New stewards please!

[Herr Tubthumper]

You do talk some shit NMH. And you're f***ing boring. And patronising. You think you are the only person on here to have gone to football abroad? I've been to football in Spain, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, France and Australia and witnessed none of the shit you are wittering on about here. Saw women and kids at every place, all with a fantastic atmosphere. Some more intimidating than others, none more intimidating than some grounds I've been to in the UK.

And I think we'd all apologise for our actions if we had been banned and it meant the ban would be lightened.

And I'm so pleased for you that you got your pointless qualification and got to meet Tony Bloom. Well done. I cant imagine anyone else is going to read through all that gibberish you posted, I know I regret doing it.

This

 

[NMH]

But the issue was never really about what he did or didn't do. It was about how it was handled on the day. And do you really think that was done well ?

Really? Oh well then it surely is my mistake - my selective memory only recalls the many people who claimed he didn't do it, and that I was not hearing the swearing all the way across the other side of the ground.

How it's handled will always be criticized of course, by the scrutiny of righteous and exacting fans and ear-witnesses who - although they knew he didn't do anything, he was innocent - are experts on handling things as well.

Yes, I do see the irony - don't you?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Really? Oh well then it surely is my mistake - my selective memory only recalls the many people who claimed he didn't do it, and that I (and another person in the North Stand) was not hearing the swearing all the way across the other side of the ground.

How it's handled will always be criticized of course, by the scrutiny of righteous and exacting fans and ear-witnesses who - although they knew he didn't do anything, he was innocent - are experts on handling things as well.

Everyone knows the acoustics at Withdean. Having sat in front of him for a few seasons we all know he can be an idiot - and he may well have offended some sensitive souls on the day. I was in front and to the side and didn't hear anything.

And of course you didn't respond as to whether you thought it was well handled on the day. Just some more patronising claptrap.

 

[les dynam]

You lot do make I larf sometimes, you really do.
Since we DID manage to pass with FLYING hi-ly-visible colours on the overall behavior front at a very sensitive location, AND this was a rather key issue in getting the stadium at Falmer (not just a load of architectural plans), the proof stands steaming like a sweetness in the centre of the pudding.
With potentially problematic steep lego-stand structures, in a watchful goldfish bowl of somewhat expensive housing, the Albion record for crowd health & safety and control is exemplary. It's nothing about me defending Richard Hebberd as an associate here because I would have got on with my work as laid out by the authorities - but the evidences alone are overwhelming!

The record of NSC for knowing the home truth however, is so rubbish it's beyond belief. Remember that bloke that swore loud and got barred from Withdean, who loads of people insisted was INNOCENT and you lambasted RH about his over-reactions and his misjudgments?? Yeah?
When that same fellow came out and ADMITTED his faux pas and apologized for his errant behavior, his banning was lightened and he was allowed to return to watch matches (understanding his responsibility to behave). A few insistent NSC thunder-and-lightning protestors should have taken a look in the mirror then, eh?

Now I work in football abroad -and you lot do not KNOW what it's like, not unless you clearly recall the running battles on streets with fighting on stations and in arranged locations, or have been to games where you can't see for flares and smoke, and bomb-like fireworks detonate with regularity, and parents dare not take their kids to matches, and youngsters are in fear, and people aren't even watching the game, and the players try not to score because they know it will cause a riot in a derby game and get their club closed to spectators for matches afterwards, and police bills run into €100,000 for a single fixture (helicopters overhead, vans and sirens all over the shop, cops on every train carriage and stopping people getting on the tube stations), paper and confetti and plastic beer mugs flying with their contents going over everyone, and real & actual FIRE starting on the terrace, NOBODY can sit and the seats get busted by people standing and bouncing on them, annoying groups of 'lads' who can't be told to take their own seats (so they take YOUR seat), and drunk bravado-filled teens have fallen from top tiers onto fans below, and despite all efforts there are loopholes where actual disasters can easily happen (and probably will).

