CROWD trouble is not something you often associate with Worcester City.

For a club who attract modest attendances, seldom do things get too out of hand on the terraces.

In the just over eight years I have been covering the team, there are only two incidents that spring to mind.

One is the now infamous scenes of the FA Cup defeat at Godalming Town in October 2011 when manager Carl Heeley clashed with fans angered by the team’s performance in a 2-1 second qualifying round defeat in Surrey.

Whatever the cause as emotions ran high, nobody came out of that in a particularly good light.

The other was last October when an impromptu fracas broke out on the north terrace during the FA Cup fourth qualifying round victory against Greenwich Borough.

On that occasion, a handful of Greenwich supporters had found their way into the City end and, momentarily, fans were seen falling forwards on the terraces as troubled flared.

Thankfully, the incident was quashed almost as soon as it started but nevertheless was as unsavoury as it was potentially dangerous.

But more was to follow, again in the FA Cup.

Following both second round ties against Scunthorpe United, the Conference North outfit found themselves in the dock.

The Football Association took exception to a section of their supporters invading the pitch to celebrate the 1-1 draw at Glanford Park and securing a replay against the League One side. Pretty standard stuff in such situations but a slap on the wrist nonetheless.

More concerning was the replay. It has since been revealed that Worcester were forced to reduce the capacity at Aggborough because of that pitch invasion, something that would have lost them vital revenue in ticket sales. Then, during the replay, flares and smoke bombs were let off by fans and, worse still, bottles were thrown during the dramatic 14-13 penalty shoot-out.

While it went unreported at the time, the FA were again called in and City officials made to account for the actions of their supporters.

Once again, they have escaped with a ticking-off after the authorities chose not to take any further action.

But they have been left in no doubt that they might not be treated so leniently next time. Which, hopefully, won’t happen.

In this situation I think City need to be cut a bit of slack. Beyond the occasional piece of segregation, they are not used to dealing with large crowds and certainly nothing on the scale seen against Scunthorpe. While that doesn’t excuse what happened, you would like to think lessons will have been learned should Worcester find themselves in that position again.

The fans involved should also take note of their actions and realise they ran the risk of tarnishing City’s name at one of the proudest moments in their history.