Jermaine Beckford and Eoin Doyle apologise for fight

5 December 2016

2 minute read

Preston North End’s Jermaine Beckford and Eoin Doyle have apologised for fighting each other in the match against Sheffield Wednesday in a statement on the club website.

After initially going 2-0 down, Preston looked like they might have had a chance of getting something out of the game when Doyle got one back against the ten men of Wednesday, with Fernando Forestieri being sent off earlier in the match. However for reasons of which we are still unsure of, Doyle and Beckford started to fight each other and both players ended up being sent off. The game would then end 2-1.

Their head coach Simon Grayson expressed his disappointment with the post-match press conference while many fans demanded that the strikers be sacked for their unprofessional behaviour. The action that would be taken was that Beckford and Doyle would be fined with that money refunding the Preston fans who traveled across the Pennines to watch the match.

The pair have now come out and apologised for their actions, saying in a joint statement: “We apologise wholeheartedly for our actions at Hillsborough.”

“Our behaviour was not acceptable in any walk of life, let alone on a football pitch.”

“We let down the management, our team-mates and most importantly the supporters, who had spent a lot of money to support the team.”

“We accept the punishment given to us by the club and The FA and fully support the club’s decision to refund the ticket costs to the supporters.”

“We have apologised to the manager, the staff and our team-mates and hope that the supporters accept our total remorse for the incident.”

“It is our intention to now put this behind us and to give our all for the benefit of Preston North End going forward.”