The problem is it was not just a minority of fev fans we went on the train and as we got to weatherspoons in Warrington it filled with 100s of fev fans all large group of men being intimidating and abusive and as we moved on they followed us a friend of mine was in tears as she felt so intimidated so we just decided to go to the ground. We did not have that problem last year.

Martin,



I agree with the sentiments of this post BUT one thing still bothers me. You don't seem to recognise anywhere that FEV has a problem.



You refer to the 'mindless minority' that attach themselves to clubs of which you have a point. BUT FEV have more than a minority of idiots and are without doubt the most hostile of fans. Accepted there is a majority of fans who are great but the larger than normal minority still exists!



Sunday's GF experience wasn't pleasant as it should have been. I had to enter the ground early as my son found the whole "banter" confusing; why is that man calling us W@nkers? Why has that Fev fan just threatened that Fax supporter? Why aren't the Fev fans the same as Barrow fans last year?



Talking to my father (retired Fax fan) when I got home he wasn't surprised. "they've always been the same them Fev fans".



So my question to you Martin is.. "Do you think Fev have a hooligan problem? more so than other Champ RL clubs?"



Without clarity of this issue there's no foundation for bridge building IMO.



If I have interpreted the post wrongly I apologies.

Funny that but that is what everybody who 'used to go to the rugby' in our heyday and Thrum Hall days have said to me without me even asking about Fev fans, they only saw trouble at Fev (plus Hull and Warrington I must add but back at their old grounds).

Stories of coaches having windows smashed at Fev has shocked me tbh.

I think what has happened is that Fev have been in the doldrums for years and had gone down to their hardcore (and pretty decent) supporters, now a bit of success has come their way the idiots have come back out.

Lets not forget we also had big problems at Leigh this year with Racial abuse and threatening behaviour which resulted in one of my friends being punched on the way out of the ground but despite all the complaints nothing as been done about that.

I will try to answer this as best I can. I do not know whether or not you will like the answer, but it is an honest one.



I do not believe that Featherstone Rovers RLFC has a problem within themselves. At least nothing that they can control. Let me give you a few examples of what the club did leading up to the Grand Final.



1. The club organised official travel. Not something it normally does, but they wanted to have some level of control over the people going to the game. 15 buses were booked and sold.

2. Every person that bought a ticket from the club had to fill out a form for their party. On this form there was a tear-off slip that reminded people of the policies of the Warrington ground with regard to alcohol and also reminding people that they are representing the club the town and themselves.

3. For every person that bought a seating ticket, the club recorded the details of what row, seat etc that person purchased.

4. On the day of the game a statement was read out on each of the 15 coaches, re-iterating the behaviour that was expected and reminding people that they were representing Featherstone Rovers.



Beyond this, I am not sure what the club can do? They cannot regulate who buys tickets, they cannot control buses that go from other sources or are self arranged.



What I certainly would say is that there are people who followed Featherstone Rovers last Sunday who are a problem to themselves, to other people, to the Featherstone Club and to Rugby League in general. You use the term hooligans and I would agree that there is a hooligan element amongst them. It hurts me as a true supporter, but how can you control this as a club? That is a serious question BTW, I am interested in sensible answers.



What I will also say, is that the vast majority of regular Featherstone fans, that go home and away week in week out are no problem. I cannot comment on the past, we need to look at the present to solve this crime and bring people to justice, and the future to influence where we can. Antagonism between supporters of the clubs will not help this, hence why I favour coming together and showing that the true fans of the game really do care.



I myself experienced drunken comments from Featherstone fans who I have never seen in my life before last Sunday. I was helping to put together the club DVD and we went into the town to get some pre-match thoughts of some supporters before the game. Whilst most were in good spirits some were intimidating so we abondoned the exercise early. So yes, I agree there was a problem, but I do not agree that Featherstone Rovers RLFC themselves have a problem.



I know the club has appealed for information, via a newsletter sent to over 1000 registered and posted on the front page of the website. This appeal has the direct phone number of a club director on it. Also, I was at the scene shortly after the incident and it was the spouses of some of the club directors and official who were helping administer first aid to David.



Nobody is taking this lightly.



I and just so sickened by what has happened and the damage it has done all round.



Hope that helps?

Martin

No one is doubting that the Fev club arent doing things to find who did this.



Fev proclaiming themselves "Champions" and the arrogance that went with it got a lot of peoples backs up, we didnt need telling we were massive underdogs.



Walking to the ground, a lot of Warrington locals were wishing us look and making comments about the fev fans and what they thought of them.



A minority have done a lot of damage to the reputation of Featherstone Rovers, who are obviously working hard to build a good one (as mentioned in another post about coffee mornings, community events ect)) and its not going to be forgotten easily, nor will the reputation away from the local community be repaired quickly.

Nothing can be done really. It's just society in general and people will act like this and for some reason, certain towns and clubs etc are always known for this and that's what's hard to work out. Everyone knows that the assault was done by a Fev minded person (i.e from the area, 'supported' Fev for the day) but it's not a reflection of the entire club.



