Exclusive
Reece Burke was allegedly refused entry to the Boleyn Ground players car park yesterday by the Metropolitan Police according to several eye witnesses.
One West Ham fan told ClaretandHugh, Burke was caught up in the Green Street crush and attempted to gain entry via the players car park which was guarded by police prior to the ill fated arrival of the Manchester team coach.
Burke – despite being dressed in an official West Ham training track-suit – even showed police pictures of himself playing for West Ham on his mobile phone but they still refused him entry.
Luckily for Reece, West Ham’s head of security came to the youngster’s rescue and vouched for him.
ClaretandHugh have also been told many of the 250 former West Ham players and their families invited to yesterday’s match were also caught up in yesterday’s horrendous traffic grid-lock and crowd crush.
One former player told us there was no extra security protocol or special access for former Hammers saying: “We fought our way to the ground and mingled with thousands of fans like everyone else signing the odd autograph to those who recognised us.”