Fan charged after Aston Villa players hit by bottle thrown from crowd

A football fan has been charged with assault after two Aston Villa players were floored by a bottle thrown from the crowd at Everton’s Goodison Park.

Roger Tweedle, of Cranehurst Road, Walton, is accused of throwing a bottle that left Villa players Lucas Digne and Matty Cash on the ground on Saturday.

The alleged incident occurred as Aston Villa celebrated a goal in the first half of the match.

The 19-year-old, who is also charged with throwing an item onto the pitch, has been released on conditional bail.

He will appear at South Sefton Magistrates Court on February 28.

The game was Duncan Ferguson’s first in charge of his second spell as Everton caretaker manager following the dismissal of Rafael Benitez.

After the match, Mr Ferguson said: “I never saw the bottles thrown, I’ve been told after and we don’t want that, it is bang out of order.

“That is not the way to do things. It is totally wrong.”

Villa manager, Steven Gerrard, said he had not seen the incident and that his players had not let it distract them from the task at hand.

He said: “None of the players have mentioned it. We scored at an important time. The players never let it affect them, they focused on the performance.

“I haven’t seen it so I don’t want to comment on anything which may or may not have happened. The important thing is we focused on resetting the performance and never let it affect us.”