FC United

dave w wrote:I can understand segregation given the layout of the ground; add another 500 potentially trying to get served at half-time and moving round the back of the stand and there could have been a problem. I can't understand the searching and a lot of FC supporters I spoke to were rightly annoyed about it. It sets the wrong tone, it's confrontational and above all it's pointless - if you want to bring something into a ground you'll get it in.

I agree with this 100%. There is absolutely no justification for bag searches at our level of football - most of us watch this level of football to get away from that nonsense.

(That said, I haven't had a bag search done at the Hawthorns for over 5 years now.)

There were smoke bombs/flares taken off FC fans yesterday. Justified? Depends on what your opinion of smoke bombs is.

If you think that was overkill by stewards yesterday, I was at a concert on Thursday and got searched 3 times and had 2 ticket checks!

brockmoor wrote:

I sincerely hope there is no segregation on Boxing Day. If you 'pen' fans in like animals, it simply gives them the opportunity to behave like animals.

Again, I agree 100%. The last time we played Halesowen on Boxing Day the crowd as I recall was around the 800 mark and we only had about 5 stewards in the whole ground and there was no trouble whatsoever.

I can't see this year's crowd being much more than that TBH, especially with the West Brom game taking place at the same time. And we have a lot more stewards nowadays (even without the Albion contingent) and as someone else said before most Halesowen fans are more than familiar with the ground layout.

The prospect of giving them the Shed End for the whole end is barmy in my view.

As an aside, by my calculations after yesterday we've got the second-highest average gate in the division and the tenth highest outside the Conference.

Will the club listen to what the people who keep it going say?
Highly unlikely.

I heard it was two flares.....I like to see that if I'm honest..
No agro just makes it look intimidating.

Devil raises an excellent point regarding our fans not being allowed in the shed because of the numbers,yet fc were allowed as many as they liked.
I won't hold my breath for a valid reply from the club as they appear to make it up as they go along.

Cracking result yesterday, good work boys.

I was at a concert on Thursday and got searched 3 times and had 2 ticket checks! Blimey Jack who did you go and see? The Proclaimers!

Nope, Courteeners. They have a reputation for that sort of thing as its basically football lads. Bit embarrassing for the stewards when they had to stop after 2 were still set off!

Man of the match voting was as follows:

PAUL McCone 14 votes
Exedus Geohaghon 6
Peter Till , Chris Knight,
Dean Coleman, Kayeldon Brown } All 4
KRD & Kyle Haynes 1 each


The wine was won by NEIL STEVENS-WOOD

Thank You to all who took park.

Brian Handy wrote:Man of the match voting was as follows:

PAUL McCone  14 votes
Exedus Geohaghon   6
Peter Till , Chris Knight,
Dean Coleman, Kayeldon Brown     }  All 4
KRD & Kyle Haynes  1 each


The wine was won by NEIL STEVENS-WOOD

Thank You to all who took park.

GET IN!

BOOM!

Can remember a few years ago,won the wine and asked Alex to look after it as was goin out and bring it to next home match,turned out he had put it in a goulash!

Possibly the best place for it, not that I am suggesting its cheap of course, it's ASDA's (other supermarket wines are also available) best.

One or two moan about searching but when these flares are set off within a small stand it can cause major problems, panic, asthma attacks burns etc.a stewards main role is to make it safe for everyone to watch a game of football.
Yes the volunteer stewards at stour do a great job for no pay, in fact all they get is a cup of tea, and without them the ground would not be able to open, the point I am trying to make is that 12 stourbridge stewards is no where near enough to look after 1400 fans that's why extra wher brought in.

Over zealous stewardship only creates more problems.
Bring on the flares(not trousers) I love them,the more the better I say.

And I thought yo was one of the sensible ones on here tricky

Baggiestour wrote:And I thought yo was one of the sensible ones on here tricky

Bit of fun sweetcheeks.

Baggiestour wrote: the point I am trying to make is that 12 stourbridge stewards is no where near enough to look after 1400 fans that's why extra wher brought in.

Very true which is why I've no complaints over 95% of the measures brought in as a one-off for the FC United game.

However, it is enough to look after a Halesowen game, which we know because we've done it before.

If this game is segregated will Halesowen fans have any acess to seated areas, Boxing day most of my family some elderley like to attend but if no seating is available i will take them to our home game on the 28th instead, to be honest if it is segregated i think we will pass anyway i thought this was Non League football.
Hope to hear this will not be the case as was looking forward to this game since the fixtures came out.

I think the day went well overall and segregation was the right decision. I'm not so sure it is the way to go against Halesowen and if their not wearing thier colours, how do you identify who should go where?

Two points on potential Halesowen segregation. First, it's not 1990 anymore and they won't make up two-thirds of the crowd. Second, if we segregate them they'll almost certainly want to segregate us. Which means we'll be stuck on that horrible open end. They get the best part of our ground and we get the worst part of theirs.

dave w wrote:Two points on potential Halesowen segregation. First, it's not 1990 anymore and they won't make up two-thirds of the crowd. Second, if we segregate them they'll almost certainly want to segregate us. Which means we'll be stuck on that horrible open end. They get the best part of our ground and we get the worst part of theirs.

Very good points well made Dave.

I quite like that open end.