Whoever can get this shit sorted - it needs to be someone with the same wherewithal and knowledge as a Richard Hebberd, and a policy of stewarding as laid out exactly like English Football H&S Stewarding is. Brighton and Hove Albion are one of the very first to engage City and Guilds Vocational Qualification teaching for the stewarding staff. I myself was of the very first to collect mine, handed to me, and a few other stewards at the time, by Mr Tony Bloom in the Director's Lounge.
Was our club entrusted with this endeavor as an early example of this new enactment because we were such a shambolic outfit in need of quickly shaping up??

Incidentally, our expenditure for the whole season - I'm not sure if I'm alright to share the information but it is comparatively negligible, and a fraction of what my current club pay for ONE match!!

IF you lot want to think for a moment before raining down your arguments - read again the third paragraph I've written here. Do you think you'd like to attend a match with any (let alone almost all) of those factors apply? Go on, read it - it is what exists elsewhere in Europe, in your time! Can't take the missus or kids, might get hurt, might get deafened or burned, can't get home, can't watch the game properly, match might be fixed to save the club more trouble, can't sit, can't ask that fans around you behave so you can relax, can't wear decent clothes, might get drenched in beer or worse, will get shoved and jostled for 90 minutes, might get caught up in violence and mayhem, can't get into the stand you paid for, will stink of smoke, and won't even have much recollection of the actual match event you paid fort and attended. Then, you won't even find the match report for all the coverage of the crowd activities in the next-day's papers.

Who's game for that laugh, then?

a perfect example of why people like you shouldn't be stewarding at football matches. sweet jesus

 

[Triggaaar]

a vast majority are good sorts and supporters as well. There are a handful who are jobsworths

Agreed, there are just a few jobsworths that really wind me up. I'd take the majority of them and lose a few of the ones in charge.

 

[Commander]

That you would admit to something you hadn't done is pretty PRINCIPLED of you isn't it?
Somewhat telling about you, that.

And you have felt most intimidated in the UK you say? But.... not at Withdean? Thanks, got more to say about Brighton's pointless stewards?

If you go to, say Rott Weiss Essen v Fortuna Dusseldorf or Malaga v Lavante perhaps, I'm sure you will find their stands moy placido on the whole. Inter v AC Milan like an evening at the flicks too? Or....not so much.
Howabout DIF v AIK or either v Hammarby? "Gibberish" I know, but take just one BHA v Palace match in the 1970's and think we'd have got small print about a stray traffic cone in Withdean. Why am I being selective? Because just one event with trouble would have been justabit COSTLY for us, and I sincerely doubt palace would have tippy-toed around thinking how they should help us get a new stadium.

Stewarding practices are different in England now - and especially since Hillsborough, and that innocuous Bradford vs Lincoln fixture. Your health and safety is watched over by loads of 'jobsworths', and not forgetting that Leeds or Millwall never 'took the South Stand' (or H&J blocks at least). Well there must be examples where some rubber matting lifted, or a drunk got through and had a prosthetic leg removed! Lucky the regulars at The Swan never got hold of that sort of ammunition eh?

Just ONE costly situation, even a smashed car or window or chair through The Sportsman's windows vs my "pointless qualification". Enjoy your padded seat at The American Express Community Stadium - I'd suggest it will be better than the bit of cracked dirty plastic at DIF's Stadion or at any one of the 6 derby matches in Stockholm featuring these very staid Swedish folks, but pointing out this sort of thing is obviously patronising, when (to quote a review of the season's first match earlier this month); "The nha hockey has kept running antagonism between the clubs throughout the winter. The best part of Stockholm football this year is the audience interest!"
The reviewer cites the crowd's running battles and threats of sanctions from the authorities as 'the best part of the game', also telling how there was not one threat of a goal being scored.

The football was "skit" (shit) as the reviewer pointed out - but who goes to games to watch football when you can have a few fires, march down the streets in a mob under helicopters, and wave flags and sing up an atmosphere, then have a good skirmish? Police costs add several quid to every ticket mind you, but the singing and jumping happens
regardless of the football game anyway so who cares - as long as you can get bladdered and have a bit of a fight, maybe damage some property here and there and throw stuff?

I'm in danger of wittering on, so I'll leave ya with some videos, like I do. Enjoy.

