Greater Manchester Police and The Football Association have today confirmed they are seeking more information about allegations of ‘serious crowd trouble’ at a Salford City game at the weekend.
Salford City have also confirmed that they are gathering information about Saturdays alleged crowd trouble after their 2-2 draw with Braintree Town at Moor Lane.
Salford City accused over ‘serious crowd trouble’ in Braintree game
A spokesperson for GMP said they were aware of the incident, and are currently waiting to hear from an officer regarding the allegations made by Braintree Town.
An FA spokesperson told us: “We will be seeking observations from Braintree in relation to this matter.”
The Vanarama National League have refused to comment on the alleged ‘crowd trouble’.
This latest incident comes just three weeks after the police were called after Salford’s 3-0 victory over Hartlepool United after reports of crowd trouble following Salford’s victory. No arrests were made.
Andy Thurston of The Official Salford City Supporters Club told us: “The so called fans involved were not known to anyone and weren’t in attendance at the game itself.
“We feel that non-football fans are using Salford as a way to ‘have their fun’ something which us proper fans are determined to stop.”
In relation to the incident against Hartlepool, Mr Thurston continued: “The Hartlepool debacle was down to their fans on the night, and I fear that has attracted non-football fans to us.
“It’s difficult to steward outside the ground on the public highways for legal and insurance reasons. Going forward the club is putting certain measures in place.”
Mark Percy, admin of the Salford City FC supporters group on Facebook hoped this type of incident doesn’t become a common occurrence.
He said: “It’s sad that these things happen at what should be a nice friendly day out, with kids watching their idols.
“If it is true, I just hope this isn’t a sign of things to come as we grow as a club.”
Yesterday Braintree Chairman, Lee Harding said on the alleged incident on Saturday : “The total present were 40 to 60 Braintree fans. After the game they were directed towards an exit and up a walkway towards their coach.
“There appears to have been only one apparently inexperienced steward supervising this and the Braintree Town supporters were immediately confronted by a group of home supporters who then set about them.”
@GNev2 What do you make of your Salford ‘fans’ thuggery after the game yesterday? Injuring a disabled lad is not cool and I’d like to think you’re going to do something about it.
— Kieren Moore (@kie_moore) October 14, 2018
Mr Harding criticised Salford stewards citing them as ‘inexperienced’ and ‘confrontational’ claiming that they were ‘struggling to meet basic responsibilities’.
The match did not feature specific fan segregation, as the club had stated prior to the game, though the majority of Braintree supporters did watch the match from the away end.
In the report made by the Braintree Chairman, he continued: “In my experience, Braintree supporters rarely seek confrontation and will have been a little subdued after conceding a late equaliser. The stewarding arrangements for a crowd approaching 3,000 did appear to be lacking.”
These comments come after social media reports suggested that Chesterfield fans were able to have access to the home end of Moor Lane during their league fixture in August.
There was definitely Chesterfield fans in the home end. Stewards brought 5 round to the away end at half time and there are plenty of pictures of the away end from town fans in the home ends!!
— Marcia Bigg (@marciabigg) August 19, 2018
One fan wrote on twitter: “Was definitely a few hundred in the home end”
Was definitely a few hundred in the home end
— Danny P (@dpearsoncfc) August 19, 2018
One Salford fan took to Twitter to dispute the claims of ‘crowd trouble’ describing the visiting fans as ‘ace’
This is rubbish unless it happened on the way out. We sat next to the Braintree fans who were ace and as neutrals my Son went and shaked the players hands at the end while we applauded. I saw nothing in all this time. Shame if this did happen as attending Salford matches is great
— christopher flynn (@christopherfly9) October 16, 2018
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