Sunday 25th October, 2009last year, at the end of October
An ugly victory as Hereford United fans get the wrong kind of Bradford welcome
It was a long way back home – 180 miles to be precise – for the 176 Hereford supporters at Valley Parade on Saturday, but for many it will not have been Gareth Evans’ 41st minute strike and subsequent celebration in front of them which will have provided the lasting impression of a disappointing day.
The welcome some received from the people of Bradford could be fairly summed up as ugly, with stories of heavy-handed stewarding and a gang of teenagers punching and spitting on supporters outside the ground at the end. Small and trivial these incidents may be considered in the context of the history of poor stewarding and hooliganism, but little consolation for the few on the receiving end.
It was midway through the second half that attention was diverted from a reasonably entertaining League Two encounter to the block of the Midland Road stand which housed Hereford supporters. Without knowing what was happening, it was clear stewards were dragging out a small handful of supporters in the most heavy-handed of manners. A Bulls visitor to Claret and Banter claims the stewards began throwing out supporters for persistently standing. When these fans quite reasonably argued that home supporters in other parts of the ground were also standing, they were apparently removed for questioning the stewards’ authority.
Meanwhile the photo evidence of a young supporter appearing to be forcibly removed reflects badly on the the people charged with home and away supporters’ welfare and some questions should be raised by those with the power to ask them at Valley Parade this week. At numerous City away games in recent years, stewards have attempted to force City fans to sit down; but the larger number of away fans make it next to impossible to enforce and efforts are usually quickly abandoned. Were these Hereford fans penalised for supporting a small club?
As the skirmishes ended, the reaction of City fans in the Bradford End was hardly commendable either. Aside from strong rivalries, banter between sets of fans at games is generally good natured and fun for both. The same Hereford fan who left a message on Claret and Banter claims home supporters initiated slit throat gestures towards them, while the choice and tone of the chanting towards them came across as unnecessarily threatening. Such anger might be understood, if not excused, were it directed towards Leeds, Huddersfield and Burnley fans, or even if the visitors were leading. The Hereford fans had done nothing to warrant this humourlessly-bile form of chanting.
And then outside after the game it got worse. Walking along Midland Road after home games all season, it’s been noticeable that gangs of teenagers have begun congregating on street corners in the hope something might “kick off”. A small mini bus for Hereford fans was positioned close to the away turnstiles, with one steward stood talking to them. I’d begun to walk past and towards my car, so didn’t get the best of views, but within minutes this group of Hereford supporters were surrounded by a gang of teenagers and fighting broke out. Those nearer claim a female supporter was punched while another female was spat at. Other Hereford fans tried to defend their own and the steward looked helpless. Eventually more stewards arrived to help and two police vans pulled up, with the group of teenagers fleeing up the hill towards Manningham Lane and hiding within the grounds of the nearby Mosque. A long journey home for Hereford fans must have felt significantly longer.
And as they departed so to did a bit of the club’s reputation. “Going to Bradford away? Watch yourself, I’ve heard the stewards are violent and home supporters ambush you outside the ground at the end,” is the kind of story which travels fast among rival fans. After the match City manager Stuart McCall had spoken of his frustration that, mid-way through the first half, a supporter within his earshot had barracked the players with the words “come on, we’re only playing Hereford,” but in this situation “only Hereford” is an important point. Perhaps these cowardly fans who attacked visiting supporters will steer clear when the likes of Rochdale and Rotherham come to Valley Parade, as they will bring sizeable numbers of fans which are likely to include plenty willing to get involved with a fight.
Next Saturday City travel to Macclesfield, a fixture I’ve been looking forward to for weeks due to the warm welcome I’ve received from friendly Silkmen fans on my previous two visits. Luton and Chesterfield aside, that’s usually the norm wherever you go in League Two and, for the majority of well-behaved City fans, it’s part of the enjoyment. What a shame that, thanks to the minority, there are now less people who will consider a trip to Bradford anything but ugly.
Just want to say thank you for your very fair article on the problems some Hereford United supporters encountered at the VP yesterday.
A couple of your stewards were well out of order yesterday.
Doesn’t your heart sink when you hear of this shit? Does anyone from within the club read this, and if they do,do they feel the same as most right minded fans? And if so, why aren’t they doing something about it? Sensible stewarding inside and adequate care outside the ground, not much to ask, is it?
This is definitely becoming a bit too regular for my liking!
