Noel Hunt reveals that brother Stephen prevented him from throwing a dig at a Norwich fan

It could have been so different for the Hunt brothers.

They had made it to the Championship play-off semi-final with Ipswich but were beaten at the final hurdle in the second leg by East Anglian rivals Norwich. Then both Noel and Stephen found out that neither of their contracts would be renewed at Portman Road and that they were free to find a new club. While that's unfortunate news for the pair of Irishmen, the story could have been much worse if Noel had gotten his way at full time in that second leg. Writing in his blog on BeanBagSports last night, the former Reading forward revealed how he almost let frustration get the better of him when a certain Norwich fan invaded the pitch after the final whistle.

"I remember when I went out to warm up a couple of times, one of Norwich’s older fans, mid 50’s, was shouting abuse at me. When the full time whistle went, their fans invaded the pitch. As I walked across to applaud our fans I could hear him on the pitch shouting behind me. I thought, just give me one chance. "I then thought, no, leave it. I walked over to our fans who have been superb throughout the season. We owed it to the fans to applaud them and I threw my shirt into them. As I turned around, that guy was there. He was wanting to square up to me and I thought right, just hit him, just hit him as hard as you can. "As I go to flinch, a hand grabs me. It’s Stephen. He says just leave it. I don’t even know where he came from. That would have been the worst thing I could have ever done. Stephen stopping me was the right thing to do."

We're relieved that it didn't come to that because striking a fan wouldn't do Noel much help in finding a new club this summer and here's to hoping that both brothers do get signed up by someone sooner rather than later.