Barnes: Many times the target of racial hatred (DavidCannon/Allsport)

Yes - meek, mild, placid, easy-going John Barnes wanted to pick up a coin or a banana or a water bottle and throw it right back at the cowardly yob who thought he could assault me from the 'safety' of a 40,000 crowd and escape punishment.

Most of the footballers I know - from a temperamental firework like Ian Wright to a model of restraint like, say, Gareth Southgate - would have understood how and why Liverpool defender Carragher snapped.

But while I feel sympathy for him, I do not condone his action. He was entirely wrong to react the way he did, just as I would have been out of order to adopt the approach of a coin for a coin. Two wrongs never make a right.

John Prescott was wrong in punching an attacker in Wales during the last General Election campaign. But, in some quarters, he was almost made out to be a hero for doing so. I understand what he did and I would have reacted in the same way.

That is because his action was first and foremost that of a human being and not that of a politician or a role model or a celebrity or someone seen on television. It was a natural way to react. If he had thought about it for a few seconds, he would never have done it. He acted on instinct, just as Carragher did.

Footballers are increasingly seen as role models and celebrities who appear on television as often as stars of soap operas. They get regally rewarded for their talents.

With fame and fortune comes a duty and a responsibility to behave in a model fashion. That is only right and proper.

But, increasingly, it seems that football players are the only ones required to be responsible. And if anything goes wrong in football, the player is held responsible. There is an attitude: let's blame the player.

Fifty coins are thrown by spectators at players in a match and one is thrown back. Who cops all the flak? The player, of course. Let me reiterate that Carragher was out of order, though his punishment should be restricted to the normal one for a red card.

There is nothing these people like more than to provoke a reaction from players and nothing they hate more than to be ignored. I never looked at them, never caught their eye, tried never to show any emotion when being verbally or physically abused. And being black I got a lot, mostly at West Ham and Chelsea, I recall.

Once, I back heeled a banana over the touchline. That was as brave as I got. I cannot remember if it was Brendan Batson or Cyrille Regis who peeled a banana and ate it.

It is time that football shared the responsibility. It is time that the hooligan minority are also identified and punished. It is time that clubs, their stewards and police take action to isolate the trouble makers and ban them from matches.

Frankly, I would like to read as much about what was going to happen to the spectators who threw coins at Highbury as about how Carragher should be treated.

I am making a plea for the bigger picture to be viewed. I am arguing that the focus should not just be on the split-second stupidity of one player.

I was playing football the other night with some policemen and teachers. The policemen confirmed that Carragher could, in theory, be charged for throwing the coin. But I get furious at the double standards applied to other sports.

Take rugby, for example. Players trade punches on the pitch in the ugliest of brawls and yet the police never get involved. It is said that in rugby there is no possibility of the crowd being incited. Yet, the incitement issue applies in football. I think that is insulting to football fans, the vast majority of whom behave impeccably at matches.

The FA will study what happened in the Arsenal v Liverpool FA Cup tie and, no doubt, punish Carragher accordingly. But I would like to see them be equally forceful in insisting that clubs make a long-overdue, serious attempt to identify and deal with hooligans.