Saw 2 sides of the police yesterday.

On arriving at Chesterield Train station,a Reds fan with family asked for directions to the ground. The copper took him a couple of hundred yards to the footpath that leads down to the ground. On the flip side, in and around the ground, they seemed to be inviting trouble. The pre-match decision for a lock-in was absolutely outrageous and unnecessary. People who regularly leave a few mins before the end to beat the rush for whatever reason, were made to stay. It gave the mindless minority further cause, and caused anger and resentment amongst people who don't usually get involved.

 

The police handled the situation badly when one of our fans got upset and carried away when Chesterfield scored their third goal. He was obviously emotional and upset and shouldn't have been there but to eject them in the manner in which they did was only going to incite the crowd. Holding us back wasn't a good call as it caused unnecessary commotion near the gangways which could have been potentially dangerous. having said all this, I do think some of our support need to calm it down and not play on the bad reputation we unfortunately earned last season. When our fan base is together and passionate it is excellent - the way that the crowd acknowledged the players at the end of the game was excellent!

 

Assuming we all live to be 75, 15 minutes is not really much of anybody's time.

 

Take it you didnt go yesterday

 

It doesn't matter a jot whether he went or not

 

You can have no opinion on policing at a football game which you didnt attend.

 

Police were excellent having to deal with so many aggressive, either drunk or hung-over, idiots who spoil it for the rest

 

The lock-in was a bad idea and didn't appear to do anything except cause congestion and a surge of people all leaving at the same time. It made matters a lot worse.

 

Even the home games are a long way from Dubai, however, normally the police react to the situation, so if everyone waits as instructed there would be no situation to react to.

Just my opinion.

 

The police created the situation though. People tend to distance themselves from the mindless minority outside the ground, but in this instance they couldn't as we were all herded together.

 

To be fair nobody was herded as they repeatedly asked us to stay in our seats.

 

Err, to be fair the majority were herded., apart from those on coaches. I remained in my seat and would've stayed there but it was obvious people were being allowed to leave the stadium, but not obvious until you got outside, that we were being penned in and not allowed to move further. Also, the PA system at times was barely audible.

 

I saw two sides of the police WHILST the trouble was happening. I'd say a third to a half of the officers in the stand were waving batons about like they relished the action, where as the rest of their collegaues stood by looking slightly awkward. I asked one officer what the plan was regarding leaving the ground and he smiled and said 'I've no idea mate.' Another officer actually said she thought our fans were 'ok really' and the whole situation seeemed to get out of hand unecessarily. Even outside, the coppers at the front were waving dogs at fans and hitting everyone whilst maintaining a ring of steel. Their mates down the side were letting anyone through who could give a reason for leaving. Total shambles and I don't even think all the police really believed their plan was correct.

 

Yes that was a problem. The instructions were to stay in our seat but due to poor communication (from the pa) it LOOKED like the police were letting people out when in actual fact they were simply moving the corden back (due to fans forcing them according to the police I spoke to).

 

Unless of course the reason fans have stopped going is because of the appalling behaviour of some of our fans.

 

There is always going to be problems when old blokes and young kids arent even allowed to use toilet facilities. I had no problem been kept in but to stop people going toilet for 15minutes before fulltime then after game is over is taking the piss. Even the stewards were shocked by the police yesterday. Just my opinion.

 

It was a good decision by the police as it meant none of our drunken hooligans could attack innocent Chesterfield supporters. Behave like animals, get treated like animals!

 

Fully agree. I wasn't at the game however, from my experiences from last years away games, it always the usual lot that seem to think it's fun to cause problems and yesterday they got what they deserved.

Generally the police don't use force unless they have to.

It's quite embarrassing and pathetic really, isn't it? I hope the club come up with a solution to stop these people ruining away games for the rest of us. It's not the 80's anymore, people need to move on and accept it's a family sport for everyone to enjoy.

 

It is really pathetic. The majority of the so called hooligans are drunken teenagers from what I can see who think its cool to get drunk and star fights. I saw 15 of then in eh town centre before the match trying to cause trouble with some chesterfield fans. The chesterfield fans were much younger and wearing replica shirts, hardly the type of fans that would cause trouble. I don't think there's anything the club can do?

 

Make people sit in their allocated seats would be where I'd first begin. Don't allow pay on the gate to that the club to stop these idiots entering the grounds without the club having some form of a reference against the person going. I'd possibly go to the extreme of only allowing season ticket holders to away games if we have to. Unfortunately if the policing bills cost more than the revenue made from the tickets we sell, what's the point in selling the tickets?