Three charged Over Darlington Pitch Invasion

16 July 2011, 09:19 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Three football fans have been charged after a pre-season friendly between Darlington and Newcastle was disrupted by pitch invasions.

Durham Police said visiting Newcastle supporters were arrested for "pitch incursion" and another was escorted from the ground.

Two men, aged 21 and 22, are now set to appear at Darlington Magistrates' Court on July 26, Durham Constabulary said.

A 17 year old boy will also attend Darlington Youth Court on August 5.

The pitch invasion happened after Sammy Ameobi scored Premier League team Newcastle's second goal at the Darlington Arena.

The first was scored by Joey Barton just two minutes after the kick off.

According to reports, Newcastle manager Alan Pardew tried to calm fans down and appealed for them to return to their seats.

Some of the 9,000-plus crowd thought the match had been abandoned, but the referee managed to restart it.

Police could not confirm reports of an isolated outbreak of fighting between fans later during the game.

A force spokeswoman said: "There has been a crowd of more than 9,700, which is significantly more than expected based on ticket sales.

"Everything was peaceful until Newcastle scored their second goal and a pitch incursion occurred which was high spirited but not violent.

"A further pitch incursion of around 20 to 30 people followed - a Newcastle supporter being escorted from the ground and three Newcastle supporters were arrested for pitch incursion."

A statement on Newcastle's website said: "On behalf of everyone at Newcastle United FC, we wholly condemn the behaviour of a number of our supporters who invaded the pitch.

"The club will be seeking to obtain footage of the disorder from Darlington FC and the police and will be taking the strongest possible action against those individuals responsible for the shameful behaviour."

(c) Sky News 2011