Is celebrating an away goal among home fans ever acceptable?

But there has usually been more tolerance shown towards children, particularly in grounds' designated Family Stands. On Saturday, however, a caller to BBC 5 Live's 606, Lawrie from Birmingham, recounted his experience of what had occured to him and his sons at Villa Park that afternoon while watching Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with Manchester United, or to be more accurate 60 per cent of it.

"I'm ringing to vent my disgust at how we were treated at Villa Park today," he told Darren Fletcher and Robbie Savage. "We were only allowed to stay in the ground for 53 minutes because stewards decided to kick out a seven-year-old and nine-year-old boy.

"I bought tickets in the Family Stand for a Christmas treat for the boys. Their mum is a Villa fan, I'm a United fan and they're inbetween the two.

"We didn't celebrate the Villa goal but when Falcao equalised the two boys jumped up in the air, super excited that Falcao had scored. I gave them a big hug. At that exact moment one woman from one side and one from three rows back jumped out of their seats to screech: 'Kick them out.'

"Within a second we were dropped on by two stewards who without any thought whatsoever, no negotiation, no warning and telling us to calm down, said: 'You've got to leave the stadium, guys.' We weren't asked, we were told ... and booted out of the ground. I apologised to the people around, it brought my boys to tears.

"I said surely you're joking? Can't we just apologise and promise not to jump up again ... do we really have to go? The stewards said 'you have to leave now or do you want us to get the police?'

"The stewards as they were walking us out said 'it could have kicked off'. We were in the family stand. They're seven and nine. It's not going to kick off."

Celebrating, of course, was a lapse of etiquette but was it really necessary to throw them out of the ground? Has football become so tribal that stewards cannot guarantee the safety of children? Or is this another example of officious, heavy-handed and blockheaded stewarding that has become a pox on the matchday experience over the past decade?

(telegraph.co.uk)