Barrow AFC.net

Couldn't believe what I was seeing when I came in by the Cross Bar today when a steward had rounded up a group of about 15-20 teenage lads and told them they were barred from coming in due to what happened on Tuesday night (about half a dozen lads were involved with some pushing/shoving of Taunton fans when they scored).
Firstly some of the lads rounded up weren't even there on Tuesday and a load of the others weren't even involved in that incident so why were they banned from coming in? Incredibly when asked why there were being barred the stewards said they had asked the police for advice!

Why are we barring innocent fans? Why are the stewards asking the police for advice about what to do? The police do not decide what happens at the club.
Steward(s) clueless and seemingly on a power trip, there should have been about another 15 there today but they were wrongly barred. The irony is the game was segregated today so what were they going to do anyway?

Some of those innocent fans were throwing coins on Tuesday !

blue nige wrote:Some of those innocent fans were throwing coins on Tuesday !

What about the ones who weren't in attendance or weren't stood there?

blue nige wrote:Some of those innocent fans were throwing coins on Tuesday !

And some of them weren't.

It was happening all around the ground. I saw lads barred on the popular side too. It's disgraceful tarring all young supporters with the same brush. By all means weed out the trouble-makers but to prevent all of that age group entry is a disgrace.
What a great way to encourage future support of the team! The football management need to sort this out ASAP.

The club have to do something John or are you just wanting something serious to happen? Sometimes you just have to send a message out and if that means a few people are banned for a few matches to end all this stupidity then so be it.by the way as I was coming in the popular side the stewards were giving the lads a warning but letting them in so let's not exaggerate this.

blue nige wrote:The club have to do something John or are you just wanting something serious to happen? Sometimes you just have to send a message out and if that means a few people are banned for a few matches to end all this stupidity then so be it.by the way as I was coming in the popular side the stewards were giving the lads a warning but letting them in so let's not exaggerate this.

Yeah, but why not ban all blokes in their 30s, as there was a bloke in his 30s causing trouble one week? It's laziness on the stewards' part, because they can't be bothered identifying the trouble makers, so just ban the lot of them.
If I was 17 and couldn't get in because some daft chavs had been a [SwearFilter] at the previous game, I'd probably not bother coming again.

blue nige wrote:The club have to do something John or are you just wanting something serious to happen? Sometimes you just have to send a message out and if that means a few people are banned for a few matches to end all this stupidity then so be it.by the way as I was coming in the popular side the stewards were giving the lads a warning but letting them in so let's not exaggerate this.

Don't twist my post, I agree action should be taken with those causing problems but barring those who weren't involved isn't the answer is it?
Some were also refused entry at the Popular Side turnstiles as mentioned in the match thread.

They should have said they were Solihull fans, away fans are allowed to do whatever they want at Holker Street

blue nige wrote:The club have to do something John or are you just wanting something serious to happen? Sometimes you just have to send a message out and if that means a few people are banned for a few matches to end all this stupidity then so be it.by the way as I was coming in the popular side the stewards were giving the lads a warning but letting them in so let's not exaggerate this.

Why arnt you banned then,just in case you do something serious?

I'll give a bit of insight into this, this in NOT the official response but just trying to put a bit of perspective on the discussion. Having said that I'm more than happy for anyone to contact me individually and I'll take their concerns back to the club if they think they've been treat wrongly.

The stewards recognised most of the group from Tuesday night.
There were fifteen to twenty that weren't allowed entry (not tarring all young supporters with the same brush as has been suggested)
The "ban" is for one game.

One of the lads involved had obviously reported the "ban" to his Mother who then came to ask why this had happened, when told the reason she was in full agreement with the decision and apparently gave her son a bollocking.

What I saw on Tuesday was a group of young lads inside the ground doing their best to provoke a response from Taunton supporters (I think a Taunton supporter even posted that on here) On my way home I saw a group of young lads (strangely, about fifteen to twenty) stood by the traffic lights on the corner of Wilkie Rd/Holker St being watched by our stewards. My question would be - why were they hanging around there if not waiting for or looking for trouble? It's already been reported that coins were thrown, how would that have looked if a Taunton supporter or player had been injured, or worse, blinded by some idiot throwing a coin? It was only six weeks ago that two York City supporters busses were attacked.
I honestly don't think these young lads realise the potential trouble they could cause the club, never mind increased policing costs if this is allowed to carry on without some sort of action being taken.
It was a ONE game ban which will hopefully send out a message to people wanting to cause trouble that the club will do whatever it can to stop it.

Like I've already said, please get in touch with me if you think you were wrongly accused or treat and we'll take that back to the club.

Does the club have to pay for extra police presence?

barrowfan wrote:Does the club have to pay for extra police presence?

Yes.

Thanks for the reply Ian but I think there was more than 15-20 turned away, the ones I saw were by the Cross Bar but others were also turned away from the Popular Side turnstiles. There's a group of 4 lads in I recognise in addition to the ones at the Cross Bar group who didn't get in at the Popular Side as well as others seemingly.
I'd hope that fans are only barred if they have actually done something, not for what they might do, as a blanket ban on anyone the stewards suspect (many of whom are innocent) isn't the answer and is what seems to have happened today.

If Taunton were segrageted this topic would not be happening.
Also, there were about 20 Taunton behind goal, a load of young barrow fans moved over to same area.
Why can no one have the sense to ask the Taunton fans to move 20 foot and then shut the fence? Common sense