This is what I mean. The stewards, fair enough, advised us to take the route by the stands during half time and didnt let anyone near Athlone fans. but afterwards, they just let everyone through at the same time. Segregation my @rse, they werent doing their jobs. Hence the garda presence outside afterwards and them laying into the likes of Marty and myself afterwards. The stewards should look at themselves before blaming others.
'Fascists dress in black and go round telling people what to do, where as priests.....'
There was 3 of us who had a meeting after the match in the VIP area of the stand, myself and 2 other members of section o (not marty and pauro). MC Farrell who is head stewerd was ok but some the rest have no manners and are a bunch of wannabes. It is time to think where section o goes from here.
The thing is, what do we do? Start a new group? Go back to basics? Tell the 'schooligans' to start their own patch? It's a double edged sword here. The group has grown over the last few years, for the better mostly. The younger guys have brought their TIFO flags, sang their songs, made some displays, credit to them, they've been excelllent. But some bad apples have crept in, and i do think it's up to a chosen few to tell them, 'youve caused enough trouble, cop on or dont come back'.
'Fascists dress in black and go round telling people what to do, where as priests.....'
if the club give you no joy compalin to the fai, you guys spend a lot of moneuy following the club and deserve better.Originally Posted by MASSOP 10
Macy i agree but if the trouble makers are pointed out and they do nothing then there are legit compaints to by made on a one by one basis until the club listen and do something.
Ignore Max Power, he is no more, the future is Ron Burgundy. I'd love to be Ron Burgundy but they won't let me........
Saturday night and the way the stewards acted certainly left a bad taste in my mouth!I didnt bother staying back to talk to the stewards just to be shouted at and bullied by them!
Firstly can we just put what happened the other night into a bit of perspective here.Very little trouble actually happened a part from the two sets of fans winding up each other,which was always going to happen and then the stewards not having the cop to keep them away from each other!Why in the name of god the two sets of fans werent segregated I dont know!The stewards claimed that it is the FAI that tell them when there is a high risk game and Saturday wasnt according to the FAI,so it is a wonder that the stewards cant think for themselves.They said they didnt expect any trouble and then started rambling on about how they had seen young fellas winding each other up on bebo a few months ago(which me and cabs stopped) so once again they clearly couldnt have put 2 and 2 together.MC Farrell brought 3 of us in to talk about stewarding and section o in general but what I didnt expect was 6 stewards to follow us in,some of them shouting over us whenever we tried to speak.Some of them saying that we should be ashamed of ourselves.
They completely contradicted themselves on everything they said,firstly obviously the segregation was a big thing.I think it was MC that stated that segregation was a part of the licence and that it should have been put in place while other stewards were shouting off saying there was no need for segregation. They quickly moved on from any clashes with both sets of fans as I think they realised that if they had done their job,none of this would have happened.
At half time, they panicked when they had to try keep fans away from each other so they just complained about something totally irrelevant to Marty such as till roll,as if till roll had just been used for the first time. According to the stewards, having till roll thrown on is an automatic fine,which is of course a lie as the Fai publish their fines every month on the net(something which the stewards obviously didn't know) and only Shelbourne and Sligo(?) got fined last month even though we have used it in every game this season and according to Massop, at the Fai fans forum they said that they had no problem with till roll as long as its not thrown at players. They started shouting at us asking were we prepared to pay the fine and we calmly just answered that we were and we had been saying that from the start. You'd swear we were purposely throwing on the till roll to annoy them.
Regardless MC explained that they just didn't want to risk the till roll as they are regarded as missiles and I have no problem stopping using it at home games.
The next point we talked about was dereks flag and any other tifo flags which we might bring and they basically said that its in the rule book that they aren't allowed. We argued and argued that every other club in the league has them has them and finally they basically admitted that they go by their own set of rules and not the Fai's,so basically we all support a club who want to kill all atmosphere in Flancare. They started giving out that they had to send over 3 stewards to stewards section o when last season it took less,well I think its a bit obvious that your going to need more stewards if theres more people in a section,especially if the section is made entirely up of fellas standing singing and jumping around and what else would the stewards be doing only watching the match over in the stand scratching their arse.
