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Police were called to restore order at Shrewsbury Town’s derby game with Hereford United when more than 100 people were involved in disturbances.
Several were arrested for offences, including assaults on police and club stewards as well as public order matters at last night’s game.
Fighting broke out between groups of rival fans in the first half.
Chief Inspector Martin Whitelegg said: “Due to significant disorder breaking out in the ground during the match which the stewards were unable to manage on their own, the club’s safety officer requested assistance from the police and we attended to restore order.
“Stewards and police received minor injuries and five people from both the Shrewsbury and Hereford areas were arrested.”
Ian Bebbington, operations and commercial manager at Shrewsbury Town, said the club brought in extra police after identifying potential for trouble through CCTV.
He said: “Unfortunately there were a few supporters who were intent on causing disruption. We identified a number of troublemakers in the first half and brought in some extra police support.
“The stewards did a fantastic job. There were an element of Shrewsbury Town fans involved but they were being incited by Hereford fans. It looked like a major disorder but it was actually very much under control.”
Hereford United today pledged to back any investigation and said: “We are sad and sickened by what happened.”
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Pathetic Sloppy journalism by the Star again!
I was at the game and saw opposition fans goading each other but at no point did opposition start fighting with each other! It is pathetic journalism like this that tarnishes the reputation of the ‘loyal’ Shrews fans and the club.
(and I bet this will be deleted!!!)
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No no no! Rival fans did NOT fight with each other! The stewards from both stand did a fantastic job of keeping Shrewsbury and Hereford fans apart from each other!
All the trouble started because of a few silly and over the top Hereford “fans” if we can call them that.
Us Shrewsbury fans were as good as gold and so were our stewards who got kicked, punched, spat at and verbally abused.
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Well sed Edward we was good in till they started to rip our town flag that affendid me
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well said fella
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Good job sam didn’t verbally abuse the opposition – they would have to have subtitles to understand what he said!
know affence ment!
;-)
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Surprise Surprise!
I put on a comment and it is taken off because I had a go at the poor journalism from the Star.
There was no fighting as is described and this, in turn, tarnishes the reputation of the club and the ‘loyal’ fans who support their club through more peaceful methods!
I wonder if this comment will actually stay up this time?
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Looks like I jumped the gun a little lol
Edward – Please take your blue and amber tinted spectacles off! Our fans were not as good as gold, they were taunting and goading the Hereford fans after our 1st goal and a reasonable number of them left their seats to move down the front. It was then that the Hereford fans reacted and nearly resulted in a coming together.
Lets be honest with ourselves, the stewards got lucky that the majority of the Hereford trouble makers were spotty little oiks. they were far far too slow to react, they knew a big crowd was expected so why not reinforce the stewarding in the away stand? Also, why were the ‘bouncers’ positioned near to the control box when the most obvious flashpoint is at the corner of the West and North stands? Poor organisation that could have led to something much more serious!
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From the south stand I could cleary see a drink fly through the air from the Town fans area. Technically this is a projectile being thrown which should lead to expulsion from the ground.
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As throwing a missile in a football ground is a criminal offence, the police could have arrested the perpetrator as it is a criminal offence.
Actually, the delay in getting police backup helped to escalate the disruption at the game.
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Yet again aload of rubbish. No fighting even broke out we won 4-0 best result of the season, a quality hat-trick by a quality player and you override the that by writing aload of rubbish.
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I think the angle of the story was the crowd trouble rather than a match report. I’m sure the reporter also wrote about the game elsewhere in the paper.
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Absolutely Edward! I was there too, the fans were successfully kept apart. The Hereford “fans” were bad though – they destroyed out Wembley flag and spat on it! I hope they have to pay for the damage they caused. There is always goading of rival fans in the form of chants etc. but having had a season ticket at Shrewsbury for several years this is the worst I have seen. I know they try not to involve the Police too early but maybe in hindsight they should have been brought in sooner to get things under control.
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I was a Hereford fan at the game and the only positive I can take from it is at least you’ve got Turner.
Kept us in the Conference for 10 yrs after giving our leading goalscorer away on a free to our rivals-Great manager.
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The ‘goading’ by Shrewsbury Town fans was no worse than I have heard at any match I’ve attended and I usually find the banter between both sets of fans quite amusing.
