Stewarding today (Man Utd H)

[Lord Duckhunter]

I was talking to a bloke I know on the train home who has season ticket in itchen north. He reckons there’s not only police, and stewards but they’ve now got private security company as well. Don’t know if true but that’s what he reckons. Also said he waited behind to talk to old bill yesterday, asking why there’s no consistency of stewarding between home and away fans. He claimed a female steward came over and said “you fucking lot stir the opposite side up”, before a male steward shut her up. The bloke  asked why nothing was done about flares, when it was obvious who the culprit was and the copper said “we’ve got the best cctv in the country and we’ll get them later”. Bloke  said “bullshit, you’ll do fuck all”. As he was leaving the steward who hushed the bird steward up said “you’re wasting your time mate, the club want that block cleaned out”.  I know the bloke, not particularly well, but he’s always struck me as straight so I believed him. 

Edited 28 August, 2022 by Lord Duckhunter

[Turkish]

9 minutes ago, SaintsLoyal said:

So there wont be any safe standing at St Marys until issues are reduced.

Safe standing FFS. Even the name of it sums up the cringy sanitised premier league these days. 

[The Kraken]

The only place that’s getting safe standing at St Mary’s is the away end.

[nta786]

7 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

The only place that’s getting safe standing at St Mary’s is the away end.

Yep, we'd probably give an allocation of 10k seats if we could too.

No other club bends over for the opposition like us. 

[AlexLaw76]

Can only imagine it will all happen again Tuesday night

[The Kraken]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Can only imagine it will all happen again Tuesday night

It’ll be worse on Tuesday as there’s bound to be plenty of Chelsea in the home ends, and they’re about the worse for ‘letting you know’ that they’re in there.

[Turkish]

Is the saints voice still going? We could do with some of the numb nuts on there earning their stripes and taking the club to task rather than arse licking the clubs every move and getting them to do more LGBT stuff. That Lucy Hignett was on it wasn’t she? Seems to think she’s the dogs bollocks and has a little band of lads desperate to bang her following her around, maybe she could be the one

Edited 28 August, 2022 by Turkish

[Fabrice29]

10 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Is the saints voice still going? We could do with some of the numb nuts on there earning their stripes and taking the club to task rather than arse licking the clubs every move and getting them to do more LGBT stuff. That Lucy Hignett was on it wasn’t she? Seems to think she’s the dogs bollocks and has a little band of lads desperate to bang her following her around, maybe she could be the one

Why don't you do something?

[stknowle]

14 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Is the saints voice still going? We could do with some of the numb nuts on there earning their stripes and taking the club to task rather than arse licking the clubs every move and getting them to do more LGBT stuff. That Lucy Hignett was on it wasn’t she? Seems to think she’s the dogs bollocks and has a little band of lads desperate to bang her following her around, maybe she could be the one

This Lucy Hignett? If so I expect she's still too furious ref the below to be bothered addressing crowd stewarding issues at St Mary's

 

 

 

A DOG walker was furious after a printing gaffe saw her touting a canine “w***ing” service.

Pet lover Lucy Hignett, 19, has since been inundated with “disgusting” messages.

2

Dog walker Lucy Hignett was left mortified after printers made a 'horrendous' error on her business advert

2

Her ad ended up touting a canine 'w***ing' service in her local parish magazine

[Turkish]

10 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Why don't you do something?

I’m too busy trying to round ip all my old mates to the create the hostile atmosphere you claimed we all wanted 

[Causer]

I did see one steward stopping a few Man U fans coming in in Kingsland, think the kid was wearing a United shirt. One of fans called the steward Hitler before storming off after Steward said she was following policy. 
 

Looks like this policy wasn’t followed elsewhere.

[SaintsLoyal]

I do wonder if the council people actually go to football games as i suspect they only want to see fans sitting down and waving foam hands.

[charliemiller]

Can you imagine if we still had our local rivals in the same league.