I often leave the ground onto Midland Road and head right into town and each time I see this type of behaviour.
Away fans seem to be surrounded by stewards and/or police immediatly outside the ground, but no presence further down the road.
I recall a bloke in an away shirt holding his young upset daughter close as groups of kids (cos that’s all they are) shouted and threatened away supporters in minibuses travelling along Midland Road, clearly worried for the safety of his kid!
It leaves a very sour taste in the mouth and more should definitely be done by the club to ensure the safety of ALL fans travelling away from the ground after a game.
One of the good things about being in League 2 is that everything is much friendlier than higher up the league. I never have any fear taking my nephew to away games and we leave the grounds happily mingling wiht the home fans. Stewards are generally good humoured and helpful.
It is very sad that we don’t appear to be able to offer the same hospitality.
It never ceases to amaze me that the heinous crime of “standing up” whilst part of a small away following is worthy of ejection from the ground whilst singing obscene and offensive songs about the VP Fire attracts no action if you are part of a larger following from a few miles away.
Firstly, the point raised about what appears to be a growing minority intent on causing trouble at City games. I must say I fully agree with you Jason. If it wasn’t so potentially damaging to the club and others enjoyment at the games it would be funny how much some of these kids embarass themselves with their behaviour.
I must say I am quite dissapointed by the way you have made your other point in the peice though.
You have clearly said you don’t know what had gone on in the Hereford end and yet then state the stewarding was heavy handed. How on earth can you say it was unreassonable when you don’t know what preceeded the incident. If someone in their end had done something (which I have no doubt any Hereford fan would deny) that warranted getting thrown out and then refused to leave, what are the stewards supposed to do. From what I could see, all be it from the Kop, and in the photo’s presented it does appear that they are resisting and the 1 or 2 stewards are pushing them out.
I find this is a common and unfortunate trait with the internet unfortunately. Everyone has an opinion on everything without knowing the facts behind the events (Try taking a look on the Official message board for evidence!).
If there was OTT stewarding then I hope it is sorted in future, but wading in with articals like this based on heresay is not productive.
Oh, and the point about justification for standing up being that “So are they”. I’m sorry but it isn’t. I saw someone punch someone else and get away with it. Can I do the same?
Carry on the great work but I must say I was surprised at this piece as it is out of sorts with what you usually produce.
Ben thanks for your comments and it’s a fair point. I sit in the Midland Road stand and had a decent view of the fans been thrown out, and to me it was heavy-handed. Now even if they had guns or were making racist remarks or there was another strong and deserved reason to throw them out, that doesn’t change the fact it was ‘heavy handed’.
I would not, however, just assume they were innocent and the stewards were out of order on such a basis, my opinion has being somewhat added to by the accounts of Hereford fans which I have seen online, which suggest it was over the top and unreasonable. These accounts are from fans who were not thrown out, so it’s hard to see why they would make it up or hide certain facts. Add in the fact that for a number of years we’ve seen stewards be very unfair to City fans in certain situations (Crewe home in 2006/07 season, and personally I was threatened with ejection quite forcibly five years ago for putting my feet on an empty chair in front) and it’s difficult to dispute these accounts from Hereford fans.
Finally regarding the point about inconsistencies in standing up, my main one here was that time and time again at City away games stewards start attempting to make City fans sit down, and the usual sheer number makes it impossible. Get ten to sit down, move onto next row. Then someone chants “stand up if you love City” and those ten stand up again. Soon they give up. I just wonder if the lack of Hereford fans meant they could try and be more aggressive in forcing them to comply. Could you see these stewards attempting to force Rochdale fans, who will bring 800 or so to VP, to sit down and throw people out in that way? I personally think not and while that still doesn’t make it right for Hereford fans to stand up, I think they are entitled to consider it an injustice to be removed from a stadium for standing up.
Anyway I’m sorry to hear my article disappointed you, but like all articles on here it is only my opinion and if it wasn’t crafted as well as I can sometimes achieve I will just make sure I work harder to get it right next time.
Well said. I use the “Cllr” just to highlight that I’ve been involved in stadium planning/stewarding issues for Millwall so I have a little experience and knowledge on these matters, albeit in the past. I’ve done the 92 and been to hundreds of games having followed Hereford since 1966.
Inside this was 2 sets of younger fans winding each other up. A few HUFC fans swore and made a few inane gestures but on a pretty mild basis. The Bradford fans were a bit worse and a bit younger, but the issue here was how useless the stewards were.
