The English Football Association has been warned it must improve player safety or risk suffering a fatal injury after Frank Lampard was confronted on the pitch following Chelsea's FA Cup quarter-final win over Tottenham Hotspur.
The Queens Park Rangers goalkeeper Simon Royce watched in disbelief when a supporter broke through a line of stewards and race towards the England midfielder before he was dragged to the ground by Chelsea's fitness coach Rui Faria at White Hart Lane on Monday night.
It was just over a year since Royce was attacked by a Stoke City supporter in a Championship game at the Britannia Stadium and he wonders how far the FA is willing to let things go before taking action. "You have got to look at players' safety. There's a big thing about discipline and clubs being fined for not controlling their players, so they've got to do the same if they can't control their fans.
"The fan who attacked me could have had a knife. I was in complete shock because I didn't know what was going on. When I realised, the stewards got him out of the way, but he shouldn't have been there in the first place.
"It's more afterwards that it hits you. You think about your family and them seeing that and getting worried, which is quite frightening. Somebody in authority is going to have to do something about it. It doesn't happen often, but that's twice in the space of two years."
Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association has also called for the authorities to tighten up the security measures. He believed that players are entitled to celebrate a victory at the end of the game, but may have to control their enthusiasm when playing away from home.
Taylor said: "I was not impressed by what I saw on Monday night and it is quite worrying. It is a very difficult situation for the players, because they feel they can leave it to the stewards and they have not done their job.
"It is really sad if the players cannot celebrate winning a game anymore and I hope the police don't start to caution that. But this has got to be a warning because players must be careful how they celebrate a victory and not go over the top."
Tottenham wasted no time in handing a lifetime ban to Timothy Smith, who raced on the pitch and have promised to help the FA look into the incidents that dominated their defeat against Chelsea. The Chelsea supporter, Byron Wilkinson (28), was also arrested for encroaching on to the pitch.
Tottenham said yesterday they would "fully co-operate" with the FA and added: "The club considers the safety of supporters and players to be paramount." An FA spokesman said: "These scenes were totally unacceptable and we will be contacting Spurs as a matter of priority. We want to establish what safety and security provisions were in place for the game and to confirm what action was taken against the fans who ran on to the pitch. We understand that both individuals were arrested and we would expect them to be given football banning orders."
Lampard was still shaken as he reported to the England squad at Arsenal's training ground yesterday. "You don't expect something like that to happen," he said. "I'm just pleased that I managed to get out of the way of it and that nothing serious came out of what could have been a really bad situation. It was a worrying incident and it could have been a lot worse."
Lampard welcomed the news that Spurs have imposed a lifetime ban on his would-be assailant and he expects the incident to lead to a review of security not just at White Hart Lane, but also at other grounds throughout England.
"We have to set a precedent now and make sure we don't let it happen again," he said. "The authorities are treating it seriously and I'm sure they will want to make sure it never happens again. People talk about the fact we were celebrating in front of the fans and getting stick from the supporters. But that's perfectly normal in football. It is part of the game. What happened in this case, however, was over-stepping the mark. I hope it doesn't happen again - as simple as that."