The club policing a saints v Pompey match currently would be entertaining

 

[John Boy Saint]

56 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I was talking to a bloke I know on the train home who has season ticket in itchen north. He reckons there’s not only police, and stewards but they’ve now got private security company as well. Don’t know if true but that’s what he reckons. Also said he waited behind to talk to old bill yesterday, asking why there’s no consistency of stewarding between home and away fans. He claimed a female steward came over and said “you fucking lot stir the opposite side up”, before a male steward shut her up. The bloke  asked why nothing was done about flares, when it was obvious who the culprit was and the copper said “we’ve got the best cctv in the country and we’ll get them later”. Bloke  said “bullshit, you’ll do fuck all”. As he was leaving the steward who hushed the bird steward up said “you’re wasting your time mate, the club want that block cleaned out”.  I know the bloke, not particularly well, but he’s always struck me as straight so I believed him. 

So what’s the plan, clear out the “oiks” who whip up the oppos fans and make that section the family stand in yet another misdirected social experiment to quieten a band of boisterous  travelling fans, and make them behave better. 

 

[Fabrice29]

20 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I’m too busy trying to round ip all my old mates to the create the hostile atmosphere you claimed we all wanted 

Delighted to hear that. Really hope it doesn't turn out the reason they stopped going was actually because of the company they kept...🤞

On a serious note, why do you resent the rainbow saints so much?

[saintrich]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I was talking to a bloke I know on the train home who has season ticket in itchen north. He reckons there’s not only police, and stewards but they’ve now got private security company as well. Don’t know if true but that’s what he reckons. Also said he waited behind to talk to old bill yesterday, asking why there’s no consistency of stewarding between home and away fans. He claimed a female steward came over and said “you fucking lot stir the opposite side up”, before a male steward shut her up. The bloke  asked why nothing was done about flares, when it was obvious who the culprit was and the copper said “we’ve got the best cctv in the country and we’ll get them later”. Bloke  said “bullshit, you’ll do fuck all”. As he was leaving the steward who hushed the bird steward up said “you’re wasting your time mate, the club want that block cleaned out”.  I know the bloke, not particularly well, but he’s always struck me as straight so I believed him. 

The stewards who are newly put on the end of the rows in the itchen north are indeed a different company and wear different clothing to the regular saints stewards. 

The incident I referred to earlier in the thread about 3 stewards having a go at someone because his foot was very slightly on the stairs - the regular female steward came up and sorted it and seemingly told the other 3 new stewards to leave him alone, as they all went back to the end of their rows and the man continued standing how he was previously. 

On another note, what are the rules on taking a tshirt off? (not me, honest!)

A fella a few rows infront was made to put his top back on by one of the new stewards, but there were fans in the northam shirtless. Lack of consistency and nit picking. 

When I went downstairs at half time the steward on the end of my row basically moved about an inch when I said excuse me and left me the tiniest gap to squeeze past. I did'nt react in any way as 1. I know its trivial and 2. It seemed like he was hoping for a reaction. The new stewards are all on a power trip and seem intent on stirring up a reaction that justifies them being there in the first place. 

[Turkish]

22 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Delighted to hear that. Really hope it doesn't turn out the reason they stopped going was actually because of the company they kept...🤞

On a serious note, why do you resent the rainbow saints so much?

I don’t resent them 

[John Boy Saint]

Just as an aside - I wonder what action they will be taking with those 2 nippers who decided to run on the pitch from the Kingsland - no doubt triggering the beer soaked loon United fan to have a run about too. 
They rounded up the Kingsland kids pretty quickly with differently attired stewards, the Dad of one looked like he was about to kick off when they wouldn’t just give the lad back to him. Obviously not aware of this seasons clampdown on pitch incursions and flares. Both Dads and kids were marched towards the naughty boys room under the Northam. 
They might have got the smoke bomb owner too, as a couple of of folk were also being marched along the front of the Northam towards the tunnel. 
 

[Pamplemousse]

Has anyone emailed the club about this and/or got a response?