Several HUFC fans pointed out that the stewards were not managing the Bradford fans as they were the HUFC ones, well before there were any problems. Worse there were lots of empty seats in the home section, so any half way competent stadium security management would have ensured a neutral zone of the last 10/23/30 seats nearest the HUFC seats. Not rocket science and easily done. just simple best practice which is widely known, but not in Bradford where home fans were allowed to stand away from seats and in aisles and stairs to try and incite HUFC fans.
The head steward for the away fans, appeared to be an absolute nutter who was looking for trouble, and enjoyed creating an incident. He was telling off people for using their phones as cameras (technically allowed, but get a life they are not selling things on thew internet just recording an impressive stadium!) yet gave no clear warnings to the fans who were subsequently ejected (I was sitting near to them)
When the head steward came to throw people out, he seemed intent on violence. One HUFC fan said clearly that I will come if you don’t touch me. the steward’s reaction? To lay his hands on the fan setting off him and provoking others when there was no need as he was already leaving. From the expression on the head stewards face and his comments to others he was getting a real thrill from this. I wish I had got my phone out and videod/taken pictures.
Then afterwards, because they were so busy throwing people out there were hardly any stewards in the ground, actually leaving a situation where if the HUFC fans had wanted to kick off they could have done easily. At a ground where we all know of the tragedy of the fire this was dumb, stupid and insensitive stewarding.
I talked to one steward who said that they did not what they were doing (after checking the head man was not around!) and just following the orders of the head man. When I pointed out that the home fans were inciting much of the problemss they agreed, but said that it was not policy to address this. Bradford stewards endorse anti-social behaviour so long as it is from home fans???
Just to contrast we went to Rotherham at Don Valley and were treated with absolute respect and regard. (I’ve found Rotherham can be “tricky” in the past.)
You are right all the claims in the programme about wanting to be a community club is lip service. the reality is Bradford use stewards who are basically a gang of yobs looking for “action”. Away fans beware.
Bradford – change your security firm and get the senior stewards who “manage” the away fans moved or sacked. A police officer would have been appalled at their behaviour and arrested them for assault. they did not use reasonable force, indeed there was no need to from what I observed.
We’ve had these problems with stewards over several years – I recall a group of “stewards in suits” (were they head honchos?!) wading into Sheff Utd fans a few years back – and it was really ugly stuff, rarely have i seen the same at City away games – I was asked politely to move at Hull City a few years back as was drinking a beer over the painted line (don’t ask me!?), but there was no aggression.
I think as others have said, it seems the stewards who are up for it are now mainly looking after the away sections, the others are pretty much okay and harmless looking and spend their time running up and down when we get a corner or free kick near the kop end.
There’s a big problem in the lower tier of the kop with missile throwers – surely they should be watching the crowd to spot these culprits and not the game – time for our own supporters to turn in this element and also deal with the mob of spotty youths on the midland road, they are giving our club a bad reputation which it does not deserve.
I remember walking back into town behind a suited steward after match in the days when there used to be a nightclub-cum-venue (I’ll call it the T&C since that’s what it was most recently) opposite what used to be Polar Ford. Thinking about it, it was probably around the same time.
As soon as he reached the T&C he stripped off his reflective jacket and took up position on the door.
Obviously the suits were more down to them having a night job to go straight to following the game than a measure of importance.
This story does serve to shed some light on the kind of people who are employed as football stewards and the methods they are used to employing.
I would suggest that the way to manage a football crowd is the not the same as the way to manage a group of belligerent drunks but it seems that one is recruited to do the former based on experience of the latter.
Bottom line is that doormen don’t necessarily make good stewards but if you hire a security company then that’s what you get.
From where I was sat -Sunwin- the Steward in the yellow coat(Head Stweward)committed an act of Assault and this should be pursued by the individual who was dragged out of his seat and thrown against the wall. There should be a good chance that this was recorded by the ground safety/security cameras in the area adjacent to the Sunwin Stand. Being sat approximately 70 yds away from where this incident occured I don’t know what was said that could have infuriated the Steward to the degree that caused his agressive behaviour.However, his over the top reaction could have caused a far more serious reaction from supporters than the Hereford supporters gave. If discilinary or indeed, legal action is not taken against the Steward he should count himself very lucky.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/bradford_city/default.stm
It also appears to me that somebody threw an object at their keeper. See around 1:45 of the video via the link above. Why can’t our fans behave properly?