[yt]6zcLShpYlq0[/yt]

[yt]ZoCKS2sXanI[/yt]

I'm sorry for calling you f***ing boring, NMH. It was late and I'd had a few beers. But then you post another patronising load of gibberish at 04:39 this morning. I'm sorry, but what the hell do you do that means you post on NSC at 04:30 in the morning? Not having a dig, just genuinely interested.

You seem to have this style of posting that just makes me get half way through and just think 'Oh God NMH is wittering on again' and then I struggle to read the whole thing. But from what I can work out, you seem to be saying in a round about way that if it wasn't for people like you and Hebberd, then we would be seeing scenes like your videos above at Withdean. Is that correct? You say "Just one event with trouble would have been justabit costly for us"- do you mean like The pub at Preston Park station being smashed up by BRIGHTON fans fighting with Cardiff, or the running battles outside the ground with Carlisle in the first season, or the trouble with Leeds which some people went to prison for?

I don't really even understand the point you're trying to make to be honest. Nobody is suggesting we shouldn't have stewards, they are suggesting that the way they are run and the way Withdean is 'policed' by these people is wrong. And I think it is. But because you are one of them you get fiercely defensive about it and start suggesting that if it wasn't for these brave souls there would be full scale riots, fires, pitched battles and helicopters overhead. It's Withdean for f*** sake, get over yourself. And funnily enough I don't think Leeds or Milwall would have been to bothered in taking the South Stand at Withdean, it's hardly the Südtribüne!

I particularly liked this bit of your post:

And you have felt most intimidated in the UK you say? But.... not at Withdean? Thanks, got more to say about Brighton's pointless stewards? If you go to, say Rott Weiss Essen v Fortuna Dusseldorf or Malaga v Lavante perhaps, I'm sure you will find their stands moy placido on the whole. Inter v AC Milan like an evening at the flicks too? Or....not so much.

Yeah, so, because of you and your steward chums Withdean isn't as intimidating as Ninian Park, Elland Road or The New Den. It's lucky we have you to protect us or there would be regular riots, beatings, stabbings and rapes at the Theatre of Trees and along Snaky Lane. You also seem to suggest when I pulled you up on going to football abroad that I had obviously only been to the equivalent of Malaga vs Levante. Yeah you're right, I mean Boca Juniors and Palmeiras are renowned for being friendly, laid-back family clubs, aren't they?

I think you get so defensive about this subject that you forget what your original point was and start citing riots at European games as examples of what would happen at Withdean without the stewards. Which to be honest, is so ridiculous it is funny. You cant even get a song going at Withdean for more than a minute, I'd say it's fairly unlikely people are going to start bringing fireworks, knives, darts, knuckle dusters and pig's heads.

a perfect example of why people like you shouldn't be stewarding at football matches. sweet jesus

15 minutes of my life wasted composing a reply and you go and say exactly what I am trying to say in 16 words.

Tell us honestly, NMH, do you do it for the power? I'm sure it cant be for the money, so if not for the power, why? To protect your fellow fans from the scenes in your videos above?

 

[NMH]

Everyone knows the acoustics at Withdean. Having sat in front of him for a few seasons we all know he can be an idiot - and he may well have offended some sensitive souls on the day. I was in front and to the side and didn't hear anything.

And of course you didn't respond as to whether you thought it was well handled on the day. Just some more patronising claptrap.

The chap you represent admitted to what he'd done and subsequently apologized and, it seems fairly, allowed to come back at shorter notice.
How would you have handled it? You say he "can be an idiot", but how do you suggest stewards handle such idiots?

Your post reveals that he's a bit of a known quantity - do you think he's a bearable idiot for everyone, or is there a chance someone might take exception to him and feel they need to talk to him themselves?
The one taking exception might then complain that they are doing the job the stewards ought to be taking care of, no?

I had a man in the North Stand Q-area when we played Leeds and lost, swearing at Andy Whing at volume. When he repeated this, I asked him to first please keep the language down, and then mentioned that it probably was doing more for Leeds and was not a supportive effort for our team.
Now that last bit is really not my business to mention, and my attitude could have been sterner according to the guidelines.
He responded by breathing out, agreeing with me, apologizing, and no more expletives were heard.

Was I too patronizing with this fellow, do you think?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

The chap you represent admitted to what he'd done and subsequently apologized and, it seems fairly, allowed to come back at shorter notice.
How would you have handled it? You say he "can be an idiot", but how do you suggest stewards handle such idiots?