 

[64saint]

10 hours ago, Appy said:

Interested to see how the Itchen North get blamed by the club for the flares in the United end 

Should be quite easy to identify the Manc guy in the away supporters enclosure with the second flare.  He didn't throw it, he stood there holding it for about a minute so every security camera in the ground could zoom in on his face.

Edited 28 August, 2022 by 64saint

[JRM]

In some ways things would be much better if we had a ground holding 25,000, we'd sell it out to Season Ticket Holders and regular members which would reduce the day tripper glory hunters somewhat. Still a problem with the corporate boxes though. Imagine a chap in a United shirt somewhere like Elland Road, wouldn't last 5 mins. 

Just get the feeling some within the club management want to cleanse the fan base, get rid of any rowdy areas that create a bit of atmosphere, make it a completely sanitised experience for Premier League soccer action. 

Still think best times for me were the league one and championship years as a match going fan. 

[angelman]

On 27/08/2022 at 17:48, Paul Chuckle said:

As a season ticket holder in block 37 for several years I was disappointed to see 2 Man Utd fans walk into the stadium whilst wearing Man Utd shirts totally unchallenged, be shown by a steward where to sit in block 35, and remain in the stadium until 20 mins into the game after numerous fan complaints.

 

The club really needs to sort out the poor standard of stewarding if things like this can happen, yet home fans aren't even allowed a bottle top for their drink of water.

Block 30, and a few seats around me always non-ST. When the big games come, invariably away supporters, though on Sat, a family from the Far Eastern in front of me, who seemed to support Ronaldo and Southampton!! At least right next to me was a fella in a Saints top. Last season I did tell some Man C to hush their celebrations a bit, to which they replied it was all about having fun and they weren't doing any harm. When I pointed out that they were diluting the home support in the home stands they didn't really have anything to say.

I was told by the bloke on the other side, that some Man U fans turned up in Man U shirts to get in block 29-31 and were refused entry. 

[Wade Garrett]

I like the swearing, goading, flares and insulting songs at football.

Would be fucking boring if we just sat there clapping occasionally.

Away fans in home sections should be fair game for a few whacks.  Fuck them, they shouldn’t be there.

Apart from that, I find violence at football disgusting, always have done.

[saint1977]

5 hours ago, saintrich said:

The stewards who are newly put on the end of the rows in the itchen north are indeed a different company and wear different clothing to the regular saints stewards. 

The incident I referred to earlier in the thread about 3 stewards having a go at someone because his foot was very slightly on the stairs - the regular female steward came up and sorted it and seemingly told the other 3 new stewards to leave him alone, as they all went back to the end of their rows and the man continued standing how he was previously. 

On another note, what are the rules on taking a tshirt off? (not me, honest!)

A fella a few rows infront was made to put his top back on by one of the new stewards, but there were fans in the northam shirtless. Lack of consistency and nit picking. 

When I went downstairs at half time the steward on the end of my row basically moved about an inch when I said excuse me and left me the tiniest gap to squeeze past. I did'nt react in any way as 1. I know its trivial and 2. It seemed like he was hoping for a reaction. The new stewards are all on a power trip and seem intent on stirring up a reaction that justifies them being there in the first place. 

Sad to read this. Hypothetically, I wonder if some of the club hierarchy are under pressure from SR because of the performance of the first team but also commercial and operational eg Man U entry debacle this time last season with the new turnstiles which made the headlines. Therefore, sometimes the response is to create a problem/smokescreen which can be ‘fixed’ quite quickly to demonstrate a ‘result’.

This has been known to happen in organisations under scrutiny and certainly Steele/Semmens were very different in tone to other forums, even when there’s been a bad run of results before them. Fans shouldn’t be caught up in the crossfire, if that is what’s happening. You wouldn’t pay £40 or £50 for a round of golf and tolerate course stewards standing in front of the tee when you are trying to drive on the 7th hole. The individuals named above have already demonstrated their contempt with the Kingsland padded seat mess where they just displaced a whole group of people and didn’t seem to follow up with decent service in terms of mending bridges. 

