oh absolutely, I'm not blaming Hales at all, Stokes is the one at fault. But really Hales needed to do one of two things: be entirely selfish and get the hell out of there so he's not mixed up in it at all, or wrap up Stokes in a bear hug and march him away. an ineffectual tap on the shoulder and a "leave it wayne, he's not worth it" was neither one thing nor the other.
Stokes strikes me as a bit of a big bully there... obviously the other fellas have seen a "sleb" and wound him up, then thought "shit, he's an international athlete he's probably quite strong" and obviously crapped themselves and backing away, but he goes after them anyway.
very poor show all round.
if he winds up prosecuted, hopefully we can somehow get him tried in liverpool under the name "steven gerrard" and he'll
obviously get off.