There did not seem to be enough stewards to cope with the volume of Hereford fans at the start of the game and I was for some time quite concerned but they did manage to hold them back for the majority of the first half. The loss of our Wembley flag outraged the majority of the Shrewsbury fans, not just the ‘block 19′ crowd as well as the destruction of the advertising hoardings,
However very few Hereford fans actually tried to get on the pitch and I think if they had really wanted to get across to the Shrewsbury side they had more than ample opportunity to.
Well done to the Stewards and the police, when they arrived things did start to calm down (except for when Graham Turner gave us a wave!)
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The police and stewardesse’s made it worse, plus the hereford fans would not have stood a chance at all, they were too young to do anything.
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“The police and stewardesse’s made it worse”
Really?? The support of the police helped the heavily outnumbered steward’s cope with what could of been a serious public order incident.
There was no way the stewards could cope with the Hereford fans..
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James, you have what is called selective memory was it not GT that bankrolled your club for a nuber of years and got you into league 1? But on the signs of it you are Conference bound yet again unless you sort out your shocking away “supporters” Get behind your team instead of taking on the opposing support and causing mayhem in the process.
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No no no! Rival fans did NOT fight with each other!
The stewards from both stand did a fantastic job of keeping Shrewsbury and Hereford fans apart from each other!
All the trouble started because of a few silly and over the top Hereford “fans” if we can call them that.
Us Shrewsbury fans were as good as gold and so were our stewards who got kicked, punched, spat at and verbally abused.
up the shrews
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Please could the Shropshire Star edit the article and fictionalise.
As has been stated in the comments THERE WAS NO SHREWSBURY FANS FIGHTING
This sensationalised reporting of untruth tarnishes Shrewsbury town FC and it’s supporters
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errrrr….. i think you will find that they were pal, and they were no mugs or youths.
So i’m srry but the Shrews fans did get involved and if the stewards had not of stepped in then it would have been quite messy as the Hereford fans fighting were only kids.
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A lot of the issues were as a result of ‘Flag-gate’. At the end of the day the flag should have never been put where it was.
The stewards were put to the test bigtime last night and I think they did a great job in very difficult circumstances.
As for the flag, what a shame. Perhaps we could replace it with a picture of the Wembley scoreboard reading ‘Gillingham 1 Shrewsbury 0′. That way we will still have a reminder of that terrible afternoon in May 2009!!!
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Only wish I was there sounded like fantastic support as always from the faithful and got the result we thoroughly deserved … got to get that boy under contract!
Sing Your Hearts Out Water Rats
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Poor journalism here there was no fighting at all in the ground. The stewards did well to keep them back but the fans were at fault too there was no need to do anything they did. Why can’t they just go to a football match and watch it for once!
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Shropshire Star have got it wrong again no shrewsbury town fans where arrested last nite and there certainly was,nt any fighting inside the ground between rival fans. The police in the first half were just stood in the crner of the north stand doin nothing whilst the stewards were getting abuse from hereford fans.
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Is that the 4 police officers stood reporting back to control. I’m sure 4 officers would of made a difference….
That’s why other officers were brought in to help no doubt….
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I also did not see any fighting between rival fans at the stadium.
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In no way did I see any fighting, I saw Hereford hooligans damaging seats, advertising and a the clip art lion flag which to be honest means nothing to most of us because it aint the loggerheads. I saw several of the Hereford mob as i would call them attempt to run towards Shrewsbury fans in block 19 and then loose the bottle at most. I also will state that i saw a few arrests from the Hereford end but none from Shrewsbury and the end of the day it was hardily West Ham vs Millwall.
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I did not see any fighting beyween the fans but thats because I don’t go!!!!
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Forgive me for sounding confused.
The article quotes a Chief Inspector as saying there was disorder at the ground and five people from both sides were arrested. This information is repeated on other news sites, including the BBC.
But apparently the Shropshire Star has got it wrong because a handful of people commenting above say so.
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I was in block 16 and my perception was that a distinct minority overreacted when town went 1-0 up rushing towards to the corner of their stand obviously trying to get to the town fans in block 18 who probably were goading them, but then isn’t a bit of banter and goading fine. Some hereford “fans” (they werent fans just idiots) should be ashamed of how they behaved – ripping up safety netting, our flag, kicking down advertising boards, etc. I thought the stewards and police did a good job in holding and restraining them back although they could of done with a few more numbers initially. I hope these morons get banned from football, violence has no place in the game.
