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01
Oct
Drone stops play at Harrogate Town match
Players were forced to leave the pitch at Harrogate Town last night when a drone was flown across the stadium.
Town were 1-0 up against Huddersfield Town when the incident occurred in the 86th minute.
Referee Zac Kennard-Kettle led the teams off the pitch in front of 2,262 fans amid widespread bemusement.
They returned shortly afterwards, and Town completed what was their third victory in three matches.
Town manager Simon Weaver admitted afterwards he’d never seen anything like it.
He told the BBC:
I was looking up and thinking, ‘what on earth is happening here?’ I don’t know the protocol but to be fair to the referee and officials they stayed composed and they’ve got to do something so there’s no point shouting at them because they’ve got to follow the rules and the rules and proticol state you’ve got to go off until it’s clear.
My only concern is we’ve played 86 minutes and we’re in a winning position and who knows who owns this drone. It took some time but fortunately we wrapped it up eventually.
Weaver joked:
"I don’t know who spotted it. If it was an official, I’m not sure why he was looking up in the sky. I’m not sure we went that direct and up in the air. To be fair they did the right course of action.”
Defender Jacon Slater told the BBC:
“I’ve never seen it before. Literally no-one had any idea what was going on.”
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