Kurt Zouma shown how to treat cats as former St Johnstone defender Jason Kerr handles surprise pitch invader

On the day West Ham’s Kurt Zouma attracted widespread condemnation after a video emerged of him dropping, kicking and slapping his pet cat, Kerr's antics during the match between Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan Athletic drew only a positive reaction.

In the second half, with the Latics trailing 1-0 to a hotly-disputed penalty, a cat made its way onto the field.

Having evaded the clutches of Wednesday's Callum Paterson, Wigan defender Kerr gently swept up the feline in his arms and cradled it off the pitch to safety before handing it over to a member of staff.

The match didn't have such a happy ending for the Scottish centre-half, however, with Wednesday holding on - by a whisker - to inflict Latics second defeat in four matches.

Meanwhile, the Zouma row escalated after West Ham selected the defender for their match against Watford on Tuesday evening, leading Hammers manager David Moyes to defend his decision against a wave of criticism.

Moyes told the BBC’s Match of the Day: “It’s something we’re all disappointed with and something we can’t understand.

“He’ll learn from it [but] today I had to pick a football team that gave me the best chance of winning the game as manager of West Ham.

Wigan Athletic's Jason Kerr attempts to remove a cat from the pitch during the Sky Bet League One match at Hillsborough, Sheffield. Pic: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.

“I know how people feel, but I’m also a football manager here.

“My feeling was that Kurt has apologised and I understand a lot of people will not just be accepting of an apology.

“But to me he came out and [apologised] honestly and I had to do my job.”

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