All this talk about banning people from the ground and picking people out is a bit rich tbh. Certainly theres a few people I could pick out in section o,that I may be suspicious of causing trouble or that may cause trouble in the future but it would be a bit unfair considering as far as I know I have never heard of any of them causing trouble at matches other then shouting the odd bit of abuse or winding up the away support just cause they are able to.Some of the lads need to cop themselves on at the matches, I certainly agree with that but I'm fairly positive that we don't have an element of fans that just go to matches to cause trouble,all most all of section o the other night have been going to matches for a good year now home and away,maybe more that theres a few lads that will act the ****** if the opportunity arise and the occasion got the better of them on saturday night and thats where they need to cop on.As I said,I certainly know a few lads that I would be suspicious of but I dont know what the story was earlier about people causing trouble on buses because I organised most of the buses last year and there was never really any hassle,unless it was the supporters club bus.
To be honest I think one of the big differences this year has been the attitude of the stewards. According to them,its only this season that section has been getting a bad name for itself when it was give or take the same group that went to matches last year but since the very start of this season they have had a real gung ho attitude,just waiting for some of section o to slip up so they could complain and they got that the other night.Take the very first game of the season against fingal when I was going in with my new flags that i'd spent a lot of time and money on and was laughed at at the gate and told I wasnt allowed in with them by a certain steward we all know and love,now I admit,the poles were a bit big but there was no need for the steward concerned to be so smug about it as they had taken me a lot of work,then when I was going in I was asked what was in my bag and I said it was just a flag "just a flag eh?,no flares or toliet roll" "no,just a flag" "oh,we'll see" then when he had found that it was just a flag he told me that he would be watching me.
Theres many other instances that have happened so far this season with stewards(one steward in particular) accusing some of the lads in section o of things. They have stood in front of us facing us every single game waiting for us to do something and in my opinion it is them that has caused any tension in section o and trouble, no matter how small was always going to happen at some stage and when it did, after all their watching they hadn't the cop on to stop it.
The only reason that they really come over to us is to pick up the till roll and maybe now if we stop throwing till roll,they can leave us alone and we will all be able to watch the matches without being suspiciously and patronisingly being watched by the "orangemen".
If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation.
Just for the lads in Section O, i'd like to say fair play to ye for taking this issue on, I was at the match Saturday and could see what trouble may break out long before kick-off, how the stewards cannot see this and sort it i do not know. It was obvious that the Athlone lads were young lads who may have been up for a bit of "firm" action! However, no steward could take the obvious action at half time and segregate the opposing fans - so ye had to pass them. It was obvious at that stage that there may be a bit of 'afters' and i noticed the troupe of atlone lads leaving 15 mins before the final whistle. It was clear what may occur after, which the stewards should have noticed and been prepared for.
On hearing that some of ye lads from sectiono were blamed in the wrong for the craic had me annoyed for ye. I have to say the home games are always better for having ye lads with the flags, songs etc. However I am not surprised that the stewards were shifting the blame, of course there may be a few fools joining with ye acting the blaggard, but stewards should be able to deal with them without attackin the easy targets.
Alas, there are a group of stewards in Flancare who simply cannot or will not do their jobs. I wont explain the exact senarios I have seen and been involved in (this season and last) t I will say certain stewards will pick their battles so to speak. Section O is not the only area they are failing...
here here rosco! very good summary of sat night and I wasnt at the meeting either.. my letter of complaint appeared in the longford leader interestin to see whether it will make the longford news next week... myself and massop10 are goin to have a chat about things tonite about the events and decide what to do next and will let ye know of our plans...
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
may be tempted to have a word with the secretary on this ... need to think about this first...
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
i would tell the schooligans to start their own patch... theres a bad element of maybe ten people in a group of sixty rosco and the younger lads absolutely condon what happened sat night.. I have already posted onto the bebo site telllin them that they are not welcome on our patch again...
