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[wayno]

Just spoke to gary he is back in hospital after discharging himself yesterday still getting headaches so they are looking at taking scans today to see how things are

Any news on the steward?

[blackpoolalty]

One thing is for sure I wont be going to Chester away that is 100%.

The first fight was bad enough to happen having giving warning of the issue since 2.20pm. All I can say is thank god there were a few Alty fans who were prepared to stand up for the rest of us. Myself included, sorry to say it but i couldnt punch the way out of paper bag!!!

What I am absolutely astounded at is that the cretins in the GRE were not moved before the first fight, nevermind the second. That was very poor crowd control. When the 2nd fight started there were NO stewards or Police in the area. Can I ask why?

Can I also ask why the police were called at 3.01pm when the potential of trouble was highlighted at 2.20pm?

There were some big failings by the club ;-

1) Chester Stewards monitoring inside the ground, not outside the turnstiles. Once the fans are in they are hard to remove, prevent them getting in !!!
2) The Chester steward I saw most of the time not actually looking at who was coming in but he was looking into the away end half the time!!!
3) No Police at the game until called, despite Chester having issues previously and it was a good bank holiday drinking day.
4) Possible trouble advised at 2.20pm, yet no Police called until after the 1st fight at 3.01pm!!!
5) Fighting fans moved the the away end and not thrown out!!!
6) No evidence of Stewards or Police visible prior to the 2nd fight at 3.10pm!!!
7) Incidentally where was the video camera that the club bought at great expense? Was that used, any footage, or did we forget about our camera or was it inside someones bedroom being used to make homemade pornos?

As for Graham Rowleys comments from the main site I think he is wildly out of touch with what happened, but someone is covering their backside for not calling the Police early enough.

As for the club saying they will learn from this, I would ask - did you learning anything from Wrexham???

Echo what's been said here really. Grahame Rowley's statement is very inaccurate, there were plenty of people who saw and knew what exactly happened and it wasn't what was in that statement. Disappointed and after the hard work promoting ourselves off the pitch with kids recently we've gone hundreds of steps back.

[blackpoolalty]

Just spoke to gary he is back in hospital after discharging himself yesterday still getting headaches so they are looking at taking scans today to see how things are

Any news on the steward?

Hope he makes a full recovery at the end of the day. I still feel sick today after seeing that

[wayno]

Just spoke to gary he is back in hospital after discharging himself yesterday still getting headaches so they are looking at taking scans today to see how things are

Any news on the steward?

Hope he makes a full recovery at the end of the day. I still feel sick today after seeing that

he has just had the all clear just got bruising

[Jenga]

Just spoke to gary he is back in hospital after discharging himself yesterday still getting headaches so they are looking at taking scans today to see how things are

Any news on the steward?

Hope he makes a full recovery at the end of the day. I still feel sick today after seeing that

he has just had the all clear just got bruising

Good news.

[WiganAlty]

http://www.chesterfc.com/news/article/club-statement-338535.aspx

statement from Chester

At least the chairman has had the decency to stand up and say there were problems - I can imagine many clubs trying to sweep this under the carpet or denying it was their "followers". And lets not forget, 99% of the Chester supporters (as opposed to the scumbags in the GRE) managed to find their way to the correct end, and seemed perfectly happy to give their team support - as usual, it's the 1% minority who get the club a bad name.

I also recall that several Alty supporters went to Chester a season or two ago and had a good time there - it does seem that these idiots who follow Chester purely to cause trouble do so at away games as they are probably banned from Chester's game and can usually be identified.

Also, best wishes to Gary and hope you have a speedy recovery.

I suspect that segregation may noty be required this Saturday!!

[chesteralty]

Can I direct you to Deva chat and the 'Trouble at Alty thread'.
I posed them a question, look at the answer I received.
Looks like we've misjudged them......

[whopper]

Can I direct you to Deva chat and the 'Trouble at Alty thread'.
I posed them a question, look at the answer I received.
Looks like we've misjudged them......

read this and just couldnt be arsed after it says it all really, "Chester fans must be the most noble fans in the world. The number of times they have gone to the rescue of kids is quite tear jerking. I remember when they ran at the fence at Chorley as there was a small child trapped between the two groups of thugs. Again quite moving".

[Mrs Warbouys]

"no further questions your honour".......

http://www.devachat.com/index.php?showtopic=73732&st=125

[York Alty]

Abject comments from Jester City fans.  Perhaps they enjoy burying their heads in sand.

[Hamilton]

THE "SAFETY" IN SAFETY OFFICER

The following informative article by Allison Lewis, Altrincham FC Safety Officer, appeared in the latest "Robins' Review"...
The ‘Safety’ in Safety Officer.

