Hands up before you lot start.

[Guest]

Right then let's get this overwith tonight as I don't want the stick to go to the wrong person.

Firstly the programme. You may have noticed that in Bootroom Bulletins there is now a new olympic sport. Yes that's right Chimney climbing as unfortunately when typing out Proths notes in a hurry to meet the printers deadline I typed steeplejack instead of steeplechaser. Please direct all derisory comments to me and not Proths. Although perhaps we could do quite well in the event should it ever be launched judging by the amount of times we have people climbing in the stadium which brings me on to the next point.

 

The pitch invasion today is a real pain as I am now going to have to pen a report to the FA as the ref has no option but to report it. We would have needed stewards the full length of the stand to stop them to be honest and I felt we got them off very quickly and then controled the situation. If a group are intent on doing this mindless stuff it is very difficult to stop them. By law we are only required to have one steward to every 250 fans so as we had 6 stewards in front of them we were well in excess of this. Someone asked why they weren't ejected and my initial reaction was to do this but having stopped to assess how close we were to the final whistle and how many stewards it would have taken from the ground at a time when further incursions were likely I decided to pack the area with stewards to prevent a further incident. It is a difficult call that has to be made rather quickly and had it been one or two individuals rather than 20 or so they would have gone. In general I would say the vast majority of Exeter fans were very good and behaved very well but were let down by those few.

Anyway onto Grays and I hope the Olympic Steeplejacker can forgive me...sorry Colin

[PJ!]

Ha brilliant, well done Chris. It's nice to know we have a programme editor in place that can hold his hands up and be counted when he makes a mistake.

 

As for the pitch invasion I'm pretty sure you did everything you could do. The only way you could have done anything else would have been to have Stewards all the way along behind the goal but seeing how some of them came from the main stand it's hard to see what you could have done.

 

No one could have predicted what happened so you were not to blame, when I go to The Bridge, towards the end of the game they often have stewards all around the ground making it impossible for anyone to get one.

 

Anyway onwards and upwards and it looks like a very bright future programme wise (especially liked the travel bit at the back <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />).

 

Cheers,

 

The Artist formally known as Harry J Allstars.

[Grecian1]

Chris,

 

Firstly can I say I have posted your comments onto the exeweb.com forum. If you read the threads you will see that many Exeter fans have shown a real dis-pleasure on the incident. I am also sure that this will be further prevented by the shaming/self policing that is now going on amongst the fans.

 

You are correct the 15-20 idiots did over-celebrate and did the leave the pitch very quickly. I dont think our striker helped matters in retrospect and deserved a booking!

 

Can I make some constructive comments on the stewarding from an away fans perspective.

 

They all seemed very young - bar the mid 30s guy, they also did not look very prepared. I do think that had this been a 'nasty' incident they would have lost complete control...and suggest that perhaps your policy to pack the end is implemented at the start of the game. This would send a signal to the idiots not to muck about!

 

The design of the away end does not help and assume that the cost of adjusting the wall would be an issue for your club.

 

That said the majority of people were well mannered as you have said - thanks for that! I am sure that this is an isolated incident and hope it does not effect relationships between our clubs.

 

We are a community club and if we fail to maintain that the club would die!

 

Good luck for the season!

 

Northants Grecian

[Guest]

Grecian thanks for the comments I am sure there will be no adverse reaction between the two clubs and as I said I thought that the majority of fans were excellent throughout and were an absolute credit to your club. I am only sorry that the design of our ground does not afford you all better facilities as I have no way of giving you any cover when the heavens open as they did yesterday. Nor bar facilities come to that and I thought considering this everyone was great.

 

The minority who at the end of the day were just celebrating and not attempting to cause harm were moved off quickly but a few of these had also given our stewards so much abuse that we were on the verge of ejecting at least one when the penalty was given. The clown who decided it would be funny to launch a blue bin over the wall was one plus a handfull of his mates. They were the ones who let you down as was a disabled supporter who we allowed to sit in our disabled area in good faith as he showed us documentation to say he had fits and was diabetic who then proceed to be one of the first across the pitch. He informed us he was a regular and is friends with players at the club if this helps. Our club secretary confronted him and told him to get back but he ran off.

Stewarding caused problems yesterday as with holidays and the reopening of the stand on condition we had 7 stewards looking after 300 home supporters we had to rely on some new ones and numbers were limited although at the time of the incursion there were actually 7 in that area having looked back at my records, with 3 more heading towards the location.

It is over with now and we will learn from this and I wish you and the club the best of luck for the the rest of the season.

 

Chris

[Wobbly Wayne rides again]

Quote:

as was a disabled supporter who we allowed to sit in our disabled area in good faith as he showed us documentation to say he had fits and was diabetic who then proceed to be one of the first across the pitch.

 

A Little Britain sketch in the making !

 

 

Up the Fleet...

 

 

Good away support .. More than anyone else will bring by far.. The other so called big teams struggle to bring 100 or so to our place..

 

Just worries me that that may have been our biggest gate for the season !

[Grecian1]

The headaches of running a football control operation! (Rather you than me!) I am sure our club would take a dim view to the person in the stand. My post was not meant as a 'dig' and I thank you for being so honest about it and taking it in good heart. The lad with the bin I know and I will personally have a chat with him next game I see him...to be honest he is a reasonable lad, a few too many sherberts!

 

I think a lesson has been learnt for Exeter City and I am sure that our celebrations will be more muted from now on! You have been a 'bogey' team and I think that did not help matters.

 

Cheers

 

Northants Grecian

[Robbo]

Can I just ask why there were no police there on Saturday? Seems we get the police down for ridiculous games when they're never going to be needed, and when there's a large away following there's not a copper in sight!

[Guest]

Can I point out that since I joined the club way back on the 20th December we have had just one policed fixture against Aldershot and that due to police intelligence. Intelligence for Saturday showed that Exeter have a very well behaved bunch with only one ejection in the past 3 years so it was not felt necessary and I stand by that now. This was backed up by reports from Safety Officers at many of the grounds they have visited over the past 18 months which I obtain for all fixtures.

The celebrations went over the top (excuse the pun) but no malice was intended by those invading I am sure, however it is a criminal offence now so a dim view is taken whenever this sort of thing happens. One plus point was the reaction from the rest of the Exeter fans who were as annoyed as we were and I must applaud their behaviour.

Cambridge are expecting a similar amount of support to travel and rest assured we will be prepared.

[Stu M]

Quote:

Chris Baker said:
Cambridge are expecting a similar amount of support to travel and rest assured we will be prepared.

Ah, but we're not going to let them score, so hopefully they'll have no reason to clown around on the pitch... <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Grecian1]

Chris,

 

That is an interesting stat you mention., which highlights we are a community club. can I ask someone to thank the ladies of then 'Plough Inn' they worked very hard for our match and they were very much appreciated......probably have their own admirers in Devon by the sounds of our website!

 

UTC

 

NG