Sheffield United defender Enda Stevens has said he was "actually fearing" for his life when Nottingham Forest supporters invaded the City Ground pitch during the play-offs.
Speaking ahead of the Republic of Ireland's international fixtures, Stevens was asked about the incident after Forest beat Sheffield United in the play-off semi-final second leg. He did not hold back when insisting that more needs to be done to protect players in such situations. A Forest fan was jailed after running on to the pitch and headbutting Billy Sharp.
"Shocking," he told reporters during a press conference. "Over the course of that week or so, it was happening continuously. I was out there with him (Billy Sharp) and it was just an absolute disgrace.
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"The thing is with that, you're actually fearing for your life. You're on a pitch and thinking: 'I can be attacked at any moment here'. There was no help for us, nobody there to protect us."
He added: "It's something in football that needs to change. I don't really blame the stewards because it's very hard for them to contain 25,000 or 30,000 Nottingham Forest fans, but the situation was shocking and it shouldn't be happening.
"It comes down to protecting us. We are the one's isolated out there, and we had no protection at all. There were people in place to protect us but they chose not to. They could see it first hand and they didn't help us. It was up to ourselves to help each other out and try get ourselves off the pitch, whereas they could probably do better in terms of policing it more, more stewards. It is a difficult one for the stewards, I do understand that, but it is something that has to change.
"Obviously they (fans) have been away from the game for two years with coronavirus. Emotions were high, it was an emotional game and it's all well (and good) if you want to run onto the pitch and celebrate, but the attacking of opposition players is an absolute disgrace. Especially that there is 11 lads or a squad of 20 lads and there is 20,000 people on a pitch running at you from left, right and centre. You don't know what is going to happen. It could come from anywhere."
