EFL clash halted due to drone flying above stadium as players ordered off pitch by referee

Colchester United and Walsall players were taken off the pitch after a drone interrupted their League Two clash on Saturday.

With the score level at 1-1 in the 81st minute, the action was paused when the drone was spotted above the JobServe Community Stadium.

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Footage shows referee Carl Brook instructing both sets of players to make their way off the pitch.

“Play paused due to a drone flying above the pitch,” Colchester said on their official X account.

Walsall added: “Play has been paused with both sides off the pitch as a drone has emerged and is flying above the stadium.

“Not something you see every day is it?!”

Game of Drones

A Sky Sports reporter explained: “There’s about eight minutes to go here, but we don’t have any players on the pitch.

“The referee has taken them off because we had a drone flying just above the playing surface here at the stadium.

“So the players, quite quickly, left the pitch.

“An announcement has gone out to say that the drone is the reason that the match has been stopped for the time being.”

They added: “We were watching it hovering above the stadium and then it did drift out of sight to the far end, and we saw it going down in the sky, clearly landing.”

Play during the EFL clash was paused for around four minutes.

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The match then finished 1-1, with Harry Anderson earning Colchester a point after Harrison Burke opened the scoring for Walsall.

Both teams currently sit midtable in League Two, with the former in 14th and the latter above them in 11th.

Drones have a tendency to cause disruption whenever they appear at football matches.

Brentford and Fulham had their west London derby paused at the end of last season when a drone appeared in the second half.

A similar incident occurred at the beginning of 2023 as Southampton and Aston Villa had a delay in their Premier League clash.

More to follow…