This is how you handle the drunks

Aston Villa are having a pretty good season. That goes without saying really. The fans were feeling it early, as shown by 30-year season ticket holder John Billington back in October. Billington, ostensibly bothered by the fact that his team were about to drop two points to Portsmouth, took the opportunity to show his anger by firing a 50-pence piece at assistant referee Phil Sharp. It connected. It drew blood. And now Billington has a criminal record and a five-year ban from football.

Oh, and the judge totally pwnzed him while giving her verdict.


Dr Ann Morrison, whom I just assume is a judge, took the time to reprimand Billington thusly:

There can be absolutely no excuse for an assault on an official doing their duty. Your biggest penalty is the fact that you now have a serious criminal record. Your family and your children have suffered because of your stupidity. A man of 43 should know better than to drink six pints on an empty stomach. You behaved like a stupid, drunken lunatic.

Yowza. That is a verbal beatdown.

There's more to the story here. Of course, because Scotland cannot agree with either England or Wales on banning orders, he's more than free to choose a team north of the border. Given Celtic's recent record of crowd control, I'd say he fits in nicely at Parkhead.