I remember that vikidly. Wasn't that when Vainikolo 'impeded' Grose? As Bradofrd were going over the line, Briers pointed at the bottle and crowd and suggested that there was "no need" for the bottle throwing. But as you say Stewards did nothing about it.

I'd go for option 2 personally. Ban alcohol from the terraces, not the stadium.

I believe that responsible adults should be allowed to drink at matches. I have 2 pints every home game (none on away games cause i drive.) and enjoy watching the team i love whilst enjoying a pint. The problem is the irresponsible adults that if you banned drink sales in the ground, would either arrive tanked up or sneak vodka etc in. I think the only true way to go would be for police and stewards to remove anybody deemed drunk. This is hard to police but what other choices are there apart from a total ban throughout the town centre on match days?

As stated before my option would also be 3.

But what about if beer sales were stopped at kick off time and restarted at half time. And also a min of 2 pints per person allowed to be ordered.

This would stop a lot of the up and downing of fans.

But what I would like to see is this used a lot more. I've only seen it used once and that was in Cardiff. Although the guy tried a different turnstyle and got in.


13 Under the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc) Act 1985, the following are offences for which a person can be arrested by a police officer and conviction could result in a Banning Order being made:
13.1 Attempting to enter the Ground or being inside the Ground whilst drunk;

Well done for stating the obvious. However I want to drink in the ground not on the street, I am far from underage and I don't want to be served when intoxicated.

The beer being spilt argument always makes me laugh, I have been at games when people have jumped up and I have had a shower in fanta so should all drinks be banned?

Surely having people only allowed to drink in the coucourse areas would just lead to them becoming dangerously full and harder for people to navigate around safely at half time?

If memory serves me correctly (a few years since been to either ground so forgive me if wrong) there isn't that problem at Wigan or Widnes where you are/were not allowed to take drink from the concourses to the stands.

We live in a socially changing world - 10 years ago it was perfectly acceptable to smoke at a sporting stadium, now it is banned; 30 years ago it was usual to have seats, bottles or bricks flying between sets of supporters before during and after a game, RL or otherwise, now that element of hooliganism has largely been eradicated from society; 50 years ago there was no problem sinking 5 or 6 pints of finest ale & then driving home with your unseatbelted family in the back, now of course that is totally wrong. To argue that something is ok and should not change "because I have always done this" is wrong & flawed.

I have always taken drinks into my seat at Wigan without a problem.

I am not arguing that everything is ok and should not change. I am arguing the change should be targeting the individuals who are causing problems not using a blanket 'solution' that I don't believe would make any difference anyway.

Get the police/stewards enforcing the drinking laws correctly, ejecting anyone from the ground who is causing trouble (drink or no drink) rather than trying to ban alcohol outright as unless you had proper stewarding stopping people coming into the ground when drunk then it wouldn't make any difference anyway.

Well as I said a few since at Wigan! I agree that enforcing the drink laws correctly would be a start, but sadly they are not being enforced at the HJ, and in that case perhaps the licencing committee at the Council would like to investigate? Revocation of licence for the first 2 games of 2011 & then close scrutiny of measures in place maymake the club sit up and take notice...

OOI Do you extend your attitude to embracing change in your religious beliefs?

This would be a start, but from my own experience I have never seen this enforced, be it at a match, my local or bars in town. Town would be half empty of a weekend if it was enforced and I'm sure many of my own nights out would have ended earlier.

Personally I don't know what I would like to see happen. My friends and I usually have a couple before, during and after the game but I could happily go without for a few hours if it was to cut down on the moronic and thuggish behaviour of a small minority. If alcohol sales were banned, these people would still get tanked up before the game and continue afterwards.

Maybe better stewarding and an increased police presence is the only way forward.

How do we define drunk? I have seen teenagers throwing up after 2 drinks,and I have also been in a car with someone who gave me a lift home,then as he dropped me off admitted he had just finished his 8th pint of beer in the pub before giving me a lift! His driving and ability to hold a conversation had been fine. So what exactly is "drunk"?????????

Surely thats half of the problem as to why the law isn't/can't be properly implemented. Everyone has different tolerance levels for alcohol and bar staff will have different interpretations of what is "drunk". Unless everywhere serving alcohol introduces breath tests it will always come down to interpretation.

BUT that law should be used when people are at the stage where they aren't coherent or they are believed to pose a threat to others because of the state they are in. Even with something as subjective as drunkness it does get to a point where it is blindingly obvious.

Do the stewards have any professional training. such as: -

- how to recognise when somebody has had a few too many

- how to spot the early signs of crowd trouble in a terraced environment

- how to deal with any potential trouble before it occurs in a professional and efficient manner

- how to deal with trouble if it escalates ( self defence techniques)

I know for a fact they didnt at wilderspool, one of my relatives applied for the job and got told to turn up before the game and to not watch the game but watch the crowd with no training on what to look for or how to deal with aggressive behaviour or intoxicated idiots.

Everybody calls the stewards for the heavy handedness and inability to deal with issues properly.

maybe they aren't trained and are just trying to do the best they can with what they've got. I'm not sure