A teenager has been arrested after a 14-year-old Telford boy was hit in the face by a rock hurled through the window of a football supporters’ coach.

Devoted Bucks fan Ryan Asson was scarred for life when a lump of Cotswold stone was thrown at the vehicle taking AFC Telford United fans home after their side’s Setanta Shield triumph.

Ryan was today being given the VIP treatment by his football “family” after he was personally invited to the New Bucks Head ground by club chairman Lee Carter.

Read the full story in today’s Shropshire Star

A teenager has been arrested after a 14-year-old Telford boy was hit in the face by a rock hurled through the window of a football supporters’ coach.

Devoted Bucks fan Ryan Asson was scarred for life when a lump of Cotswold stone was thrown at the vehicle taking AFC Telford United fans home after their side’s Setanta Shield triumph.

Ryan was today being given the VIP treatment by his football “family” after he was personally invited to the New Bucks Head ground by club chairman Lee Carter.

It follows hundreds of messages of support and sympathy from genuine football fans who were horrified the youngster should have been so badly injured.

Ryan, of Dawley Bank, was with his father Kevin Stallard, of Newdale, on the Telford fans’ coach after their team’s Setanta Shield triumph on Thursday night.

The coach was outside the Forest Green Rovers ground in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire when a rock smashed through the window and hit Ryan and his father, the youngster taking the brunt of the impact.

Doctors took 20 shards of glass from Ryan’s eye and gave him 15 stitches to his cheek and nose but he is not expected to have any permanent damage to his sight.

A 19-year-old man from Nailsworth was arrested in connection with the incident yesterday and bailed by police until April 24.

Mr Stallard and Ryan’s mother Donna Asson were inundated with messages of support after yesterday’s story and photograph in the Shropshire Star.

Mr Stallard said: “We just want to say thank you to everyone, including fans and officials from both AFC Telford United and Forest Green Rovers.

“This sort of thuggery and mindless violence is not good for football, especially when it happens to your own son.”

Mr Carter said: “We’ve invited Ryan and his parents to the New Bucks Head today for the game with Redditch to give him a shirt and introduce him to the players and manager.

“We’ll also look after him for the rest of the season, paying for his travel to away games and looking at providing season tickets.

“I could not believe what happened to Ryan. It really took the shine off our success.”