Your post reveals that he's a bit of a known quantity - do you think he's a bearable idiot for everyone, or is there a chance someone might take exception to him and feel they need to talk to him themselves?
The one taking exception might then complain that they are doing the job the stewards ought to be taking care of, no?

I had a man in the North Stand Q-area when we played Leeds and lost, swearing at Andy Whing at volume. When he repeated this, I asked him to first please keep the language down, and then mentioned that it probably was doing more for Leeds and was not a supportive effort for our team.
Now that last bit is really not my business to mention, and my attitude could have been sterner according to the guidelines.
He responded by breathing out, agreeing with me, apologizing, and no more expletives were heard.

Was I too patronizing with this fellow, do you think?

As was well documented at the time - a staring contest, ending up with the chap being practically chased in the ground, getting a talking to infront of the South Stand, escorted to the exits in a heavy-handed manner, then a stand-off by the exits involving the police and an agitated crowd was not the best approach. I can't imagine Sussex Police were that impressed.

You took a different approach. I think yours made more sense.


And being "an idiot" does not need to involve stewards at all. If that was the criteria there would be few people in the ground, and even fewer stewards.

 

[Spider]

a perfect example of why people like you shouldn't be stewarding at football matches. sweet jesus

Quite. It's not wonder Withdean stewarding is such a joke if their stewards have a attitude like this! I'm sure if there wasn't an over-zealous steward shouting at everyone in H Block to sit down (despite the fact loads of clubs turn a blind eye to a certain portion of standing home fans, and the fact that everyone knows this is the singing stand so should expect standing/rowdiness) I'd be having cups of piss thrown over me and bonfires blazing all around me in G Block.

 

[NMH]

I'm sorry for calling you f***ing boring, NMH. It was late and I'd had a few beers. But then you post another patronising load of gibberish at 04:39 this morning. I'm sorry, but what the hell do you do that means you post on NSC at 04:30 in the morning? Not having a dig, just genuinely interested.


You seem to have this style of posting that just makes me get half way through and just think 'Oh God NMH is wittering on again' and then I struggle to read the whole thing. But from what I can work out, you seem to be saying in a round about way that if it wasn't for people like you and Hebberd, then we would be seeing scenes like your videos above at Withdean. Is that correct? You say "Just one event with trouble would have been justabit costly for us"- do you mean like The pub at Preston Park station being smashed up by BRIGHTON fans fighting with Cardiff, or the running battles outside the ground with Carlisle in the first season, or the trouble with Leeds which some people went to prison for?

I don't really even understand the point you're trying to make to be honest. Nobody is suggesting we shouldn't have stewards, they are suggesting that the way they are run and the way Withdean is 'policed' by these people is wrong. And I think it is. But because you are one of them you get fiercely defensive about it and start suggesting that if it wasn't for these brave souls there would be full scale riots, fires, pitched battles and helicopters overhead. It's Withdean for f*** sake, get over yourself. And funnily enough I don't think Leeds or Milwall would have been to bothered in taking the South Stand at Withdean, it's hardly the Südtribüne!

I particularly liked this bit of your post:

Yeah, so, because of you and your steward chums Withdean isn't as intimidating as Ninian Park, Elland Road or The New Den. It's lucky we have you to protect us or there would be regular riots, beatings, stabbings and rapes at the Theatre of Trees and along Snaky Lane. You also seem to suggest when I pulled you up on going to football abroad that I had obviously only been to the equivalent of Malaga vs Levante. Yeah you're right, I mean Boca Juniors and Palmeiras are renowned for being friendly, laid-back family clubs, aren't they?

I think you get so defensive about this subject that you forget what your original point was and start citing riots at European games as examples of what would happen at Withdean without the stewards. Which to be honest, is so ridiculous it is funny. You cant even get a song going at Withdean for more than a minute, I'd say it's fairly unlikely people are going to start bringing fireworks, knives, darts, knuckle dusters and pig's heads.



15 minutes of my life wasted composing a reply and you go and say exactly what I am trying to say in 16 words.

