Denise Butler could be permanently scarred

Denise Butler was injured as the firework shot sideways from the pitch and into a stand at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux stadium, just before Saturday's lunchtime game against Newcastle United.

Mrs Butler, from Telford in Shropshire, was taken to Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital where she had surgery to clean and stitch the wound.

She was discharged on Monday morning after spending two nights under observation.

Scar fear

A hospital spokeswoman said: "She had quite a bad laceration on her face, so they had to clean it thoroughly and, because of the area they were treating, put her under general anaesthetic and stitch it up afterwards."

Mrs Butler's husband, Martyn, who was not at the match, said he was not angry that the pre-match display had injured his wife.

"It was just an unfortunate accident. It is just one of those things.

"I'm more concerned about the injury to Denise at the moment.

"We don't know whether there is going to be a permanent scar."

There will be no more displays here at Molineux Jez Moxey Wolves' chief executive

An inquiry is under way into how the firework, which should have flown vertically, shot sideways into the Billy Wright stand, where Mrs Butler, a Wolves fan, was sitting with her 11-year-old son Luke.

Seven other fans also needed medical treatment.

Jez Moxey, the chief executive of Wolverhampton Wanderers football club, said he was very sorry about what happened.

"Our sympathies, and thoughts are with the lady at this time," he said.

"Obviously, this was a very frightening experience for everyone involved and we are all shocked.

"We have licence to run these displays and have used the same company, Jubilee Fireworks, for the last two seasons.

Windy weather

"It is the same display that we use for most matches and a risk assessment is carried out both by the club and the company in advance of every display.

"A full investigation has now been launched by the club as well as the local authority to find out to find out what went wrong.

"But I can say without doubt now that there will be no more displays here at Molineux as a consequence of today's (Saturday's) incident."

Several witnesses said that one firework blew over before it was ignited.

Chris Pearce, managing director of Jubilee Fireworks, said: "It appears that a comet star pyrotechnic effect fired horizontally instead of vertically, and we cannot be sure why that has happened.

"We assess the weather conditions before displays and there was no consideration about not having a display.

"These are not the type of effects that tend to be affected by the wind and it would have to have been extremely strong to have blown the firework off."