Everton show common sense over Bournemouth incident

Everton have withdrawn banning orders issued to supporters who ran onto the pitch during last weekend's game at Bournemouth.

A number of fans spilled onto the pitch at the Vitality Stadium to celebrate Ross Barkley's 95th minute goal.

The re-start was held up for several minutes as police and stewards attempted to clear the pitch of supporters.

Everton and Merseyside Police launched an investigation into the incident and used CCTV to try and identify those involved.

Three supporters were subsequently identified and received a letter from Everton's head of security Dave Lewis threatening to ban them until the end of the season.

Everton's stance appears to have softened in recent days though with the club contacting two of the three supporters about the incident.

Following those talks the threat of a ban has been withdrawn though the club say that stance will be monitored throughout the rest of the season.

Ina statement the club said:

"While we would emphasise to supporters that coming on the pitch is a criminal offence and may result in a football banning order, we have also listened to fans to understand the circumstances around this particular incident.

"As a club, we have to demonstrate to the FA what we have done to prevent these kinds of occurrences and what we will do to prevent them from happening again.

"In this instance, we have spoken to some of those arrested and, having reviewed the circumstances, the fans in question will be allowed to come to the game on Monday night and we will further review the situation going forward."

I can understand why the club have to be seen to be taking the issue seriously but I feel in this case they have made the right move in only issuing a warning.

There was no malice in the pitch invasion, it was simply celebrating what should have been a dramatic late winner with no-one hurt and nothing damaged. The small, tight stands at the Vitality Stadium also perhaps contributed to the fans spilling onto the field.

Lets hope the issue now closed and we can all move on and focus on matters involving the team.