Crowd trouble erupted in the Emirates stadium on Saturday in scenes reminiscent of those in the dark days of the 1970’s. Amid a melee of sickening violence, I watched helpless as a number of traveling fans - including children - suffered the most terrible of brutalities perpetrated by a group of mindless thugs who appeared to revel in the carnage they were inflicting.

I managed to catch up and speak with a couple of these imbeciles after the incident, asking them why they had caused so much mayhem.

‘F**k those scouse c***s,’ stated one, ‘They had it coming.’

‘Yeah, that’s right’, said the other yob. ‘I smacked a few of ‘em, even some kids - so what?’

Obviously noticing the repugnance on my face when this despicable character was talking about attacking children, he leaned towards me in a menacing manner and said, ‘What, do you want some too?’

Just as I was fearing for my own safety, a Police Inspector arrived accompanied by a sergeant. ‘Right you two,’ said the Inspector, ‘back to your posts. We’re being relieved by ‘C’ Division at 18.00 hours.’