Tell us honestly, NMH, do you do it for the power? I'm sure it cant be for the money, so if not for the power, why? To protect your fellow fans from the scenes in your videos above?

At the moment, I'm getting wide awake at early a.m. and instead of laying there wanting to be tired or looking at her next to me who is sleeping - I get up and go on facebook (the sun never sets on my fb empire) and often check NSC, occasionally exchanging chat with someone else who can't sleep. Then I am usually sufficiently tired enough to fall asleep again until morning.

That I bother to respond at all regarding stewarding practices and what it might mean to Brighton and Hove Albion, is offering another viewpoint. People invite a pov and yet they then rain insult and epithet down when it doesn't suit their apparently rather singular side (it turns out) of the subject. I'm apparently only allowed to agree with their side, or else I'm "patronizing" or "power-maniac" or totally o.t.t. (for the point of their argument of course). It isn't just me they do it to either - do you see any other stewards encouraged in responding? Maybe they see this as a one-sided cacophony they would rather sidestep - there are several stewards who read NSC.

I don't say you have never been to a dodgy foreign affair - but you DO say that ALL have been wonderfully atmospheric without exception, only feeling UK matches to be otherwise! I find that a bit odd, but then Britain and England games have been notorious abroad. Are those stewards wielding batons and locking up England fans always fair?
Again, I find that a bit odd.

Power? Do it for WHAT power?? It's stewarding - I do it for the club, for the sport, and because I like what I do. On the day, my interactions are almost always satisfactory, enjoyable, and rewarding. I know from experience (and not every trained person can always know how they'll act), that when serious chips have been down - I reacted to put my knowledge and training into practice. I have several times to feel I did right - and those bad moments as they happened, have given me a personal feeling of pride afterwards.
I will not tell you about them as it would seem like 'cashing in', and even mentioning them now doesn't make me feel comfortable - and no doubt someone will belittle them (unless...they ever needed help themselves).

Power? I am pleased to help that very old feller who's been coming to the Albion since he was 10, to carefully negotiate the steps to his seat, and keep an eye on him during the match, and assist him back down the steps afterwards when everyone's bustling to go home, if necessary.
I'd much rather do that than tell someone to please stop using bad language near the family stand, or escort some teen punk snubbing his nose at our club and lighting a cigarette 5 minutes before fulltime because he knows his lot are losing anyway and "make me" is his attitude.
Power.

Now those scenes in those videos are what I am dealing with. A lot of people do HAVE personal responsibility, but many seem to think football is a place to lose it. There are various ways people do it, and most clash with each other's opinion of what's okay and what's not.
You tend to wish they'd just gone on the bumper cars and got it out of their system before coming to football - and in the case of many countries they get drunk before and during the match! Imagine all being in agreement then - it's just as well they have the same cause happening in front of them and cheer-leader guys balanced on the fences to tell them what to do next.

 

[libra-gully]

I think some people on here have very short memories. Back at the Goldstone, stewarding was at times a tough job, simply because of the clowns they had to deal with from clubs such as Birmingham I recall specifically. The very real chance at times of getting thumped by some numbskull thug, all for a few quid a game.

The police were ever present inside and outside the ground, costing us a fortune, and sometimes not helping when things kicked off.

Through a great deal of hard work by the 'majority' of today's stewards, the police are virtually absent from the Withdean. Apart from a few spotters, and sometimes a van or two outside, crowd contril is in the hands of the stewards.

Yes there are a few 'jobworths' mainly in the response/reaction squad, but it should also be remembered that most stewards are actually fans, who want to help the club. This was particularly true when we came back to Withdean, and is true today I understand.

In summary, get off their backs they do a hard job well. At Falmer keep the majority but lose a few of the self important ones.

 

[NMH]

As was well documented at the time - a staring contest, ending up with the chap being practically chased in the ground, getting a talking to infront of the South Stand, escorted to the exits in a heavy-handed manner, then a stand-off by the exits involving the police and an agitated crowd was not the best approach. I can't imagine Sussex Police were that impressed.

You took a different approach. I think yours made more sense.


And being "an idiot" does not need to involve stewards at all. If that was the criteria there would be few people in the ground, and even fewer stewards.