Not sure what the overall aim is but Block 1 is fairly moderate compared to a lot of grounds I’ve been to where the away and home fans directly face each other. 

[gammon cheeks]

Just seen the official gallery on the game on Southamptons own website and there actually got pictures of the utd fans with the flare! Absolutely taking the piss that is !

[ant]

7 hours ago, Turkish said:

Is the saints voice still going? We could do with some of the numb nuts on there earning their stripes and taking the club to task rather than arse licking the clubs every move and getting them to do more LGBT stuff. That Lucy Hignett was on it wasn’t she? Seems to think she’s the dogs bollocks and has a little band of lads desperate to bang her following her around, maybe she could be the one

You've mixed two people up there, and this is a pretty below-the-belt comment anyway.

[saintwbu]

17 minutes ago, gammon cheeks said:

Just seen the official gallery on the game on Southamptons own website and there actually got pictures of the utd fans with the flare! Absolutely taking the piss that is !

I thought that was a bit weird also

[Turkish]

39 minutes ago, ant said:

You've mixed two people up there, and this is a pretty below-the-belt comment anyway.

I guess you were one of the lads then 

[Turkish]

22 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

FAO Toby Steele and our useless ‘supporter services’ team. 

Looks like this picture has got a lot of attention on Twitter with plenty of tagging on of Saints. The people making the rules now can’t deny their own employees are breaking them. How the fuck they can let someone in blatantly wearing an away teams shirt then have the neck to blame our own fans for anti social behaviour is beyond me 

[SaintNewForest]

I've formally complained to the club this evening around Utd fans so openly welcomed into the stadium, as well as the use and promotion if Utd fans using flares.

Fed up of the club blaming their own fans for "trouble", when their own stewards are so happy to allow away fans entry for starters. 

[charliemiller]

There will be no excuse for Blue Chelsea shirts in home sections on Tuesday night but I bet there are some !!

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

Has anyone emailed the club about this and/or got a response?

 

A bloke I know has emailed twice, once when we received the “behave or else” email from club and secondly with specific details of inconsistent stewarding during Leeds game. Both times he’s only received generic “thanks for your email” reply and nothing since.   

[Streaky]

9 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I was talking to a bloke I know on the train home who has season ticket in itchen north. He reckons there’s not only police, and stewards but they’ve now got private security company as well. Don’t know if true but that’s what he reckons. Also said he waited behind to talk to old bill yesterday, asking why there’s no consistency of stewarding between home and away fans. He claimed a female steward came over and said “you fucking lot stir the opposite side up”, before a male steward shut her up. The bloke  asked why nothing was done about flares, when it was obvious who the culprit was and the copper said “we’ve got the best cctv in the country and we’ll get them later”. Bloke  said “bullshit, you’ll do fuck all”. As he was leaving the steward who hushed the bird steward up said “you’re wasting your time mate, the club want that block cthays leaned out”.  I know the bloke, not particularly well, but he’s always struck me as straight so I believed him. 

That's the most embarrassing post I've read, shame, shame,.

[Paul Chuckle]

3 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

Has anyone emailed the club about this and/or got a response?

 

I have regarding my original post. Will post any reply here.

[angelman]

35 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

I've formally complained to the club this evening around Utd fans so openly welcomed into the stadium, as well as the use and promotion if Utd fans using flares.

Fed up of the club blaming their own fans for "trouble", when their own stewards are so happy to allow away fans entry for starters. 

Who did you write to? Maybe if everyone did it, they might (though prob not) just take a bit of notice

[SaintNewForest]

12 minutes ago, angelman said:

Who did you write to? Maybe if everyone did it, they might (though prob not) just take a bit of notice

Supporter Services. Whether that's the right mailbox or not, I'm not so sure! 

