Quote: twosevenzero "Officials from the Wigan club are travelling over to Huddersfield today to meet with Police & safety reps of the Giants to review CCTV footage of the incident in respect of further action to identify, and take action against, anyone involved.'"
With regard to the above - Good!
To all of you who do know me then you will obviously understand why I have to be careful about what I do/don't say & Bearing mind I've pretty much remained silent since Nov/Dec 2011 and haven't posted anything on the subject (As far as I can remember)for fear of being deemed to be stirring it with the ones who wanted to go "Their own way" around that time.
I'll keep it as short & Sweet as I can
I stopped being involved end of 2011 for this very reason and despite numerous warnings to 4 or 5 of them that despite my belief that none of them wanted to be involved in any violence/hooliganism element there actions were attracting this very element to them. I & others tried to express our concerns over numerous issues and at the last meeting I attended with them I made it clear that I would not be involved any more given their determined "ultra" stance.
I made the club aware that I would only be involved in erecting and taking down the Gantry flags and that would be it, Conroy (Hope you don't mind me mentioning yourself) on the other hand perservered for far longer than me and tried to talk some sense but to no avail.
Saturday was enough for me to break my silence and to some of those who received my texts immediately after the game I make only slight apologies for my anger in those texts.
Although I know you guys weren't at the game I still believe that some of your stance & actions of 18/24 + months ago are a direct link to the "Element" that are now prominant figures in these problems.
The details of this stance and these actions were done to death at the meetings 2 years ago and so much so I stayed till gone 12pm on a couple of occasions to try & persuade a different stance but to no avail.
There was to be No concession on "The Ultras" tag and for that reason alone I wanted no more to do with it.
In Hindsight I can sit here and think "i could have done more" to stop it, I could have explained my concerns to the club more back then than I did (And yes I did tell the club the reason I didnt want to be assosciated with anything other than the Gantry flags anymore), I should just have stopped doing the Gantry flags to bring the issue to a head.
I didn't and I'm quite prepared to take stick for not doing more (Albeit I was in a very difficult position) although those of you that know me know how vocal I was and the lengths I went to to discourage this.
For those of you that don't know me there have been one or two perceptive posts about something changing at the end of 2011, Some of the original people who wanted the flags etc walked away (After numerous attempts to curb the way some were going).
Whilst under 1 banner a few of us were involved in the Fund raising and charity stuff such as the £400 donation to Macmillan nurses (That some the the more Ultra element didnt want anything to do with) and the £500 raised for Wigan & Leigh Hospice (Which again I took stick for as some didnt want it to go to charity!).
I can however sit here and deep down know that when we had the meeting in late 2009 and set up the Flag group (As it was known then) 95% of the original people involved did so with the most positive of intentions and slowly 1 by 1 they walked away as they could see that some used this as a vehicle for promoting the more "Ultra" side.
Well you got what you wanted, I just only hope you don't hide behind the "it wasn't us" and "we don't condone this behaviour" stance previously taken. Not being at the game is not a defence.
Your words & Actions previously brought this on despite many,many warnings that were ignored.
I have lkeft numerous messages with the club this morning and I am waiting for a call back.
When they do I will tell them everything I saw and who these people are assosciated with, this may be uncomfortable reading but it will happen.
I saw everything that happened Saturday and couple with the other reports from Huddersifeld town centre I am appalled and can stay silent no more.
I will stay away from much more comment on here unless I have to but this has to end NOW.