Carragher's mad moment

THE look in his eyes was a mixture of hatred and fury . . . no, not another description of Mike Tyson's clash with Lennox Lewis in New York last week but the split second when Liverpool's Jamie Carragher hurled a coin at the Highbury crowd after being hit by at least one missile himself.

I watched in disbelief as the England defender lost control, snatching a coin up off the turf and throwing it with such force that it struck a man two rows in front of me and ricocheted into the face of a woman behind him.

Witnesses later confirmed to Standard Sport that the man, sitting no more than 10 rows from pitchside, suffered a small cut to his head. The female fan was led away by medical personnel in a state of extreme distress, tears pouring down her face.

It was clear that none of the fans sitting in the lower tier of Higbury's East Stand were willing to point out the yobs who, as Carragher argued with Dennis Bergkamp over the challenge which saw the striker become the second Arsenal player to be red carded, had thrown coins at the Liverpool man.

But as Carragher, sent off immediately by referee Mike Riley, made his way down the tunnel senior police officials were quickly on the spot to take names and addresses of witnesses.

"Nothing can excuse what happened to Carragher but he was mad to do what he did," said one fan. "He had no idea where he was aiming the coin and there were dozens of children sitting in that area with their parents."

Copyright 2002
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