I have been amongst home fans in quite a lot of away games, in those circumstances I simply remain unobtrusive.
@MillwallFan said there would be no damage to the ground yesterday, I wonder if that is true, he also added that any other trouble would be an isolated incident. Is that also true? Not that any Millwall fan is that bothered as they sing ‘we don’t care’, and instead of taking responsibility for themselves, and crucially for the violent fan culture nurtured within their fanbase, they will make excuses, justify, look for any ‘equivalences’ however unbalanced, or say the troublemakers are West Ham supporting journalists, dressed up as Portsmouth fans pretending to be Millwall fans. Millwall fans laud scum violent behaviour, and call fans of other clubs who don’t like it ‘mongs’ or c**ts, or the ones with a smidgeon of conscience or embarrassment will divert into whataboutery.
Why was this Millwall Fan allowed to sit in East Stand wearing Millwall top? The policing and stewarding yesterday was really poor, a large group of police standing by the white control tower doing nothing and on all other matches stewards around 80mins come along and sit in front of East stand before end of the match nothing yesterday? The problem in the ES stand would have been solved removing Millwall fan(s) with better stewarding and policing likewise the whole gate debacle. I said to my son that there were quite alot of Millwall in ES, wearing casual but sticking out like sore thumbs...how did they get tickets?
I was sitting in AC Block B, on the aisle with Block C. Stewards were deployed at the front of stand gates at 80 minutes, at least at this end. Throughout there were a few of our fans sitting at the A end of Block B goading the 'Wall crowd in the JS stand. No effort by the few stewards present to tell them to shut up or leave. A few 'Wall responded. This continued throughout the match, but intensified after Millwall scored. One or two Lions jumped the barrier on to the pitch, presumably with the intention of kicking off in the AC stand. They were contained by, presumably, travelling 'Wall stewards. What I thought were stewards by the AC / JS stand boundary, turned out to be St John Ambulance, who moved away quickly for their own safety! At this point the Millwall lump sitting in Block B started kicking off with our lot who had been winding up the JS stand. He was eventually dragged out, but it took a while. He was wearing a heavy jacket over his 'Wall shirt, so wasn't immediately obvious as a 'Wall fan from where I was sitting. Millwall did make quite a lot of noise, at least up to our goal, but our 20k outnumbered their 3k in the noise stakes. I guess anyone can buy tickets in the home stands if they are on the club's database? So if you register in advance of restricted tickets going on sale, I guess you are in? I went in through the Bartram entrance, bought a beer (2nd in queue and pre-poured) and stood chatting to an Addick who had travelled down from Dundee. There is a small contingent from that town who go to mainly away matches. There were quite a few fans having a drink at the bottom if the Bartram steps, some near the gate that later got broken through and a few 'Wall on the other side. May have been some 'banter' going on across the divide. I assume Millwall worked out that this was a weak point in the segregation, to be challenged after the game.
On the millwall aggro side of things apparently there was a lot of to and fro at ht at the end of east and jimmy seed 2 bags of grit salt got thrown over the fence and a wall fan tried to climb over the fence and got his finger degloved, at the end of the game a Charlton fan spat at a Millwall fan and then they broke through the gate and it all kicked off
all of the above from my pals brother who was at the game with his Millwall supporting mate he’s Arsenal.
"How do they get tickets?". It's not that difficult. You have Charlton-supporting mates. You (gasp!) get on our database and have previously bought tickets for a low-key game, maybe you even went to it?
This is Ground Control to Major Tom You've really made the grade And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare......
