Police caution fan for waving 8ft swastika at football match

The supporter – a man in his 20s – was spotted by officers at an ill-tempered Emirates Scottish Junior Cup tie between Bathgate Thistle and Bo'ness United at the weekend.

Officers at the match at Creamery Park in Bathgate warned the Bo'ness supporter who was sitting in the main stand to take down the 8ft flag which was emblazoned with the Nazi emblem.

It came after complaints about sectarian singing in the town's pubs before the game, and sick chants by away supporters during the match relating to the murder of Vicky Hamilton.

A police spokesman said: "A person was warned by police to discard the flag and this was done straight away."

One fan who was at the game said: "There's no need for that in society, never mind at a football game. No one minds a bit of rivalry between clubs, especially at Scottish Cup games where a bit of needle is expected, but that is completely out of order.

"It's got absolutely nothing to do with football. Their grandads probably fought and died against the Nazis."

Bo'ness chairman Dougie Sneddon said a group of "so-called fans" from the town had targeted the club's big matches in the Junior Scottish Cup against local rivals Linlithgow to cause trouble in recent years.

He said: "We have been trying to get rid of that crowd for a long time and don't want them following us. They're damaging our club's reputation.

"For big matches we have to hire extra security on top of the police, and this costs us half our gate money.

"It's a very awkward situation but what can we do about it? We have all our buses vetted by police before we travel. We really can't do anymore.

"We have an official supporters club with a lot of good youngsters who follow us and we only want people who have the club's best interests at heart to come along to our games.

"We are a well supported family club with a lot of older supporters and shouldn't be put in this position by these idiots."

Bathgate Councillor Jim Walker, who also sits on Bathgate Thistle's committee, added: "This type of thing is totally unacceptable.

"We never have anything remotely like this at games but I sympathise and express our appreciation with Bo'ness over 'fans' who surface at Scottish Cup games.

"I wasn't aware of the incident but have since heard the police dealt with this very quickly because we don't want to see this anywhere in society," he added.

A Bo'ness man was banned from every ground in Scotland for throwing a flare on to the pitch in a derby match between Linlithgow and Bo'ness in October last year.

Michael Smith, 21, also lost his job as a security steward at Falkirk FC after he was branded "mindless" by a sheriff and fined 1,000 for the offence.