Hull City have released a statement justifying their decision not to eject Leeds United fans from the stadium after a large portion had bought tickets and sat in the home end during their 4-0 win at the KCOM Stadium.

Leeds United made the trip to East Yorkshire to face Hull City at the weekend in a televised Saturday afternoon match that was teed up to have important implications at both ends of the table.

The Whites were backed by a packed-out away end and were sent into delirium early into the game when Luke Ayling’s speculative effort from range deflected off Hull’s Callum Elder and looped into the far corner after just four minutes.

However, problems arose in the stands as a large group of Leeds fans had to be escorted from the home end, across the stadium, towards the travelling supporters, much to the anger of the Tigers faithful as there was the assumption that those fans would be ejected from the ground after purchasing tickets in the wrong stand.

The stewarding process at the KCOM Stadium came in for an awful lot of criticism after the game as they did little to ease the tension in the home end and almost parading the celebrating Leeds fans in front of them was adding insult to injury.

The Tigers have since released a statement via the Stadium Management Company (SMC) justifying their decision: “A risk-based decision was taken on the day to relocate, rather than eject, visiting supporters from home areas in the interest of spectator and staff safety.

“This decision was made given the high number of Leeds fans identified in home areas of the stadium.

“We accept the means of relocating these supporters along the East Stand aggravated some home fans and caused distress.

“We wholeheartedly apologise to those fans whose matchday experience was adversely affected.

“Discussions have taken place with the relevant parties and we are looking at tightening our ticketing and stewarding procedures to mitigate the risk of this happening in the future.

“We are considering different options, such as increasing the away allocation and/or removing general admission and selling to existing supporters on our database.”

It was visible from the Hull fans’ reactions during the game that they weren’t happy with th decision to let the offending Leeds fans off the hook, and this statement did little to allay their anger towards the management of the situation...

How well will you do in this Hull City left-foot/right-foot challenge?