As the Ground Safety Officer for the Celtic Crusaders, I can not let Sunday's tragedy pass by, without passing on my thanks and praise to all the fans who attended the game on Sunday. This was the most tragic and testing circumstances I have faced in 9 years as a ground safety officer. When the news about Leon came through, there was no debate really regarding the match being postponed. However, the priority was containing the information to ensure that Leon's family could be informed properly without hearing it through the media. For this reason we had to prevent further entry into the ground without given the fans outside a proper reason. Worse still we could not tell the fans inside that the match was postponed until we had gathered all the media together to ensure this sensitive situation did not get onto the airways. There was a very tense 25 minutes before we were informed that Leon's parents had been informed. Even then we new there were other family members who had to be contacted. For that reason we had to postpone the match and the only reason we could give was "for reasons beyond our control the match was postponed." Added to this, we could not offer on the day refunds due to the number of tickets pre sold, therefore insufficient funds being in the kiosk. All of these factors, were a potential flash point, but the priority concern for us all was maintaining sensitivity for Leon's family.
My fears were eleviated after the announcement, when I am pleased to say that the fans both inside the ground and locked outside caused no trouble what so ever. I am aware that, some fans had already heard about an injury in the reserves match. But not everyone new, and most did not know how serious it was.

My thanks and praise goes to each and every one of you who attended on Sunday, your behaviour and respect, with such little info was exemplary. You are all a credit to our great sport.

I just hope that for years to come, supporters across the land when they hear the announcement that a game is being postponed "due to circumstances beyond our control" will behave in the manner the Wakefield and Crusader fans did.

I look forward to seeing you all again under better circumstances.

My condolences to Leon and his family.

Nice post. Glad you had no problems with the fans from both sides.

I will certianly be there when the fixture is played.

I agree with Adam, Safo, that is a nice post, a credit to the fans in attendance from both teams and a credit to our game.

I'm locking this thread for the time being, however, not because there is anything wrong with the post, but because as a moderation team we have agreed that under the circumstances, we feel it appropriate not to encourage discussion of Sunday's events until people have had time to come to terms with the tragedy.

In the meantime, messages of condolence and discussion about how we deal with the game to come on Friday are welcome. We will re-open this thread again at a later stage.

Thanks to everyone for your consideration in this matter.

The moderation team.

As promised, I've unlocked this thread for anyone who went to the game and may wish to comment on Safo's post.

Out of respect for Leon's family and friends, please stick to the issues raised in the original post and do not use this thread to speculate on the events surrounding Leon's death. I'm sure we'll learn more about this in due course. Until such time, however, it would be inappropriate to discuss this matter.

Thanks, RR