The contempt they've shown for us fans so far, I'm not holding my breath anything will be done. Probably end up with more punishments or threats of further punishments. 

[John Boy Saint]

I was reading bits of this to Mrs JBS this morning and she said all through the second half you couldn’t see the stairways in the United section, nor could you see any stewarding even attempting to clear the steps let alone any steward in their section apart from at the top of the stairs down to the concourse.  “surely that’s a bigger threat to the stadium safety certificate” - “that isn’t going to be solved by closing Itchen North”.

[RobM]

22 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I was talking to a bloke I know on the train home who has season ticket in itchen north. He reckons there’s not only police, and stewards but they’ve now got private security company as well. Don’t know if true but that’s what he reckons. Also said he waited behind to talk to old bill yesterday, asking why there’s no consistency of stewarding between home and away fans. He claimed a female steward came over and said “you fucking lot stir the opposite side up”, before a male steward shut her up. The bloke  asked why nothing was done about flares, when it was obvious who the culprit was and the copper said “we’ve got the best cctv in the country and we’ll get them later”. Bloke  said “bullshit, you’ll do fuck all”. As he was leaving the steward who hushed the bird steward up said “you’re wasting your time mate, the club want that block cleaned out”.  I know the bloke, not particularly well, but he’s always struck me as straight so I believed him. 

Security Nation were around for the game. A few of their guys were on the Northam bridge asking which side people supported as we walked in (seemed a daft question to a bloke in a Saints shirt), so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were employed elsewhere too. I think they helped out with some of the Covid controls for restricted games too.

Edited 29 August, 2022 by RobM

[spyinthesky]

When we were in the Championship I had 4 season tickets two of which I gave to a retired friend and his wife who supported Ipswich to join me at the game.
Unfortunately Ipswich scored first and my friend's wife put her hands together to applaud. Just one clap before realising it wasnt the done thing.
A few days later I got quite a nasty letter from the club reminding me that tickets in the home end were for home supporters only and I would lose all my 4 tickets if it was found that I provided entrance to away fans in future.
Apparently a couple of old farts behind us had taken the trouble of reporting the situation to the club.
As a consequence of this I gave up three of the seats and moved my own seat to another location for the following season.
The way the club treats home supporters in comparison to away fans is an ongoing problem.

 

 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

I may be old fashioned, but I don't go to watch Saints to be surrounded by opposing fans at a home game. 

[Whitey Grandad]

I had the reverse problem at an evening game at Newcastle. There was an old bloke sitting in front of me with a young teenage about twelve years old next to him. In the middle of the game he starts mouthing off in a local accent about “That Le Tissier’s useless” and giving him all sorts of abuse. I politely reminded him that he was sitting amongst the away fans and that perhaps he should tone down his abuse.

”Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t say, especially not in this place”. I reminded him again that it wasn’t perhaps the most diplomatic or sensible attitude to take given that he was surrounded by people with an opposite point of view.

”Fuck off” were his next words.

It turn out that Newcastle United Football Club had quite a few unsold tickets in the Saints’ area and had sold them to locals at the last minute. Some of them seemed to think that because they were at home game they could behave as though they were sitting in the home section.

[Saint Fan CaM]

On a slightly different tack, I was in the Northam for the Utd game and returned to my seat at half-time to see a guy walk straight past a Steward at the top of the stairs with two pints of lager in his hands.  The guy managed to almost get to his seat before another senior steward stopped him and asked him to return to the concourse. He was fine about it and had a wry smile - obviously testing out the resolve of the stewards.

[billyb333]

The special 'Security team' in blue vests did arrive in Block 10 just after half time and lead out what I concluded were 3 Utd fans, no colours, but one was clearly singing / mouthing the words in time with the United section as he walked back up the stairs to his seat. Someone must have reported them as they didn't come back to their seats.

