It should have been a day when fans hailed the return of local football after its unscheduled winter break – instead it will be remembered as another occasion where the good name of the game was dragged through the mud.

No doubt you will have seen the graphic pictures of players assaulting one another after Saturday's JJB Sports Irish Cup match between Newry City and Larne descended into anarchy. I have been following football here for the guts of three decades and I don't think I have ever seen anything like it.

When the words 'mass brawl' are used to describe something kicking off at any game there is a fair chance that there was a bit of testosterone-fuelled pushing and shoving and that's about the height of it.

But what happened at the Showgrounds at the weekend was nothing short of deplorable.

When I looked at some of the pictures – notably the ones which featured Larne's Anto Lagan kicking Cullen Feeney's head while he lay on the ground – I literally felt sick to my stomach. It was a cowardly act that has no place in society, let alone in the sporting arena.

That was just one disgraceful incident in a very sorry episode that forced referee Raymond Crangle to, quite rightly, call the game to an end and walk off while the anarchic scenes continued around him.

Larne's players and management seem to be being looked at as the main protagonists in this sorry incident but Newry City didn't cover themselves in glory either. They may well point to the fact that their actions were borne out of provocation but the fact of the matter is, they were involved in the fighting too and will face fierce penalties.

As for Larne, well some of them – Lagan in particular – should never be allowed to play football at any level ever again, while serious questions have to be asked of their manager Paul Millar also, whose actions in running half the length of the pitch to remonstrate with an assistant referee who had just alerted the man in the middle to an incident that saw a visiting player red-carded turned out to be a prelude to mayhem.

Unfortunately his own indiscipline set the tone for what was to later unravel.

Now the IFA must decide what happens to the tie. Due to the fact that there were only eight minutes left to play, I wouldn't risk another game. Allow Newry, who were winning 2-1 at the time, to go through and ban – and I'm talking season-long or life bans here, not just a couple of games – anyone who was deemed to be heavily involved.

Just don't let's brush it under the carpet.

However, let's not all get carried away in an apocalyptic frenzy. This was a disgusting incident but don't let anyone think for one minute that this is par for the course in Irish League football.

The whole horrible episode has served ammunition to those who, cant wait to, for want of a better term, stick the boot into the game here. There are some, in certain quarters – many of them in the media – who choose to believe and promote the notion that Irish League football is a bastion of thuggery, followed, and played by, animals. Today and for the next few days they will be wringing their hands in glee.

It's hard to argue with them in this particular sense, but this is very much an isolated incident. Can anyone remember the last time something remotely like this happened in local football? It'll have been a while back, if you can.

Yet in other sports here, violence on the sporting arena is a much more regular occurrence.

It happens at the Odyssey almost every weekend, and not just among the drunken revellers outside fighting over a taxi. Inside, when the Belfast Giants are playing there's hardly a night that goes by where there isn't a punch-up on the ice, yet the sight of two burly blokes knocking ten bells out of each other is greeted by whoops of delight by the crowd in this 'family-friendly' sport. But sure it's all part of the fun.

The GAA, too, have had their fair share of disgraceful incidents, even very recently, with brawls marring the Tyrone county football final between Carrickmore and Errigal Ciaran in November; the Derry county football semi-final between Loup and Bellaghy in September and the Derry v Monaghan Ulster Championship match in May.

This may come across as a blatant case of 'whataboutery' but what I am trying to say is that in all sports, passions run high and sometimes unsavoury episodes like the one at Newry on Saturday rear their ugly head.

It's inexcusable, of course, but when it happens in football here, it tends to grab the headlines that little bit more.

The way I see it, Irish League football is a very easy target. It's already on its knees, thanks in many ways to its own mismanagement and the fact that the lure of the glitz and glamour of the Premier League in England has seen many turn their back on it.

Incidents like this don't do it any favours, but unfortunately I feel, some would quite happily kick it while it's down.