“He came straight up to me and he said ‘Neil, I apologise” Neil Dewsnip issues statement amid Jay Stansfield’s controversial goal celebration against Plymouth

Birmingham City took on Plymouth Argyle on Saturday and secured one point after a 3-3 draw with unexpected comeback from The Pilgrims. Wayne Rooney’s side led the first half with a 2-1 win and 3 more goals entered in the second half.

In a surprising turn of events, one of Birmingham City’s scorer, Jay Stansfield’s goal celebration did not go down well with the fans and they began throwing missiles into the field.

The former Exeter City forward was among the goals in a thrilling Championship clash at Home Park. Given his ties to the Grecians – with father, Adam, having also played for Exeter – Stansfield made it clear where his Devon allegiances lie when revealing a t-shirt sporting the message ‘Once a red, always a red’. That behaviour did not go down well with Plymouth supporters, leading to missiles being thrown onto the field.

Wayne Rooney said in a statement after the match “Sometimes you’re better focusing on your job on the pitch, but ultimately he’s a young player learning his trade in the game and he felt this game was very emotional for him and his family and he’s reacted after his goal the way he did, and the referee rightly gave him a yellow card. I knew he went behind the goal to the fans, I didn’t know he had a T-shirt.”

Rooney added: “I’ll speak to Jay on it. When you get involved with fans you never know what the reaction is going to be. I’ve been there myself, I’ve made mistakes like that myself on the pitch and it’s something which I’m sure he’ll learn from.”

Stansfield is on loan at Birmingham from Fulham, and Rooney has already apologised to Plymouth for the actions of his 21-year-old forward.

Pilgrims director Neil Dewsnip told reporters: “He [Rooney] came straight up to me and he said ‘Neil, I apologise, I know about the Exeter Plymouth thing, I will speak to him in the dressing room’. Maybe that was why he took him off later on, I don’t know.”