Hamilton fan ‘challenged Hibs supporters to fight’

A HAMILTON Accies fan who challenged Hibs fans to fight has been jailed for six months and banned from any football match in the UK for two years.

Trouble flared on Easter Road. Picture Neil Hanna

Alexander McQuarrie, 20, of Napier Drive, Govan, had pleaded guilty previously to shouting, swearing, and acting in an aggressive manner following a game at Easter Road in May last year.

Fiscal Depute, Kim Schofield, told Sheriff Norman McFadyen that supporters of both clubs had clashed after the game. Police in Easter Road saw McQuarrie acting in the aggressive manner at West Norton Place, where he was challenging fans to fight. He was arrested.

Defence solicitor, David Patterson, said his client had acted “in the spur of the moment”.

“He accepts the police were there to do their jobs and keep him safe,” he added. McQuarrie was a young man who had been mixing with negative influences, he said, but since then had made changes to his life and had moved away from the negative influences. Sheriff McFadyen told McQuarrie: “You are simply a thug”.