Reinelt12
Sick Note
A little background...
My wife and elder son are Saints fans, along with my sister in law and niece and nephew... my youngest son (12 and autistic) and I are BHA fans, so this game means a little more to us than most. We have a season ticket and travel to home games from north of Birmingham, and yesterday we all travelled down for the Saints game. They had tickets in home end, and I got tickets for youngest son and I in the away end.
I didn't really figure it out when buying the tickets, but we were right next to the Saints fans, and anyone who was in that vicinity yesterday will know that it was absolute carnage pretty much all game, and especially after our goal.
During the first half there was some standard having a go from both sides, although a couple of fans heard some homophobic chanting I believe and was trying to draw the attention of the police to this, to which they didn't appear to have much success (the policeman seemed to be more worried about one of them leaning over to talk to the stewards/police rather than the actual abuse directed at our fans). Son was coping alright with all this and was pretty much standing there quietly watching the game (he has been fine at pretty much all the games we have been to home or away, I asked him if he wanted to try to move somewhere else, not sure where, the end was packed - but he was adamant he wanted to stay so we did.)
2nd half, and one of the policemen shout across to me and ask me if my son had thrown anything into the home end... I'm confused, as I know he hasn't... and the policeman said that he had been told by multiple Saints fans that he had... he didn't believe it himself as he thought it came from further down, but he had to ask me - all very strange. Then a few of their fans got dragged out, and things died down a little.
Cue the last minute, and our end going absolutely ballistic which of course was fantastic, for about a couple of minutes or so... then my son sits down and covers his ears and is clearly very distressed - his sensory issues have kicked in badly. Some saints fans at this point start pointing at him and laughing, singing at him (I mean, wtf, he is 12?!), one did mouth at me to ask if he was ok which was cool too to give balance. All I know at this point is somehow I need to get him out of there, so I try to get him through the crowd, but it's really tough as everyone staying put to clap off the team and sing... get to the stairs and someone says that no one is moving and we can't get out... at this point I shouted that my son was autistic and I just need to get him out of the situation.
Bloke who had said we couldn't get through then apologised for being abrupt and when the crowd started moving, he told my son to stay behind him and he literally ploughed his way through everyone to get him out as fast as possible.- top man! Others were also helping clear a path so we could get out too.
So essentially I hope those that witnessed this and helped, especially the person who cleared the way see this as a thank you - given the charged situation with the away end and everything going on, they could see a situation and did everything they could to help out - and for that I am very thankful. I did say thank you at the time, but sometimes we see a lot of negativity here on NSC about fans etc, and I wanted to highlight when something good has happened. He also recovered quite quickly once we were out of the stadium and the noise thankfully.
Note to self to buy him some ear defenders, and to check tickets aren't next to home supporters in future!!
My wife and elder son are Saints fans, along with my sister in law and niece and nephew... my youngest son (12 and autistic) and I are BHA fans, so this game means a little more to us than most. We have a season ticket and travel to home games from north of Birmingham, and yesterday we all travelled down for the Saints game. They had tickets in home end, and I got tickets for youngest son and I in the away end.
I didn't really figure it out when buying the tickets, but we were right next to the Saints fans, and anyone who was in that vicinity yesterday will know that it was absolute carnage pretty much all game, and especially after our goal.
During the first half there was some standard having a go from both sides, although a couple of fans heard some homophobic chanting I believe and was trying to draw the attention of the police to this, to which they didn't appear to have much success (the policeman seemed to be more worried about one of them leaning over to talk to the stewards/police rather than the actual abuse directed at our fans). Son was coping alright with all this and was pretty much standing there quietly watching the game (he has been fine at pretty much all the games we have been to home or away, I asked him if he wanted to try to move somewhere else, not sure where, the end was packed - but he was adamant he wanted to stay so we did.)
2nd half, and one of the policemen shout across to me and ask me if my son had thrown anything into the home end... I'm confused, as I know he hasn't... and the policeman said that he had been told by multiple Saints fans that he had... he didn't believe it himself as he thought it came from further down, but he had to ask me - all very strange. Then a few of their fans got dragged out, and things died down a little.
Cue the last minute, and our end going absolutely ballistic which of course was fantastic, for about a couple of minutes or so... then my son sits down and covers his ears and is clearly very distressed - his sensory issues have kicked in badly. Some saints fans at this point start pointing at him and laughing, singing at him (I mean, wtf, he is 12?!), one did mouth at me to ask if he was ok which was cool too to give balance. All I know at this point is somehow I need to get him out of there, so I try to get him through the crowd, but it's really tough as everyone staying put to clap off the team and sing... get to the stairs and someone says that no one is moving and we can't get out... at this point I shouted that my son was autistic and I just need to get him out of the situation.
Bloke who had said we couldn't get through then apologised for being abrupt and when the crowd started moving, he told my son to stay behind him and he literally ploughed his way through everyone to get him out as fast as possible.- top man! Others were also helping clear a path so we could get out too.
So essentially I hope those that witnessed this and helped, especially the person who cleared the way see this as a thank you - given the charged situation with the away end and everything going on, they could see a situation and did everything they could to help out - and for that I am very thankful. I did say thank you at the time, but sometimes we see a lot of negativity here on NSC about fans etc, and I wanted to highlight when something good has happened. He also recovered quite quickly once we were out of the stadium and the noise thankfully.
Note to self to buy him some ear defenders, and to check tickets aren't next to home supporters in future!!
