People were biting me during Villa Park pitch invasion - Delph

Dom Farrell

People were biting me during Villa Park pitch invasion - Delph image

Aston Villa captain Fabian Delph admitted he feared for his safety as a mass pitch invasion followed the 2-0 FA Cup win over West Brom.

Delph opened the scoring in the 51st minute with a well-taken strike and on-loan Manchester City winger Scott Sinclair sealed Villa's progress to the semi-finals before the closing moments of the contest descended into farce.

Both sides finished with 10 men as West Brom defender Claudio Yacob and Villa defender Jack Grealish both received controversial second yellow cards.

Yacob departed prior to Sinclair's goal and following Grealish's red card, a group of Villa fans entered the field of play, with one momentarily stealing the corner flag.

Supporters streamed onto the pitch from all sides of Villa Park at the final whistle and Delph found himself caught up in the rush. 

"Very, very scary," the England midfielder told BBC Sport when asked for his assessment, although he understood the outpouring of emotion from the Villa faithful amid a largely forgettable season to date.

"My armband got nicked, someone got my left boot, but I could appreciate the relief the fans are feeling after a result like that," he added.

"It was dangerous. Someone tried to take my boot off. People tried to kiss me and were biting me. It was scary."

Reacting to the events on Twitter, West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster, who watched the game from the bench, bemoaned the "stupid scenes".

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.