Southampton Fan Trying To Shift Blame On To Us

<div class="headline">Fans anger as brawl breaks out at police-free Saints match</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px">By Lucy Clark</div><div style="padding-right: 5px; font-size: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px; text-align: right">Comment <span style="vertical-align: middle">|</span> Read Comments (1)</div><table style="border: #ffffff 5px solid" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="10" align="right" border="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td><span class="caption">Defeated Adam Hammill after Saints lost 3-2 to Barnsley</span></td></tr></tbody></table>

A MASS brawl broke out between football fans on the streets of Southampton just minutes after Saints' 3-2 defeat to Barnsley yesterday.</p>

Some fans have even said they were scared for their lives during the violence.</p>

Police were not immediately on hand to deal with the fighting as the match had been deemed &quot;police-free&quot; and safe for officers not attend.</p>

Dozens of supporters of both teams were involved in the fighting, which happened in Britannia Road immediately outside St Mary's Stadium at 5pm.</p>

One man was knocked unconscious and two people were arrested on suspicion of assault.</p>

Saints fan Mark Adams, from Bitterne Park, was at the match with his 11-year-old son Harry.</p><div id="midpagempu" style="display: block"><div class="adtxt">advertisement</div></div>

Mark, 43, a Royal Mail driver, said: &quot;There were only 200 Barnsley fans there, but 50 or 60 of them were out in Britannia Road after the match, lashing out at any Saints fans going past. It was awful, I haven't seen it that bad for ages.</p>

&quot;There were no police on site because it was deemed a low category game and it took the police 10 minutes to get there. If the police had been there, it would have been nipped in the bud.&quot;</p>

Another Saints fan told the Daily Echo: &quot;The fighting went on for over 10 minutes. Visiting fans were cramped into a coach while it was battered with sticks. My family were scared for their lives.&quot;</p>

Superintendent Terry Stevens, Southampton local commander, said the football club meets with police ahead of every football season to plan policing at matches. Matches are risk-assessed to decide which ones can be police-free.</p>

He added: &quot;Any future Southampton home matches against Barnsley will obviously now be assessed taking into account the disorder of this match.&quot;</p>

A spokesman for Southampton Football Club said a debriefing meeting following Saturday's match would be held tomorrow.</p>

 

To be fair

The report quotes 2 Southampton fans, one commenting on Barnsley fans involved in violence whilst another talks about a Barnsley coach being attacked, seems rather balanced.

 

RE: Doesn't sound like us, could it be....

that we were infiltrated by Portsmouth fans (pay on the gate, remember!) with no game until Blackburn away on Sunday. It is too far for Barnsley five-o and we haven't heard of them for yonks anyway.

Blame Pompey - unless anyone knows otherwise! I bet they started it!

 

Blame pompey..................

and it was Leeds fans during the problems at Cardiff
Anybody but us Tykes



Just take a look round when going to or from the WELL. how many do you see carrying a flask and blanki (for their cold legs) compared to gangs of blokes that look like they would cut yer liver art and show it to yer

 

the thing is nudge..

the blokes who started the fighting were wearing bell bottoms, had anchor tattoos and were shouting "hello handsome" to men in the street.

Got to be pompey.

 

Here is the reaction to that article on the Southern Daily Echo website

Would appear we are starting to get the lion's share of the blame.</p>

Posted by: gorf, soton on Today</p>

just shows the mentality of these away fans....they come here and think they can fight the familys with kids. shame they didnt take a walk up to one of the local pubs full of saints fans. they probably would have had a better reception from the fans who were up 4 it
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Posted by: louanna, soton on Today</p>

i just managed to steer my mum passed these barnsley fans who started this trouble after the game. it was so obvious there was going to be trouble, ther was not a copper in sight as they started hurling abuse at the passing saints fans and as they got away with that, it does not surprise me at all that there was violence. just goes to show that a police presence does probably deter violence between opposing fans and a bit of banter is as far as rivalry will go if there is a noticeable deterrent.
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Posted by: saints76 on Today</p>

f.t.a.o soton resident,you say police were quickly on the scene &amp; quashed the flare up most effectively?? well sorry it took them at least 15 mins &amp; by the time they did get there the stewards had moved in &amp; the trouble had stopped. but yes i agree it is not the fault of the police, its penny pinching by sfc, they are happy to pay huge salaries to very average footballers, but not prepared to pay for policing to protect the people who pay those salaries.
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Posted by: anon, totton on Today</p>

To the soton resident from Chilworth. Well all I can say is you obviously werent there yesterday if you are sayiny the police were quickly at the scene. It was about 10 minutes until the 1st poilice unit arrived giving the Barnsley fans enough time to kick an innocent bystander unconcious. Every single match at St Marys should have a police presence for the protection of the thousands of innocent fans who may be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Irrespective of which fans were to blame

I asked my 11 yr old son on Friday night if he fancied the trip down as I had a feeling we may pinch something from the game. He didnt but changed his mind at eleven the next morning, by which time it was too late to set off.

Im just glad he didnt have to see the trouble. Its unacceptable that there wasnt a police presence at a football match. Wherever theres a chance of the away team causing a shock theres an even chance of trouble outside the ground.

Southampton took a big gamble in trying to save some money and came unstuck. They should be made accountable.