No ticket sales for NW at Edinburgh game (18/3) - ST holders will get their usual seat

[buspasspar]

Had to happen and good on the club .. probably preventing a heavy fine that we can ill afford .. I was not at the game but Loved the atmosphere on the video .. keep on singing lads .. banging the drum and jumping up and down .. just don't throw things and step onto the pitch .. simples 

[the saline hill puma]

Just now, GG Riva said:

The club had to be seen to act. If the BoD sat on their hands, we might have seen a heavier sanction from the SFA, SPFL or even Police Scotland. 

Maybe police Scotland could've done there job on Tuesday night, in identifying the people responsible and booting them out and the club could then ban them. CCTV all over the ground.

Instead the club punish folk who pay at the gate. Nah they can shove it and the £20 to get in for the rest of the season. 

[Superally]

It's not unexpected and I think its reasonable and proportionate, but sorry that the club has had to take proactive action to mitigate a potentially heavier sanction. Lets be clear this isn't the first time its happened and its not the first time the club has warned fans regarding their behaviour. A heavier sanction will hurt the club so Is the club supposed to turn a blind eye because a wee ned wants to be a ****hole?  

[Deutsch Par]

Pitch encroachment and things being thrown on the pitch has happened on numerous occasions tbf and when it makes the referee's report then the governing bodies will come down on us like a ton of bricks if we don't do anything.

Attempts to pass the blame to the police and stewards are laughable tbh as it isn't their fault that a minority can't behave any better than toddlers.

[Number Eleven]

The club had to act as this was not the first example of unacceptable behaviour this season. What is an appropriate and proportionate response? I don’t think the club is intending to punish PATG fans but allowing only ST holders should make it far easier to identify the guilty parties and exclude them if they won’t mend their ways.

Hopefully the club is reaching out to supporters groups to reinforce what is and is not acceptable behaviour so normal service can be quickly restored.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Number Eleven

[SanguinePar]

I wonder how much say the club has had in this decision.

It's a strange attempt at a solution - if they were just closing the whole NW, it would almost seem more reasonable than this half and half approach.

As many have said, banning non-ST holder who had nothing to do with any of the incidents already seems like overkill. But to do that while still letting ST holders in is bizarre. 

The NW lads and lasses are brilliant, absolutely brilliant. But they can't be throwing hard objects on the pitch like that (as I said before, I don't mind the paper so much, it seems a bit of fun to me, although I don't know how heavyweight it was). 

In a way, I wonder if this approach is about getting enough other fans seriously p***ed off enough so that they do more self-policing of those throwing things. Almost a divide and rule approach, in fact, except aimed only at limiting the smaller and more rebellious portion of the overall group.

Definitely agree that police and stewards could have been doing more on the night - and I (in the Norrie, admittedly) didn't see any evidence at all of searches on the way in, despite what was said beforehand.

[Digs]

There’s also the matter of them absolutely shredding the Section NW vinyl and damaging it’s fixings. That cost £1000. Who pays for that? The club? Section NW and by extension any of us who donate to them for displays? It’s certainly not the (not so) wee fannies who were jumping all over it. 

I do agree though the Police and Stewards were hopeless. They lifted one for throwing the pyro, but I could have identified all of them from where I sit so how couldn’t they do so on CCTV?

The club has already been left out of pocket due to damage from the Falkirk fans with nearly 40 seats broken and damage to the toilets in the away stand, we don’t need our own fans doing the same. 

I just don’t get it to be honest, take away the chucking stuff, jumping on the pitch etc and leave the rest of the ‘limbs’ that went on, and they’d still have had an amazing night and still provided a great atmosphere. 

I don’t think it is the best move by the club but I’m not sure they could have sat there and just done nothing. How do you identify folk from the seats after the fact when nobody sat on their seat and there were more people there than the number of seats? 

The police could have done more, the stewards could have done more, but the folk going way over the score could have absolutely done quite a bit less.

