Troy Deeney makes urgent plea after Nottingham Forest incident

Birmingham City forward Troy Deeney has made a heartfelt plea to the FA to look into player safety after a rise in incidents involving supporters clashing with players and managers.

Nottingham Forest were involved in one incident on Tuesday (May 17) when season ticket holder Robert Biggs, 30, was caught on television cameras assaulting Sheffield United captain Billy Sharp during a pitch invasion after Forest's penalty shoot-out win over the Blades in the play-offs at the City Ground. Biggs has been jailed for 24 weeks.

Further incidents took place after Port Vale's play-off semi-final win over Swindon Town, as well as after Everton's win over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park - a result which secured the Toffees' Premier League survival.

In a column for The Sun, Deeney said: "In this country, we are always reactive rather than proactive. So, do something about it... before someone is killed. These invasions have become a growing trend over the last couple of weeks and what we have seen is an undying need from a small percentage of idiots to go that one step further."

The issue of player safety has risen to the top after footage emerged of Palace boss Patrick Vieira reacting to abuse by kicking an Everton pitch invader, as well as other incidents at other games.

"We are in a weird space right now where the victim is seen as the problem, more than the person who is actually the problem," wrote Deeney.

"The stewarding also has to be looked at. You don’t want the stewards to put themselves in danger but it feels like right now that if you want to walk on to a pitch, you can. What will it take for that to change? A player to react and a supporter gets seriously hurt? That player would end up getting punished, and maybe a prison