THUGGISH PLAYERS ALMOST NICKED

Superintendent John Colston felt it necessary to enter the dressing rooms at Molineux on Saturday to warn both teams that they could face criminal charges if they did not end their on-field antics.

Ade Akinbiyi was sent off in only the fourth minute after head-butting Forest`s Tony Vaughan, who was later dismissed himself along with team-mate David Prutton.

Colston said: "If we`d had one more nasty assault on the field I would have felt obliged to have stopped the game and made an arrest.

"I`ve been in the command position at Molineux for 10 years and have never witnessed anything like it. Hopefully, I never will again.

"It was clear to me that unless things cooled down on the field one of the players was going to get his leg broken, or suffer a serious injury.

"I was also concerned that the crowd were getting so revved up it could have threatened public safety.

"I would not tolerate it from members of the public, and I was certainly not going to tolerate it from football players.

"After the third sending off I felt forced to act. I`ve never had to go into dressing rooms before, or even had to think about it, and it saddened me to do so.

"I told both sets of players there were clear breaches of criminal law going on and I was not going to tolerate it.

"Fortunately, everyone was very receptive and things quietened down in the second half.

"I would stress we would only have intervened on the pitch as a last resort. But it was getting close to it."

Supt Colston has kept press cuttings and a video of the match to back up his thoughts but insists that as far as he is concerned the matter is now dead.

Nic Evans