[Digs]

Seems the clubs hand has been forced. From Section NW Facebook: 

 

[Secure Par]

4 minutes ago, Digs said:

There’s also the matter of them absolutely shredding the Section NW vinyl and damaging it’s fixings. That cost £1000. Who pays for that? The club? Section NW and by extension any of us who donate to them for displays? It’s certainly not the (not so) wee fannies who were jumping all over it. 

I do agree though the Police and Stewards were hopeless. They lifted one for throwing the pyro, but I could have identified all of them from where I sit so how couldn’t they do so on CCTV?

The club has already been left out of pocket due to damage from the Falkirk fans with nearly 40 seats broken and damage to the toilets in the away stand, we don’t need our own fans doing the same. 

I just don’t get it to be honest, take away the chucking stuff, jumping on the pitch etc and leave the rest of the ‘limbs’ that went on, and they’d still have had an amazing night and still provided a great atmosphere. 

I don’t think it is the best move by the club but I’m not sure they could have sat there and just done nothing. How do you identify folk from the seats after the fact when nobody sat on their seat and there were more people there than the number of seats? 

The police could have done more, the stewards could have done more, but the folk going way over the score could have absolutely done quite a bit less.

Yep Falkirk caused thousands of pounds damage to the away end so I hope they receive the bill for repair.

Again if the ground had proper CCTV then the club could have got the individuals instead of banning all paying customers in the NW. I’m sure Mr Cook will have a remedy to this situation in the long term.

[the saline hill puma]

Just now, Secure Par said:

Yep Falkirk caused thousands of pounds damage to the away end so I hope they receive the bill for repair.

Again if the ground had proper CCTV then the club could have got the individuals instead of banning all paying customers in the NW. I’m sure Mr Cook will have a remedy to this situation in the long term.

They do have proper CCTV, certainly in the north west. They have a couple cameras just for that one section 

[parsforlife]

49 minutes ago, DougieDave said:

Its really quite simple - throwing offensive items ( dangerous ) onto the pitch is ludicrous - only an arseh0le would do such a thing - the apologists who try and justify this are as bad as the perpetrators - get the idiots banned and let Jason and the decent fans get on with building a fantastic atmosphere….

This is a statement I think anyone sensible can get behind.   But surely we should we go after individuals and not thousands who happen to use to same stand?

6 minutes ago, Digs said:

There’s also the matter of them absolutely shredding the Section NW vinyl and damaging it’s fixings. That cost £1000. Who pays for that? The club? Section NW and by extension any of us who donate to them for displays? It’s certainly not the (not so) wee fannies who were jumping all over it. 

I do agree though the Police and Stewards were hopeless. They lifted one for throwing the pyro, but I could have identified all of them from where I sit so how couldn’t they do so on CCTV?

The club has already been left out of pocket due to damage from the Falkirk fans with nearly 40 seats broken and damage to the toilets in the away stand, we don’t need our own fans doing the same. 

I just don’t get it to be honest, take away the chucking stuff, jumping on the pitch etc and leave the rest of the ‘limbs’ that went on, and they’d still have had an amazing night and still provided a great atmosphere. 

I don’t think it is the best move by the club but I’m not sure they could have sat there and just done nothing. How do you identify folk from the seats after the fact when nobody sat on their seat and there were more people there than the number of seats? 

The police could have done more, the stewards could have done more, but the folk going way over the score could have absolutely done quite a bit less.

Few points,  I agree the damage to the vinyl is poor,  but I don't think for a second it was done with any intention and therefore its quite forgivable as things stand,  a message making it clear the costs involved as a result of the damage and a plea to avoid future damage to section NW material and fund a replacement would be fair. 

The club aren't out of pocket due to damage in the away end,  falkirk will pay for that,  sadly we'll probably sent them a reflective check when we play through there.