Well, regarding your last sentence - the guy I encountered was apparently not an idiot because he saw sense. People around him were not 'policing' him, but since some around him were players themselves, elderly fans, young kids, females, and people who mind their own business and don't want to upset - it was good that he came around to a sincere point of view and leveled his own head.

You suggest that it doesn't NEED to involve stewards - but if that guy turned around and said "eff you, effing steward cnt" then he'd have needed to be ejected from the ground! Some around him might have said "he is a bit of an idiot, but didn't need ejecting"!

I don't know if anyone in your seating area has spoken with your 'bit of an idiot' bloke, but apparently you know he's had issues - and so did the stewards. That's not a coincidence!!
That he objected is not really sounding like a surprise, but if he refuses to leave when required.... what's supposed to happen? Waive the rules and let his objections stand up for him? Let him get away with being a little idiotic until he becomes a bigger idiot? Who wants to set the boundaries, the size of the bully telling you how a football crowd is meant to behave? Someone else is paid a small amount for a less than enjoyable task that one would be very imaginative to interpret as 'power'. Usually, you will find them to be polite to you, (unless you are breaking the rules).

To remind (if it's of any consequence) - many if not most of the stewards are fans too, and have stood on the terraces.

 

[NMH]

Oh - just an aside; We have one regular policeman, Darren, who is usually at Withdean.
Sheffield Wednesday was category 'B', and I saw several more police that afternoon in attendance.

On NSC I have seen people who have complained about the number of stewards present and therefore the COST incurred - but in view of the cost for a larger number of police, the exchange seems to be rather fair. Cops don't always see any need to be polite and reasonable, and if they eject miscreants, sometimes they don't listen to any arguments or ask nicely for the perp. to walk gently to the door.

Go to a nightclub and be an idiot - see how reasonable the chaps in black seem there!
It's another business, of course. Just another business of entertainment you spend your hard-earned on - but you don't mind them having a bit of responsibility, rather than be subject to the possibilities surrounding affairs, like bunches of drunk chavs coming down from London maybe for a bit of hanky panky.

 

[les dynam]

At the moment, I'm getting wide awake at early a.m. and instead of laying there wanting to be tired or looking at her next to me who is sleeping - I get up and go on facebook (the sun never sets on my fb empire) and often check NSC, occasionally exchanging chat with someone else who can't sleep. Then I am usually sufficiently tired enough to fall asleep again until morning.

That I bother to respond at all regarding stewarding practices and what it might mean to Brighton and Hove Albion, is offering another viewpoint. People invite a pov and yet they then rain insult and epithet down when it doesn't suit their apparently rather singular side (it turns out) of the subject. I'm apparently only allowed to agree with their side, or else I'm "patronizing" or "power-maniac" or totally o.t.t. (for the point of their argument of course). It isn't just me they do it to either - do you see any other stewards encouraged in responding? Maybe they see this as a one-sided cacophony they would rather sidestep - there are several stewards who read NSC.

I don't say you have never been to a dodgy foreign affair - but you DO say that ALL have been wonderfully atmospheric without exception, only feeling UK matches to be otherwise! I find that a bit odd, but then Britain and England games have been notorious abroad. Are those stewards wielding batons and locking up England fans always fair?
Again, I find that a bit odd.

Power? Do it for WHAT power?? It's stewarding - I do it for the club, for the sport, and because I like what I do. On the day, my interactions are almost always satisfactory, enjoyable, and rewarding. I know from experience (and not every trained person can always know how they'll act), that when serious chips have been down - I reacted to put my knowledge and training into practice. I have several times to feel I did right - and those bad moments as they happened, have given me a personal feeling of pride afterwards.
I will not tell you about them as it would seem like 'cashing in', and even mentioning them now doesn't make me feel comfortable - and no doubt someone will belittle them (unless...they ever needed help themselves).

Power? I am pleased to help that very old feller who's been coming to the Albion since he was 10, to carefully negotiate the steps to his seat, and keep an eye on him during the match, and assist him back down the steps afterwards when everyone's bustling to go home, if necessary.
I'd much rather do that than tell someone to please stop using bad language near the family stand, or escort some teen punk snubbing his nose at our club and lighting a cigarette 5 minutes before fulltime because he knows his lot are losing anyway and "make me" is his attitude.
Power.

