I said last season I enjoyed watching the Championship more than the PL. This season is slightly better in the PL, because Liverpool fans have fallen silent, Chelsea fans are crying over some bald headed guy at the helm, and Arteta thinks he's going to win the league again, while an ex Arsenal manager is mixing things up a bit. What's not to like about all of that.
I did think although I didn't reply, that when you put the first clip up, that it wouldn't go down well with some nations. Not really sure how you avoid that conflict, where two sets of values collide. Be interested to see how this one plays out.
You avoid the conflict by telling the backward savages to get on with it. Will they not be selling their **** American lagers and non-halal meat in the stadium?
The pre-match burning of an Israel flag in the centre circle should be good followed by the gay cheerleaders.
It's a piss take mate. Going to Norwich on Saturday which is miles away and leaving mine at 6, gonna have to leave at 6:30 to go to a game 19 miles away ffs. I reckon I won't bother next season if we're in the same league.
Silly question perhaps but if this was just treated like any other reasonably high risk game, would it really be that difficult to manage for the police? I know they’ve traditionally got plenty of scrotes but it seems massive overkill. Police escort from somewhere to get into the ground at 11:15, stop Pompey fans being able to be in that path at that time. Easy.
I'm sure it is quite difficult but no different to a lot of other high risk fixtures. There will almost always be a decent number of people looking for trouble but rare that anything beyond minor skirmishes/missiles happens. At either ground the biggest risk comes from home fans because the away support will always have high priority so vast majority won't want to risk losing that. It's just a case of holding police lines to home fans on specific parts of route (and at Fratton making half the away support miss the first 20 minutes). But it's not as easy as getting paid overtime to stand outside a stadium with no away fans around doing nothing so there is that.
Problem really is that the games are so rare which allows resentment etc to build for years and years. If we played each other every season for 4/5 years it'd probably calm down a fair bit and fans would probably become less accepting of the bubble too. Just bollocks that at a time when loads of police forces are moving away from it as a tactic that they still insist on it here. Think Cardiff Swansea is the only other game now.
Think being heavy-handed for that one is justified to an extent. They’re both clubs with a large element of horrendous chavs who will turn out for the occasion but wouldn’t dream of doing a boring midweek against Oxford. Saints v Pompey I just don’t see it if it’s managed sensibly.
Yeah agree that's on a different level. Not too many others are though, at least if we're talking different towns/cities. Obviously these sorts of games always attract those sorts of people that don't normally go but the other aspect is how it turns normal people into angry frothing at the mouth weirdos. It's quite bizarre tbh. I think the bubble is never justified though personally. No excuse for rounding law abiding people up like animals and treating them like prisoners for the day. Just shut the pubs for the morning and an hour afterwards and do your job ffs.
I worry a bit about the Sunderland - Newcastle game this weekend as it's a long time since we've played in the league. There's only 2,500 away tickets allowed but it's all just a "make your own way there" and home again vibe. I feel like it'll be fine if it's a fair match (or perceived as such) but if there's a contentious goal, sending off or late drama it could get ugly. Just hoping the fans can act like civilised humans for the day, its only football ffs
Was ****e, and completely down to Pompey. Spent more than half screaming and lying in a pretend heap. They were ****ing embarrassing. Robbing paying customers blind. There were six minutes added at the end of time, essentially due to them trying to waste time for a nil nil draw. They then used that to actually try and score the equaliser. The ref should have blown up exactly on 90mins and said **** you we're all going home. Cheats. ****e ones at that.
This is my point, if they can do it up there they could easily do it down here. Lazy ****s. The info on our website says it's to "ensure everybody can stay safe" - it's an away derby match it's not supposed to feel safe ffs.
