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

We as a club are responsible for all who are on duty in the ground. The steward was bang out of order no matter if he was provoked or not his actions were unacceptable and we should be making a stance similar to Widnes's and making sure he is not on duty again and support the police if any action is to be brought against him.

Robbo. They are trained to restrain people without having to throw punches. they are also licensed and convictions for violence usually result in their losing the licence and not being able to work. Reasonable force depends on the situation you are in and there are occasions when you can legimately throw punches, but I would suggest that last night the guy was OTT.

The guy last night was clearly out of order, however I really do hope we don't see a bunch of holier than thou Widnes fans appearing talking about the bad men that we employ, for years they've worked in the ground for years away fans have complained about us using doormen as they're intimidating, for years wire fans have spoken about we're not happy that we use they...aside from last season when nearly every away support started fighting amongst itself, there's not been any actual problem.

Last night the Widnes 'support' turned up, intent on making a problem, from the moment you sawxhere they positioned themselves. There were very few shirts on show in that area, and after the flashpoint occurred the amount of housing hit and run attacks on the stewards were a joke. At one point after it moved over to the side of the stand and the police got involved there was a shove from behind on a copper who was walking down the stairs.

The amount of pitch invading at the end was a joke, that bloke who was with his lad? Class parenting that is.

The "steward" involved had nothing to do with the safety stewards employed directly by Wolves (some of which were assisting relocate Warrington fans from the West stand) OR Showsec (who are engaged to handle to car parking and the doors at the HJ).

"Security" (and maybe its time we separate the term security and steward) is provide by MYL who basically use SIA trained staff who do indeed also act as bouncers. The actions of this SECURITY staff do indeed seem excessive and will no doubt be fully investigated. Early in the year against Hull there were similar allegations and Warrington came out with a statement to say that the individual involved then had been banned from ever working at the HJ again.