Unbelievable

[Red Exile]

Does anyone seriously believe that the intention of the legislation was to stop supporters celebrating promotion on their home pitch?

 

And if so, whose idea was that? 

 

The notion that one of the most prominent and respected supporters that the club has is acting in a criminally irresponsible way by having her photo taken on the pitch after we've won promotion strikes me as preposterous. 

 

Next time you're in the centre circle Dolls I'll come over and introduce myself. 

[ciderbeans]

Lets be honest, if my back garden cost over a million and a load of grunts decided to run all over it throwing smoke grenades at each other, I would be pretty pissed. They are well within their right to tell people not to and it's just ridiculous that a silly that despite the possibility of losing points, people will still risk it. Go run around on the downs and allow the players to celebrate and thank the respectable fans properly.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

Does anyone seriously believe that the intention of the legislation was to stop supporters celebrating promotion on their home pitch?

 

And if so, whose idea was that? 

 

The notion that one of the most prominent and respected supporters that the club has is acting in a criminally irresponsible way by having her photo taken on the pitch after we've won promotion strikes me as preposterous. 

 

Next time you're in the centre circle Dolls I'll come over and introduce myself. 

 

Obviously yes otherwise there would have been a distinction made in the legislation and there isn't and the point is as with any law that any individual wishes to ignore, they do so at the risk of being prosecuted, you can't have it both ways and sometimes it will be ignored and others not, it's a bit like Russian 5 clicks and one loud bang.

[Dollymarie]

Lets be honest, if my back garden cost over a million and a load of grunts decided to run all over it throwing smoke grenades at each other, I would be pretty pissed. They are well within their right to tell people not to and it's just ridiculous that a silly that despite the possibility of losing points, people will still risk it. Go run around on the downs and allow the players to celebrate and thank the respectable fans properly.

On the day of the game, the groundsman tweeted that he just didn't want the police horses on the pitch.

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

Lets be honest, if my back garden cost over a million and a load of grunts decided to run all over it throwing smoke grenades at each other, I would be pretty pissed. They are well within their right to tell people not to and it's just ridiculous that a silly that despite the possibility of losing points, people will still risk it. Go run around on the downs and allow the players to celebrate and thank the respectable fans properly.

 

Were you saying the same thing after the Hartlepool/Rotherham/Palace games??

 

Smoke grenades are a no no but lets be honest celebratory pitch invasions happen at every club who win something meaningful.. long may it continue in my opinion.

 

Thousands of Man City fans invaded the pitch when they won the Premier League, broadcast live on Sky and not a negative word was uttered.. No fine, no sanctions just a feelgood factor... this is just a scare tactic to keep fans off the pitch.

[Red Exile]

Obviously yes otherwise there would have been a distinction made in the legislation and there isn't and the point is as with any law that any individual wishes to ignore, they do so at the risk of being prosecuted, you can't have it both ways and sometimes it will be ignored and others not, it's a bit like Russian 5 clicks and one loud bang.

 

Well that passed me by. I follow football pretty closely and I can never recall anyone suggesting that legislation was required to prevent the peaceful celebration of a footballing success. 

 

What I hear now is the club saying that because the legislation is in place it must be obeyed. What I'd say is that one of the great exuberant demonstrations of crowd enthusiasm for a team has been legislated away. 

 

What a shame.

[foghornred]

If we get fined or a points deduction I hope those that went on the pitch are proud of themselves and the idiot who threw the flare gets band.

Lets hope that we don't have a repeat against Walsall 

[Bristol Rob]

If we get fined or a points deduction I hope those that went on the pitch are proud of themselves and the idiot who threw the flare gets band.

Lets hope that we don't have a repeat against Walsall

I'm amazed that in amongst all the decent clothing someone in flares got through.

[Vincent Vega]

If we get fined or a points deduction I hope those that went on the pitch are proud of themselves and the idiot who threw the flare gets band.

Lets hope that we don't have a repeat against Walsall 

Pipe down Grandad....

[JBFC II]

Apparently we have been fined on BBC Bristol?

[Aizoon]

Apparently we have been fined on BBC Bristol?

 

 

I didn't realise they had that power

[Guest]

Anyone digging out DollyMarie needs to get a bloody lobotomy. She is not a club representative (as stated) she is at games in a personal capacity and has free will to do what the bloody hell she chooses to do.