Apparently this match was classed as grade 2 by the police, officers had riot helmets and batons present around the ground station area, mounted police, vans with police response teams, restricted ticket sales, Away fans given priority to exit the ground, exclusion zones you name it .....Yet the only place Millwall could attack Charlton fans was an unlocked gate manned by two regular stewards. The team in charge of this match from the police, person in charge of team of stewards and Charlton comm's team need to make sure this doesn't happen again. Basic common sense would have put 2-3 police by the gate and possibly a barrier on the Millwall side 10yds from the gate with stewards so it covered health and safety.......
always the same,you get plenty old bill outside doing nothing but laughing and joking (The amount in Floyd Road completely over the top)yet when it comes to a bit of aggro,puff,all gone,leave it to the stewards to sort out.Surely out of the dozens who watched the game from the area beneath the police control box,someone should have detected where their could be a problem,(Jimmy Seed and east stand)and put a few officers there.Same as when the guy got chucked out,Millwall fans where there usual baying selves,and could easily have invaded the area,did police officers react or even move,I didnt see it.
Why was this Millwall Fan allowed to sit in East Stand wearing Millwall top? The policing and stewarding yesterday was really poor, a large group of police standing by the white control tower doing nothing and on all other matches stewards around 80mins come along and sit in front of East stand before end of the match nothing yesterday? The problem in the ES stand would have been solved removing Millwall fan(s) with better stewarding and policing likewise the whole gate debacle. I said to my son that there were quite alot of Millwall in ES, wearing casual but sticking out like sore thumbs...how did they get tickets?
I think he had a top over his spanner shirt, took it off, once they scored. Drawing attention to himself, where some home fans tried to get to him. The stewards took him out and then put him the away end. He should have been kicked out and they should’ve taken his ticket to investigate how he got it.
This totally.
I just don't understand why he wasn't ejected after having his ticket seized. That would be the policy at every venue I work at.
Why was this Millwall Fan allowed to sit in East Stand wearing Millwall top? The policing and stewarding yesterday was really poor, a large group of police standing by the white control tower doing nothing and on all other matches stewards around 80mins come along and sit in front of East stand before end of the match nothing yesterday? The problem in the ES stand would have been solved removing Millwall fan(s) with better stewarding and policing likewise the whole gate debacle. I said to my son that there were quite alot of Millwall in ES, wearing casual but sticking out like sore thumbs...how did they get tickets?
I think he had a top over his spanner shirt, took it off, once they scored. Drawing attention to himself, where some home fans tried to get to him. The stewards took him out and then put him the away end. He should have been kicked out and they should’ve taken his ticket to investigate how he got it.
This totally.
I just don't understand why he wasn't ejected after having his ticket seized. That would be the policy at every venue I work at.
Assume it was because the West stand car park gate was sealed shut yesterday, usually they send away fans out the disabled gate to be met by the old bill, so only way out the stadium was either via the away end or frogging him down to ransom walk.
And one final point from me on the stewarding/security fiasco yesterday based on my experience.
The ground will have multiple CCTV cameras in use which should feed pictures back to a bank of monitors in the control room.
The ground controller should be monitoring those pictures with a senior police officer. How on earth did they miss the Millwall fans starting to leave by the top entrance and not send reinforcements - either police or SIA trained response teams - to that area as soon as they saw it happen?
Also if the supervisor seen in the video clip didn't have a radio to alert the control room what was happening then that is also appalling. How can he raise the alarm without one? (I would not dream of supervising a potentially difficult area without one).
As I say serious questions to be answered here and I hope the Trust will actually ask them.
The mayhem after the game yesterday was predictable. 20,000 people forced to go up Harvey Gardens saw people tried to take short cuts or slowly move there way along, after the vast majority of them had worked out they could not go up Floyd Road
The senior management team at Greenwich police made the wrong decision in my opinion, however they was not going to change their mind, so then it comes down to the Head of Operations at the football club to make it loud and clear what was going to happen.
That failed to happen. Putting a link up to the tweet sent out by Greenwich Police from 9:30 on Friday morning on a guide to the game on the clubs website at 3:15pm that same day is unacceptable. How many people read that guide? A couple of hundred.
There should have been a one off statement on the website that afternoon, to apologise to its supporters that it’s out of the clubs hands and please follow the directions below. An email should have also been sent to everyone on the clubs database as well.