I don't have a clue how these things work out, but it's always the same clubs and towns in sport that do it and it's clearly hard to stop and must be something inherited locally or something (again, I don't know). You can look at the top 5 divisions of football and top 3 of rugby and just list off the teams who have a history of bad behaviour and those that don't. Hull ,Millwall, Leeds, Luton, Fev, Cas, West Ham etc all always just happen to have a history of trouble and everyone knows it (these real fans will argue back not wanting to be associated with them, but it’s decade after decade of them always ‘happening’ to be mentioned). The clubs they 'represent' know it. But what can they do? It's 50 years later in some cases but it still happens. Is it something to do with these areas? I'm not suggesting they have Town Hall meetings and round everyone up and insert a thug like mentality into them but it's always the same areas and sports games (mainly Football and Rugby) will ALWAYS be the easiest way of acting like nobbers, for whatever reason they want to act that way, to do this.



Everyone 'normal' knows you shouldn't kick people in and then hide behind others as do they know they shouldn't stay quiet if they know something, but all people don't have that attitude and never will no matter how often a message is read out on a coach, a tannoy or in the national media. Nothing can be done about it is the sad fact of the day.

We can all give ideas out but it won't change. It's the way it is. Not in a defeatist kind of attitude, we should always strive to do the right thing, get the message out and be peaceful ourselves, but incidents like Sunday will always happen here and there without warning.



While I don't mind it from a marketing point of view, the RFL and authorities need to stop believing this 'It's a family game' slogan for the big events. There were spats yesterday, spats at the Challenge Cup final, Derbies etc that will happen. Authorities just need to treat team sports events as equals and not just think 'it's only RL, chances are nothing will happen' because more often than not, these things are happening at big games. I still don't understand why there wasn't a policeman or two patrolling the street directly outside the stadium the attack took place on 20 minutes after a big event? And of course that has been mentioned, that the coaches and car parks were all mixed. People just presume it will be ok with rugby which I think is wrong, just give Halifax fans a car park, Fev another the other side and less chance something will happen. Better safe than sorry for big events.



A lot of questions will never get answered because there isn't one. We don't live in a perfect world and these things will happen. Fev couldn't have prevented this, Halifax couldn't have, arguably the police could have but we don't know about the resources they had at the time. They can't be everywhere (though they probably should have been there) and that's the case for everything. People have a thug like attitude and always will. You can't stop every incident sadly.





I’m sorry that was a massive message that didn’t really get anywhere. But in this case, Fev will just have to accept the history that comes with them and the fact that people won’t look kindly towards them in the future as a club and as a Town. You can’t control everyone’s actions. Some will choose to believe it’s ok to go to Fev again, some won’t.

Since the match there have been many tales on here as to how the day was ruined for many Fax fans by intimidating and nasty behaviour of Fev fans which culminated in a despicable attack on an innocent fan. What I would like to know is who on earth then asked Peter Roe to speak on the television giving a very differant slant to the days events?

Was it the BBC who rang Peter up for an interview and if it was, was he speaking for himself or representing the Fev club?

If he was asked by the Fev club to give an interview to the BBC why was he not properly briefed in what he had to say. It was as if he was doing some sort of "damage limitation " address to the nation painting a very biased and untrue account of what actually hapened. This to me further enraged Fax fans and made the divisions even greater. After watching the interview last week I contacted the BBC to ask these questions and as yet I have not recieved a reply. I think some sort of explanation from the Fev club distancing themselves from Peter Roes comments would have gone a long way to help with the "bridge building"

I would suggest that virtually every Featherstone supporter is sickened by what happened and wishes Dave a speedy recovery. However, I'd suggest Halifax fans get off their high horse and consider the fact that they too have their own small band of moronic followers: look back through the pages of this board and you'll find posts bemoaning idiots at games intent on only causing trouble (including physical assaults).



And as for last Sunday whose fans had to be controlled by police dogs, and which stand did the police enter and forcibly remove several 'fans'?

Moderators, can you please close this thread.



It is not descending into an argument that is covered in other threads.



My intentions are genuine and I do not want to be named on another thread which does not allow us to move on and goes over the same ground



If anyone wants to work together then please send me a PM or leave a message with the Featherstone Rovers club who will know how to contact me.



I wish Dave well, and I wish Halifax all the best for next season.



Thanks,

Martin Overton

But the point of my post was the interview , as our Chairman was interviewed and quite rightly said any Fax fans found to be causing trouble at the match would be barred from the club.I n fact if I recall he condemned them and was looking at photos or video to identify them.

Wheras then we had an interview with Peter Roe, enough said . Who was he speaking for?

There is a mention of Fev fans who bought tickets and boarded the buses having to fill in a form with detailsif that's the case then the name of the person/person's responsible must be there somewhere so hand them over to the police and let them interview them!! If the culprits got on the bus after the attack somebody must know who they are so please do the decent thing and come forward!! Then maybe the clubs can think about 'Building Bridges'!!!