PATRICK VIEIRA received the backing from some fans after he kicked out at an abusive pitch invader at Everton last night.

The Crystal Palace manager remained tight-lipped after the incident as his team lost 3-2 after being 2-0 up.

Twitter user @DavidBrentMovie, which has 156,000 followers, tweeted: “Patrick Viera deserves an award for this.” A tweet by a different user commented: “Patrick Vieira doing God’s work”.

The Palace managed kicked out at a fan as Everton fans celebrated their team’s dramatic 3-2 win which keeps Everton in the Premier League next season after genuine fears of relegation for the last few months.

Vieira was walking across the pitch towards his team’s dressing room at the other side of the ground when an Everton fan approached him, prompting a reaction from the Palace boss.

When Vieira was asked about it in his post-match press conference, he said: “I’ve got nothing to say about that.”

Former striker Dion Dublin, whoc was covering the game for Sky Sports, said: “Fans need to enjoy the experience, don’t spoil it, enjoy it. You can’t have managers and players fearing for their lives with fans going on it. You can only avoid it by having fans have lifetime bans. For any player, any member of staff, it’s a scary place to be.”

The Vieira incident came on the same day that a 30-year-old man was  jailed for 24 weeks after pleading guilty to assaulting Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp earlier in the week.

Robert Biggs, of Derbyshire, admitted the offence during an appearance at Nottinghamshire Magistrates’ Court on Thursday morning.

Sharp was the victim of a headbutt following a pitch invasion in the aftermath of Nottingham Forest’s penalty shootout success over Sheffield United in the Championship play-off semi-finals on Tuesday night. Sharp was left ‘shaken up’ and required stitches following the incident. Biggs gave himself up to the police.