Anybody With a Whinge About Entry To Tonight’s Youth Match Is Full Of Shit. Fact.

[Halftime Oranges]

Plus the cost would have attracted a lot more fans in.................a full price ticket would have made people hav to choose last night or sheff utd but as a few quid made it a lot more easier...................also when we have falmer an extra 13,000 fans hav to come from somewhere

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Can't let the tosh that TLO is spouting go unanswered. Shame cos normally your posts are worth reading.

At 7.00 the queue was up to the Sportsman, and within 10/15 minutes snaking round, up the slope leading out of the car park and out onto the road.

It was very clear at that stage that something needed to be done. Nothing was. Nothing was done until after the game had started.

If Dick knight, Martin Perry, (and even LI and Yorkie!) all admit the club cocked it up, why can't you?

My concern is not missing the first 15 minutes or so of the game (we sat down just before the winning goal) - it's not the revenue that the club lost (although in our plight it seems more than a shame) it was purely a safety issue.

We, (I had 2 young kids with me) and loads of others were stuck on a walkway leading from the turnstiles to the steps that lead down and underneath the old away stand/new family stand.

People were starting to get frustrated at the lack of movement, and some began pushing. The stairs were packed - people could have got hurt, remember there were a lot of kids there - not much fun from down at their eye level I would imagine - perhaps TLO you don't think kids should be at a youth team game, although it might have affected the attendance somewhat.

But of course you wern't aware of these problems as you didn't experience them. Hard to comment on something you don't know anything about. But you managed to.

Bit surprised that you and THPP were discussing who would be the first to whinge at the lack of organisation, if you didn't yourself see any problems - must have been an interesting conversation about something that according to you wasn't happening!

By the way, if you're at all interested, I very very rarely critisise the club - both on or off the pitch, and I'm pleased that they were quick to acknowledge their mistakes.

 

[Beach Hut]

It was a major OG by the club and I suspect the locals will complain so we may never have a game again we pay on the turnstiles.

Good news is it brings home all the reasons for Falmer.

Anyway what is done is done, three observations from last night

1. Great game and shame I missed the first two goals.

2. A lot of chavvy unsupervised foul mouthed kids and one brainless moron (I quote) - "This isn't the normal Chelsea line-up"

3. Wherever you stand in that away end the view is absolutely crap and there aren't enough toilets in the away end either.

 

[London Irish]

At 7.00 the queue was up to the Sportsman, and within 10/15 minutes snaking round, up the slope leading out of the car park and out onto the road.

It was very clear at that stage that something needed to be done. Nothing was. Nothing was done until after the game had started.

You are obviously making interesting and reasoned points.

But put yourself in the shoes of the Albion management/safety officer at 7pm. What would you have done?

You have no extra staff to man the turnstiles.

It seems to me you have two options:

1) Keep the status quo and see how it develops, ensuring that at least we collect the revenue of at least half those going in, and then open the gates early in the game.

2) Open the gates immediately at 7pm, everyone gets in on time, no crush, you collect only about 1,000 people's money.

I feel in complaining about the lack of money collected M3 W4, you are having your cake and eating it.

You have a basic choice, lose most of the games' revenue, or keep the inadequate turnstile system going until the game starts.

That's your choice - I'm assuming you would have gone for the revenue loss option.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I repeat safety was my corcern.

But are you really saying half a dozen more people couldn't be found to man extra turnstiles at 7.00 ?

I find that quite staggering.

 

[Beach Hut]

I repeat safety was my corcern.

But are you really saying half a dozen more people couldn't be found to man extra turnstiles at 7.00 ?

I find that quite staggering.

I don't as I reckon 60% of stewards arrived well after the crowd were in.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Bit surprised that you and THPP were discussing who would be the first to whinge at the lack of organisation, if you didn't yourself see any problems - must have been an interesting conversation about something that according to you wasn't happening!

By the way, if you're at all interested, I very very rarely critisise the club - both on or off the pitch, and I'm pleased that they were quick to acknowledge their mistakes.

I'm pleased that the club put the fans' safety before loss of income on the gate. They couldn't have anticipated the numbers that would turn up and they reacted quickly and sensibly when it became apparent that there were problems. They had to make sure stewarding was properly in place before they just oppened the gates. They also cordoned off 'A' block due to lack of available stewards. I thought it was handled really well. They even, apologised, bless, tho they really had nothing to apologise for.

Perry & Knight, they're alright

 

[London Irish]

I repeat safety was my corcern.

But are you really saying half a dozen more people couldn't be found to man extra turnstiles at 7.00 ?

I find that quite staggering.

I really get the impression there were very few people on duty at this game and what little spare capacity they had was used to pressgang people into duty as stewards inside the ground (safety issues don't stop as soon as you get people into the ground, they continue to be a nightmare for the next two hours). There had to be some control of flow of people into the ground relative to the stewarding on duty. Just letting everyone surge into unstewarded areas at 7pm (I know to a degree that happened in rather anarchistic fashion anyway at around 7.40pm) presented another safety risk.

I think there is no getting away from the fact that all they had was a lot of rotten options.

 

[Yorkie]

I don't as I reckon 60% of stewards arrived well after the crowd were in.

Some of the 'stewards' were there to watch the game and were hurriedly asked to put on their jackets and resume duties.
As I said previously one was the girl who regularly stewards H block. She had already paid to get in as a spectator and then got pressed into stewarding.