Sport

Dr Marwan Koukash insists Salford City Reds will take necessary action in Warrington Wolves bottle incident

By Mark Shales

Salford City Reds owner Dr Marwan Koukash could take action against Warrington Wolves following accusations a player threw a bottle at supporters during yesterday’s game.

The Reds suffered a 68-10 defeat away at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and reports suggested an item was thrown from fans following Michael Monaghan’s second-half try celebration.

Dr Koukash left his seat and headed to the away end with 20 minutes to go to try and calm things down and insists matters will be looked into.

“If it is the fault of our fans and they didn’t tell me the truth then I will deal with them,” he told the BBC.

“But we will take this further because we don’t want to see things like that.”

The result saw Salford slump to their heaviest defeat of the season and their third against Wire in all competitions.

Stewards had to restrain one Salford supporter after Monaghan appeared to throw the ball into the away end after scoring the Wolves’ 11th try on the hour-mark.

But despite the claims Rugby Football League (RFL) match commissioner Ian McGregor is adamant that no player was at fault for the incident.

“A try had been scored by Warrington and the ball had been thrown into the crowd in a form of exuberance,” he told BBC Radio Manchester.

“At this point a Salford fan had obviously got upset and threw a plastic bottle onto the field of play.

“This bottle was then picked up by [Warrington’s] Ben Westwood, shown to the Salford fans and given to a steward. Both the in-goal judge and the touch judge saw this happen.

“I spoke to one of the photographers who showed me some stills on his computer and it shows quite clearly Ben Westwood handing the bottle to the steward.”

Image courtesy of Super League TV, via YouTube, with thanks

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