WEST BROM defender Kyle Bartley was forced to pull his two young children away from a mass brawl during the Black Country derby this afternoon.
Supporters clashed in the stands after Matheus Cunha put Wolves 2-0 up in the 82nd minute.
Police and security were forced to intervene while players returned to the tunnel for safety.
But while the horrific scenes unfolded, Bartley made his way over to the crowd and emerged with his two young children before taking them to safety.
The match was suspended for over 30 minutes while security and police attempted to diffuse the situation.
West Brom captain Jed Wallace admitted that it was “distressing” for players when the brawl broke out.
He told ITV: “You focus on the game and then it’s kicking off. A lot of the players were distressed because that’s where their families sit. They were worried about their children, that’s why you could see some of them running over.”
“No-one wants to see that in football. They’re two huge clubs with passionate supporters. You hope it keeps a lid on it at times. The game was played in a good spirit on the pitch. You fly into tackles and shake hands after.”
Discussing the incident, Baggies boss Carlos Corberan said: “Of course we are disappointed with any type of incident like that. We want to be safe and just focus on the football.
“Unfortunately, the game was interrupted by this incident and now, we are unable to talk about the atmosphere our fans created, we can’t talk about this aspect. We are totally disappointed by this.
“The incident happened in one area where the families were, we don’t want to worry about these things.
“I think we wanted to keep playing in the cup, we wanted to compete and we competed well, but we were unable to compete well enough. They scored opportunities. We need to compete if we want to win these kind of games.
“Any type of aggression or incident, the safety is the most important thing. Everything before the incident was unbelievable, between both clubs it was very special and incidents like that we need to avoid.”
However, the Spaniard admitted that he did not substitute Bartley specifically due to the incident.
He said: “No I wanted to make the subs before because when they score the second goal and Bartley had a yellow card and I wanted to replace him with Caleb (Taylor).
“I wanted to play a wing back and have a left-footed player in the defence, that’s why I put Pieters as left centre back.
“The substitutions weren’t because of the situation as everything was under control after some minutes, then they knew their families were safe.”
Despite the distressing scenes, Bartley and his family were seen smiling on the pitch after the match.
The FA released a statement condemning the behaviour of some fans at full-time.
It read: “The disorder that occurred at Black Country derby between West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers is completely unacceptable.
“Safety and security are of the utmost importance, and the behaviour of those involved is dangerous and inexcusable.
“We will be investigating these serious incidents alongside the clubs and the relevant authorities, and the appropriate action will be taken.”