As it stands there is nothing from the club this morning. Nothing from the Fans Advisory Board on their x account. Nothing from the Supporters Trust on their website (Bar a tweet on Friday afternoon)
Yesterday was no normal home game. We all knew that. However the club failed to communicate that in the correct manner and at this stage silence from elsewhere (Other boards and Groups)
People would have still been inconvenienced afterwards but the lack of communication made this so much worse.
A bit late in the day now but an apology today explaining why would be a start
I am confused by the apparent disconnect that inside the ground the police are in the control box, but there are no actual police dotted around, visibly, amongst the people. When I started going there used to be an actual presence of half a dozen or so police officers standing on the sidelines, I don’t see any inside stadiums any more.
And one final point from me on the stewarding/security fiasco yesterday based on my experience.
The ground will have multiple CCTV cameras in use which should feed pictures back to a bank of monitors in the control room.
The ground controller should be monitoring those pictures with a senior police officer. How on earth did they miss the Millwall fans starting to leave by the top entrance and not send reinforcements - either police or SIA trained response teams - to that area as soon as they saw it happen?
Also if the supervisor seen in the video clip didn't have a radio to alert the control room what was happening then that is also appalling. How can he raise the alarm without one? (I would not dream of supervising a potentially difficult area without one).
As I say serious questions to be answered here and I hope the Trust will actually ask them.
A total lack of communication. Fans were shouting to fellow supporters - who were totally oblivious to the diversion - that access to Floyd Road was blocked.
I saw one young fan speaking to a police officer visibly distressed that she was unable to take her normal route / routine back home from the ground. For me and my 83 year old Dad it was an inconvenience but for some fans they can’t deal with sudden unexpected change and the club has a duty, where possible, to inform them so they can plan their match day
Were there any announcements in the ground regarding the post-match, police-ordered, arrangements? If there were then I didn't hear them and if there weren't any, why not?
Why was this Millwall Fan allowed to sit in East Stand wearing Millwall top? The policing and stewarding yesterday was really poor, a large group of police standing by the white control tower doing nothing and on all other matches stewards around 80mins come along and sit in front of East stand before end of the match nothing yesterday? The problem in the ES stand would have been solved removing Millwall fan(s) with better stewarding and policing likewise the whole gate debacle. I said to my son that there were quite alot of Millwall in ES, wearing casual but sticking out like sore thumbs...how did they get tickets?
About the tickets.. There was a millwall father and young son in the upper west who asked the security supervisor if they could go to the Jimmy Seed. He said no and to sit quietly, which they did. How did they end up there? If tickets were on restricted sale how were there so many foreign day trippers in the upper west?
There were 4 Millwall 40+ men sat in ES close to me, you could spot them a mile off like when we have visitors from Germany, Scandi countries they stick out...How these 4 Millwall got tickets who knows but they didn't celebrate the Millwall goal at least ....at Birmingham game there were a family of Brummie's last season sat close by across the aisle.......
I expect there are away fans in the home stands at every game. If they are discreet and not behaving like....er....spanners, then I personally don't have a problem. There was a guy sat near me yesterday who I could tell was a Millwall fan (a token clap when we scored), but he kept pretty schtum and was no bother. Plenty of us here have done the reverse when necessary, if not at Millwall.
The presence of someone who supports the opposition should not have you screaming blue murder, IF they know the form and know not to be a wind-up. Which most do, but there are always dickheads...
(Incidentally, a 90s game at The Valley against WBA was sold out in the home seats (before the East Stand was built). I didn't have a S/T so had to sit with the AWAY fans pretending to be glum as 'we' went down 2-0
Same for me with QPR on a Tuesday night in the first promotion season - a 1-1 draw, I had to keep schtum all game - got sussed but was just some light hearted piss taking. Not an experience I'd care to repeat though 🤣
Were there any announcements in the ground regarding the post-match, police-ordered, arrangements? If there were then I didn't hear them and if there weren't any, why not?
