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Missiles being hoyed all game from North Stand Upper

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hank williams said:
Don't think their arseholes who caused bits of bother at Wembley will be any where near our place
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As long as the game doesn’t go to general sale, it will be fine

Ghandi Floss said:
If anyone has any stories/information/complaints/etc... about Saturday, please email to [email protected]

We’re in contact with numerous people about how the police sounded like they didn’t do their jobs, and obviously need testimonies from witness who were there.
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Mine went in today mate. Has the response for information been good? I’m desperate for those twats to be punished
 

This morning I received a phone call from Steve Neill the clubs Chief Safety Officer, to discuss the observations and issues that I highlighted in my email sent on Monday evening.

Steve was a credit to the club in fairness and spoke very openly about the issue. Was a pleasant surprise, as I was expecting something akin to the corporate hush hush approach, so I’m very pleased with the outcome. We spoke about numerous things and he had time to discuss anything, instead of rushing me off the phone.

Steve advised me of the police intelligence reports and their contents, and why the club took the approach that they did to staffing and policing. He advised that there were 67 police deployed at the stadium and advised of steward numbers which I unfortunately can’t recall. This was much increased from other games this season due to acknowledging the increased security rating of this one.

He advised that he was very embarrassed with how the day turned out and that in hindsight he would have postponed the match temporarily to regain order upstairs, and that in future their plan is to utilise the full Premier Concourse to spread the away fans if there is anymore trouble. He advised that the trouble appears to have stemmed from a small group of Coventry fans who’ve been identified on this thread already (a thread of which Steve is aware and following), and that they were also involved at incidents both in Newcastle and at the Wheatsheaf pub pre match. He accepted though that with hindsight they should have acted against these lads before it escalated, which was refreshing to hear someone admit mistake so openly.

He added that the club were struggling as their fans were only doing it when hidden in groups or celebrating goals, so it’s proving hard to identify them on CCTV but the club have employed a group of people to work nightshifts and days to go through the footage to assist the police. And also advised that any additional footage fans had would be helpful.

He did advise that additional plans were in place for future games to prevent it reoccurring, and that in 30 years of doing this job and the match commander job before that he’d never experienced it this bad. He was thankful for the information from fans though and advised that it’s especially helpful as the only other idea he gets is from CCTV and the occasional steward account.

He advised that the stewards in the yellow don’t have radios but should be reporting through the pink stewards who can escalate it accordingly and report to the control room for investigation/action accordingly. He also advised that the stewards would be briefed properly to coordinate the actions upstairs with those downstairs. Obviously the downstairs stewards can’t go up but they can communicate better with fans as others can and were relocated. He advised that all the reserve stewards, outdoor stewards and police were deployed to the front of the north stand upper to act as a deterrent but this didn’t help at all, which he sounded surprised about. He also advised that some stewards will face disciplinary action.

Additionally, the club have asked that future Coventry allocations are “very significantly reduced” and were considering going further. He didn’t expand on this but I assume total bans for all away fans. I challenged whether he feared this would become tit for tat due to the Coventry club statements tone and he said Coventry had apologised for the tone of the statement and any decision would be made at a police level and not a club level, therefore out of either clubs hands.

Regarding further investigation, he advised that he’s discussed with the FSF who are working with the club and the FA to conduct an investigation into how the match was handled both by SAFC and by police. This is through the work done by RAWA, and additional to that, he was working with a national group of stewards (can’t recall the official group title) to form a working group to improve going forward.

He advised that himself and his deputy were making personal calls to every Sunderland fan hit by an object or assaulted outside by Coventry fans to offer a personal apology and to make offers to replace damaged clothing and to offer a future match day experience. I assume this means free BCB tickets. He also very kindly advised that if it would help my little one return to the stadium to eradicate the memories of last weekend, then he’d facilitate this through allowing her the chance to mascot and go on the pitch. I even mentioned in the email that we now have a nervous mammy, so he’s invited her along as a club guest as well to a future game.

Just wanted to note my praise for the way the club have handled the aftermath thus far. They’ve been very forthcoming and open with myself and others that have spoken to them and they appear to have reacted to the problems and put things in place to stop it happening again. For this, they deserve a lot of praise.

Just thought I’d share his to you all incase it’s of any interest to anyone, or helps others, particularly the young dads among us, to be more confident of taking the young ones next week or to any future games.
 
Iammonkeyjim said:
Hi guys,

I do fully understand your chagrin with regards to how our fans behaved. I’m peaceful. I don’t enjoy or advocate violence of any sort in yours or any other ground. In terms of whether I could have intervened, no, I wasn’t there. All I can do is apologise on behalf of the good fans who were going to enjoy the day.
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It's a shame as coventry vocally were very good. And then once one mindless twat decided to launch something it was obvious others would follow suit.

