Posting this without comment

[ned_werby]

other than to say it appears knob-headed stewardship isn't only an SAFC problem apparently;

Dear tf,

I was at the match on Saturday as usual. What had changed though was instead of being in the Curva Nord, or the Leazes corner as it is formally known me and my friends had been moved and found ourselves in the South-East or Strawberry Corner.


Right from the start friction began between newcomers and long term Gallowgate enders, with spats between the two groups, mainly on the problem of standing. Now we all know persistent standing isn't allowed at the game, but up in the Leazes corner we have been allowed to stand for the last 3 years, and indeed the area was sold for several seasons as the place to go and make a noise.


Having been moved because Mike Ashley spat his dummy out at a few chants regarding his parentage, we are now in a situation that could become very nasty if it's not sorted out quickly.


Not 10 minutes had passed when I saw an older couple move from Block F in the corner after some sort of fisticuffs seemed to have happened. This couple looked, understandably, shaken up by what had happened.


Stewards removed a lad who they seemed to pick out randomly from Block D for standing while ignoring other people next to him who were also standing. There was no rhyme or reason to why he was made to leave and no-one else.


But the worst incident that I have seen inside St James' Park, was when just before half time two young lads stood up for a free kick at the Gallowgate end. These lads hadn't been persistently standing, they literally stood up and the four or five older men in the row in front of me started shouting at them, telling them to sit down. One of the lads turned around and one of the blokes, who I can only describe as large and burly, grabbed one of the young lads by the face and struck him.


The stewards were actually at the end of the row, and I looked over to them for assistance and the lead steward looked directly at me and smirked, as if to say, "I'm not stepping in". The poor lad was extremely shaken up, and was crying out "I'm just 16 man, I'm just 16".


These men, who had whinged all match about level 7 invading their corner, were at least 2-3 times the age of this lad, and had no business assaulting him, simply for standing up. Indeed they stood up themselves when the situation with Joey Barton and Gervinho happened.


I heard stewards refer to the newcomers in the south-east corner as "Level 7 scum", as if our money for our season tickets is not as good as anyone elses, or that we are automatically hooligans because we were in the singing corner previously.


I can fully see that some people cannot or do not want to stand at the match, and that the stewards are not allowed to let people who persistently stand go unchallenged, despite studies showing that safe standing is possible and effective. However, there seems to be a bias against people who have been moved and this is not on. Without sounding flippant, we don't want to be there as much as they don't want us there. We didn't ask to move, Mike Ashley made us. We also got strung along by Simon Esland who assured fan groups that consideration was going to be given to get the whole Level 7 support moved en masse to Level 4. We all know now that these assurances held no weight, that Mike Ashley wanted to divide and conquer.


Something has to be done before the Fulham game before someone is seriously injured when tempers of opposing fans, who are supposed to be supporting the same team boil over. One thing is for sure, violence is not the answer. We should be Newcastle UNITED, not Newcastle Divided!

[naughtynose]

Stewards are wankers, wish the clubs would sort it out

[SurreyMackem]

Stewards are there for crowd safety.

Assault is a Police matter.

[TartanMackem]

This happens in every walk of life where certain people have power to excercise control over others.

[mickythemackem]

The poor lad was extremely shaken up, and was crying out "I'm just not bothered man, not bothered".

tidied

Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthr...#ixzz1VBWEwZy6

[Charmless Man]

Originally Posted by SurreyMackem

Stewards are there for crowd safety.

Assault is a Police matter.

They go hand in hand and stewards are not supposed to stand by and let an assault happen. They may have no greater legal powers than a member of the public but they aren't doing their job if they do not do something, whether that's stepping in themselves or alerting someone who will step in.

[Il Postino Pat]

Sounds like a nice way to treat your customers.

[molthemackem]

Originally Posted by ned_werby

other than to say it appears knob-headed stewardship isn't only an SAFC problem apparently;

all well and good your article may be but the real question we all want to know is .....


"What Exactly was Barry Dunn doing at the tunnel entrance at the Sports Direct on Sarrada???????"

Any one with an answer please post....

[Super Chimp]

That whole article is shite. Someone on skunkers posted the full story and basically a group of chavs were acting themselves throughout the game and only stopped when some lads went to have a word with them.

[super-niall]

It always amazes me when little boys think they can do as they wish and then whinge like babies when people decide enough is enough.