must limit palace and millwall fans!

[JCL666]

Fellas

Millwall fan here who went on tuesday night. Now most people have their view and opinion of millwall and to be honest I couldnt care less what people think of us. Firstly, 2400 millwall fans on the whole behaved themselves the other night. I took my partner who has not been to football before and she never felt threatened or worried about who she was surrounded by. Yes there was a scuffle in the concourse but it was dealt with.

Now in my view the atmosphere in football stadiums in recent years has declined, especially since the 90's and the introduction of the 'plastic bowl' type stadiums is one of the main reasons for this. I was very impressed with your new stadium the other night. I was impressed with the acoustics and the design and I am pleased that after many years of trying you have finally achieved your dream. But after all that effort, do you really think it is worth reducing the allocation for 2 of your closest rivals in the league, potentially creating no atmosphere and banter rather than think of simple ways of policing.

I have seen mentioned in a few different posts about problems agianst palace and leeds this season. Now I obviously was not at these games but after witnessing events at the end of the game on tuesday, steps have got to be taken to make leaving your ground a lot safer. There were police lines outside the away section, stopping millwall fans from getting out but still letting albion fans through. Surely just keeping us in for 20 mins would be the safer approach, letting albion fans onto buses and trains and then putting us back onto trains to brighton once you have departed.

I enjoyed my visit the other night and really hope you do not decide to reduce our allocation next year. Its a very easy and hasty decision to do that and creates a slippery slope for any problems you have in the future at the ground. Having a new ground has plenty of teething problems and I know that we are not angels but surely a few sensible approaches to policing and re evaluating a few methods you have adopted for away fans would have ensured that the game went without disturbance.

I am not by any means writing on here saying that all your views are wrong but from my point of view events the other night were minor and can be avoided with sensible steps.

Thanks Eddie for a great post

 

[Gangsta]

Agree with things you say mate and obviously I can't comment about things in Lewes before the game as I was not there or aware of incident.

BHAFC should not have to deal with people who want a tear up or your innocent fans should not have to be on the wrong end of scuffles. Totally agree.

However, correct me if I am wrong here, the away end at the amex is at the other end of the ground from the train station. The police formed two lines at either end of the away end, restricting millwall fans from leaving and creating confusion and anger from away supporters including myself. However Albion supporters were allowed to wander striaght through us, totally defeating the point of having police in lines in the first place. We had to walk around your ground after that and arrived at a packed platform and packed trains! Now a packed platform and train does not bother me but it does bother some people, especially those with elderly or disabled fans. Now if millwall fans were kept in until home fans departed it would have curbed any anger or frustration and helped to some extent deal with the overcrowding which led to scuffles.

I am not a person who is against the police but i just felt that many LITTLE issues could have been dealt with better on tuesday from an away fans view, that would have made an albion fans enjoyment of tuesday night a lot more enjoyable.

Yes you could restrict us to ST holders only but do you really want football to go down the same route as it did in the 80's with fan bans and restrictions.

Good luck for the rest of the season

Yeah I agree - police need to sort this out, not planned well enough.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

The Police are the problem. The club where fine inside the ground. But the police lost it.

There was a HUGE thread on the Palace BBS about the Policing at the recent CP v BHA game (Unfortunately as an away fan, I couldn't register and therefore I couldn't give my viewpoint on it...)

Anyway,from an Away fan's viewpoint, it worked well - apart from both sets of fans then seemed to arrive at Norwood Junction at the same time, resulting in minor issues.

But the Palace fans thought the way it was Policed was a disgrace - amazing how different fans see things very differently.


IMO, at The Amex, away fans of a handfull of teams have to be held back for half an hour I'm afraid - make sure the food/drink kiosks are open AND WELL STOCKED UP, have the TVs with results coming in or even a DVD of the visiting team on a loop for 1/2 an hour. Then make sure that their are enough trains/busses to get the away fans away quickly.

Can't do that for night games though - too many issues with transport - and having Palace and Millwall as evening games has been a MASSIVE mistake.

1pm kick offs on a Saturday next season for those two - hopefully with a BIGGER allocation of away fans (but should only go to STH) as we will have a bigger stadium.

The solution is not cutting allocations, it's better Policing and better organisation.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I can't see why you have classed Palace as a TINPOT club, we were not that bad, Your fans inciting trouble does not help.

corrected for accuracy.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Fellas

Millwall fan here who went on tuesday night. Now most people have their view and opinion of millwall and to be honest I couldnt care less what people think of us. Firstly, 2400 millwall fans on the whole behaved themselves the other night. I took my partner who has not been to football before and she never felt threatened or worried about who she was surrounded by. Yes there was a scuffle in the concourse but it was dealt with.

