A ‘Firm’ opinion

When I first stared watching County in the mid 90`s the club had a tag which was used quite a bit throughout.

The term was “the friendly football club” and as an impressionable 13 year old I wondered why this was used?

Was it because they wanted to attract families? Or maybe because they are a nice football club where everyone got along.

Well it was neither; it was down to trying to shake off the large hooligan element that plagued the 70`s and 80`s which almost killed football and claimed a few lives in the process.

I must admit I`ve seen many fights over the years up and down the country but the first time I witnessed a football related one was the England and Ireland game from 1995 that turned into a small riot.

For anyone that maybe is too young to remember this, it was a “friendly” that was called off during the game when England fans started ripping up the seats and throwing them around the ground. It resulted with about 20 injured fans and 40 arrests.

I believe in the 70`s and 80`s fighting was rife at EP and before fan segregation was introduced, a punch up was sadly part of a normal day or night out at the football.

Stories of when Everton came down in the cup which resulted in wallets getting lifted and fists getting thrown is all part of the culture and I`m sure some of the older fans have many stories to tell (or may remain tight lipped depending on who is listening).

I myself have never been into fighting at football matches but I have witnessed a few over the years, sadly over the past few seasons I have seen a small rise at County games so I wanted to touch on it with this column.

I`ve been at Moss Rose (Macclesfield) and seen the “ultras” giving it out (behind the police of course) and storming the pubs after the game looking to fight us, I`ve also been at Maine Road and had to be locked in after full time regardless of the results due to the football “factory” element.

I`ve seen Carlisle fighting our fans at EP and then when we played Oldham in 2008 and the ref had to stop the game when it kicked off it the Cheadle end as well as on the pitch.

If anyone was at the Stalybridge game this season a few County fans ran onto the pitch aiming anger at the Stalybridge players – now I think everyone has wanted to smack a apposing player at some point but what annoyed me about this was that they messed up the flow of the game meaning we lost out on getting a possible equaliser.

What also hits a nerve is the fact we could possibly be fined which causes the club financial hardship. There were also scuffles on the terraces at that game and a rumour of a knife being pulled during a fight when we played away to Hednesford this month.

Now cast your mind back to our last away game against Kidderminster the season before last when fans encroached the pitch again and attacked a player, I feel the frustration I really do but what made me even angrier was listening to fans blaming the FA regarding the late kick off time for this when “they should know we would be drinking”?

The same fans who said that what happened at the S/B game was nothing major and people were over reacting.

Maybe a few idiot`s running on to a pitch to punch a player isn`t a big deal to some?

I would like to ask them if getting points deducted is? Especially when we are aiming towards the play offs? Or a fine that the club can`t pay when we are only just getting our money straight again.

Now I`m not naive, I know some people get a rush from fighting and when the adrenaline starts to pump you can loose sight of situations – trust me I`ve got the scars to prove it but I`m honestly slightly worried that this behaviour could result badly on our club if carried out inside opposing teams grounds.

In the program notes for the previous game this was touched on by Stockport County and they have again reiterated the fact that this needs to stop, I would hate us to loose points or get a fine just due to the fact that some fool wants to act like Danny Dyer for the afternoon.

Like I said we`re all wanted to punch a player now and again, but the last thing we want is a fine or this “friendly football club” club getting a bad name.



Steve Davies