Violence in Lancaster after Morecambe v Blackpool football match

Michelle Fish said she felt “powerless” as she witnessed her son, who was working as a doorman outside the Crafty Scholar pub, disappear into a sea of rowdy fans on Saturday night.

The scenes of violence, who eyewitnesses said were Blackpool fans, came after the Shrimps 2-1 win against Blackpool at the Globe Arena.

With a broken nose and a bloodied shirt, from an earlier incident of violence, Ryan Fish tried his best to beat off a group of almost 30 men – many old enough to be grandfathers.

Michelle, from Lancaster, said: “We had only been in the Study Rooms for five minutes when we heard this chanting, when we looked out the window there was a group of men, aged between 30 and 50-years-old, coming from the top of the street and these weren’t kids, they were dads, grandads.”

The men marched down Church Street, in Lancaster, shortly after 7pm, heading towards the pub.

When they were denied entry by the doormen chaos erupted.

Michelle said: “The whole lot of them charged the Crafty Scholar, throwing fists and punches.

“They were all chanting about Owen Oyston.

“Police appeared out of nowhere, pushing them all back down the street, they weren’t giving in though, they were up for a fight.

“I have never seen anything quite as bad as this in all my life.

“I was powerless, my heart was in my mouth, it was quite hard to sit and watch these men charge at my son.

“There was about eight to nine men targeting one doorman.

“It was quite scary to see, I was quite intimidated and it takes a lot for me to feel like that.

“I can’t work out why adults or anybody would want to behave like that.

“Police and door staff worked together, they pushed them all back towards Bella Italia, police were trying to get them to go home, it seemed to disperse after this.”

Michelle’s son, Ryan, 23, has been working as a doormen for five years.

The 50-year-old spoke to her son shortly after the incident and said it was one of the worst events her son has had to deal with.

She said: “I don’t particularly like him doing that job but that’s what he does.

“Lancaster is usually not that bad.

“We didn’t leave until it was all over, I am just disgusted.”

“I was out for tea with some friends at Gionnais, and suddenly out of nowhere there was a lot of police presence coming down the street, police cars and vans. We were there for another 30 minutes and they blocked off the end of the road. We decided to go to the Study Rooms and I walked past my son who is a doorman at the Crafty Scholar pub, his shirt was covered in blood and his nose was out of place, he said he was alright. They looked like they had a few to drink, they were just making an awful lot of noise. They stopped at the Crafty Scholar and the doormen turned them away and from there it was chaos.

A lot of people were scared inside the Study Room. They werent letting the Blackpool fans in, as they got to the door they started kicking off.

He ha dno choice, he arried onw ith a broken nose.

7pm Saturday.

There was lots of people around in the street, families, different age groups, The police and doormen were trying their best to stop it. chanting about osten.

He has dealth with a lof of stuff in his time I spoke to him on Sunday, he said it was one of the worstevents he has had to deal with.

I think he had to deal with them before hand too.

7.45pm.