A football fan faces being the only woman in the UK to be banned from all stadiums after throwing a torch onto the pitch as her team were losing.
Abby-Leigh Rae, 23, was arrested after throwing the racket at the referee as Tranmere Rovers lost 3-0 to Forest Green Rovers in a League Two tie in January.
As the torch fell to the pitch near referee Lee Swaby and Forest Green goalkeeper Luke McGee, CCTV footage captured Rae appearing to raise her arms in celebration.
Police stopped her as she was leaving the Prenton Park stadium in Tranmere and she was arrested and later questioned at home.
At Sefton Magistrates’ Court in Merseyside, Rae, of Bebbington near Birkenhead, denied a charge of throwing a racket onto a football pitch under the Football (Offences) Act 1991, but she was convicted after a trial.
The Aldi supermarket worker is now facing a football banning order which could ban her from any sporting grounds in the UK.
The incident on January 29 happened just after half-time as Forest Green extended their lead and several objects could be seen thrown onto the pitch near Forest Green goalkeeper McGee at the Kop end.
The stewards moved into the crowd to try to restrain the flare thrower, but Ray was seen bending over and then throwing the flare onto the pitch.
A PC patrolling Prenton Park said in a statement: “She did admit to throwing the flare. She said she felt it hit her and land on the floor, then in some panic threw it away.
“She mentioned that she was just scared and it was burning near her so she picked it up.
“She didn’t know what to do and her first thought was to throw him on the field.”
Introducing herself, Rae said the flare had been brought by some “guys” behind her and she threw it onto the pitch in a “panic” to protect her asthmatic partner and brother.
She insisted she wasn’t celebrating as she threw her hands in the air.
“We had moved a couple of places in front of these guys but they wobbled and then the flare came and it was smoking at my feet,” she said.
“I threw it directly onto the football field. I then turned around and told the boys to back off. I’ve been going to Tranmere all my life and I hate this sort of thing.
“There was literally nowhere else to put it. It happened so fast and the next thing I knew I was being arrested.
Tranmere were eventually beaten 4-0 in the top-of-the-table clash.
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