Pond is praised for race reaction

By Josh Knowles

JAMIE Milligan has praised his Bamber Bridge captain Nathan Pond for not reacting to the racist abuse which he allegedly received in last Saturday’s victory over Guiseley.

The culprit, who admitted the comment and was ejected from the Sir Tom Finney Stadium, is believed to be connected to someone known to the club and a formal complaint has been submitted to The FA.

But while Brig boss Milligan was left raging by the alleged comment, he remained proud of the actions of the 38-year-old former Fleetwood and Salford City defender.

“An injury had happened at the side of the pitch and Pondy had gone over to get the ball,” Millgan explained. “The ref told him to play on and take the throw-in but Pondy stood still and called the ref over.

“As soon as he called the ref over, I knew it was something like that had been said so I went over and you can imagine we was all fuming. The ref told a steward to get him out and the person looked embarrassed, he was even stood with his lad which is a bit of a shambles. He said ‘I’m going’ and that was that.”

Sadly, this isn’t the first time Pond has been subject to racial abuse – and boss Milligan was witness to the previous scenario too.

On that occasion, Milligan was Pond’s teammate at Fleetwood when there was an altogether different reaction.

“I remember when it happened to Pondy before and he jumped over the fences and started swinging for the lad who did it and I thought ‘he’s going to do the same here’,” Milligan recalled.

“I wouldn’t have blamed him either. But he didn’t, he kept calm and did the right thing and the lad got thrown out and Pondy continued to play as well as he did.

“It shouldn’t be happening at all. The club have complained to the FA and they’re taking it from there really but we’ve done all we can. I think they should be named and shamed, simple as that.”

The player himself took to Twitter after the game to share his views on the incident which dampened what was a positive afternoon on the field for Bamber Bridge following their 2-1 victory over the Lions.

Pond tweeted: “The year 2023 and still getting racial abuse from a fan. Learnt my lesson and didn’t go in after him this time. He admitted and the ref evicted him.”