I would never describe myself as particularly political.

Politics has never really been my bag.

But in the aftermath of the incident with Jack Grealish down at Aston Villa on Sunday, somebody sent me a tweet and it really resonated with me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day.

And it basically said that given the whole carry-on at the minute with Brexit and the way that communities have lost jobs and industry and people are skint, there just seems to be a real anger within the country. Maybe if we can’t sort things out at the top then it is inevitable that chaos will filter down to the bottom.

I don’t know. The only thing I know about is football so I am not offering any big lectures on sociology but at the same time it is impossible now to ignore the fact that there is a fury in the country and it is coming to a head at football matches up and down the country every week.

It is interesting.

As a player I took verbal abuse that you couldn’t imagine. Things said to me that would turn your stomach. Disgusting things. But I don’t ever recall having anything thrown at me in the entirety of my career.

There were always isolated incidents. Odd occasions when some idiot would run on a pitch or something like that but I don’t ever recall a time when there wasn’t a weekend that didn’t pass without a coin or a bottle or whatever been thrown onto the pitch.

No-one knows the reasons why but one thing is for sure – it cannot possibly be allowed to go unchecked.

It is a matter of time before a player is seriously injured and I don’t think you can afford to sit on your hands until that time comes.

The chat about bringing back the high fences gives me a chill. We all know the horrors of crushing that can cause and I don’t think anyone would like to see that reintroduced for the sake of the minority who can’t behave.

And ultimately the people who are really paying the price here are the ordinary punters who have gone to games for years and who find themselves now lumped in with the idiots who are hellbent on perpetrating these acts.

I honestly don’t know what the answer is. There has to be greater education and a bit of common sense – if you assault someone on the street you run the risk of jail so why is it different at a football ground – but I have to say that I fully expect we’ll be looking at strict liability sooner rather than later.

It is difficult for the vast majority who do not cause trouble. But I just think you cannot risk hanging around and doing nothing because sooner or later someone is getting whacked over the head with a bottle or hit in the eye with a coin.

I have sympathy for clubs. If you have 60,000 people in a stadium and one drunken idiot takes a £50 bet off his mate to run onto the pitch then it is actually very difficult to stop it. And it does seem harsh that they have to then take the responsibility of that – but I also think that right now it looks like being the only way to stop it.

This season has been awful for it. We saw it again at Easter Road on Friday night and while it is right to talk about life bans and all the rest of it, you have to come down hard on perpetrators to send out a message to everyone else.

It is not acceptable. Had the guy who kicked the ball away from James Tavernier had a bottle in his hand, where does it go?

To have the audacity to jump a wall and run onto a football pitch is breathtaking for me. You just don’t do it. If you are of sound mind it doesn’t even cross your thought process for a second.

It is detracting from the football and it gives oxygen to people who clearly want a bit if attention. But I think ultimately what is going to happen is that clubs are going to have to carry the can for any idiots that are within their support.

The onus will fall to them to weed them out as best they can.