Keith Curle praises players after racist abuse

Northampton manager Keith Curle has praised his players for the way they reacted to an incident of alleged racist abuse prior to Saturday’s draw at Notts County.

The Cobblers said a number of their players were victims of racial abuse when they were confronted during their walk to the stadium from the team hotel.

In a video posted on YouTube by the club, Curle said: “First and foremost, I think the players conducted themselves in the right manner.

“They were shocked to be confronted as a team, for somebody to come up and say what he said. I think there was a knock-on effect of disbelief.

“I’ve got to say, the players reacted in the right way. It could have escalated but credit to the players, it didn’t.

“I think the players represented the football club and themselves very well on this occasion.”

The incident was one of several to occur in England and Scotland at the weekend.

Watford captain Troy Deeney disabled comments on his Instagram page after reporting racial abuse following the Hornets’ FA Cup semi-final win over Wolves on Sunday.

A man was arrested after racial abuse was directed at Derby midfielder Duane Holmes during their match at Brentford on Saturday, while another man turned himself in to authorities after an offensive message was sent to Wigan’s Nathan Byrne via social media.

In Scotland, a 38-year-old man was charged with using racist language at the Edinburgh derby.

Police Scotland are also investigating after footage was posted on Twitter which purported to show racist abuse directed at Hibernian midfielder Marvin Bartley during his side’s 2-1 win over Hearts.

Sports Minister Mims Davies described the racist abuse of footballers on social media as “shameful”.

She said in a statement: “Social media should not be a platform for racism and hate and there needs to be zero tolerance for this despicable behaviour. We are putting a new duty of care on social media companies to keep users safe, with an independent regulator to hold them to account for not tackling hate speech on their platforms.”