You ask how you identify throwers if they move about,  its simple, you track where the item was throw from,  and then track the individual until they are caught up with by stewards or if they leave before then identify them the next time they attend, we had CCTV operators doing that at east end nearly 20 years ago.

I think there's many ways you can be shown to do something without being so OTT.  Once again I asked when has any club faced fines or sanctions from Scottish authorities.

Oh and BTW, there was pyro thrown and fans on the pitch from the norrie too, interestingly nothing said about that stand.

[Superally]

Interesting to note that two Hibs supporters aged 13 & 14yrs were arrested yesterday for throwing items onto the pitch. I wouldn't want to see that happen at EEP but the warning has been given and its likely that arrests will likely follow if its not noted. Its not an argument to say that Stewards are not doing their job in not searching. How far and what level do you take a search? ultimately supporters have to take responsibility for their own behaviour if they bring items to the ground that they clearly know is illegal with the intention of using it irresponsibly should be accountable and not expect the club or the wider fan base to pay for their idiocy  

[parsforlife]

45 minutes ago, Superally said:

Interesting to note that two Hibs supporters aged 13 & 14yrs were arrested yesterday for throwing items onto the pitch. I wouldn't want to see that happen at EEP but the warning has been given and its likely that arrests will likely follow if its not noted. Its not an argument to say that Stewards are not doing their job in not searching. How far and what level do you take a search? ultimately supporters have to take responsibility for their own behaviour if they bring items to the ground that they clearly know is illegal with the intention of using it irresponsibly should be accountable and not expect the club or the wider fan base to pay for their idiocy  

I’d much prefer individuals behaving poorly are arrested before the club take extreme actions.

[Digs]

1 hour ago, parsforlife said:

This is a statement I think anyone sensible can get behind.   But surely we should we go after individuals and not thousands who happen to use to same stand?

Few points,  I agree the damage to the vinyl is poor,  but I don't think for a second it was done with any intention and therefore its quite forgivable as things stand,  a message making it clear the costs involved as a result of the damage and a plea to avoid future damage to section NW material and fund a replacement would be fair. 

The club aren't out of pocket due to damage in the away end,  falkirk will pay for that,  sadly we'll probably sent them a reflective check when we play through there.

You ask how you identify throwers if they move about,  its simple, you track where the item was throw from,  and then track the individual until they are caught up with by stewards or if they leave before then identify them the next time they attend, we had CCTV operators doing that at east end nearly 20 years ago.

I think there's many ways you can be shown to do something without being so OTT.  Once again I asked when has any club faced fines or sanctions from Scottish authorities.

Oh and BTW, there was pyro thrown and fans on the pitch from the norrie too, interestingly nothing said about that stand.

Ok, a few things. 

Whether they meant it or not is beside the point because it’s not the first one they’ve damaged, and after the first time it collapsed they continued to do it. I think it’s pretty naive to think they’d behave differently by asking nicely. 

Regarding identifying them, I totally agree with you, that’s why I said ‘after the fact’ which I presume is one of the reasons for only allowing ST holders to attend. I also agree with what you’ve said about how to do it. That’s my point when I say the police and stewards didn’t do enough. At one point, the watched a young lad struggling to light one, you could see it flashing despite his best efforts to hide it, a policeman saw him, pointed to him and told a steward and then stood and watched him throw it 🤷‍♂️😂

On your last point I Cant say if there were anyone in the pitch from the Norrie, I never saw any but my opinion is the same. I also didn’t see any pyro from the Norrie either and I saw them all getting thrown. The only one that came close to the Norrie was the one that Todorov kicked away after the goal but that came from the NW too.

I also don’t have problem with Pyro per se, but the police hate it and as such we unfortunately have to do as they say when it comes to that until such times as a safe agreement for use is reached but that doesn’t look like happening any time soon. 

 

[Eastendtales]

Just get pyro to ****. It's utterly pointless and adds nothing. Hopefully another passing fad.