A Swansea City fan died after he was injured in violence before a crunch football match.

The 41-year-old fan, from Swansea, suffered serious injuries after rival supporters threw bricks and stones before the Third Division title decider at Rotherham's Millmoor ground.

He was taken to Rotherham District General Hospital where he died on Saturday night.

South Yorkshire Police arrested 20 fans before the match and later spoke out against a rising tide of football violence.

The match ended 1-1, securing the title for Swansea but was stopped twice by police after pitch invasions following the goals.

Pitch invasions

Police spokesman Jim Greensmith said: "There has been an increasing amount of football violence of late throughout the country.

"People should be able to go to matches and enjoy matches without this sort of thing.

"Obviously it is too early to say what happened in this particular instance: We want to get to the bottom of it."

Violence is thought to have broken out after fans left pubs to go to the match.

Rival supporters threw bricks and stones and during the course of the melee a Swansea supporter was injured and received help from paramedics at the ground, said police.

A post mortem is under way to establish a cause of death and the dead fan's relatives are being driven to South Yorkshire to make a positive identification.

An incident room has been set up and police are appealing for witnesses to the violence.