NEIL ASHTON'S EURO BLOG: East to west and back again with The Scum of the Earth

A dozen or so Poland fans, as drunk as skunks, necking whisky straight from a two litre bottle of Jack Daniels and being served cans of Heineken by air stewardesses intimidated by their aggressive behaviour.

Disgraceful.

They sang 'Polska' throughout the safety briefing on the tarmac at Stansted, waving red and white scarves above their heads and ignoring the increasingly desperate pleas of the cabin crew to, quite literally, belt up.

Arresting developments: Austrian and German police arrest hooligans in Klagenfurt

They stood up when they were told to sit down and they sat down when they were told to stand up. If only someone could have kicked them off. With pleasure.

Get the groundstaff to bring back those stairs and any of the 100 or so law-abiding other passengers on board would have gladly taken the responsibility.

Smug Europeans used to call this kind of behaviour 'The English Disease'. Not any more, not after this. Not after 50 riot police were scrambled to meet them on the apron at Klagenfurt's quaint little airport on the outskirts of this picture postcard town.

That call came from the flight deck after one hopelessly inaebriated member of The Scum of the Earth hit an innocent passenger full on the forehead with a can of Heineken.

She sat there stunned, as did the 40 or so passengers who witnessed this shocking incident. Did this really happen? Well yes it did. Disgusting. Not that it made any difference to The Scum of the Earth. They continued to abuse fellow passengers, chanted 'Polska' as the captain made the inevitable announcement that there would be a 'slight delay' in Klagenfurt and stood oblivious in the aisles as the plane made its final descent.

Wilting flag: A Polish fan looks dejected after her team lost 2-0

Austria's police were on board within seconds of the aircraft screeching to a halt on runway 28R. The main offenders were picked out by shocked cabin crew and they could not even stand as the police led away The Scum of the Earth, hopefully for a lengthy spell in chokey.

Other well meaning Polish supporters on that plane should be applauded for their behaviour. They spoke in the mother tongue, pleading for their friends to sit down and shut up.

There would have been Nobel Peace Prizes handed out if their message had managed to get through to this embarrassing rabble. No chance.

Instead, they were obnoxious, rude and certainly did not deserve to be travelling to watch their team's opening group game against Germany yesterday.

Not after this. Not after behaving like The Scum of the Earth.