U 21's

[Colm]

I know for a fact that nobody was booing the Black player, the booing may have occured when he was on the ball but it was in fact directed at Bohs Brian Shelly who failed to respond to the sheds call for a wave. it was only a bit of light hearted fun,there was nothing malicious or racist about it. As for the IRA thing, that has nothing to do with the city fans and it was only a few non-regulars that were saying. So please stop trying to put a dampner on what was a great night for ccfc and for Cork soccer in general.

[Snatch]

I have been to the Cross numerous times but gave up going when my son reached the age when he wanted to go to matches with me, as I didn't fancy explaining to him about some of the "lovely" chants from the shed.

That was certainly a serious problem a couple of years ago M.See. Many people were turned away from attended by those chants.

The sooner biggoted and racist chants cease at City matches the better. Eanna certainly has a good point about the responsibilty of the decent fans and the authorities to shut up those young fellas.

[A face]

I suppose you cant blame M.See as he has given up on Irish football and doesn't know any of the players, he didn't know what team Shelley played for. To be honest alot of the people at the game probably have never been to a game in their lives and the whole thing must be quite new to them, a kind of a culture shock. It is totally different to watching it on telly in the pub with the lads. Players could be two feet from you at some stages. It must be surreal for some people. And the noise level is alot higher.

About the IRA celtic fan chants in the fields, it was good to see the fanzine doing its bit there as well, even though it is not bad at the cross, the united colors of football suppliment was a good read and well worth a look, the issue of the fanzine was very good overall ..... hope to see it next year. (i know it is only three months away)

[Colm]

Racism certainley is not a problem at the cross, it may have been in the past but those days are gone. The sooner the floodlight supporters know that the sooner they may come to city games. As for abusive language and chants, you will get them at every football ground all over the world, its just part and parcel of the game. Im in London for the weekend and I am going to a Chelsea match today, im expecting to experience the samekind of chants and comments as you will hear at the cross. I often feel that people just use this as an excuse to knock City, we will have a very hard jobon our hands converting many of the people who were at the game on Tuesday night.

[pete]

Racist & IRA chants are certainly a lot less prominemnt at the cross than a few years ago but that doesn't mean they not there either.

The "IRA" bit seems to added by mainly kids as opposed to a few years ago when half the shd would add it.

I would say the racist side of things would probably be individual comments as opposed to actual groups of people chanting. Theres only so much individual fans can do without the stewards getting involved. I'm guessing if the kids saw a steward throw out of their kind out they wouldn't be likely to try it again.

Things have improved a lot but still doesn't mean can't improve further.

We need to remove the excuses people use not to go to the cross & let them experince live football which IMO no slick tv coverage can beat.

[Éanna]

From reading all the posts, I can only come to one conclusion. Whether or not you agree with any of the chants, or the accepatability of them, it's clear the stewards aren't doing their job. Hopefully this will change, but I think fans have a duty to hound stewards into acting too.