That's the thing. Fev reps continually bleat on about the 'mindless minority' who have nothing to do with the club and are not real fans. But they are real Fev fans. Forgive me for generalising, but I have rarely met a nice Fev fan, with the odd exception. The nature of Fev as a town is unwelcoming, which is rooted in recent history and the decline the town has suffered economically. Fev fans intend to make it a horrible place to visit, they always have. From an early age watching fax there, it was always some where I hated going, just because how the people were, especially the women. Standing with the away fans just to abuse them and swear at them...why? The massive collective chip on their shoulder and laughable bitter working-class hero bravado gives rise to this behavior. Life is tough, get over it. But that's no excuse to think with your a-hole.

Hiding behind the minority party line means this will never be resolved. It's a shame Fev fans have taken a dislike to fax, purely because they are so hard done by they cannot accept defeat. But if that's the way they want to treat visiting fans, sodem, I along with many other fans will never put another penny into that shizzlehole of a dump, and they won't be welcomed to the shay either.

Believe it not, myself and the crew I stand with are placid, well behaved, rarely swear at games, I can enjoy a drink without being offensive and above all - me dad taught me manners!! No bad thing - cost nowt, getS you loads!!
It may not be a your experience of Fev which yes, since the decline of the industry has suffered social decline/deprivation more than most towns, but I am more representitive of fev than what you describe and as such I can't let a sweeping generalization like that go unchallenged.

Mindless louts tend to be much louder than our lot!

RFF - what tangible actions are your club going to take to sort this issue?

There's no doubt senior members of Fev RLFC now recognise there's a serious issue just wonder what's going to get done about it?

Cos sweet fa has been done since Warrington by the looks of it, not even recognition that police presensce might have been a good idea Thursday night!

Stuff is happening, but I'm not privvy as to what. First I would imagine is to gather the evidence and help the police identify those guilty and charge them with public order offences. Then I would imagine that anyone found guilty by an investigation by the club will be banned from the ground - that much is in the public statement made by the club.
Future games?? Dunno yet mate - I hope they wait until the dust has settled on this lot 1st then plan with a clear head and get it right. Not make knee jerk stuff that screws up at the 1st test!

On the point of staying away could I ask any true Fev supporters a question, have a good think and be honest in your answer.

Would they ask someone that they loved and cared about, someone not known at the ground, say family members or friends, young, old, male or female perhaps even from out of town to go to a Fev v Fax game and wear a Fev shirt and think they would be threatened?

Could they ask the same people to go totally independant from you to a Fev v Fax game and wear a Fax shirt??
Would you be comfortable doing this if it was one of your own involved as an away supporter??

I hope this helps the penny drop on how people other than Fev fans feel.

simple - not go.

after been witness of unprovoked physical and verbal abuse from fev shirt wearing fans, i will not risk myself. and i believe all travelling in our party will be thinking the same.

these mindless idiots have cost you 5 more away fans.

Bollox

The answer to the question posted is exactly as I put when the draw was made , both clubs should be doing all they can to get as many away fans attending as possible , the bigger the away following the less likely there will be trouble

The fans of Featherstone , need to ask the question

" Who's club is this ? " , is it the 1,300 sensible sporting fair minded RL fans you have , or does the club belong to the dozen morons and the little gang of followers they have joining in ?

The Featherstone club need to ask the same as well , are they going to let this little gang of idiots cost them tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds ?

Your BOD have taken your relegation with good grace and then rebuilt your club to be the best in the Championship last year , they are investing money in the stadium and youth development , they are working hard to build a strong viable Championship club wit aspirations to move higher

Are they going to let essentially around a dozen ( because that is all it will be , if you have around 30/40 in a gang there will be mostly followers who won't start any trouble but will only follow ) hooligans spoil all that ?

A strong message needs to be given out , follow that up with an intention to have a police presence at every game from now on , sort out your stewards , they either work FOR the club , and therefore will identify who these idiots are ( because be under no illusions , your stewards will know exactly who they are ) or they don't work for the club , bring in people who will do the job properly

Your BOD need to be seen on the terracing before , during and after matches , never underestimate the power of a club blazer

And last of all the fans themselves need to be vocal in their displeasure of what is happening and make the gang know they will not be tolerated

It isn't these idiots club , let them know that

I will not go again until Fev do something about this. I have enjoyed many visits to POR over the past 25 plus years and have experienced much good humoured and good natured banter both ways, but over the past 3 seasons things have changed. I dont know why! Maybe their recent success has allowed for an idiot element to come to the ground, we have certainly had our fair share over the years but rarely has it come to violence and premeditated at that. I truly hope that Feathersone can sort this out as they are a fantastic grass roots rugby league team and the town has been a hotbed of RL talent over the years. For now however i will stay away.

