Home Match Day Thread +++ 25/9/18 OUFC v Manchester City Match day thread+++

[Deleted member 222]

I parked in the east stand car park last night and it took me 15 minutes to get to the headington round about. Easier than a usual match to get out of the car park IMO.

As for the barrier, I think it was obvious that they would have it up with such a large crowd. Whether that justifies it is up for debate. I hear a Man City minibus went back up north without their windows so maybe a reason for the fence.

 

[bazzer9461]

I dont get it???? can someone please draw a diagram? i only saw the coach parked in its usual place and that was after nearly everyone had gone.....why didnt people walk thru the hotel car park?? ( i know they shouldnt have had to) ....dont get it....................... and surely Greenoble rd wasnt shut off??

Because where the coach was parked it is an area to walk not make things difficult for fans the stewards out side the quad are wankers not our normal stewards

 

[bazzer9461]

I parked in the east stand car park last night and it took me 15 minutes to get to the headington round about. Easier than a usual match to get out of the car park IMO.

As for the barrier, I think it was obvious that they would have it up with such a large crowd. Whether that justifies it is up for debate. I hear a Man City minibus went back up north without their windows so maybe a reason for the fence.

If it did I doubt it was fans at the game, maybe some local youth who have probably never set foot in the stadium

 

[Sarge]

I have discovered that the club did 'announce' the north stand fence would be in use post match ....via twitter!!!! ....fair enough they did announce it, however not everyone is on twitter nor are those who are all glued to social media when going to n watching a match( for some the game not social media are whats important) ....would it not be an idea for the stadium announcer to inform those at the match that the north stand fence will be in use pre match, half time and before the final whistle over the tannoy? Itd certainly help getting the relevant information to those at the game ....without twitter accounts!!!!

 

[Sarge]

I dont get it???? can someone please draw a diagram? i only saw the coach parked in its usual place and that was after nearly everyone had gone.....why didnt people walk thru the hotel car park?? ( i know they shouldnt have had to) ....dont get it....................... and surely Greenoble rd wasnt shut off??

Old folks needing a walking stick to help them walk, sat in ssl fence end, couldn't get anywhere near any hotel car park @cassox.....basically they were kettled ,albeit in a large area, the fence end, unable /not allowed through the north stand fence (unlike city fans who were allowed through the fence) instead they were sent back round the outside of the fence end told to go past south stand and then east stand....except that way was blocked outside the quadrangle by Billy big B*****s city's team coach drivers in consideration and mismanagement of that situation by stewards and OUFC officials....hence the chaos and annoyance of those affected.... i along with a few others was parked on bbl (knights rd area) but literally was unable to get to my car due to acess to the cut through behind north stand being blocked (from ssl fence end ) on BOTH sides of the stadium for 30 min or so.... hope that explains?

 

[MC Yellow]

I jsut went through the Manchester City players who appeared last night on TransferMarkt:

Arijanet Muric ?
John Stones £49.5m
Nicolás Otamendi £31.5m
Vincent Kompany £9m
Danilo £18m
Oleksandr Zinchenko £13.5m
Phil Foden £6.3m
David Silva £27m
Gabriel Jesus £72m
Riyad Mahrez £54m
Brahim Diaz £4.5m
Subs
Adrian Bernabe ?
Ilkay Gündogan £36m
Raheem Sterling £81m

We faced over £402m 'worth' of talent yesterday. Blimey. Not exactly a level playing field is it!

If only we had that slope ?

 

[Fred]

We don't have many full capacity games so I think having the safety barrier was the right decision. Having the barrier may reduce the amount of police required which could have cut the cost charged to oufc. Don't underestimate the affect of a simple barrier, not many idiot fans of either side will run around a stadium to have a punch-up. The atmosphere at the end of a match can vary widely, if one side had won the match with a disputed penalty in injury time it could have been different. Let's be happy that there was no trouble. I was in the north stand and parked in the overflow carpark so was affected by barrier and coach issue. As long as club review the issue about the detour around the coach it should not be a big issue.