People raised concerns beforehand and were told not to worry via official sources
Met Police put on X what would happen the the day before.
The club buried that tweet on a Web story. Nothing else at all from them.
Nothing from non Trust supporter groups/reps
The Trust requoted the Met Police advice and said it disappointing but hopefully we can stay around after a win.
To make the changes after the game even a slight success this needed to be communicated throughly. It was chaos outside the ground, which would be no surprise to any long term supporter who has seen this in the past and yesterday was always going to be worse with the biggest gate this fixture has had in 50 years.
We have a supporter base with a deep knowledge, as per usual they are ignored, and we will just get messages about lessons learned from the club if they ever speak on this issue.
Our supporters were effectively left on their own yesterday as a result of these arrangements and it appears no one inside our club could care.
Were there any announcements in the ground regarding the post-match, police-ordered, arrangements? If there were then I didn't hear them and if there weren't any, why not?
There was an announcement towards the end of the game, but hardly audible. The lack of communication by the club is inexcusable & probably deliberate, it appears to me that the club are only interested in selling tickets, they do not want people to have any information that would deter them from purchasing tickets such as train disruptions, parking restrictions & police ordered diversions etc. Where as Millwall posted clearly on their website on Friday, the policing arrangements & train alterations for Saturday.
I've asked @greenwichpolice on X on how they think their policing of the game went yesterday. I doubt I'll get an answer.
Great. More of that, everybody. They need to feel that we are not going to just shrug and move on. however wonder if you used a dud address? It’s @MPSGreenwich
Why was this Millwall Fan allowed to sit in East Stand wearing Millwall top? The policing and stewarding yesterday was really poor, a large group of police standing by the white control tower doing nothing and on all other matches stewards around 80mins come along and sit in front of East stand before end of the match nothing yesterday? The problem in the ES stand would have been solved removing Millwall fan(s) with better stewarding and policing likewise the whole gate debacle. I said to my son that there were quite alot of Millwall in ES, wearing casual but sticking out like sore thumbs...how did they get tickets?
I think he had a top over his spanner shirt, took it off, once they scored. Drawing attention to himself, where some home fans tried to get to him. The stewards took him out and then put him the away end. He should have been kicked out and they should’ve taken his ticket to investigate how he got it.
If they ‘put him in the away end’ that is an absolute piss take and just encourages more to do it in the future.
Me and the boy always stay and clap the players off. Usually one of the last to leave the ground. Not yesterday, we left our seats at FT and headed straight for the exit. It wasn't rammed outside when we left the stadium, far from it at that stage, we had a comfortable stroll down Charlton Lane. Albeit walking around cars already gridlocked in the middle of the road.
But as we turned right coming out of the family stand to head for Charlton Lane, there were plenty coming out the Curbs stand and Covered End going towards Floyd Road, not heading for the Fans Bar, seemingly oblivious to the post-match arrangements. Granted some may have been heading for the fan zone but I can't imagine that many.
I recall hearing a timid 'reminder' on the tannoy at full time. That was all I saw or heard all day, the club absolutely didn't want to touch this, or didn't know how to.
I've asked @greenwichpolice on X on how they think their policing of the game went yesterday. I doubt I'll get an answer.
Great. More of that, everybody. They need to feel that we are not going to just shrug and move on. however wonder if you used a dud address? It’s @MPSGreenwich
Maybe contacting this department might be beneficial.
The United Kingdom Football Policing Unit, UKFPU, are a team of police officers and police staff, dedicated to supporting police forces and partner agencies to ‘reduce incidents of football related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder involving UK supporters’.
What the UKFPU does
The UKFPU gives advice, assistance and training to all police forces in England and Wales to provide a consistent approach to football events. The unit also provides the football arrest figures that are published annually by the Home Office.
