Source: Rosendale Free Press
A FOOTBALL fan suffered a head wound after he was attacked following Bacup Borough’s league game defeat against FC United of Manchester.
Paramedics were called to the Grasmere Terrace/Cooper Street area of town, not far from Borough’s home ground at West View, at 5.05pm last Saturday.
They found a 39-year-old man from Prestwich had received a blow to the face. He was taken to Burnley General Hospital and released the same night.
Sergeant Gordon McGeechan, of Bacup Police, said: ‘After the game some supporters from Manchester were attacked by local youths and an older man with pieces of fencing.
‘One FC United supporter was struck around the face.’
He said the attackers – who were not thought to have been at the game – had ‘let the town down’ and described them as ‘irresponsible and thuggish’.
He urged anyone who had witnessed the attack to contact community beat manager Pc Richie Hall.
Two local teenagers and a 23-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of assault and public order offences and released on police bail pending further inquiries.
In an earlier incident, at 2.40pm before the match started, police arrested three FC United supporters following a scuffle in the Burnley Road area. They all missed the match; one was issued with a fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly and the other two received cautions for obstructing a police officer.
Sgt McGeechan said, although the vast majority of fans were well behaved, a crowd had built up outside the Irwell Inn and it was spilling out on to the busy main road. For health and safety reasons, officers had blocked them in with their van.
Irwell Inn landlady Josie Hanley said: ‘There was a good atmosphere in the pub and there was good banter between the regulars and the supporters. We had no problems until the police arrived.’
Some town centre pubs were asked to close by the police after the match.
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