"I just wanted everyone to know that I went home both upset and disappointed from our last home game – against Chester. It goes without saying that I was disappointed with the score, I believe we lost 2-4, but I only saw about five minutes of the game at the most. I was also disappointed and upset that, despite all my efforts, two people ended up in hospital and some of the stewards were subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse from our own fans.

My work regarding the Chester game started as the fixture list came out in July, I met with the Chairman, discussing with him the games we thought we needed to prioritise – the match against Chester being one of those identified. I then contacted the police making them aware of our concerns. It also became apparent that quite a few of our regular stewards would be unavailable for this match due to work and family commitments so I made contact with Chester to ask them for assistance from their stewards. They agreed to send 10.

As part of my preparation I have to prepare a ‘risk assessment’ for each game, which reflects all aspects of safety round the ground, and the one prepared for our game against Chester was sent to their request to GM Police Special Events Team.

In the end all my planning could not have prepared me for what happened. A lot of Altrincham fans were asking why Chester fans were allowed in our end, the ones heard chanting were not wearing any club colours, they were not known to the turnstile operators or the stewards from either club, but as there were no other matches nearby they could have been just a group of fans looking for a match to go to, so we didn’t have any reason to stop them. We also have no way of stopping fans from either club coming from the stand to use the toilets and the snack bar at the Golf Road end of the ground.

As soon as word got to the stewards that a group of Chester fans were chanting, stewards were dispatched to remove them, unfortunately the situation escalated before they got there. The police were called immediately.

There have been questions about why the police weren’t there from the start, I did everything I could to make sure they were aware of the potential risks there were with regard to the game, I don’t know why they didn’t feel the need to attend, as they have done on other occasions recently.

I have always been very proud to be an Altrincham fan, proud to be part of a club that prides itself on the behaviour of its fans both home and away. The stewards do the job they do to help the club, so it is upsetting when our own fans turn their anger on us, and hinder us doing our job rather than helping.

As the club Safety Officer I take that key word ‘safety’ very seriously, I have to be conscious of the safety of everyone in the ground, that is both sets of fans, the players and officials, guests and the stewards. I hope we can work together so that what happened last week does not happen again. If anyone wants to talk to me or the Chief Steward about what the stewards do, please contact the club and we will meet you before or after a game.

Thank You

Allison Lewis (Safety Officer).

[casper]

Still doesn't state why no action was taken when supporters informed stewards around 2.20 that they were Chester fans. Nor does it state why only a few were moved after the first incident, nor why these people were just taken round into the Chester end after the second incident. They should have been ejected, after having their pictures taken.

Still not happy with these outcomes. I only hope the people that matter have learnt lessons from the debacle. Sometimes the stewards need to work with the home fans, sadly on this occasion it didnt happen and people were very upset that a situation was able to escalate when it could have been preventable.

[Jezza]

We are lucky we have people like alison who step forward to take on roles like safety officer and as the article portrays it is not a role you take on lightly nor one that you simply turn up at 2pm on a saturday and undertake while you watch the game....and alison displays a passion for alty we all share so we shouldn't really fight amongst ourselves.....

When fans come looking for trouble it normally happens...even at professional clubs with proffessional stewards they can very often only contain a situation....at our little club we do pretty well usually and are rightly proud with people like alison who is not a police officer.

Personally I think removing the away fans to the away end in the absence of police is the safest thing to do (as opposed to ejecting them to wander round the town centre and then be waiting for a fight after).

I understand how people get upset with our own stewards when in their eyes the stewards are not doing what they believe to be the right thing....needs to be a bit of understanding on both sides there, I've been there myself insisting a steward does more (at the port vale game for example when similar trouble occurred).....after that I became a steward myself and found it is not so easy, in a similar incident where we segregated a match against a side we'd had trouble with previously (I think it was barrow) I got a load of abuse from home and away fans when trying to maintain the segregation at half time as they wanted to change ends...in the end both sets of fans  ignored the segregation and basically just barged past me and another steward steward.....I gave up the stewarding after that,

I hope lessons will have been learnt though and procedures put in place for the specific problem of away fans clearly looking for trouble and deliberatly entering the home end....in prioirty games maybe more stewards in the home end and maybe one copper patrolling between 2.30 and 3.15?.....we may of course need more stewards to volunteer.....

[CB]

One simple thing which would help (not completely solve) would be a sign saying 'Home fans' on the GRE...

[chesteralty]

The Chester 'fans' new perfectly well which end they were in.