 

[Gary Baldi]

https://www.oufc.co.uk/news/2018/september/tiger-thanks-fans/

 

[Oufcrealist]

It was chaos and dangerous. A woman collapsed near me and almost trampled on before anyone realised she was there.
It was totally uneccessary as the City players would not have been out for at least another half hour. To avoid being crushed people started going through the hedges on the Grenoble Road side. In the end the Police were helping them open up gaps in the hedge once they realised it was getting serious. Should never happen again, once is too much!!

 

[Upthecowboys]

If it did I doubt it was fans at the game, maybe some local youth who have probably never set foot in the stadium

Bazzer - there were 'lads' in the North Stand openly & loudly bragging about doing it. The group doing the bragging were complete idiots, with a couple of them loudly banging on about how they hardly ever came to games because we were so 'Sh*t' etc. I said to one of them that they should calm down a bit.

Myself and mate then moved seats so at least we could between a family and the loudest 'gob-shite' in the group. I know central-ish, back of the North Stand isn't the most logical place for a family to sit, but even so some of the things a couple were shouting were idiotic and thick. Nothing wrong with giving the away fans a bit of banter, and showing a bit of passion but there are ways to do it.

 

[Fred]

The lack of lights did not help because you could not see how level the ground was.

 

[Fred]

Bazzer - there were 'lads' in the North Stand openly & loudly bragging about doing it. The group doing the bragging were complete idiots, with a couple of them loudly banging on about how they hardly ever came to games because we were so 'Sh*t' etc. I said to one of them that they should calm down a bit.

Myself and mate then moved seats so at least we could between a family and the loudest 'gob-shite' in the group. I know central-ish, back of the North Stand isn't the most logical place for a family to sit, but even so some of the things a couple were shouting were idiotic and thick. Nothing wrong with giving the away fans a bit of banter, and showing a bit of passion but there are ways to do it.

I was in row P near the man city fans, there was some really bad language which was embarrassing around families. It is impossible to stop.

 

[PC956S]

Its TVPs/Mixters favourite toy and deployed at every opportunity.
@PC956S ............................... what was the alleged "threat level" last night compared to any other game?
The steward was rather shocked when a couple of my friends (City fans) walked round, we shook hands and walked off.
Just another petty inconvenience that ruins the experience for supporters.

The barrier is owned by the club and put out by the club. We have nothing to do with it. I’ve answered a few private messages about last night. Man City moved the bus without being told to and put it in the wrong place. Too late to move so both the clubs and police post match plans had to be adapted,also plans changed due to small minority of home and away fans behaviour. If we had crowds like that at every home game everyone would be better practiced. We don’t unfortunately.
There’s learning already highlighted for us and the safety team with a view to the crowding issues not appearing again.

 

[Fred]

Thanks for that.

 

[Horse]

The barrier is owned by the club and put out by the club. We have nothing to do with it. I’ve answered a few private messages about last night. Man City moved the bus without being told to and put it in the wrong place. Too late to move so both the clubs and police post match plans had to be adapted,also plans changed due to small minority of home and away fans behaviour. If we had crowds like that at every home game everyone would be better practiced. We don’t unfortunately.
There’s learning already highlighted for us and the safety team with a view to the crowding issues not appearing again.

The main lesson to be learned is not to put the away teams bus on the thoroughfare and then put a huge seclusion area around it until the majority of fans have moved away from the area. Common sense says the players will take at least 30 minutes to be ready to leave the changing room. If anyone in authority was on site at the time they would have seen the problem arising and quickly opened the barriers to let the fans move away. The stewards defending the barriers said they were just doing their job and whilst they could see the panic and crushing they didn't have the initiative or authority to do anything about it.

PC956 - in future perhaps the Police could focus on protecting the majority of well behaved fans, who were in an unfortunate predicament, rather then following and videoing a few kids who wanted to wave their arms at each other?

