stewards

[PlainmoorRoar]

Far from going for the jugular, as I said previously it's a mixed bag.

Firstly, as I entered the Popside I was greeted by a steward with an orange jacket who said he wanted a word with me. He told me that one of their head guys wanted to speak to me. He mentioned that an assessor had reported racist chanting and that I was being targetted as a ringleader for the "Yellow Army"/"Ultras". I laughed and asked if he was joking, he wasn't. I mentioned that spending £50 on a quantity of flags to help get them going, and creating a Board on here for the Yellow Army was as far as my involvement went but agreed to go and talk to the head of the "Response Team".

We had a discussion whereby he informed me that it wasn't racist chanting but obscene gesturing that had been noted by the assessor. Apparently there is a bit of a power struggle within the stewarding setup, the Crowd Safety Officer wants the Argyle stewards back, the local ones being used want to continue but were told to deal with things or someone else would. Under those circumstances I can understand totally that they want to cover their bases but do me a favour, if you watch the fans as they always do then they will already know who is responsible. I'm as vocal as anyone with my support but that's where it ends. I don't condone any kind of racist chanting, I don't condone the obscene gesturing and I think some of the songs sung on a regular basis are quite cringeworthy, however, there has always been colourful language used at football and there always will be, I don't like it being used in front of my children but realise that if they go to football they'll hear what they hear on the streets in the form of coulourful language.

Before the game started, there was a bit of a congested area at the away end of the Pop, the stewards moved in, cleared the steps efficiently and the game started. I saw them move in and stop a few people from gesturing with their hands, not a bad thing and also done with reasonable authority as you'd expect. Towards the end of the game a couple of Shrews fans were ejected and a dozen or so Torquay fans rushed to the end of the Pop and were obviously bantering with the couple of Shrews fans. It then fell to a few stewards to move them back and a lot of pushing and shoving started. I saw a steward get pushed, saw him push back and at this time a dozen or so stewards came in to quell the disturbance. I pulled Forevertufc's son out of the way and behind me so he didn't get hurt by other fans or stewards. The stewards were forceful but I really can't fault them for doing what they did in this instance.

What occurred next though is what really bothers me. I saw the head of the response team deliberately goading someone, blowing him a kiss and muttering "any time". It doesn't matter if he was being taunted or ridiculed, if the other person is doing anything wrong then warn him, eject him or whatever else you find necessary, don't stand their and act like a hardman, do your job. Act professionally and remember one thing, you're there to keep us safe, not try and enforce a hardman persona. The game finished, fans ran onto the pitch and the stewards didn't even try to stop it. If the club are really serious about stopping fans running onto the pitch make an announcement 5 mins before the end and then tell the stewards to stop people, and punish those identified.

There are discussions going on about bringing the Argyle lot back, God forbid. Apparently they already cover the away end and our own ones cover all home areas. I hope we manage to continue with those we already have, BUT, they can do so much better. Act firmly when needed, I have no problem with that, but stop the Doorman/Bouncer act, some of us just want to watch a match, support our team and stay safe.

Thats the main reason i dislike the stewards atm,
its about acting the hard men with your sunglasses on, arms folded looking stern!

I think i saw one of the police officers present telling one of the stewards to calm down, saying he 'doesn't have the same authority as an officer'

[MidDevon]

"What occurred next though is what really bothers me. I saw the head of the response team deliberately goading someone, blowing him a kiss and muttering "any time". It doesn't matter if he was being taunted or ridiculed, if the other person is doing anything wrong then warn him, eject him or whatever else you find necessary, don't stand their and act like a hardman, do your job. Act professionally and remember one thing, you're there to keep us safe, not try and enforce a hardman persona. "

Southampton Gull has highlighted the real roblem.

We experienced the same steward clearly getting a kick out of bollocking a 14 year old lad near us in the family stand against Crawley, yet failing to deal with the much bigger problem of Crawley fans in the famly stand in the same match. The man tries to look as hard as nails, but fails miserably. When it kicks off, he is nowhere to be seen!

What is clear is that the stewards are vastly overstaffed and the orange stewards in particular are constantly looking for something to do / make them look important (delete as appropriate), so they walk around the ground walkie=talkie in hand looking important.

I can say with abosolute confidence that at least 2 of our current orange stewards are "failed doormen" - moved on from their old positions which they could not handle, perhaps they are bitter, who knows?, but the weakest at Plainmoor continue to take the brunt of their hormones.....sad people!

[HRG]

I know that one of the stewards is a doorman and former prison guard so would have no qualms in dealing with any situation. But they are also not the type to go looking for trouble as far as I know. I think it's because they have been in dangerous situations before and have years of experience, that they wouldn't want to rile the crowd and make things worse.

Those that goad fans show that they have little or no knowledge of how to do their jobs. God forbid a large sections of fans kick off one day, most wouldn't know what to do. It seems they look for trouble that isn't there but do nothing when there is a potential problem judging from the comments here.

[brucie]

Dave - Is the steward you are referring to (ie the head of the response team) the one with the oblong head and pointy features. Shaven hair at the sides and sometimes a small goatee beard. He wears jackboot trousers and struts around like he owns the place.
I was actually "ejected" at the end of the Crawley match for actually doing nothing and had a confrontation with this imbecile outside the gate on the grandstand side.
The result of this was that I recieved a written apology from one of the directors. I could quite easily have sued the club for what took place.
This individual has no place in a football ground. If it is the same individual I would strongly urge you to contatc Bill Phillips at the club and make a complaint.
Its about time this bloke was removed from his position.

[Southampton Gull]

That's the one, Terry.

To be honest, I'm a big enough lad and able to look after myself so I've never had a problem with him personally and he was decent enough to talk to prior to the game. My problem with him was the taunting of another fan, there's no place for that at Plainmoor. Perhaps he would be better suited to overseeing the away fans as he's an accident waiting to happen on the Popside. I can't think of any group of stewards at any other ground who seem to display such a menacing persona to fans. They have a job to do but I don't see the need to show such an aggressive stance towards home fans. I hear talk of us being a family club, before the game it was mentioned to me that the assessor had used this in putting his views to the club that obscene gesturing shouldn't be allowed at a family club, but family clubs don't need their stewards acting the way he did.

I've seen the best and the worst in our stewards and I'm calling it as I see it.

I have heard that Bill Phillips is a fan of using the Argyle stewards as is the Crowd Safety Officer, my view is that our ones are plenty good enough but maybe just one or two bad eggs should be asked to move on.