All these people highlighting a criminal offence I ask you: have you swore at a football match, in song or in passion. Have you ever been drunk in public? Gents, have you ever bee caught short and urinated in a discreet public space? Guess what; no-one can hand on heart say they've never committed a criminal offence, or acted against the requests of others blah blah blah. Just hypocrites.

The club on Saturday tacitly permitted fans to go on the pitch. It wasn't desired, it wasn't encouraged - it was discouraged, but once those requests fell on deaf ears the club's representatives made no effort to stop it.

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

Anyone digging out DollyMarie needs to get a bloody lobotomy. She is not a club representative (as stated) she is at games in a personal capacity and has free will to do what the bloody hell she chooses to do.

All these people highlighting a criminal offence I ask you: have you swore at a football match, in song or in passion. Have you ever been drunk in public? Gents, have you ever bee caught short and urinated in a discreet public space? Guess what; no-one can hand on heart say they've never committed a criminal offence, or acted against the requests of others blah blah blah. Just hypocrites.

The club on Saturday tacitly permitted fans to go on the pitch. It wasn't desired, it wasn't encouraged - it was discouraged, but once those requests fell on deaf ears the club's representatives made no effort to stop it.

 

Someone will tell you they live like a monk

[Guest]

Someone will tell you they live like a monk

Indeed. A lot of pious drivel on this thread.

[Aizoon]

I cannot believe some of the sanctimonious drivel that's been spouted on this thread. We've won the title for the first time in God knows how many years, and we're told that we should all sit in our seats like good little boys and girls and watch a celebration choreographed for the Sky cameras.

 

Hey - it's our title, too. We've suffered years of misery and shite and still coughed up our hard-earned for the club. How about us being part of the celebration, too? I'm not advocating people throwing fireworks about, that's the act of juvenile idiots, but why can't we celebrate with the players? We promise not to punch the horses, honest.

[Aizoon]

I prefer sanctimonious to pious Pure coincidence, honest...

[Hellfire Corner]

Try sitting in the Dolman! The stewards were fine, the big problem was I was trying to invade the pitch by navigating 'The Vortex' that some one had put in front of the stand.

I got evaporated.

Dronga Dronga.

(Note, this post will only appeal to people of a certain age).

Doogyrev, Doogyrev!!!!!!!

[Esmond Million's Bung]

Well that passed me by. I follow football pretty closely and I can never recall anyone suggesting that legislation was required to prevent the peaceful celebration of a footballing success. 

 

What I hear now is the club saying that because the legislation is in place it must be obeyed. What I'd say is that one of the great exuberant demonstrations of crowd enthusiasm for a team has been legislated away. 

 

What a shame.

 

My friend I think i'm right in saying that the legislation was introduced in 1975 or thereabouts and basically it says that it is an offence to encroach on to the pitch and as we know sometimes it's enforced and sometimes not.

 

I think you are being incredibly naive if you actually believe the club grassed themselves up over this one, I suspect that it was picked up from the referees report, yes they made a plea for no pitch invasion and that probably won't help in the long run.

 

Nobody will get an argument from me over prawn sandwiches and the sanitising of football, but get used to it, it's what the authorities want, football is already sanitised on the pitch it's no longer a contact sport, just a stage for the best cheats in the world and now they are cleaning up the terraces.

[spudski]

Indeed. A lot of pious drivel on this thread.

Individually...We all make mistakes.

But when those individuals become 1000's, then the whole thing becomes a different matter.

Fortunately nothing untoward happened.

But it could have quiet easily.

A flare, drunken arguments, fights etc,etc....then what?

It's easy in hindsight to say it's just fun and fine.

But if something had gone wrong...you can gaurantee people would be on here complaining about the ones who ran on the pitch.

We are all hypocrites...until it happens to us.

[Guest]

But when caught prosecuted.

So #### off Swindon town... Have you partaken in a rendition of that song? Possible public order offence right there. Tempted as I was to report the players when they sang it, I realised this was not a situation that particular piece of legislation was designed to cover. Similarly, I realise the offence to enter the field of play was not intended to cover exuberant celebrations.

On a literal interpretation sure an offence, on a purposive interpretation of the law, no chance and any attempt to prosecute would be laughed out of court.

