Carlisle United director on fan incidents and Leyton Orient manager

But Davidson also said the Blues’ supporters trust CUOSC was fully behind the club’s measures to try and prevent incidents by United’s own fans.

The topic of “fan behaviour incidents” has been high on the agenda in recent weeks, with one of the matches under investigation the 3-2 defeat to Orient on October 22.

Wellens alleged that a coin was thrown at him by a Carlisle supporter, with that and incidents at other games leading United to cordon off a section of the Paddock and issue warnings about supporter conduct.

Some Blues fans felt the Orient manager’s behaviour that afternoon in front of home fans was also poor, and Davidson said that should be under the disciplinary microscope as well as the behaviour of Blues supporters.

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Speaking about aspects of the Orient game, Davidson said: “If someone’s going to throw a coin at the Leyton Orient manager, it’s just unacceptable.

“We can’t countenance that at all, regardless of what that Leyton Orient manager might have been doing during the game – and he should be dealt with as well in my opinion, because his behaviour was unacceptable as well.”

Asked if the investigation into the Orient game had concluded, Davidson added: “Not that I’m aware of.”

Davidson’s comments came as he addressed a question from a supporter about CUOSC’s backing of United’s stance on recent incidents which the fan said were "unsubstantiated".

Davidson said the trust made no apology for being fully behind the Blues in their measures, some of which have been criticised by some fans.

Speaking at a members’ meeting on Thursday night, Davidson said: “At the end of the day, whether it’s here or away, it’s about keeping supporters safe, players safe, everybody safe.

“We cannot, as a supporters’ organisation, justify that type of behaviour.

“At the end of the day, on top of that, we get interest from the FA – as soon as those incidents happen, we get letters within days from the FA. We get threats of fines, and sanctions.

“The reason why we went out and had a bit of a campaign about behaviour was because we were trying to pre-empt and stop that happening in future games.

“We had a couple of games where nothing really happened, and then we went to Salford and it all kicked off again.

“It’s about safety, it’s about budget, let’s be honest – we don’t want to be spending the club’s money on FA fines that we would like to give Paul Simpson to spend in the January window.

“I think supporters have got to understand that.”

United have also recently commented on other incidents at games, with some fans arrested at matches at Hartlepool United and Stockport County, and claims that “liquid” was thrown over a player at the latter game.

Davidson, meanwhile, also commented on flares after a smoke device was thrown onto the pitch from the away end during Carlisle’s 4-1 win at Salford.

Smoke from a device thrown onto the pitch during United's game at Salford this season (Image: Richard Parkes)

“I’ve had supporters saying to me about flares and saying we’re just being killjoys,” said the supporter, who represents CUOSC on United’s 1921 operational board.

“Two of us in the room tonight have been on an EFL course about flares and pyrotechnics in general.

“There was a flare lit at Salford, it was thrown on the pitch, it was thrown in the vicinity of our own goalkeeper.

“We all know if we scald ourselves with boiling water, it’s 100 degrees, it hurts. It makes a mess. These flares burn at 1,000 degrees.

“To light that in the midst of your own supporters and throw it on the pitch, close to your goalkeeper…I don’t even know why we would have to question why we’re with the club on that. It’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.

“We’re trying to keep everybody safe. We don’t want anybody going home having lost a hand, having lost their eyesight.”

Davidson said falling foul of the authorities with such incidents can be costly to the club.

“I can’t say for definite at this point but we’ve had further contact from the FA in the last few days, in relation to other incidents,” he said.

“We have to be really careful.

Nigel Davidson (Image: CUOSC)

“The other thing on top of that is, once we start to get a reputation for going away from home and these things happen, policing costs will go through the roof and the club has got no say in that.

“It’s the police that make the decision. They’ll identify [games such as Hartlepool] as a high-risk fixture, they will say, ‘You need x, y and z, that’s gonna cost us however many thousand pounds’.

“We don’t want to be the ones responsible for that by not supporting the club and telling people to behave while we’re at the game.”