[Paul Chuckle]

I have a reply from Southampton below which isn't correct. The 2 Man Utd fans who were directed to their seats in Block 35 did not remove their jumpers when they got to their seat. One didn't even have a jumper and was stood wearing a Man Utd shirt infront of a steward who happily pointed them to their seat, the other had an open jacket on, again clearly visible to the stewards!

 

We can confirm that we refused a number of supporters entry, including any supporters who turned up in Manchester United shirts. Out of the 34 ejections in the home end, 32 were away supporters sat within the home areas.

 

In some cases supporters were wearing their colours under a jumper, which we noticed supporters taking these off. This led to our Stewarding Team taking action.

 

Once our Stewarding Team are notified they will respond when it is safe to do so, and when our response team are available.

 

This is always incredibly challenging for us to police, especially when tickets are sold on by a third party, or when supporters have a previous purchase history. We are however looking into our ticketing policy.

 

We thank you for your continued support and if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

 

If you have 30 seconds, it would be great if you could let us know how we did by clicking on this feedback form: https://survey.saintsfc.co.uk/s3/Supporter-Services-Feedback-Form

 

Edited 30 August, 2022 by Paul Chuckle

[gio1saints]

Sighs wistfully and looks deep into the distance......I only ever used to go Archers right and be as close as i could to away supporters but behind the goal. It would be called an added value entertainment package benefit nowadays. Sometime away supporters would try infiltrate that area behind the goal but you could kind of tell who didn't belong and there would inevitably be a bundle down as they never were at the top cos the gate was down the bottom anyways. Notable games i recall when there was such non footballing but added value entertainment were West Ham and Birmingham probably back in early 1980's possibly 82/83. Same when I went away. Always stay closest to the home fans, notably got ejected from Portman Road during out famous mauling for being vocally unkind to home supporters parenthood after Brazils 3rd goal or something....notably went Millwall Spurs Chelsea and Arsenal Man u, Sheffield Weds etc away (even got into the home terraces) by myself looking to experience the "non footballing entertainment passion".

Nowadays i do chess puzzles and sudokus. Drink non alcoholic beer and hardly ever touch red meat.       

Edited 30 August, 2022 by gio1saints

[Pamplemousse]

3 hours ago, Paul Chuckle said:

I have a reply from Southampton below which isn't correct. The 2 Man Utd fans who were directed to their seats in Block 35 did not remove their jumpers when they got to their seat. One didn't even have a jumper and was stood wearing a Man Utd shirt infront of a steward who happily pointed them to their seat, the other had an open jacket on, again clearly visible to the stewards!

 

We can confirm that we refused a number of supporters entry, including any supporters who turned up in Manchester United shirts. Out of the 34 ejections in the home end, 32 were away supporters sat within the home areas.

 

In some cases supporters were wearing their colours under a jumper, which we noticed supporters taking these off. This led to our Stewarding Team taking action.

 

Once our Stewarding Team are notified they will respond when it is safe to do so, and when our response team are available.

 

This is always incredibly challenging for us to police, especially when tickets are sold on by a third party, or when supporters have a previous purchase history. We are however looking into our ticketing policy.

 

We thank you for your continued support and if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

 

If you have 30 seconds, it would be great if you could let us know how we did by clicking on this feedback form: https://survey.saintsfc.co.uk/s3/Supporter-Services-Feedback-Form

 

Hmmmm

Let's see what happens tonight and whether their "response teams" are more available than on Saturday

[RobM]

Same story tonight. Very helpful stewards directing Chelsea fans to their seat in the home end. 

[AlexLaw76]

9 minutes ago, RobM said:

Same story tonight. Very helpful stewards directing Chelsea fans to their seat in the home end. 

You have to laugh

[Whitey Grandad]

We sit in block 32. During the warm up there was quite a crowd down by the barrier taking photos of the Chelsea players warming up.

[beatlesaint]

Quite a few Chelsea fans around us in the Kingsland last night. Ok, they were well behaved, and didn’t make any sort of trouble but that’s not the point. The number of away fans seated around where I sit has definitely increased in the past season.