Sheffield United skipper Billy Sharp breaks silence on "cowardly" attack by Nottingham Forest fan

After Forest had beaten Sharp’s boyhood club on penalties to reach the play-off final at Wembley, thousands of home fans ran onto the City Ground pitch to celebrate.

One, Forest season ticket holder Robert Biggs, instead ran towards Sharp on the touchline and headbutted the former Forest striker, knocking him to the ground.

Sharp, who missed the game through injury, needed four stitches to his lip and Biggs, 30, was jailed for six months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, also receiving a 10-year football banning order.

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“I've heard a lot of views and opinions but I'm captain of the club and I was trying to make sure all my players got off the pitch safely,” Sharp told The Star.

“I wasn't on the pitch at all after the game. I didn't need to be because I wasn't playing.

“I'd seen everyone come off bar three [teammates] and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor.

“I was told I'd been hit and I thought: ‘Do you know what? That's fine. If someone wants to do that, that's fine’.

“But when I saw how I'd been hit, I thought it was a coward's trick. I'm fine, it could have been a lot worse.

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“I went on my best mate's stag do a couple of days later, which probably helped me. I had a couple of stitches in the lip but it hasn't ruined my looks!”

Forest fans responded to the incident by launching a fundraising appeal for a charity of Sharp’s choice, with thousands being donated to Martin House – a hospice that helped Sharp and his wife Jade after the tragic death of their son Luey back in 2011.

Sharp, who posted a video on social media previously thanking the organisers of the fundraiser and all who donated, said: “I have nothing against Forest fans, I had a great time there and one idiot really spoiled it for them. There are idiots in football and for me it was wrong place at the wrong time.”

The Forest pitch invasion was one of a number that marred the end of the football season, with Sharp’s former Blades teammate Robin Olsen – now of Aston Villa - also reporting being attacked by a Manchester City fan who had invaded the pitch to celebrate their side winning the Premier League title.

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Blades defender Enda Stevens says the recent surge in pitch invasions has left players fearing for their lives and the authorities have been urged to clamp down on the growing trend, with fines and possible points deductions for clubs all suggested as potential deterrent.

“It's a problem but I feel sorry for the stewards and police,” Sharp added.

“What are they expected to do? They’re going to get outnumbered at any ground.

“It's only been a real problem in the last three, four or five years really. Fans have always gone on the pitch but you shouldn't go on to hurt people, really. You should go on to celebrate and show some respect to the team that did go out. That didn't happen but it's gone now and we can concentrate on football again.

“When I was in the airport for the stag do, instead of ‘Billy Sharp the footballer’ it was ‘Billy Sharp who got headbutted’. But I’ll get my first goal next season and I think it’ll be put to bed.”

Billy Sharp was speaking at the 2022 LJS Cup, held each year at his former club Middlewood Rovers in memory of his late son Luey. For more information about the competition, visit www.mrjfc.net/ljs-cup.

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