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Hello everyone,
is anyone going to comment on the actual match, what a great all round performance and whether Hereford are at the bottom of the league or not, we did exactly what Turner has been banging on about in previous games (where we let a lead slip away and end up with only one point), instead this time we went at them with total conviction, we believed we could break them down and score and that’s exacatly what we did.
Wright was deadly, strong and committed, as were all the lads. Keep performances ljke that going for every 90 minutes in future games and we’ll keep winning.
Great, unselfish passing around the box also played dividends before the final strike, loved it all…..football that is!
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I would have to agree that the article is lazy. It was an excellent performance by the town and a good result in pursuit of automatic promotion. Off the field it was typical of a local derby, nothing more nothing less, yes there was continual gesturing and banter by both sets of supporters which is to be expected when local pride is at stake. There was no fighting in the ground in the first half and the stewards did an excellent job, the disturbance that resulted in the arrests in the Hereford end stemmed from issues between police and a small number of Hereford supporters, nothing to do with the home support.
Got to be honest I thought it was comical that they decided to destroy a faded emblem with last years league sponsors on it, Npower will be more than happy. The ultimate insult being one Hereford fan pouring water over the aforementioned flag, what was he doing ? cleaning it, brilliant.
Great game, great atmosphere all in all created by passionate supporters attending a local derby. A couple of wallies were dealt with effectively by the police, end of story !
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Please report what actually took place and not sensationalise it to make a good story. It is because of this sort of inaccurate journalism and fabrication of the facts that I refuse to buy the newspaper any more. No fighting took place between rival fans, the disturbance happened in the away end with a few idiots who don’t know how to behave themselves when they are out and should be banned from all football grounds for an indefinate period. The whole thing could have been avoided if the police didn’t just stand there watching the Hereford fans in the first half while they knocked over the advertising hoarding and ripped up the Shrewsbury flag. Obviously they thought we can do as we like because the police are not going to do anything to stop it, which just inflammed the situation and made it ten times worse. Then in the second half the riot police waded in and it spelled onto the pitch, but at no time were any Shrewsbury fans involved. The whole thing could have been avoided if the police had just acted at the right time. They should have got the message with the Shrewsbury fans singing ‘do your job’ to them. The very least they could have done is provide some support for the handful of Stewards who were trying to do the police job for them.
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This my friend is an outrage!!! I disagree!
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The reason the police appeared slow to respond and assist ground staff is that the club are forced to pay should the police be required inside the ground. As a result, the club resist using the police at all costs, and only an admission that they have lost control will result in officers entering the ground.
The small minority of Hereford supporters causing problems were equally as culpable as the small minority of Shrewsbury supporters egging them on. To suggest either club is not represented by idiots that bring them into disrepute is very, very naive.
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I’d just like to echo the point made in post 18. Are you all suggesting the chief inspector doesn’t know which areas the arrests were made??
I don’t know what the Star/Radio Shropshire are supposed to do – ignore what the copper is saying in their reports?
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Unless Shrewsbury “fans” infiltrated the North Stand then I didn’t see rival fans fighting in the ground.
Poor reporting from the ‘Star’…again.
Question is; will the ‘Star’ edit the story and admit a mistake?
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False journalism again from the shropshire star, hope you make a front page apoligy to STFC and there supporters again for the inaccurate facts you have informed the whole of shropshire with, disgraceful
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This is exactly what makes everyone think English Football is nothing more than organised rioting with a few ballerinas tripping over daisys on the pitch.
Over here, the equivelent of the Premier League is a fantastic FAMILY day out. The matches are physical…..BUT IT’S ALL ON THE PITCH. The fans are all there to watch the game and enjoy the atmosphere.
Believe it or not (I don’t really care) we all sit together….there is no segregation and no Police presence in the stadiums at all. Bear in mind these stadiums hold upto 105,000 fans as well, and I have NEVER seen any trouble at all. My 7 year old daughter is perfectly safe in the stands and I don’t have to cover her ears from the language either.
It’s about time the UK realised that Football in it’s current guise is a very bad image worldwide and maybe more needs to be done to bring back the SPORT of football rather than the thugs who supposedly support it.
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There were some idiots in the stadium from both sets of supporters.
However, and it is a big spectacular however – the Shropshire Star story states major and important fact that is 100% inaccurate – “Fighting broke out between groups of rival fans in the first half.”
This is simply untrue.
