I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but yesterday there was some very odd behaviour where I was sitting at the Amex.
Ian Hart had kindly invited me as his guest for the East Stand 1901 area, along with a former Albion player and his young daughter. Prior to the match everything was fine, and Ian was expressing some of his concerns to me about the Albion. Ian and I don't share the same views on a few topics, but it's always useful to debate issues face to face rather than over the somewhat entrenched battlegrounds of the internet.
Ian gave me his seat, and said that it was quite a relaxed area to watch the match, but language and behaviour that is common perhaps in the North stand or at an away game wasn't encouraged in the 1901. Whilst I enjoy a good swear up, (because, as we know, sometimes a referee or opponent is a ****ing wanker), I took this on board and did my best to keep it reasonably clean.
Harty also said that the seating behind us was always empty. However, for this match, directly behind us, were two blokes and what appeared to be the girlfriend of one of them.
One of these men, sitting directly behind me, proceeded to swear every other word. Personally it doesn't bother me, for reasons mentioned above. However, he wasn't swearing at the dismal performance taking place in front of us, but just a non stop cascade of four letter words, which was tiresome and also embarrassing, as there was a 13 year old girl sitting next to me. He didn't seem to be interested in the play at all, just trying to get a reaction by copious use of F,C,B and W Anglo-Saxon diction. The ex-player asked the guy behind us to stop, because it was upsetting his daughter, and two stewards, both within earshot, both made a token effort to quieten things down, but to no avail.
I then also asked this bloke to tone it down a bit, pointing out that it wasn't the place for such a trail of abuse, especially with a young girl in the vicinity. He then decided to have a go at me for the rest of the match. The player's daughter was so upset she left the seats, and the language continued, directed at myself, almost as if he was trying to provoke a confrontation with me, who, let it be remembered, was sitting in Harty's seat. The stewards continued to pay lip service to what was taking place.
He then left with 10 minutes to go, so I assumed that he was one of the many who was escaping the tedium early, but when we returned to the 1901 lounge at full time he was watching Harty's party carefully.
I then went down to the North stand concourse to meet some friends, and oddly enough, he was watching me there too. When I popped into the bogs for a quick waz he followed me in, but upon seeing there were other fans there, left quickly without bothering to have a slash.
The above things could be coincidental of course, but it does seem a bit odd that, after Harty's recent broadside at the club, someone sits directly behind Harty's seat and does his best to create an incident with the person occupying Harty's seat, which had it gone toe to toe, would have potentially have led to an eviction, potential ban and bad publicity for IH.
Yours from the grassy knoll.
EP
Ian Hart had kindly invited me as his guest for the East Stand 1901 area, along with a former Albion player and his young daughter. Prior to the match everything was fine, and Ian was expressing some of his concerns to me about the Albion. Ian and I don't share the same views on a few topics, but it's always useful to debate issues face to face rather than over the somewhat entrenched battlegrounds of the internet.
Ian gave me his seat, and said that it was quite a relaxed area to watch the match, but language and behaviour that is common perhaps in the North stand or at an away game wasn't encouraged in the 1901. Whilst I enjoy a good swear up, (because, as we know, sometimes a referee or opponent is a ****ing wanker), I took this on board and did my best to keep it reasonably clean.
Harty also said that the seating behind us was always empty. However, for this match, directly behind us, were two blokes and what appeared to be the girlfriend of one of them.
One of these men, sitting directly behind me, proceeded to swear every other word. Personally it doesn't bother me, for reasons mentioned above. However, he wasn't swearing at the dismal performance taking place in front of us, but just a non stop cascade of four letter words, which was tiresome and also embarrassing, as there was a 13 year old girl sitting next to me. He didn't seem to be interested in the play at all, just trying to get a reaction by copious use of F,C,B and W Anglo-Saxon diction. The ex-player asked the guy behind us to stop, because it was upsetting his daughter, and two stewards, both within earshot, both made a token effort to quieten things down, but to no avail.
I then also asked this bloke to tone it down a bit, pointing out that it wasn't the place for such a trail of abuse, especially with a young girl in the vicinity. He then decided to have a go at me for the rest of the match. The player's daughter was so upset she left the seats, and the language continued, directed at myself, almost as if he was trying to provoke a confrontation with me, who, let it be remembered, was sitting in Harty's seat. The stewards continued to pay lip service to what was taking place.
He then left with 10 minutes to go, so I assumed that he was one of the many who was escaping the tedium early, but when we returned to the 1901 lounge at full time he was watching Harty's party carefully.
I then went down to the North stand concourse to meet some friends, and oddly enough, he was watching me there too. When I popped into the bogs for a quick waz he followed me in, but upon seeing there were other fans there, left quickly without bothering to have a slash.
The above things could be coincidental of course, but it does seem a bit odd that, after Harty's recent broadside at the club, someone sits directly behind Harty's seat and does his best to create an incident with the person occupying Harty's seat, which had it gone toe to toe, would have potentially have led to an eviction, potential ban and bad publicity for IH.
Yours from the grassy knoll.
EP
