May 11 – West Ham United’s final match at its iconic Upton Park ground in East London after 112 years may have had the perfect denouement on the field, with an emotional 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Manchester United. But the carnival atmosphere turned distinctly sour courtesy of shameful scenes reminiscent of the dark days of English football.
The English Football Association has launched a full investigation into United’s team bus being attacked by bottle-throwing thugs after it got stuck in traffic and condemned the “unsavoury incidents”.
West Ham are moving to London’s 60,000-seat Olympic Stadium next season and many ticketless fans turned up for Tuesday night’s landmark end of an era fixture. Some decided to wreck the occasion by hurling missiles, including a smoke canister, at the United team coach, damaging several windows.
Policemen with riot shields moved in to quell the trouble and footage filmed by United’s players showed them cowering on the floor as they coach came under attack. West Ham issued a statement condemning those responsible for the disorder and said it would ban the culprits for life. Objects were also thrown at United goalkeeper David de Gea during the game.
“The way we have been received is not the proper way of course,” said United manager Louis van Gaal who had a bad night all round, his team’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League now hanging by a thread and dependant on United winning their final game of the season on Sunday as well as arch-rivals Manchester City losing theirs.
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