I am confused by the apparent disconnect that inside the ground the police are in the control box, but there are no actual police dotted around, visibly, amongst the people. When I started going there used to be an actual presence of half a dozen or so police officers standing on the sidelines, I don’t see any inside stadiums any more.
That is because clubs have to pay for police inside the stadium but not outside. So the cheap option is stewards. You have to feel sorry for the couple of stewards having to deal with the baying mob at the gate incident.
Why was this Millwall Fan allowed to sit in East Stand wearing Millwall top? The policing and stewarding yesterday was really poor, a large group of police standing by the white control tower doing nothing and on all other matches stewards around 80mins come along and sit in front of East stand before end of the match nothing yesterday? The problem in the ES stand would have been solved removing Millwall fan(s) with better stewarding and policing likewise the whole gate debacle. I said to my son that there were quite alot of Millwall in ES, wearing casual but sticking out like sore thumbs...how did they get tickets?
If tickets were on restricted sale how were there so many foreign day trippers in the upper west?
I think if you show "proof" youre on holiday here, like plane tickets or a foreign passport to the ticket office, I think you can get into restricted sale games as a tourist.
Comments
It would gave been so easy to keep the scum locked in for half hour or so then frogmarch them out.
Sadly things won’t change, lessons will not be learned it’s all bullshit.
@MillwallFan said there would be no damage to the ground yesterday, I wonder if that is true, he also added that any other trouble would be an isolated incident.
Is that also true?
Not that any Millwall fan is that bothered as they sing ‘we don’t care’, and instead of taking responsibility for themselves, and crucially for the violent fan culture nurtured within their fanbase, they will make excuses, justify, look for any ‘equivalences’ however unbalanced, or say the troublemakers are West Ham supporting journalists, dressed up as Portsmouth fans pretending to be Millwall fans.
Millwall fans laud scum violent behaviour, and call fans of other clubs who don’t like it ‘mongs’ or c**ts, or the ones with a smidgeon of conscience or embarrassment will divert into whataboutery.
Stewards were deployed at the front of stand gates at 80 minutes, at least at this end.
Throughout there were a few of our fans sitting at the A end of Block B goading the 'Wall crowd in the JS stand. No effort by the few stewards present to tell them to shut up or leave. A few 'Wall responded.
This continued throughout the match, but intensified after Millwall scored. One or two Lions jumped the barrier on to the pitch, presumably with the intention of kicking off in the AC stand. They were contained by, presumably, travelling 'Wall stewards. What I thought were stewards by the AC / JS stand boundary, turned out to be St John Ambulance, who moved away quickly for their own safety!
At this point the Millwall lump sitting in Block B started kicking off with our lot who had been winding up the JS stand. He was eventually dragged out, but it took a while. He was wearing a heavy jacket over his 'Wall shirt, so wasn't immediately obvious as a 'Wall fan from where I was sitting.
Millwall did make quite a lot of noise, at least up to our goal, but our 20k outnumbered their 3k in the noise stakes.
I guess anyone can buy tickets in the home stands if they are on the club's database? So if you register in advance of restricted tickets going on sale, I guess you are in?
I went in through the Bartram entrance, bought a beer (2nd in queue and pre-poured) and stood chatting to an Addick who had travelled down from Dundee. There is a small contingent from that town who go to mainly away matches.
There were quite a few fans having a drink at the bottom if the Bartram steps, some near the gate that later got broken through and a few 'Wall on the other side. May have been some 'banter' going on across the divide. I assume Millwall worked out that this was a weak point in the segregation, to be challenged after the game.
all of the above from my pals brother who was at the game with his Millwall supporting mate he’s Arsenal.
I just don't understand why he wasn't ejected after having his ticket seized. That would be the policy at every venue I work at.
The ground will have multiple CCTV cameras in use which should feed pictures back to a bank of monitors in the control room.