Now in my view the atmosphere in football stadiums in recent years has declined, especially since the 90's and the introduction of the 'plastic bowl' type stadiums is one of the main reasons for this. I was very impressed with your new stadium the other night. I was impressed with the acoustics and the design and I am pleased that after many years of trying you have finally achieved your dream. But after all that effort, do you really think it is worth reducing the allocation for 2 of your closest rivals in the league, potentially creating no atmosphere and banter rather than think of simple ways of policing.

I have seen mentioned in a few different posts about problems agianst palace and leeds this season. Now I obviously was not at these games but after witnessing events at the end of the game on tuesday, steps have got to be taken to make leaving your ground a lot safer. There were police lines outside the away section, stopping millwall fans from getting out but still letting albion fans through. Surely just keeping us in for 20 mins would be the safer approach, letting albion fans onto buses and trains and then putting us back onto trains to brighton once you have departed.

I enjoyed my visit the other night and really hope you do not decide to reduce our allocation next year. Its a very easy and hasty decision to do that and creates a slippery slope for any problems you have in the future at the ground. Having a new ground has plenty of teething problems and I know that we are not angels but surely a few sensible approaches to policing and re evaluating a few methods you have adopted for away fans would have ensured that the game went without disturbance.

I am not by any means writing on here saying that all your views are wrong but from my point of view events the other night were minor and can be avoided with sensible steps.

I think OB got it spectacularly wrong with Palace and Millwall as midweek evening kick offs. Met and Sussex forces need to sort out a strategy and work as a one team. There is no need to reduce away allocations for higher profile games. 99% of the time if you ain't looking for trouble you won't find any.

 

[LABHA]

No need to restrict Millwall/Palace/Leeds or any clubs fans,lets face it OB dont have a clue about things,the Brighton police liason OB (Ball-comb) is used to Withdean,and thats about his limit,ask any fan how to restrict trouble,1st thing they will say is,12 o clock sunday,is a start,keeping away fans is another start,simple measures that are effective.

 

[matt]

Just keep them in - pretty simple really. Is there any other club in the country who would let 2k+ Millwall fans out at the same time as the home fans, or do the same thing for a local derby? The "we'll treat everyone nicely and then they'll behave nicely" is charmingly naive (or plain stupid maybe) but evidently completely ineffective.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Just keep them in - pretty simple really. Is there any other club in the country who would let 2k+ Millwall fans out at the same time as the home fans, or do the same thing for a local derby? The "we'll treat everyone nicely and then they'll behave nicely" is charmingly naive (or plain stupid maybe) but evidently completely ineffective.

How long do you keep them in for? brighton fans take an age to clear the stadium/station

 

[empire]

im afraid darren balkham and his mates,have no idea how to police these games,and remember he is a FULL TIMEfootball intelligence officer,
he gets paid alot of money and his sole job is to look after fans of this club,hasnt a scooby

 

[melias shoes]

How the location and transport issues do not allow it?

Yes it does. Just hold them back 30 mins. It's not rocket science. So what if it inconveniences them club and police have got to get their act together. We've got pompey and Cardiff coming up let's start with them.

 

[melias shoes]

Just keep them in - pretty simple really. Is there any other club in the country who would let 2k+ Millwall fans out at the same time as the home fans, or do the same thing for a local derby? The "we'll treat everyone nicely and then they'll behave nicely" is charmingly naive (or plain stupid maybe) but evidently completely ineffective.

This is correct.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

im afraid darren balkham and his mates have no idea how to police these games,and remember he is a FULL TIMEfootball intelligence officer,
he gets paid alot of money and his sole job is to look after fans of this club,hasnt a scooby

been proven at Palace

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Yes it does. Just hold them back 30 mins. It's not rocket science. So what if it inconveniences them club and police have got to get their act together. We've got pompey and Cardiff coming up let's start with them.

scare mongering

 

[melias shoes]

scare mongering

Not really, just stating the obvious.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Not really, just stating the obvious.

so you're already suggesting crowd trouble ............... mmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Yup I will go with that...trouble clubs in the championship = Bristol city, Millwall, Brum, Cardiff and southampton (last few visits)

southampton

 

[empire]

pompey will be out in force im sure,if you think millwall was bad(nothing really),
lets see how the police deal with pompey,best bet to keep them in for 15 mins,

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Yes it does. Just hold them back 30 mins. It's not rocket science. So what if it inconveniences them club and police have got to get their act together. We've got pompey and Cardiff coming up let's start with them.

Not every club will cause problems. Should be done for local rivals definitely. When fans of other clubs buy tickets, and they will be held in, then a warning should be given when they buy the tickets so they know and that it wont be a surprise, maybe have police/stewards at the entrances telling them on the way in.

Depending on the club, when they get let out - if they will be having a special train laid on for them, then make sure that will be at the station after they are let out so they dont have to wait.