By now we’ve all seen the photographs and heard anecdotes following the incident at Forest Green Rovers (FGR) and subsequently laughed at the official statement; thankfully the fan involved is now seeking legal advice, and rightly so. I won’t go into too much detail, as although at the match, I didn’t witness the incident and the pictures themselves allow us all to form an appropriate opinion.
Since then I’ve read stories about a banning order for throwing an orange, a supporter being bitten by a dog, seen German’s in boiler suits invade a pitch and listened to Ian Holloway criticise West Yorkshire Police (WYP). All rather interesting and unique. Thankfully, so far this season, I’ve not heard or seen our supporters throwing oranges, being bit by dogs or invading pitches although I have heard them criticise WYP. Unfortunately, however, there has been incidents of overzealous Policing, or, heavy handed stewarding and I always wonder how long it will be before we are handed the misfortune of a bubble match or restrictions similar to those Millwall fans had to face as mentioned by Holloway?
At this point I’m going to quote the following from the Trust:
"The aims of the Mariners Trust are to support the long term future of Grimsby Town Football Club, to assist in whatever way it can for the mutual prosperity of the Club, the supporters and the community.
It is the intention that the Mariners Trust represents all supporters of Grimsby Town Football Club. To that end the Trust will strive to recruit all supporters, young and old, as members, with the aim of giving every supporter a voice and an opportunity to be part of the Club they support."
An integral part of the above statement is assisting supporters, giving supporters a voice, and representing all supporters. Now, we wouldn’t be very good if we didn’t stick to our word would we?
We may be not be able to pro-actively, and, effectively ensure the wellbeing of supporters for future games as unfortunately we aren’t in a position (at the moment?!) to state to host clubs and Police forces what they should and shouldn’t do. But we can arm supporters with the information to protect themselves if a situation arises. Our friends over at the Football Supporters Federation have several pages, documents, and, contact numbers that I would urge all supporters to be familiar with. I know of one particular Mariner who was very satisfied with the assistance provided following a game last season, funnily enough, at Barnet. That one case is one of hundreds they deal with every season and they have a long list of successful cases. In an ideal World they would have fewer and fewer incidents to deal with and could concentrate on initiatives like this.
Following Torquay, FGR, and, numerous other incidents over the years I hope that Barnet are welcoming, fair, and, look after us like so many clubs have in the past. Likewise I hope our supporters behave in their usual friendly, partisan manner that many clubs look forward to welcoming – not least for the financial benefits of consistently one of the largest followings in the division. At this point I’ll point out that only 18 supporters were arrested at away matches last season – a very small percentage but I still suspect not all these led to convictions or were even worthy of arrest in the first place. I could go on to talk about the merits, or lack of, football banning orders and their restrictions but that’s a blog for another day.
Now as John Fenty once infamously asked, what about the (inflatable) orange?
See you all at Barnet.
CN