Oh dear

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Nice idea but it doesn’t hide the fact she had her nose broken in the first place. Notts County will be well aware that we’re not all scum but, by the same token, our club’s name continues to get blackened by the behaviour of a few. And then why should the good have to pay for that? Surely they can be identified from on train CCTV, ticketing etc?

Someone was arrested for it, according to the SLO.

If it was the female steward who i was stood next when she accused a town fan of striking her in the face, then it wasn't even bleeding.
I saw him arrested after the game

Quoted from The_Laughing_Mariner

If it was the female steward who i was stood next when she accused a town fan of striking her in the face, then it wasn't even bleeding.
I saw him arrested after the game

My nose didn't bleed when I broke it. Bloody hurt though

Quoted from ska face

Now that the dust has settled and heart rates are down to something approaching normal, here’s an interesting point from Owen West - retired Chief Superintendent, Head of Special Operations and specialist in crowd policing -

https://mobile.twitter.com/PolicingCrowds/status/1491840886229057538


It’s always the same discussion on here - ban them, lock them up, midday kick offs, restrictive ticketing, everyone’s a cretin and I shít gold so the punishments don’t matter to me. This despite mountains of evidence to show that those methods don’t really tackle the problem, and in respect of bans and sentencing, football fans are probably subject to some of the most draconian and excessive laws and punishments than any group in society.

I wouldn’t say I’m a soft touch but I am reluctant as a matchgoer to concede another inch to the state in the name of reducing “disorder”, given that the state is inherently violent by its own actions.

Surely there’s another approach that’s worth exploring?

Well, whatever the current approach is it isn’t working, I think we can all agree on that. Clearly, this kind of anti-social behaviour needs to be stamped out because if nothing else, all match-going fans will suffer if it isn’t.

Early kick-offs. Reduced allocations. No trains. Away fans banned from local pubs. Overly aggressive policing and stewarding. All things that take the fun out of going to the football.

I work long hours in a stressful job. I try to balance that with spending time with my wife and kids, which in itself isn’t always a stress-free a experience as anyone in a long-term relationship, with kids (important comma there) will know.

Watching Town on a Saturday is just about the only opportunity I get to have time to myself, to let my hair down. If it’s an away game, then invariably I do like to travel by train, meet up with old mates and have a few drinks. Maybe even get ‘drunk’.

But I can do that without being anti-social. I don’t punch or threaten anyone, don’t take class A drugs, don’t cause criminal damage and don’t generally behave in a way that is going to negatively impact someone else’s day. I just like to enjoy the day out, win, lose or draw. I’m no angel, but I can just about conduct myself without being a complete douchebag.

I don’t think I’m unique in that respect. Most Town fans I encounter away from home want to have a good time, get mildly rowdy but within the confines of acceptable public behaviour, and get home safely.

If it’s a minority, and perhaps in this case a sizeable one, how do you solve the problem without throttling all of the fun out of the game?

Broad and soft doesn’t work in my opinion. Changing kick-off times, restricting away tickets etc punishes everyone but solves little - if someone is inclined to be a díckhead they will find away regardless of what time the game starts.

Surely you have to go narrow and hard. That might not even be as simple as banning orders - maybe education has a role to play. Statistics suggest that speed awareness courses are more effective at reducing driving offences than penalty points.

Perhaps it’s fines. You might think twice about acting like a total ársehat at the football if it cost you a couple of grand the last time you pulled that trick. If that doesn’t work, maybe lifetime bans are the way forward.

But don’t punish the masses. This is a minority. That’s not brushing things under the carpet; sensationalist journalism or not it’s evident that there were a sizeable number of people acting anti-socially last weekend. It’s just that chastising regular, match-going fans for the behaviours of those around them will only serve to alienate people and ruin the football experience, all the while achieving very little.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Nice idea but it doesn’t hide the fact she had her nose broken in the first place. Notts County will be well aware that we’re not all scum but, by the same token, our club’s name continues to get blackened by the behaviour of a few. And then why should the good have to pay for that? Surely they can be identified from on train CCTV, ticketing etc?

Completely agree with you OC that the many should not have to pay for the few but I think it would be a decent gesture to the young lady and would do some good to GTFC's reputation.

Did you notice how much positive, free media exposure Crystal Palace and their fans received after raising money for the Hartlepool manager's wife to receive cancer treatment and to subsidise coach travel for the Monkey Hangers, ahead of their FA Cup match?

I appreciate we're not a Premier League club and in no way can you possibly compare a broken nose to cancer, but it would show we're not just shrugging our shoulders as if to say women stewards should expect to have their nose bust (if correct) when GTFC are in town. Any decent fan should be appalled, as I'm sure you are.

Any way it was just an idea. If there's not the appetite, so be it. Maybe the club should be offering an apology to the steward.

Quoted from Withnail

Completely agree with you OC that the many should not have to pay for the few but I think it would be a decent gesture to the young lady and would do some good to GTFC's reputation.

Did you notice how much positive, free media exposure Crystal Palace and their fans received after raising money for the Hartlepool manager's wife to receive cancer treatment and to subsidise coach travel for the Monkey Hangers, ahead of their FA Cup match?

I appreciate we're not a Premier League club and in no way can you possibly compare a broken nose to cancer, but it would show we're not just shrugging our shoulders as if to say women stewards should expect to have their nose bust (if correct) when GTFC are in town. Any decent fan should be appalled, as I'm sure you are.

Any way it was just an idea. If there's not the appetite, so be it. Maybe the club should be offering an apology to the steward.

No, I get your point and, in conjunction with sanctions for the miscreants, it would be a great thing to do. I just think that those that cause trouble or are out to cause trouble should get their comeuppance. It's not the fault of the majority that our away support is tainted with a bad rep. It's also noticeable that the further we travel, the less trouble there is. Which, in itself, suggests that the genuine fans who go on the longest trips are not the problem.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

It's also noticeable that the further we travel, the less trouble there is. Which, in itself, suggests that the genuine fans who go on the longest trips are not the problem.

Didn’t we have a week of recriminations on here following matches at Woking and Dagenham? Your argument doesn’t seem to be borne out by the evidence.

Quoted from ska face

Didn’t we have a week of recriminations on here following matches at Woking and Dagenham? Your argument doesn’t seem to be borne out by the evidence.

Difference being at those 2 games it was a group of Muppets scrapping in house with each other..no train wrecking, no drug taking, no assaulting stewards, it happened in the stands..I'm not condoning that behaviour but it certainly was not at the levels of the Notts County issue

Quoted from ska face

Didn’t we have a week of recriminations on here following matches at Woking and Dagenham? Your argument doesn’t seem to be borne out by the evidence.

Surely you can see the difference between a couple of scraps and drug-taking and wrecking a train carriage with urine everywhere?

The Woking threads made specific reference to drug taking.

Again, this is part of the problem. It’s a lazy reference, not backed by anything, making a spurious claim that one set of people are fine and others not based on how far they’ve travelled?

I wasn’t on the train, but it’s pretty easy to see how some seats might’ve had píss on them - not acceptable, but I don’t think it’s a case of people being so drunk that they’ve píssed their pants, or people have just decided to start urinating all over each other. We’re not rugby fans. Overfill a train to a point where people can’t move down the carriage to reach the 1 or 2 toilets which were blocked after half an hour, and people are going to have to píss in bottles or cans.

Squeeze that many people onto a train going to Plymouth and you get the same result.