Mikey. Apart from the poster who brought up the fact that a tweet had been sent to Cheshire Police I don't think anyone has blamed the Stewards for last night. All that has been said is that one acted excessively and that had the Widnes fans not kicked off, then nothing would have happened.
A group of Widnes fans came with the intention of causiong trouble last night and they succeeded. It's the third away game in a row that they have caused problems and the RFL needs to stamp on it. Cas have had a couple of large fines, maybe it's time something was done re this lot.

On the contrary, I don't think it is a fast response by Widnes. It strikes me as being more like, 'That's the third away game in a row our fans have caused trouble, we had better do something about it.'
I love the fact you found that E mail though, have you reported it yet?

Fair play to Widnes RLFC. I asked in an earlier post if they were going to name and shame the protagonists like Wakefield did. It would seem they are intent on doing so. I'm also impressed with the speed of their response. It not the worst incident I've ever seen at a rugby game by a long chalk, but it was the worst I've seen in the SL era. Granted, I don't go to every game, but this behaviour belongs in the 80s and 90s when I first started watching the game.

Anyone who would make light of what happened or even question the severity of it, should go back and read the threads concerning the drop in attendances this season. Then ask yourself who makes up the majority of our increase in attendances since moving to the new stadium? It's families. Parents can now take their children to a game and sit in a stadium with fantastic facilities and enjoy a fantastic sport, located in their home town. After my struggled attempts to explain to my young son what was going on in the away end last night, I'm beginning to question whether I will renew his season ticket next year.

This isn't a rant about Widnes, all clubs have their idiot fans, and Widnes seem to have taken a strong stance. It just riles me a bit that we can complain so much about SKY and the damage they are doing to the game, and this is doing far more damage.

Not the worst trouble I have seen by a country mile, as I've watched it since 1962, however we purport to be a family sport and this should not be witnessed by any of our young supporters.

However I now feel we are moving away from being a family sport, as all these late night fixtures, with the ability to drink after finishing work at 5, are going to kill this premise off. I myself cannot take my grandchildren who are too young , and my son cannot now come as he needs to look after his son at night.

I get 3 season tickets and won't be doing that any longer.

My son is now eight, and I've been taking him to home and away games on a Friday night for three years now. He does struggle sometimes after a hard week in school to stay awake as it is a late one. However, we often reminisce about Hull away when we won the LLS. He will tell anyone who will listen about the poor quality of the pizza we bought from a take away near the ground. He even remembers our last game at Knowsley road. It was dry when we set out, and him only being five at the time we stood at the front. Then it started raining, and being the fantastic dad I am, I'd forgotten his a coat. I had to give him mine and stand there in the pouring rain in my T-shirt. Didn't want to move to the back of the stand as he wouldn't have been able to see. Wigan away is his favourite game of the season, mine too. For me with a wife and daughter who don't really enjoy rugby(but will go to Wembley as they are glory hunters) It's less of an imposition on our family life if the games are on a Friday night. So for purely selfish reasons, I would like us to move to a Friday night.

Just a thought, but do the top three supported clubs play their home games on a Friday night?

The worst trouble in recent times for RL has to be the long running feud between Halifax and Featherstone, which sadly cost one poor man dearly. Important that as a game we never allow things to get that bad again.

Sad but I’m afraid very true.

I love that shrill, faux-Scouse accent Widnesians have.

The bloke who shouts 'dirty s'? Pure comedy.

just like the last one?

It's mad that Wire fans before Smith never even went on about winning the league, Steveo would big us up but not even our fans though we'd ever do anything. This song as basically stuck because of him.

the copper pushed down the stairs was a female and hit with a cheap shot by a scum bag.
the stewards involved were getting cheap shots also but the ott reaction of the bouncer uppercuting the fan imo escalated the incident further
lessons learnt for all here

There is now a video on a popular video sharing site (linked in the VT section) probably posted by a Widnes fan to "condemn" the steward. I have made the point there that the video does NOT appear to show the steward laying uppercuts to the head of the "supporter" as has been claimed elsewhere. It appears to show blows directed at the arms. Not saying that this is right either, just that there will be many views (opinions and also footage) of the incident, so lets leave it for Warrington/Cheshire Police to decide on what action, if any, is to be taken.

Looks to me he is punching him in the arm which is grabbed on to a crush barrier. Which is use to give a dead arm and to let the grip loose of the crash barrier.

If that is the case then he hasn't got a problem. You have to loosen his grip somehow and there isn't an easy way to do it.

Not a single person who has ever done control and restraint techniques would lessen a persons grip by reigning blows to a persons body part. That is thuggery of the highest order. The steward should IMO face criminal procedings over that incident.

I remember seeing a youtube video that went viral of police using 'excessive force' it looked horrible on youtube, then that very same incident was part of one of the police programmes we see, in that we saw the whole picture and then it all made sense and you realised that the force used was not excessive at all in fact I was surprised the copper was so restrained. It's amazing how different you'll see an incident when you understand every aspect of all the action taken.

I think you make a great point about the amount of late night kick off's now...Not sure about anyone else but whenever i have seen trouble at games the majority have been at night games where people decide to take the day off work and spend the day on the drink..!

Every club needs to take these recent incidents of disorder seriously as its beginning to creep back in and we need to stamp down hard on it before we lose our family game to the thugs..!

Not been much coverage of these incidents in the national press. When there's trouble in wendyball its on the back and front pages but at RL apparently its not newsworthy.

Certainly have. Got a standard, computer-generated reply thanking me and saying they don't respond to those kind of information emails but will be looking into it.

Really? You tell me how to do it then.

And if the Widnes fans involved hadn't been acting like feral idiots the steward would never have been in that position...

Rodney King !

The press/media used the last 2 minutes of video footage to condemn the police' action in beating him .... the jury acquitted the police after watching the full 15 minutes of footage, including what happened in the 13 minutes leading up to the police drawing their batons!

So on one thread you are condemning the actions of a "thug" in Gareth Hock, yet in this thread you are condoning police brutality by 4 LAPD "thugs".

Jeez, make your mind up.