As I say majority of fans were good but that's over shadowed by your bad lads, rightfully so given the extent of damage caused and it could of easily been a whole lot worse.
 
TravellingMackem said:
This morning I received a phone call from Steve Neill the clubs Chief Safety Officer, to discuss the observations and issues that I highlighted in my email sent on Monday evening.

Steve was a credit to the club in fairness and spoke very openly about the issue. Was a pleasant surprise, as I was expecting something akin to the corporate hush hush approach, so I’m very pleased with the outcome. We spoke about numerous things and he had time to discuss anything, instead of rushing me off the phone.

Steve advised me of the police intelligence reports and their contents, and why the club took the approach that they did to staffing and policing. He advised that there were 67 police deployed at the stadium and advised of steward numbers which I unfortunately can’t recall. This was much increased from other games this season due to acknowledging the increased security rating of this one.

He advised that he was very embarrassed with how the day turned out and that in hindsight he would have postponed the match temporarily to regain order upstairs, and that in future their plan is to utilise the full Premier Concourse to spread the away fans if there is anymore trouble. He advised that the trouble appears to have stemmed from a small group of Coventry fans who’ve been identified on this thread already (a thread of which Steve is aware and following), and that they were also involved at incidents both in Newcastle and at the Wheatsheaf pub pre match. He accepted though that with hindsight they should have acted against these lads before it escalated, which was refreshing to hear someone admit mistake so openly.

He added that the club were struggling as their fans were only doing it when hidden in groups or celebrating goals, so it’s proving hard to identify them on CCTV but the club have employed a group of people to work nightshifts and days to go through the footage to assist the police. And also advised that any additional footage fans had would be helpful.

He did advise that additional plans were in place for future games to prevent it reoccurring, and that in 30 years of doing this job and the match commander job before that he’d never experienced it this bad. He was thankful for the information from fans though and advised that it’s especially helpful as the only other idea he gets is from CCTV and the occasional steward account.

He advised that the stewards in the yellow don’t have radios but should be reporting through the pink stewards who can escalate it accordingly and report to the control room for investigation/action accordingly. He also advised that the stewards would be briefed properly to coordinate the actions upstairs with those downstairs. Obviously the downstairs stewards can’t go up but they can communicate better with fans as others can and were relocated. He advised that all the reserve stewards, outdoor stewards and police were deployed to the front of the north stand upper to act as a deterrent but this didn’t help at all, which he sounded surprised about. He also advised that some stewards will face disciplinary action.

Additionally, the club have asked that future Coventry allocations are “very significantly reduced” and were considering going further. He didn’t expand on this but I assume total bans for all away fans. I challenged whether he feared this would become tit for tat due to the Coventry club statements tone and he said Coventry had apologised for the tone of the statement and any decision would be made at a police level and not a club level, therefore out of either clubs hands.

Regarding further investigation, he advised that he’s discussed with the FSF who are working with the club and the FA to conduct an investigation into how the match was handled both by SAFC and by police. This is through the work done by RAWA, and additional to that, he was working with a national group of stewards (can’t recall the official group title) to form a working group to improve going forward.

He advised that himself and his deputy were making personal calls to every Sunderland fan hit by an object or assaulted outside by Coventry fans to offer a personal apology and to make offers to replace damaged clothing and to offer a future match day experience. I assume this means free BCB tickets. He also very kindly advised that if it would help my little one return to the stadium to eradicate the memories of last weekend, then he’d facilitate this through allowing her the chance to mascot and go on the pitch. I even mentioned in the email that we now have a nervous mammy, so he’s invited her along as a club guest as well to a future game.

Just wanted to note my praise for the way the club have handled the aftermath thus far. They’ve been very forthcoming and open with myself and others that have spoken to them and they appear to have reacted to the problems and put things in place to stop it happening again. For this, they deserve a lot of praise.

Just thought I’d share his to you all incase it’s of any interest to anyone, or helps others, particularly the young dads among us, to be more confident of taking the young ones next week or to any future games.
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That's a positive outcome. I'm pleased the club have learned lessons for the future and hopefully it won't happen again. It's a nice touch to offer extras to those affected to make amends. After the lack of communication comments soon after the incident, they deserve praise for the way they have handled this.

Hopefully the idiots throwing things can be identified and dealt with accordingly.
 
McGregor said:
It's a shame as coventry vocally were very good. And then once one mindless twat decided to launch something it was obvious others would follow suit.

As I say majority of fans were good but that's over shadowed by your bad lads, rightfully so given the extent of damage caused and it could of easily been a whole lot worse.
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I’m not sure if the majority were that well behaved mind mate. The club seems to have had a really bad time of it and hopefully more info is released
 
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