Jamie Carragher defends himself over Luton incident

Jan 14 2008

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has defended his actions after confronting Luton supporters after last week’s FA Cup draw at Kenilworth Road.

Carragher climbed a fence to argue with fans who he claimed swore and threw beer at him as he left the field.

No action was taken against the 30-year-old after neither the Football Association nor the police received any complaints.

Carragher told BBC Radio Five Live: “A few words were said and someone threw a glass of beer over me, so it wasn’t the end of the world but you react in that split second.

“No-one spat at me - I want to put that straight. I don’t want whoever did it getting more criticism than necessary.

“I just reacted. People from Liverpool have got something about them and if they’re not happy about something they let people know.”

Liverpool have endured a difficult spell - on and off the field - in recent weeks and are now all but out of the Barclays Premier League title race after falling 12 points behind leaders Manchester United and Arsenal.

That would make it 18 years without a league title and Carragher concedes the team have not coped well enough with the demanding programme despite proving their ability in cup competitions.

He added: “A few of us have been here a long time and we have picked up virtually everything else now.

“The competition at the moment - Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea and other clubs coming through, Aston Villa, Everton, Tottenham - to win any competition is tough.

“So I am delighted to have achieved what I have achieved but we do realise the Premier League is something we haven’t won for a long time and we would love to do it.

“But I am sure those other clubs would maybe love to win the Champions League, so we’ve got to be thankful we’ve got that as well.

“We have got that tag that we are a cup team. The mentality of it - 38 games is a long haul it probably does take a lot out of you and that’s something the other teams have done a lot better than us.”