ROWDY England fans’ behaviour has been criticised by a taxi driver whose car was caught in the middle of a march through Barnsley town centre.
The driver, who did not wish to be named, picked up a fare in the town last Saturday before driving along Wellington Street - just after England’s 2-0 World Cup quarter-final win against Sweden at around 5pm.
Police said the day was the busiest of the year, as fans flocked to the town centre’s bars to watch Gareth Southgate’s side in action - who subsequently went out of the tournament to Croatia in the semi-final on Wednesday night.
“There must have been more than 500 people walking on the road,” the taxi driver told the Chronicle. “It was chaos, but there did not appear to be any police officers to control them when we needed them to.
“The fans didn’t cause any damage but it wasn’t a nice experience. They had just won, so were obviously very happy, but they still thought it was fine to shake the car from side to side and that’s not acceptable when all I was doing was my job.
“There were people doing it on both sides and I couldn’t do anything about it. I can’t think of a reason why they did it other than them being drunk.
“I had a passenger in the back seat and we couldn’t believe what we witnessed.”
A video of another incident on the day, also on Wellington Street, has been viewed more than 130,000 times on social media this week which shows jubilant fans shaking a taxi and one fan jumping onto its boot.
It comes after fans were warned to be on their best behaviour by police in the run-up to last weekend’s tie, which saw dozens of officers drafted in to control thousands in the town centre - a measure which was repeated on Wednesday night.
Mark Cox, the former chairman of the Hackney Carriage Association in Barnsley, told the Chronicle that the majority of taxi drivers opted against driving on Wellington Street post-match due to the number of people taking to the streets.
According to Ch Supt Shaun Morley, South Yorkshire Police’s World Cup policing operation lead, only the minority spoiled an otherwise friendly tournament and he thanked them for their co-operation with the police.
“On the whole there’s not been many incidents in Barnsley,” he told the Chronicle. “It’s been enjoyed by most people and only a few have caused a problem.
“England had a fantastic run, which obviously helped matters, but we made sure we were well-equipped to cope with the amount of people in the town centre should anything happen.
“Fans were quite subdued after the Croatia defeat, so Wednesday night was smoother than we were expecting given the amount of people who came out to support the team.
“I would like to thank the thousands of fans who behaved themselves and helped to create a great atmosphere in the town centre.”
