Here we go again the season has not started and i am having to defend the actions of the stewards.
My name is Darren Gregory i go under the voluntary role of stadium safety officier.
Todays event took me and several members of the club by surprise having been involed with several Man utd friendlies and resevre games before.
1. The club was not informed of any pre planned trouble and there has never been a history of trouble playing Man utd 11,
I recongised a lot of genuine MU supporters from when there reserves played at moss lane.
2.What were the stewards/people at the gate doing letting in clearly drunk people with 6 packs of lager?
The amount of alcohol we did take off the fans was quite large but with only 12 stewards on duty we just couldn't search everyone.
3. Before you question why there were only 12 stewards on duty, is that is all we had available due to holidays, leaving the job (which i will not be surprised if some more don't after today's event and criticism) and since may the 29th i have been advertising this
http://www.altyfans.co.uk/index.php?topic=5688.04. Why wasn't the match segregated? The day i have to segregate a friendly is the day i retire from the stewarding staff.
5.Why wasn't it nipped in the bud 2 minutes into the game?
It was myself who was talking to there fans and trying to identify the culprit who had pushed the way past a female member of staff
after waying up the situation it was decided we couldnt have a positive id and being totally out numberd it was best to back off and observe from a distance and call the police for advice.
6. Why wasn't the police called earlier? After the above point 5 i phoned the police about 1510hrs and informed them of the situation, Having explained what was going on and asking for a police presence to assess the stituation i was informed by the operater that some one would be there in
5 minutes.
7. What were the stewards doing when anti-Glazer stickers were being stuck to the barriers/floodlights? the only place i was told it was done was in the bar where we took them down.
8. What were the stewards doing in the 2nd half when the fans were standing on the barriers, openly drinking, setting off flares and kicking the hell out of the Golf Road stand? Standing by idly whilst watching the match?
The police officier arrived at the ground at 1550 i told him of the situation he assessed it and said there is a Tactical aid unit on its way and left saying if it gets any worse phone 999. I decided for the safety of the fans and the stewards it was best to step back and observe to avoid further confrontation. The first rule of being a steward is do not put yourself or any fan at risk.
9. Why wasn't the match called off earlier? That is down to referee.
10.Why wasn't the game stopped and an announcement over the PA system telling them to pack it in or it would be called off?
This would have antaganised the situation i believe and caused further disorder.
11. 1640 after several 999 calls by myself and other members of staff and fans the same police officier who had earlier attended turned up with blues and two's on just in time to see the pitch invasion and said there was further back up on the way Which arrived just as the game had ended. These officiers were all local so where was the ta unit that had been tasked?
This isn't the first time the response time has been slow to any incident at our ground from police or ambulance services.
12. No arrest were made but several names and address were taken and they were videoed for the police.
13. From the start of match or after the first incident i had 2 photograpers take as many pictures as they could of this big group.
Having seen some off the pictures i will be passing them on to the police so they can take further actions.
14. To be fair having criticised the police for there response time once on the ground they did a good job trying to detain as many of them as possible.
Rant over lets enjoy the season also plenty of vacancys still available on the totally clueless stewarding team thank you.
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Absolute Disgrace
