Football: Horror tackle sparks Twitter tirade... against the wrong man

Welsh footballer Neil Taylor is quite different to the Neil Taylor who was bombarded with abuse on Twitter following his namesake's horror tackle on Seamus Coleman. Photo / Getty Images.

Spare a thought for Neil Taylor, not the Wales full-back but the Liberal Democrat councillor from Greater Manchester.

In fall-out from Friday night's World Cup qualifier between Wales and Republic of Ireland he was innocent victim of a social media assault. Angry Irishman and Evertonians picked up their phones to vent their frustrations at seeing Seamus Coleman left with a broken leg but targeted the wrong account.

As Mr Taylor celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary with a curry and a beer his mentions began to blow up with his name trended Twitter in the wake of the fiery World Cup qualifier.

Unfortunately, hundreds of people inadvertently directed their fury towards the former Timperley councillor, who before last night was best known for his fund-raising efforts to get a statue of comedian and musician Frank Sidebottom built in the village.

He tweeted: "Blimey the perils of having the same name as a football player," after he found dozens of messages from furious Irish fans on his timeline.

Blimey the perils of having the same name as a football player!

— Neil Taylor (@neil_taylor_) March 24, 2017

He followed that up by adding: "My name is Neil Taylor but I do not play or like football."

1: I do not play football
2: I dont even like football
3; I was in a school footie team aged about 6 (we lost every game)

— Neil Taylor (@neil_taylor_) March 24, 2017

Some people were so livid about the tackle that they kept on tweeting at the wrong account even thought they were aware he was not the Aston Villa defender.

@stecashen posted: "can't find the correct Neil Taylor so I'm gonna call you f***** d******* instead".