/ Dan Fitch / 05 February 2009 / 1 Comments

When you attend a live sports event it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and take your support a step too far.

Professional athletes, after all, tend to be pretty tough. So when the sports fan crosses the line, it's little wonder that they sometimes end up a little closer to the action than they'd have liked.

Here are the 8 greatest ever instances of sporstmen beating up sports fans.

8. Tie Domi v A soaking wet Philadelphia Flyers fan

Tie Domi is one of the NHL's most legendary enforcers. He has more penalty minutes than any other player in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs and stands third overall in penalty minutes in the history of the NHL.

It was no surprise then, that Domi lost his cool, when a drunken Philadelphia Flyers fan began abusing him as he waited in the penalty box. Domi turned and squirted water at the heckler, who tried to get over the top of the box.

The glass panel gave way and the fan found himself in the penalty box with Domi, who wasted no time in throwing some punches. Domi was eventually fined, but received no suspension from the NHL.

7. Brian Clough v His own devoted fans

When Nottingham Forest beat Queens Park Rangers 5-2 in 1989, a few of their over-excited fans ran onto the pitch to celebrate.

They bargained without the eccentric nature of the Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough. Standing on the touchline, Clough reacted with fury to the pitch invasion and began to randomly punch out at several fans.

Clough was held in such reverence by the Forest fans that two of the men he hit agreed to apologise to him on national TV. During the televised apology, Clough spoke to the men as if they were errant children, before insisting that they both kiss him.

6. Cedric Maxwell v An old guy in a plaid sports jacket

When your dad tells you that sports used to be tougher back in the old days, he probably has a point.

Take this clip as an example. Cedric Maxwell of the Boston Celtics is in action against the Philadelphia 76ers and finds himself flung into the crowd. As Maxwell dusts himself down and walks back out onto the court, a fan throws something at him and makes a remark, which sends Maxwell into a rage.

Maxwell turns back into the crowd and attacks the fan. These days he would be banned for the rest of the season and beyond, but unbelievably, Maxwell was allowed to stay in the game.

5. Trevor Brennan v A disgruntled customer

The Toulouse Rugby Union star Trevor Brennan, was warming up on the touchline during a 2007 Heineken Cup game against Ulster. Following a verbal altercation with the crowd, Brennan jumped into the stands and punched Ulster fan Patrick Bamford.

Brennan alleged afterwards that the fan had abused his mother, but an investigation into the incident ruled that no such abuse took place. Instead it was found that Brennan saw red, after Ulster fans ridiculed the standards of his bar in Toulouse.

Trevor Brennan was given a life ban from rugby. Hopefully this will give him more time to devote to improving the standards of his pub.

4. The entire Chelsea team v A Tottenham fan with a lousy punch

Sometimes you shouldn't over celebrate a win. Chelsea had just beaten Tottenham 2-1 and their players were enjoying the victory over their London rivals.

It all got too much for the 18-year old Tottenham fan Timothy John Lawrence Smith, who ran onto the pitch and attempted to punch the Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard.

Leaving a host of stewards in his wake, Smith sprinted towards Lampard. Unfortunately for Smith, the distance that he had to cover to reach his target clearly took its toll. Perhaps he just had too long to size up Lampard. Perhaps he was just exhausted. Either way, the resulting punch was so timid, that it would be unlikely to trouble a small child, let alone a professional sportsman.

What's worse, as Lampard sidestepped the punch, Smith fell to the floor, whereupon the entire Chelsea team set about him.

Had he succeeded in his quest, Smith would have become a hero to the Tottenham fans. Instead he ended up looking like an idiot and received a lifetime ban from attending home games.

3. Ron Artest (with help from Stephen Jackson) v Someone he thought was John Green

The most notorious brawl in Basketball history saw the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons battle it out in what came to be nicknamed 'The Malice at the Palace'.

A routine on court fracas escalated to legendary proportions, after Detroit fan John Green threw a cup of beer at the combustible Pacer player, Ron Artest. The NBA All Star launched himself into the crowd to attack Green, but ended up mistakenly hitting someone else.

Artest's team-mate Stephen Jackson decides he will enter the melee in the crowd and before long a full-scale brawl erupted.

Subsequently nine players received suspensions, with Artest the hardest hit with an 86 game suspension, with Jackson being banned for 30 games.

The beer throwing John Green was banned from attending Pistons home games for life.

2. Terry O'Reilly and the Boston Bruins v The stick-stealer and the fan with one shoe

Terry O'Reilly was the enforcer for the Boston Bruins. Nicknamed 'Bloody O'Reilly' by the press, O'Reilly was famous for protecting his team-mates.

So it must have been a brave fan of the New York Rangers in 1979, who decided to steal the stick of the Bruins' Stan Jonathan and hit him with it. Within seconds of the incident O'Reilly was climbing into the crowd, with the rest of the Bruins' players following.

While O'Reilly grappled with the fan with the stick, another Rangers fan threw a shoe at him. O'Reilly's team-mates began searching for a fan with just one shoe and upon finding him, beat him with his own footwear.

O'Reilly received an eight game ban for his part in the fracas.

1. Eric Cantona v Matthew Simmons

Who else could top this list but Eric Cantona? Some of the other sportsmen may have managed to get closer to their target and inflict more damage, but no one launched their attack with more flair than the fiery French striker.

In 1995 Cantona was playing for Manchester United against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. An incident in which Cantona kicked out at the Palace defender Richard Shaw, saw the Untied forward sent off by the referee.

As he walked towards the tunnel, the Palace fans hurled abuse at Cantona. One fan in particular caught his attention and before long Cantona was running straight towards the crowd. Before anyone else had a chance to react, Cantona jumped into the air and caught the fan with a perfectly timed kung-fu kick into the chest.

The fan was Matthew Simmons, who was alleged to have shouted at Cantona -"Get back to France you fucking French bastard". Simmons was later tried for threatening language and behaviour and received a seven-day prison sentence, though he only served 24 hours.

Cantona was given a nine-month worldwide ban from football. At a press conference following the incident, Cantona explained - "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."

You can see his point.