i have seen stuff that, as usual, says they weren't widnes fans causing the trouble, on most of the pictures and videos i've seen the vast majority are wearing widnes shirts.

Got to feel sorry for the real Widnes fans, and thank god this didnt happen at Wembley with another 10k of drunken pretend fans

Sad day for RL. Sold out challenge cup semi final, a team making it to their first final in years, and there are photos all over the web of scenes you'd expect at a football match or an EDL march! Scum!

I genuinely feel sorry for the true Widnes supporters, i've never had any issues with them, but the scenes were sickening. Well done the club for a strong statement.

seems like widnes are expecting a very big fine then or worse?? could they be removed from the competition or be made to play behind closed doors?
it wouldn't surprise me if widnes fans were not allowed to attend away games for the rest of the season.

all this of course is a massive shame for the thousands of decent widnes fans who have to now have their clubs name tarnished because of a mindless hundred or so.

It may be a small minority but it's quite an active small minority. This is the 4th game in the last year or so where they have been involved.

why is anyone even surprised?

they have been at it all season.

Considering the apparent scramble for tickets for this game, it's amusing to see people trotting out the 'they aren't regular fans' line.

Good call by the RFL to restrict it to a 12000 capacity ground. Imagine the scenes if it had been at a bigger venue.

After the 2000 debacle, the following happened at FC:

- a meeting was held at the Boulevard, an the club chaplain amongst others discussed the situation, openly;
- a banner was produced; "Sorry" - which was displayed at the next game, a Sky TV televised match at Warrington;
- the chief exec came and stood amongst the fans in a public display of solidarity to acknowledge that the club's genuine fans were dealing with the problem element;
- we all lined up to sign a charter, to pledge to deal with our bad reputation.

All this changed FC as a club, and probably stopped us getting a ban. As supporters, we were angry at being accused of being hooligans, when we weren't. It was a minority we'd never dealt with. We took back our club, and nothing was the same afterwards - things improved, families returned, the whole atmosphere around FC changed.

I suggest the Widnes fans do the same. Take your club back from the minority element of scum, and make a public demonstration that you won't put up with it.

Given that next year it is highly likely a SL club, potentially Widnes could be involved in a promotion/relegation play off, the RFL need to get their reaction/punishment spot on

Shame for the 1,000s of decent Widnes fans who turned up today to support their team

Great post.

For me, the only truly fair punishment would be to exclude any Widnes fan who isn't a season ticket from buying tickets for away games for a season. This would enable the club to police it's own fans, and limit the possibility for 'infiltration' by the part time and casual fan. You will probably get some trying to get into the home end at games, but they can easily be spotted and dealt with, and won't be likely to attend in any great numbers.

Naturally, I feel that Widnes as a club need to pay for repairs to LSV, and the inevitable fine but, moving forward, I can't see any other solution that is fair on the true fans of the club.

Really sad to see this.

Posted on another thread that it did not look good, but it seemed to be taken under control from the view in the TV room.

So I took it back and said maybe it was not that bad. Now it seems like it was.

Sad sad day.

I would hope that with todays high definition camera's and videos. Most of these yobs should be prosecuted. I would say a far more suitable punishment than a simple fine, which punishes the club rather than the fans involved, would be for the fine to be put towards the prosecution of said fans.

Rewards handed out for names of the scum so clearly photographed and financial support to the CPS to prosecute them as a few weeks down the line when the newspapers are old, it will be cautions all round.

But I'm sure if the fine it put towards getting these people the Police and CPS will be more encouraged to take em to court.

I'd rather that than just a fine on the club, which really is a punishment by association rather than a direct impact on the idiots involved.

Obviously life time bans from RL are a given.