[Brighton] Sussex Police

[Weststander]

I don't think you have to clear the p&r queues, I was stood in the Mill Road queue with palace fans last night. You just have to escort the black clad kids to the station, make sure they are safe and have had a little shout from behind a line of burly police and put them on the track. All the grown ups can behave as per normal

Corrected.

 

[Weststander]

I’m sure Paul Barber will tell us (at length) in next weeks match programme what WE did wrong.

“appalled”

“the club will not shy away from dealing with unruly fans spoiling it for everyone else”

“once again, embarrassed”

 

[Weststander]

Firstly, we got away relatively easily from the WSU south end but we're lucky in that our seats are next to an exit. Came down the steps at the north end of WSU and got on the second train to Btn so didn't experience any problems.

The clockwise exit plan has been used before and even when we used the P&R at Mill Rd so have had to go against those exiting the ES we've never had any problems so the question is what was different last night for so many? Would suggest everyone that had problems email the club and they'll have to address it.

Personally, I agree with others that if you are holding in the away fans then let everyone else exit in either direction. When the bulk have gone then frogmarch the scum to the station. We have to wait outside Selhurst for nearly an hour for most games (although the last one there was no kettling) so why can't they do the same when they come here.

When did you leave your seats?

We left the NS dead on final whistle to make our way past the ES to park n ride, and likewise avoided the ‘events’.

But on leaving the NS in a crush we heard people shouting “stewards, open the gate” meaning the giant roller door in the NE corner.

I think we avoided the aggro by just minutes.

 

[Doonhamer7]

No point complaining here - do something about it https://www.sussex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/c/af/complaints/. As I’ve always advocate on all safety issues at work if you walk on by then you are responsible for the consequences. The same applies outside of work. Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club need to learn and take action.

 

[Originunknown]

Some worrying accounts from posters here.

Luckily must have just missed the congestion. Was surprised to see the North West gate closed but hot footed it down to the east side exit, turned left and straight down to the station no issues.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The key thing Barber should do is not allow this to be a night time fixture again. When you have an out-of-town stadium people are rushing to get transport to avoid getting home at 2am which adds to the general chaos. To make things worse the circulation "plan" around the stadium was completely ridiculous and put people in danger, exacerbated by Police who didn't understand the plan and weren't local so didn't know where they were pushing people to.

This. Hard to see how it can be anything other than confusing, not to mention potentially dangerous, when you've got 30,000 people stumbling around in the dark at 10pm and being made to conform to a poorly-advertised 'plan' that involves just about everybody being sent in the opposite direction to where they want to go

 

[loz]

Might just be me but the Aggressive way the police handle football fans causes trouble.

I am a 57 year old man I can walk with any fan of any club quite happily and chat about the game, but to be pushed around sometimes violently by a 23 year old thug in uniform even gets me mightily pissed off.

They must know the trouble makers as they have filmed them all night, don’t get me wrong I am not anti police but the ones that go to football seem to love the trouble.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

From what I saw that reply from PB is so wide of the mark ..there was definitely an unnecessarily aggressive stance by some police against people who just wanted to get home …and then I saw people who tried to point out what was going on given short shrift. The stewards I spoke to by the East stand seemed unaware of those in the West being sent around the stadium, thinking the 25 minutes that Palace fans were supposed to be held back for meant this wasn’t necessary

Didn’t see the need for the clockwise exit if they were being kept in, makes no sense

 

[pure_white]

That would justify 2000 incompetent coppers 'working' and claiming a days overtime @ double time at the clubs expense would it . . . . . Plod cause more problems than they prevent, always have and always will. Aided and abetted by numpties at the club.

i believe the club only pay for policing inside the stadium.

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

Really baffling that this game was allowed to be played at 8pm on a Friday night. It made for a great atmosphere but a massive headache for the old bill.Brighton station before kick off said it all.

 

[zefarelly]

i believe the club only pay for policing inside the stadium.

It doesn't really matter who pays, we all do I suppose at the end of the day, thing is, half the coppers on OT at football are effectively modern day/yesterdays hooligans with the authority to get away with it.

 

[Weststander]

i believe the club only pay for policing inside the stadium.

That’s true, after Leeds (your club?) won a landmark case against West Yorkshire Police 10 years ago.

 

[BNthree]

Just received the email from the club with the post match survey in. I’ve completed it and used the comments section to say about the shambles with the barriers and the failed one way system. Suggest anyone that had a bad experience does the same.

 

[BNthree]

i believe the club only pay for policing inside the stadium.

All the land around our stadium is owned by the club so would probably have to pay for policing there too as it’s not public highways

 

[Jam The Man]

The club statement issued at 1pm today is embarrassing. Basically it’s a lightweight apology about delays leaving the ground.

Seriously we don’t need any kind of apology about the delays. The delays really don’t matter!

The frightening - and avoidable - crush ought to be the main issue of concern surely?
Something must’ve gone wrong for that to happen.

 

[Jam The Man]

Statement:

https://t.co/bSYGYHbmNX

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

This. Shambolic on the East side. Several aggressive coppers got it into their heads to pile through the hundreds of people waiting patiently for the muppets to disperse, screaming ‘GO BACK, GO BACK’ in full riot police mode. Totally unnecessary.

Somehow managed to avoid getting herded anywhere though after that. Just ignored the stewards and police and walked down the side of the Palace fans to reach the steps. Nothing was stopping me from getting that bus!

My brother and I did exactly the same. About thirty police lined up against the fence opposite one of the North Stand entrances, but other than that a nice quiet stroll up to the coach park.

If they’re keeping the Palace fans behind, why don’t they leave them in the ground?

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

From what I saw that reply from PB is so wide of the mark ..there was definitely an unnecessarily aggressive stance by some police against people who just wanted to get home …and then I saw people who tried to point out what was going on given short shrift. The stewards I spoke to by the East stand seemed unaware of those in the West being sent around the stadium, thinking the 25 minutes that Palace fans were supposed to be held back for meant this wasn’t necessary

There was a very clear email from the club about the match day arrangements that explained EXACTLY what was going to be put In place.

So as we are in WSU, we turned right when we were leaving to go right round the stadium, knowing that if we went the other way we would be blocked from getting to the Coach Park steps by lots of South Londoners, police horses and the like.

Like some others, we ignored the “go back, go back” stuff, hung around a couple of minutes, and then just strolled through quietly.

Really not convinced by the club’s email, because it all seemed total chaos, unnecessarily so, perhaps.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Really baffling that this game was allowed to be played at 8pm on a Friday night. It made for a great atmosphere but a massive headache for the old bill.Brighton station before kick off said it all.

This.

Good old Sky Sports calling the shots again

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Sounds totally reasonable to me

It might sound reasonable, but it doesn’t reflect the reality. If the CCTV people/Police/Stewards were coordinating, it didn’t show. I haven’t seen anything which explains the need for the “go back” stuff outside the East Stand.