A drone of unknown origin caused the Southampton and Aston Villa match to stop for several minutes, during their confrontation yesterday, Saturday, in the 21st round of the English Premier League.
And at the 42nd minute of the match, a drone appeared flying over the stands of the "Saint Mary's" stadium, which was noticed by the match referee, Michael Salisbury, who immediately decided to stop playing and let the players enter the changing rooms until it was confirmed that it had disappeared and moved away from the stadium.
Southampton Club published, on its official YouTube channel, a video clip of the moment the plane appeared, and the referee’s attention to it, as he pointed to it and explained to the players the need to stop playing, then blew his whistle announcing that play had stopped, to be resumed later.
And the Aston Villa account interacted on Twitter with the incident, as it tweeted at the moment: “The game was temporarily stopped due to a drone flying over the stadium, and the two teams returned to the dressing room.”
The game has been paused due to a drone flying above the stadium.
Both teams have returned to their dressing room.
🔴 0-0 ⚫ [42'] #SOUAVL
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 21, 2023
Less than 10 minutes later, the players returned to the field and resumed play to end the remainder of the first half.
Sports accounts circulated the shot widely on the platforms, without knowing the owner of the plane that stormed the stadium.
The match ended with a 1-0 victory for Aston Villa, bringing its tally to 28 points and getting closer to the top 10, after its faltering start in the Premier League, and deepening the wounds of Southampton, who are in last place with only 15 points.
Southampton-Aston Villa has been temporarily suspended due to a drone flying over the stadium.
pic.twitter.com/Sz6bVn6p3H
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) January 21, 2023
Created by @DGOficial, finished by Ollie Watkins!
😍 pic.twitter.com/Rf3gXfiYkX
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 21, 2023