 

[Fred]

The main lesson to be learned is not to put the away teams bus on the thoroughfare and then put a huge seclusion area around it until the majority of fans have moved away from the area. Common sense says the players will take at least 30 minutes to be ready to leave the changing room. If anyone in authority was on site at the time they would have seen the problem arising and quickly opened the barriers to let the fans move away. The stewards defending the barriers said they were just doing their job and whilst they could see the panic and crushing they didn't have the initiative or authority to do anything about it.

PC956 - in future perhaps the Police could focus on protecting the majority of well behaved fans, who were in an unfortunate predicament, rather then following and videoing a few kids who wanted to wave their arms at each other?

Did you see these kids waving each other?

 

[PC956S]

Interesting that you lay the entire blame at the Police front door...
Please see previous post where I regale that Man City moved their bus without being told to and it was too late to move it again.
So if we prevent disorder and don’t help with crowd issues we’re wrong. But if we’d of let disorder ensue and assisted further with the clubs operation we’d of got no criticism?? Unlikely.

 

[Scotchegg]

Interesting that you lay the entire blame at the Police front door...
Please see previous post where I regale that Man City moved their bus without being told to and it was too late to move it again.
So if we prevent disorder and don’t help with crowd issues we’re wrong. But if we’d of let disorder ensue and assisted further with the clubs operation we’d of got no criticism?? Unlikely.

It wasn't a case of one or the other. From what others have posted there was a police presence at the front of the South Stand and were apparently informed of the problem in large numbers of fans exiting this area. A decision could have been made to remove the barriers to enable these fans to exit safely - even if only for 15 minutes or so. After this, barriers could have returned to allow Man City to exit safely.

Public protection has to be fluid and it was apparently evident to all that many more were at risk from this situation than were potentially at risk from a few idiots. Yet the resources allocated to each was massively disproportionate.

And the blame for not reassessing the situation and intervening does lay with the police or the agencies employed to provide safety.

 

[Horse]

Did you see these kids waving each other?

I did at I was walking towards the car park after getting through the melee. There were a few kids shouting "youth, youth" and running around with Police there filming.

Interesting that you lay the entire blame at the Police front door...
Please see previous post where I regale that Man City moved their bus without being told to and it was too late to move it again.
So if we prevent disorder and don’t help with crowd issues we’re wrong. But if we’d of let disorder ensue and assisted further with the clubs operation we’d of got no criticism?? Unlikely.

Not the whole blame at all. However I'm sure if i'd parked there in my car before the final whistle I've have been made to move it for causing and obstruction.
The fault, in my view, lies with those that make decisions such as the barriers without using any common sense. It was obvious to anyone there that the barriers from the reception outward and around the coach had blocked the only thoroughfare and forced fans towards the access road that was now being used by cars to leave the VIP car park. Who made the decision? Police, stewards on the ground, Mr Mixter? As the crush escalated whoever made the decision apparently wasn't there to see the result of the action and take steps to prevent a potential disaster. I mentioned the Police as, when I got through the melee I saw a lot of police watching a few idiots causing trouble with each other, but they were oblivious to the real danger 50 yards away.
Who is in charge and who could have put things right?

 

[Deleted member 222]

Interesting that you lay the entire blame at the Police front door...
Please see previous post where I regale that Man City moved their bus without being told to and it was too late to move it again.
So if we prevent disorder and don’t help with crowd issues we’re wrong. But if we’d of let disorder ensue and assisted further with the clubs operation we’d of got no criticism?? Unlikely.

Blimey someone doesn't take criticism well do they!

If you re-read a lot of the posts the blame is aimed at both the club and police. Out of interest what WAS the original plan if City didn't move their coach without asking?

I didn't witness the events of last night but it sounds like it would be easily avoidable if someone had taken control of the situation and with the limited power a steward has I'd suggest that should of been a police officer.

I obviously wouldn't want to point any of the blame at TVP though since, as we all know, they always have the best interests of OUFC fans at heart.....