To be fair both sets of fans were drinking and both sets smuggled plastic beer bottles in with their tops off into the stands. I did see a couple of coins thrown as well but it was short lived. One boro fan says he was hit by a £2 coin so this guy got a raw deal by only getting 10p
Deplorable, no matter which team the throwers support.