Just wanted to say that the Stewards around the West Terrace were brilliant yesterday. Me and my 5 yr old arrived at 2ish and found them very friendly. Gave us all sorts of help and were great with the kids all game. Never found one of them unfriendly.

As a G4S steward (wasnt on west stand I was outside st michaels lane entrance) I'm chuffed to hear that, one think i will say is please email the club to tell them as this is then passed onto the stewards and its always nice to hear your doing your job well!

I'll do that

I'll add that the young lass who dropped the pitch invader did a cracking job to - even whilst she appeared to get roughed up a bit. Top effort lass

Still can't sort out the Soutstand though can they?

How hard can it be to stop people from coming up the middle part when it's full?

It's not just the middle bit either mate but in their defence when some have approached people in the past who are standing on the stairs etc etc and they've got abuse they've stood their ground and got them shifted but there are areas that need addressing like you say.

Only way to stop it would be to have pens and your ticket for a certain section of the SS and IIRC pens are against H&S Regs.

They can stop people from going up the middle stairs but cant stop them going up the one to the right and across. Like numerous people do.

Wasn't that one of the questions put forward to fans about the new Southstand, whether to separate it into three parts, or leave as one

One thing that really annoys me is why...dispite the fact that I have a season ticket I paid a fortune for....do I have to take a stupid coloured ticket to the toilet and bar at half time and give it back if I want to go back in? I'm not going to have snook in and have a season ticket with my name on am I?!

AS i've only been stewaring the SS twice its a very difficult area, the only way to sort it out would be to kick out the people who refuse to move, but that would cause a riot so have to do the best you can.



You say you paid a fortune for the ticket so isn't it good that the staff are making sure that the right people are only allowed in the right area of the ground?

Not when some jobsworth won't let me back where I want to go purely because I've lost a little bit of paper. Obviously my season ticket is not worth as much as a yellow pass out ticket when it comes to varifying my credentials to be in the Southstand.

You get your ticket to let you back in the area you came out of. Simples.

You lose it. You have to go t'other end.

Its good crowd control if you ask me.

Consider yourself lucky - I wouldn't let you in the stand at all if you'd been drinking

Me?

Never!

Is that the end of Itchyrod?

The Southstand needs sorting full stop. So much for the family game.

Did you not follow your supervisors instructions when stewarding at ER ?

I do, but we don't have idiotic proceedures in place which cause more bother than good.

How is it idiotic?

You'd moan if you left your spot and 100 people went up the same stairs as you and took over it or it was overcrowded because of them.

It's idiotic because if you've lost your ticket, or not been given one (Happened to me at the Catalan game) you've to go in at the sides and barge your way past thousands of people through a crowded stand to get back where you want to be, that's more dangerous than just letting me past when showing the season ticket I paid a fortune for.

That isn't the stewards fault though........i would imagine that you don't make all the rules you expect people to abide by at ER.

I take it by the use of the present tense you're still stewarding at ER ? I would be interested to know if your wages have gone up in line with all the other price increases there.

What'd be worse - everyone crowding into the centre section (like Hillsborough) or you having to walk round the edge to get in? I know, you know and everyone else knows the former would be the worst case scenario (albeit we're not penned in). Its not about whether you have a ticket for the right stand, its about controlling the crowds and ensuring their saftety by controlling the crowd that go into each section. If you didn't have a ticket for the right stand, you wouldn't be in there. You'd get it checked at either end of the stand to get in and the SS turnstyles wouldn't let you in without an SS ticket.

You're just an idiot for losing said small ticket or not getting one. Stick it in the back pocket and produce it when asked for it. Its a system that has been in place for quite some time. Surely you understand how it works by now?

No one else seems to have a problem with it.

Floydy does

They have.