What actually happened in the away end with the stewards? From what I heard they were trying to kick a lad out for standing on a chair and it took 6 of them coming in being heavy handed for it to kick off. What I actually saw with my own eyes was one steward actually hitting one of our fans in the head with his walkie talkie and it’s the same lad you can see on videos having to be dragged down the stairs away from the fans by his own work mates which is disgraceful. Surely they need investigating?
I’m going to try my best not to be biased. One of our fans was on the back row stood on his chair. One steward was sent up to have a word with him about 30 minutes into the first half. I didn’t catch what was said, but after the steward left then our fans started taking the piss out of him, and the lad got straight back on the chair. About 5 minutes later another two stewards came over and again asked the lad to get off. They tried to get closer to him, I’m not sure if they wanted to kick him out, but his mates ‘shielded’ him and the two stewards had to leave. Our fans were laughing at them and telling them to f*ck off. 5 minutes after that, a group of stewards gathered together and had a discussion. About 10 of them went up to the lad and obviously started trying to get him out. Our fans rushed to surround him to stop the stewards getting to him. At this point it was just an argument basically. The stewards didn’t stop trying though, they pushed closer and eventually one of them managed to get his hands on the lad they wanted to kick out. This got our fans worked up, and the steward was pushed away from the lad. It went downhill from there, our fans set on the stewards basically and the stewards were obviously fighting back. This lasted into half time and it didn’t look great. The stewards were quite heavily outnumbered so they eventually had to retreat back down onto the pitch. Both sides were guilty of using quite a lot of force. Overall then, I think our fans were being idiots - giving the stewards abuse for no reason. Not sure why anyone would be so aggressive because someone asks you to stop standing on your seat. However it was very badly managed by the stewards. As soon as they could see that the guy wasn’t going to go easily they should have backed off - he wasn’t being violent, just standing on his seat. He could have been dealt with later. No need to keep sending stewards in there, it just escalated the situation needlessly.
How could he have been dealt with later? If those around him were going to keep him locked in then nothing could happen til end of game and by then its too late.
There were two police officers stood in front of the away end filming the whole thing. They’ve got a photo of him. If he’s not being violent, he’s just stood on his seat, and is being a dick to the stewards, then I don’t see why his photo can’t be passed onto Barnsley for us to deal with him as we see fit.
Why couldn't he get off the seat? Then none of the rest would have happened. Personally I think if you fight with the stewards you should be banned from matches.
I 100% agree with you mate. Not doubting that our fans weren’t innocent in this. However, that doesn’t change the fact that there were better ways of dealing with it - that wouldn’t have led to any violence.
But then he would think his childish and immature behaviour warrants getting to watch the full game. From this thread he had more than once chance to behave, thought he was above the rules and rightly the stewards went to get him out.
To be fair if he’s been told a few times to get off the seat he had more then one chance to de-escalate it all. Think everyone was at fault here.
Easy solution - just make sure he gets banned until the end of the season instead. I get that it would have been ideal to kick him out there and then - I agree. But it was just honestly poorly judged. The stewards could see that our fans were going to put up a fight. There were many more Barnsley fans willing to have a go than there were stewards. Going in and trying to forcibly remove him was only ever going to go one way.
At the end of the day if God forbid there was another Bradford or Hillsborough type situation stewards need to be listened to in order to ensure people get out of the ground safely it might seem something and nothing but I still.dont see why he couldn't just get off the seat
Hahahaha! I’ve seen a lot worse than someone standing on a chair. Fans get a lot of stick but the ten Bob mob jobs never take responsibility
Easily solved - don’t be such a lovely person. If the stewards ask you to get off the seat, get off the seat, you soppy lovely person. I hope he’s banned for life.
Judging by how many people I've seen cause trouble at oakwell, go on the pitch etc who still attend I wouldn't trust them to deal with it later.