The steward acted like a common thug and should be sacked on the spot for giving the club a bad name. The poor kid did his best to ignore the steward ‘ruffing him up’, and just sat politely trying to watch the game. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that 200 or so people have come away from VP with such a negative off-the-field experience in mind
i’d just like to comment that from my seat at the sunwin stand end of the top deck city end, i only heard standard terrace chant abuse from the city end and would be surprised at any regular footy fans taking real offence from them. in fact during the rather quiet part of the second half before bullock got sent off,the chants were more entertaining than the footy!
i too am concerned about the youths hanging around our end as we come out – something should be done about them. and if the stewarding in the away end is heavy handed or unequally applied with other areas then that should be addressed too, urgently.
ohyes, and another thing – i was a bit embarrassed that our fellow supporters in the city end appeared to believe hereford is in wales.
I sit behind the goal in the Bradford End and can safely add that the stewarding was disgusting. I too cannot say what kicked it off, but what I did see was a couple of stewards dragging a couple of young fans out of the ground. They were, however, resisting and the force intensified.
To sort this problem out once-and-for-all, I suggest that all the fans in that block write letters of complaint to the club and make a complaint to the police. I am sure there will be cameras in the ground that can show exactly what ‘unreasonable’ force was (or wasn’t) used.
However, the one thing I do take issue with is the blame on the Bradford fans. If they were standing and the stewards didn’t apply the same force, is that the fans’ fault? When the City fans saw the HUFC fans being ejected, they sang the usual ‘bye bye’ chants, which then stirred the remaining fans up, a group in the centre in particular. From what I could see, there was one particular fan that was going mental and the humorous City fans latched onto this and gave him (and his party) a bit of stick. This happens at all games, home and away and was nothing out of the ordinary.
It was ‘friendly’ banter and nothing different to what was being dished out by HUFC fans. However, what is supposed to have happened outside the ground is disgusting. Again, I hope CCTV cameras have picked up some of the incident and police can do their work accordingly.
Thanks for the reply Jason.
It is ironic I was sticking up for the stewards to be honest. I was one of the 12 (if I remember correctly) thrown out at the infamous Crewe debacle. City were later unable to provide any reason I was thrown out as at the time I was told it was for standing despite the security footage showing me sitting down (I made them check). My only concern is however sometimes fans seem to think they are hard done by you often, look at it objectively and sometimes see it was there own fault.
In terms of the Herefords fans view, it is quite clear they are going to side with there own fans as opposed to City stewards.
It may well have been heavy handed and I really do hope that City look in to it as I know, like you, we have been on the recieving end many times.
Maybe I am just being over protective. Things are really looking up for City at the moment and I don’t want to go down the route of us moaning at our own club again when, potentially (I accept this may be a slim chance), there was nothing in it. This site can have a bigger influence than you may realise at times.
In response to accusations of heavy handed stewarding at saturdays match towards the two “youngsters”(incidentally one had more facial hair than me),I was asked to remove the first “youngster” for his use of foul & abusive language towards a fellow steward.He willingly stood up after i spoke to him but was prevented from complying by the “youngster” to his left (with the excessive facial hair). Whoever the photographer was – get the pictures in order of relevance. Picture 2 should be first this shows me explaining why he was to be removed from the ground. Picture 3 was me removing the hairy “youngster” as he refused to comply with my request to stand up and let the other “youngster” out. Picture 1 was taken after the final whistle. This is me listening to taunts from the dozen or so fans as they exited the ground. To my knowledge no Hereford fans were removed for standing. I only used reasonable force to remove the hairy “youngster” who had his two friends holding him back and his hand firmly clamped onto a railing. If you are old enough to attend a football match and are old enough to give verbal abuse you take responsibility for your own actions. My actions were to the book.
Read my comment explaining my actions. 70 yards is some distance to be making assumptions.Come and see me before the next home game,away turnstiles.Cheers !
I think a far more worrying development is these young kids intent on causing trouble inside and outside the ground.
We have always had a reputation as being a family club, and I for one want it to remain that way.
It must infuriate our 2 chairmen, when they have introduced very initiatives to get young people supporting the club, but some of them throw it back in their faces, by hurling coins at the opposition, and cowardly attacks outside the ground.
Let’s hope CCTV can find the culprits, and they are banned from the club for life, as they are certainly not welcome.