Well said, ditto all of the above.

Its exactly quotes like these that wind the 'other' decent fev fans up who dont sit in the main stand.......I think you'll find that the moronic amongst the fev fans dont come on RL fora and hide somewheres until big match day....I've kept off this topic upto now because it just turns into a playground scrap.....I've been following fev for 40 years or more and nothing upsets me more than to see whats happening at the moment, I havent got the answers, saw all this and a lot worse in the 70s but the game then was stronger than the hooligans and it faded away.....my fear now is it doesnt take that much now for fans to stay away, this is as good a reason as any, i'm hoping we'll weed them out before it goes beyond the recovery point.........tarring us all with the same brush doesn't help either

I did my own "risk assesment" on the place after witnessing the behaviour of the fans on the last few occasions that we have met . I also heard of the so called measures put in place to the previous visit to this and decided that in actual fact they were inadiquate so I did not travel.
I did not agree of the call for Fax fans to attend in the Courier on the day as anyone deciding last minute to travel after reading this (as we very nearly did)would have had little protection as they would with the coach.
I would also be asking the Featherstone Club what measures have they actually put in place to safeguard our fans.
I mean what is the point of segregated entrances if when they get inside they are allowed to just mix wherever they want and Fev fans are led out at the end of the game round the back of our visiting supporters just beggers belief.
Also if Featherstone really want to try to stamp it out they should stop them changing ends .Fax fans don`t change ends so we are used to it .
The Featherstone Club should also be made to pay for a police prescence in the ground till the problem is sorted.
Then when our and other clubs are satisfied that these measures are adequate should fans be told it is safe to travel. If the measures arn`t adequate then the fans should be told they travel at their own risk.
I have spoke to many genuine Fax fans who did go to the game who were apalled by what hapened .What sickens me is that there will be some Fax fans that attended to support their team and were attacked by Fev fans from behind and in trying to protect themselves started to fight back. Do I think these people should be banned ? no I don`t .
I`m not advocating violence in any way shape or form and anyone found to have been agressors from Fax or Fev should be banned for life but what are you supposed to do if your attacked stand there and let them beat you to death?
What annoys me is that FEV are ultimatly responsible for this because they simply have not taken adequate measures to safeguard not just our fans but other clubs and their own fans from these mindless thugs.
One of the posts from a Fev fan said not to boycott them as they would do the same to us and our club would lose out. No way I know plenty of Fax fans who did not come to their own ground because Fev was coming and the Fev fans sat next to us in the stand did not disapoint with their behaviour.
I feel saddened the Fev club have not grasped the nettle and sorted out the problem as Fev is a heartland club and have spent years geting the club back to where it is. So why have they allowed these mindless morons to permeate their club
why have they allowed it to come to this when they have had at least since the Grand Final last year to sort God only knows.

The problem Lynda is that the Fev board were probably just hoping they would get bored and go away , but I get the feeling they need to be a lot more active to get these people sorted , as I put , the stewards at Fev will know exactly who these people are , the stewards at Leigh knew who was the most likely ' Leythers ' to kick off at Hilton Park , I'm sure the same applies at Fax , every club has a few hot heads who given the right circumstances will be the ones to throw the first punch/kick

The problem is that they know who they are , but they also know the stewards as well , they conceivably have even followed the club together in the past

So the Fev board need to make it quite clear that the job includes identifying any troublemakers , not just being there , if the stewards are not willing to ' grass ' then get rid and bring in neutrals who will

The ' segregation ' was never going to make any difference what so ever , it was just ' papering over the cracks ' , not solving the problem

As Fax fans who live in Wakey and work less than 5 miles from P O Road we have often gone to Fev games when Fax have not had game on sunday.We have done so openly wearing Fax shirts,have enjoyed banter with many fans and sat with ex work colleagues and their family without any problems.Not this season as we have not felt it would be a good idea meaning Fev miss out on cash from supporters who just want a couple of beers and some banter and to watch a game of rugby.Till this gets sorted we wont be going to a Fev game again-their lose not ours

What upsets me is unfortunatly our club will be tarred with the same brush because some fans will be in trouble, all clubs would be better off just staying away like I wish our club had. Don`t return till they get their house in order `cos who they going to fight with if clubs stay away ? each other and good luck to them.