Everton took a significant step towards qualification for the Europa League group stages on Thursday night, although their 2-0 victory over Hajduk Split was marred by crowd trouble in the away end.
The referee temporarily stopped play during the first half as supporters of the Croatian club clashed with stewards. Objects were also thrown on to the pitch.
Given some of the footage that’s emerged, you’d forgive some of those in attendance at Goodison Park for being slightly intimidated by the trouble – especially the ballboy tasked with patrolling the touchline immediately in front of the away supporters.
This, as the footage below shows, was not the case. After being shepherded away from danger by one of the stewards, a young ballboy opts to stay within yards of the trouble, even taking the opportunity to hone his keepy-uppy skills on the Goodison turf.
The moment was captured by one Evertonian and shared in the tweet below. Since being sent, it’s received hundreds of retweets.
Hajduk Split fans try and get on the Goodison pitch, but I love this ball boy giving zero fucks and doing keepy-uppies in front of them pic.twitter.com/vciScgPqGx
— 🅰🅽🅳🆈 (@SpinarelloDogma) August 17, 2017
Michael Keane had given Everton the lead in the first half with his first goal for the club. This was followed by another from Idrissa Gueye shortly before half-time.
Uefa will now look at the crowd trouble ahead of next week’s return leg in Split.