[Red Exile]

[Aizoon]

A sensible compromise has been reached at county cricket. Intruding on the playing area during play is still banned, but people are allowed on the ground during intervals to play knock-about games and talk bollocks about the pitch. How about a similar compromise for football, or is that too complicated for the authorities?

[Super]

I wonder if Hereford ever got fined when Ronnie Radford scored that goal.

[Guest]

Individually...We all make mistakes.

But when those individuals become 1000's, then the whole thing becomes a different matter.

Fortunately nothing untoward happened.

But it could have quiet easily.

A flare, drunken arguments, fights etc,etc....then what?

It's easy in hindsight to say it's just fun and fine.

But if something had gone wrong...you can gaurantee people would be on here complaining about the ones who ran on the pitch.

We are all hypocrites...until it happens to us.

I don't think its fortunate nothing untoward happened - I think it would be unfortunate if something happened. I appreciate this might seem picky but the point is these 'invasions' (press invented sensationalist term) will happen up and down the country for the next two weeks. If there is one unsavoury incident I would be surprised - the point being we would not be 'one of the lucky ones'. I hope I've made the point (there is one there) but perhaps after a long day I'm struggling to convey it.

You say it could have turned nasty and I do agree: that smoke grenade thrown could have easily led to unsavouries - but that was a boring barsteward in the stand...

[One Team In Keynsham]

Try sitting in the Dolman! The stewards were fine, the big problem was I was trying to invade the pitch by navigating 'The Vortex' that some one had put in front of the stand.

I got evaporated.

Dronga Dronga.

(Note, this post will only appeal to people of a certain age).

Who gets to hide as the aspidistra growing pitch side?

[RobArnold10]

Look, whatever you feel about going on the pitch or not, and if the club are pulling wool over the eyes about the FA, how about we just don't go on the pitch at Walsall? We won the title and celebrated on the pich, fair play...but now lets just enjoy the day and enjoy the presentation and get hammered in the evening!

[Drew Peacock]

I don't represent the club, I'm part of a fans run organisation.

 

And what is that fans run organisation's view of a pitch invasion against Walsall?

[Esmond Million's Bung]

So #### off Swindon town... Have you partaken in a rendition of that song? Possible public order offence right there. Tempted as I was to report the players when they sang it, I realised this was not a situation that particular piece of legislation was designed to cover. Similarly, I realise the offence to enter the field of play was not intended to cover exuberant situations.

On a literal interpretation sure an offence, on a purposive interpretation of the law, no chance and any attempt to prosecute would be laughed out of court.

 

I was replying to a speeding analogy if you care to look.

 

You and I both know that an individual pitch incursion or a pitch invasion the like of our last gas game, will be viewed by the police totally differently, one because an individual pitch incursion is easy to deal with and a gas type incursion has a public interest to it, a mass incursion like Saturday will always be viewed differently, however the law is still there if they wanted to use it then they could and if it was laughed out of court the police would be entitled to say **** it let them invade the pitch and we'll decide if there was serious disorder and act accordingly after the game, I seem to recall the police got a lot of stick after the gas game because they were slow to react to what had been unfolding 10 minutes before the final whistle.

 

As for the Swindon Town song, the same applies an individual is far more likely to be arrested for singing that song than a crowd of people and that arrest would be far more likely IF it was to happen away from the ground.

 

I think you've somehow got me mixed up with somebody who was totally against the pitch invasion, but if you read my comments after the one you replied to you will see that is not the case.

 

Now if you want to talk about the indiscriminate throwing of a smoke grenade during a pitch invasion, that's another matter.

[RiverRed]

If the FA start spouting threats of fines/deductions, tell them it was a fire drill.

[Guest]

And what is that fans run organisation's view of a pitch invasion against Walsall?

And what is the relevance I must ask? The supporters club and the football club are two completely different entities. In fact the supporters club is intended to be a check on the club.

In any case I would expect the supporters club, which represents equally both those which ran on the pitch and those that didn't (consider that for a few minutes), would probably spout 'preferably don't, but lets be sensible about things, it happens'.

What if one person was arrested, would you want the supporter's club on their side? If not because it's a 'criminal offence' what if someone was pulled from the crowd under a public order offence for singing Flint's song?

The supporters club is not a puppet for the club and is perfectly and reasonably entitled to have it's own views.

And I would make the point again: Dolly was at the game in a personal capacity. She no more represented the supporters club that day than say you do your employer or any organisation you are a member of whilst you are at the game.