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
really appreciate the support you have given us ltfcfan thank you! you swear we had killed someone with the huge fuss that has bein made!
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
Does anyone anywhere have pics from the game anywhere?It was the best atmosphere in section o for a long time,well the first half was anyway!
Good point from LTFCfan that most of the Athlone fellas seemed to leave way before the game to wait for some of our lads.Was talking to one of the lads and he said that they were all over talking to athlone fans near the end of the match getting on grand with them,asking them where they were from or something and then suddenly some of them turned on them,then when they reacted back the stewards ran over and grabbed them and told them to never come back to flancare and went back and stood with the athlone fans...
If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation.
I didn't see the incident of some senior members being shouted at and abused by certain stewards but was appalled when I heard.
However, as Section O don't like to be painted with the same brush, either should the stewards. I believe that, first and foremost, it is the club's fault. Many of those stewards are true supporters of LTFC and are just doing the job as goodwill. I doubt they get any real training. A private, trained stewarding firm should be brought in for Athlone, Shels, Dundalk and perhaps Sporting Fingal.
I totally agree that some stewards should be told where to stick it, but others should be applauded because they save LTFC money in most games where "real" stewards are not needed. It's clear the club should bring in trained stewards for certain games.
As for the schooligans, something needs to be done, quick. If not Section O is in danger of becoming like Athlone's "fans". 10-20 youngsters, trying to look hardy and becoming a real problem for the stewards
Actually as far as I'm aware a good number of them have passed the FAI training course for stewards. Now I'm not sticking up for them by any means but a lot of them have done the course required. Maybe that says more about the course than anything else. Just turn up to a few talks for a couple of hours.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
The greatest load of horse**** ever, there are larger flags at most others teams grounds. Maybe proper telescopic flagpoles might shut them up but I doubht it. I am in the process of making larger and larger flags and banners so will be interesting to see what will happen
Roddy Collins, the biggest <insert as appropiate> in Irish Football.
Well if thats the case the should be trained by someone else
Very interesting debate. We should try and make it clear, maybe via an advert/article in the match programme, that Section O are a group that vocal fans can feel a part of, display banners etc. and make it clear to the 'schooligans', that behaviour like this will not be tolerated. Maybe they just might get the hint. Just an idea,,,
'Fascists dress in black and go round telling people what to do, where as priests.....'
To be honest I think this thread is enough of an advertisment,you wouldnt think it but everyone reads foot..
If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation.
Totally agree with everything ya said bosco.The "ORANGEMEN" are part of the problem.Their antagonising and in your face attitude since the start of the season incites trouble.If they would stay away from section and stop constantly starring @ fans there would be no hassle.I remember during the tribute to Enda I was asked to remove an empty plastic bottle which I used to prop a tribute flag between seats which myself and other fans spent hours making.
@ such sensitive time only a wk after his passing the orangemen were still going about their 'business' in a cold and callous manner wit no regard for the situation.Whats worse they seem to gain a distorted satisfaction @ chastising people for no reason.
This sums it up for me.......shame on them.
I was there last sat and I have to say the whole incident was blown out of proportion by the stewards ...a complete over reaction to a small problem.It shouldn't matter that FAI didn't designate the match as one which might be trouble.
the stewards should have enough common sense to deal with the situation @ hand.Its not parkhead on a old firm match day!
Fair play to ya MARTY for writing into the local press...hope they learn from it .
Last edited by Mullogher; 08/05/2008 at 9:44 AM.
90% of Athlone fans were in the main stand mixing with the locals but that dirt behind the goal are really starting to **** the genuine supporter off.
I am going to try and get these lads banned from Lissywollen as they are only a liability after watching too much Greenstreet.
A good few of them are 18+ and should have some cop on at this stage.
Well done lads. I wasn't there for this incident but I do know that one of your stewards[not sure if he's involved in this incident] is way over the top from previous games. They seem to be on a power trip and ye should just stand up to them instead of taking crap from them. Report incidents to the FAI if your club refuse to do anything.
Life without Rovers, it makes no sense...it's a heartache...nothing but a fools game. S.R.F.C.
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