Name, shame and then BAN them! FA chiefs should throw the book at Aston Villa mob

Calling the pitch invaders "mindless idiots" was wrong. Or rather, only half-right.

"Idiots", yes, but not one of those who were throwing seats and punches or, in one instance, biting Fabian Delph was "mindless".

These people emphatically do have minds, just as they have families, partners and work colleagues – all of whom would feel betrayed if the person they thought they knew was "outed" as one of those destructive, unnecessarily aggressive individuals whose actions stood out from the hordes.

So let's do it.

We all have mobile phones with cameras. The police have surveillance videos. Sky have umpteen high-definition lenses pointing around every stadium which hosts a major game. Let's photograph, name and shame. Then ban.

Quickly, with social media offering the ideal tool, the "minority" can be whittled down to chargeable individuals.

The belief that there is some sanctuary to be found in "herd mentality" can be destroyed forever.

Life bans tied to databases have become an effective weapon and both Aston Villa and West Brom will no doubt be keen to follow the same honourable line with these latest miscreants.

The former released a statement condemning "those who could not control themselves" so let's make that distinction.

We cannot shop the thousands who spilled over on to Villa's hallowed turf on the final whistle and nor should we want to.

Instead we must single out those who could not stop themselves from taking advantage of the situation and turning it nasty.

Invading a football pitch has been made a criminal offence but that was a legislative overreaction forged in the days when the technology did not exist to wheedle out and punish the real troublemakers.

So ignore arguments about levels of stewarding and any failure to keep the fans off the pitch in the first place. These days that is not the intention.

Ken Bates threatened us with electric fences to do just that - an idea only slightly more abhorrent than a Day-Glo ring of law enforcement surrounding every major game.

We just have to be able to trust our football fans to stay within the spirit of the game they profess to love, even if emotion, on genuine and rare occasions, does carry them over that white line.

In England's finest hour, "some people were on the pitch". Likewise, nobody castigates the hundreds of Hereford fans who ran on to the pitch to give Ronnie Radford a hug after his famous goal in 1972.

Sport remains an entertainment industry and interaction with spectators adds to that enjoyment.

Rugby is grown up enough to smile benignly at the occasion interloper - extremely benignly when it came to Erika Roe.

Even fuddy-duddy Wimbledon gets it. A whole chapter in the official compendium of the Championships is given over to interruptions of play on Centre Court – recognition that the occasional fan-related incident is part of the whole glorious tapestry.

We all know what we don't want to see. So-called fans intending to do harm, or acting aggressively. Wanton destruction.

Let's not criminalise those just caught up in the throng, enjoying a euphoric moment in Aston Villa's history.

It was the point Tim Sherwood was trying to make to the tut-tutting of the politically correct.

What made Saturday's scenes unpalatable were the individual actions of the aggressive few – the mums, dads, husbands, girlfriends, employers and employees who have embarrassed themselves and yet somehow manage to get through their everyday lives without stewards to tell them what is and what isn't appropriate behaviour.

Let's make sure instead of widespread condemnation, we focus our attention on them.

Our attention and, more usefully, our cameras.