I know Smug and one of his sons were there, but they never mentioned about any bother. The Echo and the Chronicle web pages have both said that some Sunderland fans were ambushed as they made their way back to the coaches..
There's been some sort of trouble at every West Ham home game this season, @The Norton Cat was at the game but didn't mention any trouble. Some fans on the RTG board said they saw a bit of bother though.
I can't understand how West Ham can blame the ground owners for lack of police presence. They got the ground for nowt, at least they could pay for the police. The lad I was talking to said it was a throw back to the 80's near the coaches. Might be wrong but he doesn't normally exaggerate.
I got this article from facebook from one of the online fanzines.. From our man Paul Days at West Ham yesterday... Interesting day at the London Olympic Stadium. The ground wasnt as impressive from the outside as I thought it would be although, inside, atmosphere apart, it was a cracking ground, with a great view. They have put tarpaulin over where the temporary seating was for the Olympics and that looks daft. The SAFC fans at the front of the ground were 100 feet from the back section where we were, with the tarpaulin in between. Unfortunately WHU in adding 20k fans to the season ticket list have also attracted a fair degree of their old time scum. At the end the WHU fans were telling the SAFC fans that they would see everyone outside - and they duly turned up - with virtually zilch police presence (WHU refuse to pay for police) so it is left to stewards basically to separate people, although where the coaches are parked there was a small police presence. The SAFC fans however didnt seem overly preturbed at their welcoming committee and skirmishes ensued on the way from our end to the coach park. Harry and I walked back in between the WHU fans away from the main SAFC fan group and it could have got slightly hairy, although we were joined by 4 other old time SAFC fans and no one said anything. Unlike the M'Boro game down there the WHU fans ventured nowhere near the SAFC coaches. Even when we got away from the ground there were pockets of WHU fans dotted along Stratford High Street, looking for SAFC fans in cars, a la Stamford Bridge in the 80's. However this has prompted the Met to trawl the streets in and around the ground in police vans to watch for this. This trouble will be multiplied by 10 next week when they play CFC. The problem is that the area around the ground is vast, the tube station is a 15 minute walk and there arent enough police. Put that together with WHU reverting back to the 1970's and there will, I'm afraid, be trouble every game there until WHU and the Police get a grip. If there is trouble when they play M'Boro, Sunderland, Watford and Bournemouth; I shudder to think what will happen when Millwall eventually turn up there.
I didn't see any trouble but I was in with the West Ham lot and headed off in the same direction as a lot of them, which was the opposite direction to most of our lot. It was very noticeable how few police there were about though.
The only way to avoid going back to the bad old days is to give WHU the ultimatum of paying for policing or go back to Upton Park.
One thing I like about snooker is that I'm an O'Sullivan fan so it's pretty much the only occasion in sport that I get to see the person I want to win actually win, and in style too.
One of the only sports that I'm happy to support a foreigner over a Brit/Englishman/team. I pray for MVG or Barney to wipe the floor with Phil Taylor every time they play.
I met Taylor twice - absolute gent - fantastic to sit and talk to I also know people who have played darts against him over the years and say he's a complete ****er of a man! But I can only speak as I find
