SUSSEX Police branded the fan disorder during Crystal Palace’s visit to Brighton on Tuesday night a “return to the dark days of football.”

Chief Inspector Simon Nelson, who led the policing operation for the fixture, described how “groups of masked people” sought confrontation and supporters tried to gain entry to the Falmer Stadium with “pyrotechnics, knives and knuckledusters.”

Nelson also revealed that at one stage a large number of people, seemingly without tickets, overran turnstiles in the ground's south stand to force access to the away supporters’ section.