Impressed with Widnes' fast response and I hope they can get that element at their club in order as it's a real shame for the vast majority of genuine fans and the sport.

Will be reporting this gem to that email helpfully supplied by Widnes in their statementhttps://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/rugbychick/pitchinvasion.jpg" >

I noticed him, and also noticed just how quickly he got back into the middle of his fellow supporters. A steward started to follow him but, probably quite rightly the way the night had gone down that end, thought better of it.

Sorry for trolling but when it was the magic weekend when we got stuffed by the wire, we were surrounded by the dobbins fans the game before, and when they were getting beat by Hull FC they turned on each other and several violent fights broke out amongst themselves.

We are not immune; against London of all games (yawn) last week it kicked off behind where I was sitting and two Saints pensioners were knocking 7 bells out of each other, apparently over one of them standing up at certain moments during the game and obscuring the view.

You see SaintsatWire ,that why i prefer standing in thr south stand.....there's nothing worse than all than jumping up to let people past & jumping up to see the game.

Just seen a video of one of your stewards/security basically assaulting a Widnes fan.

The guy just lets rip with a volley of punches all of which find their mark.

The video is on Twitter and has tweeted to Cheshire Police.

Just seen it. Gotta say it looks pretty bad to be honest. Not defending any of the fans who where involved but there is no excuse whatsoever for a "steward" to be acting like that. He must have thrown atleast 10 unanswered punches.

Not seen the video, but we could clearly see from the East Stand a steward throwing upper cut after upper cut at, I suppose, a Widnes fan in the top left hand corner of the West Stand (as looking from the East). Didn't look good

I think most of us in the South could see it. I really do think that the policy of clubs using what are basically nightclub bouncers as security is wrong. Having said that, if the Widnes fans had not kicked off between themselves the incident would not have happened.
The original poster should also bear in mind that the police weill want to see the whole video, not just the bit involving the steward. They will want to know the reason for the steward acting like that.

No your right there's no need to be employing bouncers.

Of course it's hard to judge the incident without having been there or seeing it all unfold, but even if the fan getting punched did do something first, which is a possibility, From what you can see in the video, There's no way that the steward was using reasonable force to restrain someone or acting in self defence. It went way beyond that. It also doesn't do anything to help the situation when fans who are already on one turn round and see someone getting treated like that by a professional.

I think Widnes do seem to be having a bit of a problem at the minute though with last night and what happened at Wakefield.

Saw it from 130m or so away and don't know what happened and nor seen the video, and the chances are the steward involved was way out of order however...

If someone had a hold of you by the collar and was attempting to claw your eyes out with the other hand would you politely ask them to stop or start throwing punches and keep throwing them until you were free? Not saying that this happened at all, just using it as an example and that there are rare occasions when 'reasonable force' can be very strong indeed.

I think you are mis-reading me slightly. I am not trying to defend the steward, far from it, and it most certainly wasn't reasonable force and self defence went completely out of the window after the first hit.. What I am saying is that the Police will want to look at the entire incident. Hopefully the whole thing will be on CCTV. It seems to be the norm for both rugby and football clubs to employ security firms that bring in 'Norman the Doorman' now and I don't think that they create the right impression on a normal quiet match day.
Widnes have had problems in their last 3 away games. We walked up Bridge St at around 5.45pm last night and there was a group in one of the pubs who were already well oiled and very rowdy. I think that the RFL will be having a good look at them.

Bouncers/Stewards should be trained to restrain people without having to throw punches and then keep throwing them... They are not members of the public, they are paid professionals in a place of trust, there to supposedly keep the peace and disperse any bother. Reasonable force I'd imagine can be strong in some instances. but again like I say, Throwing a good number of uppercuts whilst another steward holds someone isn't reasonable force.





No I didn't mean to say you where defending the steward, more agreeing with what you said really. Hopefully the police will get involved and do something because I'd be dissapointed if nothing came of it having seen how bad it was.

I don't tend to observe our employed security staff, but, do we still use "Showsec"

A more surly, horrible, pent up, itching for a fight, "born out of wedlock" you will ever see.

I've seen these "people" in action on a trophy parade, where everybody was EXTREMELY well behaved, yet there's still a nasty atmosphere.

Here may lie the problem

I'm certainly not defending anyone in this whole sorry mess. The two clubs, Police and the RFL need to get to the bottom of what happened, why and who and then throw the book at all deserving of it. Fans involved need to be named, shamed, banned and (if appropriate) convicted. Make examples of them and show that this will not be tolerated. The steward(s) involved, and their employers should face the same. Even both clubs should be held accountable (to a certain extent) for last nights events.

This cancer has been creeping back into RL grounds for too long now. It needs to be stamped on and stamped on hard. Make it clear that if you're going to start, or get involved in trouble, inside a RL stadium then not only will you never see a live match ever again, but you may well face some time inside.

[i(BTW, you attributed a quote to me which was actually Teesidewire)[/i