About me:I live in Langstone, which is between Havant,Hants & the bridge to Hayling Island. I'm separated & ...
Member since:26.07.2000
Reviews:55
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Review rated by 3 Ciao members on average: helpful
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I don't have a problem with any real hoolie being brought to justice, but the Crimewatch special this week was blatantly biased against Millwall.
I wasn't at the match that was featured, but friends and some of my husband's family were.
They all tell the same story, bad organisation by Man. City in seating rival fans next to each other, no action taken against City fans hurling missiles into lower stands, generally bad crowd control by the police, including heavy handed treatment of people trying to get back to where they had parked their cars.
A number of Man.City fans were involved in incidents surrounding this match, some say, more than Millwall which is logical given there were more of them than us. The BBC played Millwall chants throughout the item, implying that everything that happened that day was down to our fans. If the public had been allowed a detailed look at the videos, they might have seen some of the violence meted out by the police against both sets of fans.
We saw the effects of bad policing at other matches too. At Preston, near the end of the season, away fans were herded into a tiny space at the exit to the ground, and a crush of Hillsboro proportions almost resulted before the gates were opened.
We were lucky not to be involved in this, because I went to the ladies' on the way out (a filthy Portakabin, even at the start of the match) and the crowd had cleared by the time I came out. Fans who tried to avoid the crush by attempting to take other ways out were pushed around by the police, including someone who was trying to find the first aid post for his daughter.
This year, myself and a number of our friends will be taking cameras to all games, and will record any instances of over-reaction or bad behaviour by the police.
I don't make any excuses for football violence, but I won't tolerate deliberate discrimination because of which team I support - there were equally bad incidents at Premiership games that went almost unreported last season. I genuinely don't believe we now have any more hardcore violent fans than any other club, although this may not have been the case 15 or 20 years ago.
Finally, the continuing bias and insult by the BBC against the club I am proud to support extended to reporting all the London club results on Tuesday this week in the London news after the 9pm bulletin except the result of our Worthington cup win over Brighton.
