No action over Lonergan gestures to Burnley crowd

10:50am Tuesday 14th September 2010 in Sport

GESTURES: Andy Lonergan at Turf Moor on Saturday GESTURES: Andy Lonergan at Turf Moor on Saturday

LANCASHIRE Police will take no action against Andy Lonergan after the Preston goalkeeper made gestures to the crowd in the closing stages of Burnley’s 4-3 derby victory on Saturday.

Lonergan was caught on camera directing gestures at Clarets supporters in the Jimmy McIlroy Stand but both the police and Burnley Football Club have decided to leave the matter to the FA, who have been notified after the incident was included in referee Kevin Friend’s report.

Chief Inspector Jeff Brown, of Lancashire Police, said: “Lonergan's behaviour was picked up in the referee’s report and the FA have their own disciplinary procedures.

“We have had no specific complaints regarding this and we are happy for the FA to deal with the matter.”

Burnley fan Lee Bentley, who attended the game with his eight-year-old son, said: “The behaviour of Andy Lonergan was unprofessional, mindless and could potentially have started a riot.

“Worst of all the incident was directly in front of the Family Stand.”

Comments(5)

Mikeee47 says...
10:56am Tue 14 Sep 10

if this had been a fan im sure the police would have acted, unacceptable,

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PK Bailey says...
11:22am Tue 14 Sep 10

Some common sense at last,Lonergan reacted because of the fans its a two way thing.There was nothing better then to see him react in this way for all the time wasting he did when they were winning.We got on top of Preston and he did not like it, long may it persist.

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northernlass05 says...
12:00pm Tue 14 Sep 10

I dont support either team but was at the game and was appalled at the bottles being thrown at a Preston player as he was being carried off on a stretcher..... what a load of scum they are. It was probably the same moron who threw another bottle when BFC went 1.3 down..... The lad on the stretcher is a Burnley fan and so too are his family although if i was them i would be ashamed to admit that fact with the behavior of the minority of morons at the game.

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gudari says...
12:43pm Tue 14 Sep 10

Whoever tries to find excuses or condone Lonergan's actions at the end of the game should really take a long look at their system of values. The kids were wrong but how many times have I heard " two wrongs don't make a right!" ? Lonergan is a professional footballer and is paid lots of money to, amongst other things, receive abuse. It's part of his job and in my opinion, he let Nrth End and football in general down. What kind of a society is it when people actually make excuses for the likes of Terry, Cole, Rooney and Lonergan? They like to earn the big wage-packets but have forgotten their duties it would appear!

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Tetley Drinker says...
6:15pm Tue 14 Sep 10

Well the club and the police took the same line in the mid 90s after those antics involving members of the coaching staff and youth team players. Now im as liberal and open-minded as anyone but those lads were too young to be involved in that type of activity.

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