(C) Wigan Cosmos
Hundreds Newcastle fans ran riot at a Sunday League match ahead of the controversial Premier League clash against Wigan at the weekend, dropping their trousers, swinging on crossbars, ripping out corner flags, tearing nets and even stealing the match ball.
As many as 300 Toon supporters on their way to the DW Stadium piled off coaches and started causing havoc at the local pitches at Scott Lane where Wigan Cosmos were taking on AFC Leigh Centurions in a South Lancashire Counties League match.
The chaos began 15 minutes into the match when several coachloads of Newcastle fans turned up, apparently to watch the match.
"Some fans then chose to run onto the field of play, dropping their pants, causing the game to be stopped," the Wigan Cosmos said in a statement.
"Although good natured at first, the fans then started to rip out corner flags as they ran over the pitches and also took the match ball.
"We never recovered the ball, though we did manage to recover the corner flags.
(c) Wigan Cosmos
"The so-called fans then decided to charge over to the adjacent pitch where Goose Green Reserves were entertaining Olympic AFC in another South Lancashire Counties Fixture.
"They again began by ripping out their corner flags. The fans then charged into the goalmouth, jumping onto the goalposts in an attempt to snap the crossbar with the sheer numbers clambering on them.
"They then started to rip the nets from the posts, tearing them and trying to take them. Our players helped to retrieve the nets.
"After spending quite some time singing and hanging on the goalposts the fans then ran back over to our pitch whilst singing “we’re Newcastle United, we’ll do what we want.”
(c) Wigan Cosmos
The rampage lasted 40 minutes, and apparently left "families, dads, grandads and youngsters shaken", the statement added, as well as leaving the club with a bill for £200 for the replacement of damaged and stolen gear.
"This may sound miniscule to a Premier League Club that receives mass income from a variety of sources but it is a significant debt to an amateur non-profit football club that raises its funds from charity events and the weekly charge put on its players to allow them to enjoy a game of sport," the club added.
"The fact that these same fans have taken to Twitter and YouTube to boast about the incident and in fact revelling in it, showing no signs of remorse is possibly even more disturbing. Not only have they cost my football team a great deal of expense but they have shown a total disrespect to football itself."
(c) Wigan Cosmos
It turned out not to be the only controversial incident that day: in the match itself, which kicked off just under two hours later at 4pm, Wigan's Callum McMananman produced a reckless challenge on Massadio Haidara that could have been career-threatening yet did not even earn him a booking.
Thankfully, Haidara's injury is less serious than originally thought - and it seems there could be a happy ending to the Wigan Cosmos as well. Wigan Athletic and Newcastle United have both been in touch with Cosmos and promised compensation, with Newcastle also working with police to identify and prosecute the fans at the centre of the trouble.
But even if the clubs had not done so already, it seems as if the vast majority of decent, football-loving Newcastle fans were already intent on putting right the wrong: several Newcastle fans disgusted at the scenese had apparently already been in touch with Wigan Cosmos and were offering to pay for the damage caused by their fellow Magpies supporters.