Now those scenes in those videos are what I am dealing with. A lot of people do HAVE personal responsibility, but many seem to think football is a place to lose it. There are various ways people do it, and most clash with each other's opinion of what's okay and what's not.
You tend to wish they'd just gone on the bumper cars and got it out of their system before coming to football - and in the case of many countries they get drunk before and during the match! Imagine all being in agreement then - it's just as well they have the same cause happening in front of them and cheer-leader guys balanced on the fences to tell them what to do next.

But you're not though are you. You're dealing with a low-key match at a tiny little ground that has systematically had its vibrancy removed. Sorry to ruin your dreams, but if you didn't turn up on matchdays NOTHING of note would happen without you. People would turn up, shout a bit more, stand a bit more, and then go home again.

You sound like a fantasist- without meaning to get personal or nasty.

 

[NMH]

But you're not though are you. You're dealing with a low-key match at a tiny little ground that has systematically had its vibrancy removed. Sorry to ruin your dreams, but if you didn't turn up on matchdays NOTHING of note would happen without you. People would turn up, shout a bit more, stand a bit more, and then go home again.

You sound like a fantasist- without meaning to get personal or nasty.

A fantasist you say?

You, of course, aren't aware that I now work in Sweden I guess?
It might be some people's 'fantasy', but usually I prefer to fulfill mine - thus making such things REALITY mate.
A foreign language and I won't have google-translate handy!

Thanks for popping your head up again son - and while your here, have another look at those videos I posted earlier in this thread.
Maybe you fantasize about breaking down that gate and getting in a fun crush with like-minded souls, or perhaps having a burning tin-can hurled at you so you can go out in a blaze of coloured smoke, replace the ripped shirt and burned jeans, wash the beer out of your hair and jacket ....or worse!

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

You suggest that it doesn't NEED to involve stewards - but if that guy turned around and said "eff you, effing steward cnt" then he'd have needed to be ejected from the ground! Some around him might have said "he is a bit of an idiot, but didn't need ejecting"!

Whatever conjecture you make the whole thing was completely over the top. Stewards are there to allow us enjoy ourselves and see the people we pay to see. Not to see them acting as the main attraction.

Anyway I am out of here. If you are being paid by an industry it is your interest to talk up the issues.

 

[Joey Deacon's Disco Suit]

A fantasist you say?

You, of course, aren't aware that I now work in Sweden I guess?
It might be some people's 'fantasy', but usually I prefer to fulfill mine - thus making such things REALITY mate.
A foreign language and I won't have google-translate handy!

Thanks for popping your head up again son - and while your here, have another look at those videos I posted earlier in this thread.
Maybe you fantasize about breaking down that gate and getting in a fun crush with like-minded souls, or perhaps having a burning tin-can hurled at you so you can go out in a blaze of coloured smoke, replace the ripped shirt and burned jeans, wash the beer out of your hair and jacket ....or worse!

You need psychiatric help.

 

[NMH]

You need psychiatric help.

This.
I must do. Someone please tell me why I'd want to do this in Stockholm.
The place is surrounded by water, and there's still huge chunks of ice floating about. The beer can be really expensive, the language is about as easy and internationally useful as Welsh, and the football matches are completely mental.

Can anyone think of a good reason to be here, please?

 

[portslade seagull]

You dopey twat,If you had heard the tannoy it was Gus and the players who said they weren't coming out and then they changed their minds,the decision was never taken by any side of the stewarding staff or safety officer.Get facts right before opening gob

Could of sworn that the players decided not to heed the stewards request not to comeback out and brushed straight pass them... so the players saying that is basically total nonsense like your post

 

[Commander]

Thanks for popping your head up again son - and while your here, have another look at those videos I posted earlier in this thread.
Maybe you fantasize about breaking down that gate and getting in a fun crush with like-minded souls, or perhaps having a burning tin-can hurled at you so you can go out in a blaze of coloured smoke, replace the ripped shirt and burned jeans, wash the beer out of your hair and jacket ....or worse!

Sorry, NMH, just to be clear. Are you suggesting that if it wasn't for the stewards at Withdean, we would witness scenes like the ones in your videos?