Neville bottles it!

Last updated : 05 March 2007 By Les Roberts
The Everton captain has explained the reasoning behind his aggressive looking gesticulations towards the Everton fans on Saturday after a plastic bottle was thrown on to the pitch.

But, instead of just coming out and saying: "Yeah, I wanted to make it clear to the bell end that threw the bottle that I thought he was a bell end." he said something about telling the fans to keep focussed.

But I suppose he had to say something, given the publicity it got at the weekend, and abusing your supporters, even if it's justified, is never a wise move.

Neville said of the incident: "The fans were fantastic. It wasn't a criticism when I went behind the goal, it was a case of saying calm down a little. I was just as excited as the fans at that moment but in terms of throwing things on to the pitch it is not what football needs, never mind Everton, because I believe we have got the best away support and the best home support in the land. We don't want anyone labelling us as having bad fans because we haven't.

"I understand that fans do get excited but when I saw the bottle come on to the pitch I just told the fans to calm down behind the goal.

"They were so excited and obviously somebody got a little bit carried away and that is what we don't want to see."

Ian Ross, one time Guardian scribe and now Head of PR at Everton (what a job that is!) backed Neville up by saying: "Although this is an isolated incident with a plastic bottle thrown on to the pitch such actions cannot be condoned. Phil as Club skipper reacted quickly to calm the situation and he deserves credit for that."

So that's that then!

In other, more (de)pressing news, for anyone that hasn't heard, Tim Cahill is out for the rest of the season with a broken foot.

Feck!