The ground controller should be monitoring those pictures with a senior police officer. How on earth did they miss the Millwall fans starting to leave by the top entrance and not send reinforcements - either police or SIA trained response teams - to that area as soon as they saw it happen?
Also if the supervisor seen in the video clip didn't have a radio to alert the control room what was happening then that is also appalling. How can he raise the alarm without one? (I would not dream of supervising a potentially difficult area without one).
As I say serious questions to be answered here and I hope the Trust will actually ask them.
The senior management team at Greenwich police made the wrong decision in my opinion, however they was not going to change their mind, so then it comes down to the Head of Operations at the football club to make it loud and clear what was going to happen.
That failed to happen. Putting a link up to the tweet sent out by Greenwich Police from 9:30 on Friday morning on a guide to the game on the clubs website at 3:15pm that same day is unacceptable. How many people read that guide? A couple of hundred.
There should have been a one off statement on the website that afternoon, to apologise to its supporters that it’s out of the clubs hands and please follow the directions below. An email should have also been sent to everyone on the clubs database as well.
As it stands there is nothing from the club this morning. Nothing from the Fans Advisory Board on their x account. Nothing from the Supporters Trust on their website (Bar a tweet on Friday afternoon)
Yesterday was no normal home game. We all knew that. However the club failed to communicate that in the correct manner and at this stage silence from elsewhere (Other boards and Groups)
People would have still been inconvenienced afterwards but the lack of communication made this so much worse.
A bit late in the day now but an apology today explaining why would be a start
When I started going there used to be an actual presence of half a dozen or so police officers standing on the sidelines, I don’t see any inside stadiums any more.
this Lifer clearly has some professional knowledge which can help us hold the relevant people to account.
People raised concerns beforehand and were told not to worry via official sources
Met Police put on X what would happen the the day before.
The club buried that tweet on a Web story. Nothing else at all from them.
Nothing from non Trust supporter groups/reps
The Trust requoted the Met Police advice and said it disappointing but hopefully we can stay around after a win.
To make the changes after the game even a slight success this needed to be communicated throughly. It was chaos outside the ground, which would be no surprise to any long term supporter who has seen this in the past and yesterday was always going to be worse with the biggest gate this fixture has had in 50 years.
We have a supporter base with a deep knowledge, as per usual they are ignored, and we will just get messages about lessons learned from the club if they ever speak on this issue.
Our supporters were effectively left on their own yesterday as a result of these arrangements and it appears no one inside our club could care.
The lack of communication by the club is inexcusable & probably deliberate, it appears to me that the club are only interested in selling tickets, they do not want people to have any information that would deter them from purchasing tickets such as train disruptions, parking restrictions & police ordered diversions etc.
Where as Millwall posted clearly on their website on Friday, the policing arrangements & train alterations for Saturday.
But as we turned right coming out of the family stand to head for Charlton Lane, there were plenty coming out the Curbs stand and Covered End going towards Floyd Road, not heading for the Fans Bar, seemingly oblivious to the post-match arrangements. Granted some may have been heading for the fan zone but I can't imagine that many.
I recall hearing a timid 'reminder' on the tannoy at full time. That was all I saw or heard all day, the club absolutely didn't want to touch this, or didn't know how to.
The United Kingdom Football Policing Unit, UKFPU, are a team of police officers and police staff, dedicated to supporting police forces and partner agencies to ‘reduce incidents of football related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder involving UK supporters’.
What the UKFPU does
The UKFPU gives advice, assistance and training to all police forces in England and Wales to provide a consistent approach to football events. The unit also provides the football arrest figures that are published annually by the Home Office.
Contact us
For non-urgent enquiries please email partnership@fpu.police.uk
The UKFPU and FBOA are available normal office hours, Monday to Friday.
You can also write to the unit at:
UKFPU/FBOA
PO Box 81101
London
SW1P 9YZ
https://www.npcc.police.uk/our-work/united-kingdom-football-policing-unit-ukfpu/