{"id":21305,"date":"2026-02-07T22:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/squirrel-gets-on-the-pitch-and-halts-championship-game-twice-before-comedy-attempts-to-catch-it\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:23:19","slug":"squirrel-gets-on-the-pitch-and-halts-championship-game-twice-before-comedy-attempts-to-catch-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/squirrel-gets-on-the-pitch-and-halts-championship-game-twice-before-comedy-attempts-to-catch-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Squirrel gets on the pitch and halts Championship game. Twice. Before comedy attempts to catch it."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Bees have stopped play at tennis tournaments, ladybirds have brought a halt to Test cricket. Now squirrels have got in on the action at a second-tier English football match.<\/p>\n<p>Hull City 2 Bristol City 3 is likely to linger in the memory for everyone who attended at the MKM Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>A topsy-turvy game between two teams chasing a place in the Premier League. And it was stopped by a squirrel. Twice.<\/p>\n<p>There were 20,848 fans inside Hull\u2019s home stadium, in Humberside on England\u2019s east coast, and a furry friend who wanted a piece of the action.<\/p>\n<p>Emil Riis had just put Gerhard Struber\u2019s visitors 3-1 up before the match was stopped in the 54th minute when the squirrel first appeared \u2014 and sprinted across the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>There was three minutes of comedy chasing and evasive action before play resumed, only for the four-legged fiend to return to wreak more havoc than the home attack had previously shown.<\/p>\n<p>It entered the Bristol City goal, twice, to loud cheers from supporters\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7029750\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/02\/07164012\/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-8.24.55%E2%80%AFpm-1.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7029749\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/02\/07163958\/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-8.24.47%E2%80%AFpm-1.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>It also made its way up an advertising hoarding\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7029751\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/02\/07164023\/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-8.25.11%E2%80%AFpm.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A member of the Hull groundstaff was tasked with catching it so that the game could continue\u2026.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7029754\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/02\/07164045\/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-8.25.28%E2%80%AFpm.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7029756\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/02\/07164057\/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-8.25.41%E2%80%AFpm.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7029758\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/02\/07164115\/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-8.25.34%E2%80%AFpm.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He may have wished he had not been asked as the squirrel proved more than elusive \u2014 and the fans showed their sense of humour superbly as \u201cyou\u2019re getting mauled by the squirrel\u201d rung out through the stadium.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cYou\u2019re getting mauled by the squirrel\u201d \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\udc3f\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EFL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">#EFL<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SkyBetChampipnship?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">#SkyBetChampipnship<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6gLL1niwiq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6gLL1niwiq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkyBetChamp\/status\/2020207589502415329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">February 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Even the visitors social media team had fun at his expense on their \u2018X\u2019 account.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The squirrel is now running away from the groundsman who is chasing it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bristol City FC (@BristolCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BristolCity\/status\/2020169287709626579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">February 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Play finally resumed after 64 minutes and clearly had an impact \u2014 Radek Vitek\u2019s net breached by a ball, not an amimal, again when Kieran Dowell scored in the 78th minute to set up a frantic finish.<\/p>\n<p>The rodent\u2019s routine did however add to the angst for Bristol City because they had to see out 10 minutes added time because of all the stoppages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe enjoyed the squirrel a little bit, especially when they could catch it. It was a lovely animal and I like animals \u2014 this was really funny to see how they tried to catch it,\u201d Bristol City head coach Struber told BBC Radio Bristol after the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also interrupted the game in some momentum, but how we dealt with that was also really good to see from my boys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev had their Indian Wells quarter-final stopped by a bee invasion in March 2024 before ladybirds arrived at Lord\u2019s, the home of cricket, in the summer of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Stokes was batting against India when play was stopped by the insects.<\/p>\n<p>But none had the same impact as the squirrel. The Bristol City \u2018X\u2019 fans even voted it their pick of the match.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A generational talent. \ud83d\udc3f\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve voted the Squirrel as today\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thatchers_cider?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">@thatchers_cider<\/a> Pick of the Match! \ud83c\udf4e <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HQS5MjqB5M\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/HQS5MjqB5M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bristol City FC (@BristolCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BristolCity\/status\/2020202975957029314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">February 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>How the squirrel got into Hull\u2019s home remains a mystery. But, frankly, who cares?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bees have stopped play at tennis tournaments, ladybirds have brought a halt to Test cricket. Now squirrels have got in on the action at a second-tier English football match. Hull City 2 Bristol City 3 is likely to linger in the memory for everyone who attended at the MKM Stadium. A topsy-turvy game between two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-transfers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1209-squds-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}