OK the Police PR machine have to proclaim they came and their second half presence quashed most of the issues seen in the first half, but where ever the reporter got the impression and then reported this grossly wrong fact from should be investigated for the good of both Shrewsbury Town and Hereford United.
It puts both clubs in a bad light and simply serves up more fuel to those anti-football people.
Perhaps the Editor of the newspaper can investigate this and print an equally big retracting story telling the readers the TRUTH and portraying a more honest account of what went on.
The story is not even sensationalism in trying to make something out of nothing, it categorically does not provide a true account of what happened – a fundamental and basic rule of journalism protected by the libel law of printing WRONG FACTS.
Perhaps the official supporters club of both fans should look at taking the newspaper to court over a count of libel – which in this instance it totally justified.
At least the newspaper got the score correct!
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Shrewsbury Town FC employs its own stewards to keep crowds in order during matches as it doesn’t want to pay for policing inside the grounds.
The police will only get involved if they are called in by club bosses when a situation gets out of control and the stewards are unable to deal with it. As a result, I have no doubt the delay in calling in the police would have been the decision of club bosses in order to avoid having to cough up if at all possible.
From what I can see, the police comment is pretty clear that they locked up five people and that they were from both Hereford and Shrewsbury. However, the officer doesn’t say the fighting was between ‘rival fans’, just that there was disorder and the Star has made an assumption from the arrests that it meant it was between rival fans.
I’m quite amused by the comment from STFC. If the stewards did such a fantastic job, why did they need to call in the police?! The BBC story says a number of officers and stewards were assaulted. Did it really only ‘look’ like major disorder but wasn’t?
At the end of the day, it was shameful behaviour by whoever was involved and once again only serves to reinforce the British reputation for mindless thuggery at its matches, regardless of which town’s so-called ‘fans’ were involved or that the vast majority were not involved.
Unless clubs do something to sort out the few who do cause trouble, i.e. ban them from matches for life when identified, British football will never lose its association with fighting and violence.
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“Due to significant disorder breaking out in the ground during the match which the stewards were unable to manage on their own, the club’s safety officer requested assistance from the police and we attended to restore order.”
Im not arguing with that becauase its a fair point but in all honesty the stewards stood there and let it happen. Like when the Hereford fans took down and tore up the flag, stewards intercepted then gave up! There was only about 5 fans taking the flag down. Useless.
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I was at the game and clearly saw police standing about chatting to the right of the stand during the first half in which the Hereford fans were situated whilst the crowd ‘disturbances’ took place to the left of the stand. At no time during the first half did they attempt to help out. The question is after reading your comments above.. if Shrewsbury Town were not paying the police to be in attendance, why were they there? and as they were there, and being a law-abiding and tax-paying citizen, I expect them to take action when they see a crime, or possible crime, taking place, because we pay them to do that! I believe that this was policing at it’s worst and whoever was in charge needs to be brought to task about their handling of the whole situation
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You clearly are not reading what people who know what they are talking about are saying. The handful of officers you see in the ground have specific roles and responsibilities which are none of your business. If the police are to become involved, the club must request them formally. Those officers were “stood doing nothing” because that is what the club wanted. Those officers were also not suitably dressed to enter a volatile public order situation, hence all the riot police sat outside waiting. Try and think outside the box, and not be so ignorant.
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I like Shrewsbury fans – and I like Hereford Fans – But which are the best?
There’s only one way to find out…..FIGHT!!!!
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I am astonished at this peace of journalism. Fighting did not break out between rival fans and they were kept separated throughout the disturbances by the stewards and then by the Police. I seriously have to ask if this reporter was actually at the game.
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look it is clear here that the hooligans are back in shrewsbury we have not heard or seen trouble for quite a while now but it looks like things are going to get worse.
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Right, I do not like my hard earned cash being spent policing adults who act like overgrown children at football matches.
Why should I have increased council taxes just so that so called football fans can watch a game that the majority of Shropshire has no interest in?
The time has come for all football to be banned in the lower divisions ie under Premiership if the so called fan’s cannot behave as responsible adults.
How many people would be upset if Shrewsbury town did not exist? In the population of Shropshire I would imagine maybe 4% at the moment in the entire country perhaps 0.000001%
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Its only a game! Surely, drinking and fighting among “fans” is part of our culture and more interesting than what takes place on the pitch?
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I hope Shrewsbury Town F.C. are going to pay for the Police, and not the ratepayers. We have already built the stadium for them.
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