Absolutely. My memory may be failing me here, but didn't we used to pay Fev on Good Friday in the 70's? I seem to recall that fixture being put forward because of all the agro caused by drunken fans (mostly Fev fans, of course...) having a full lunchtime on the lash.

I stand on the Western Terrace as do many Wakefield fans, why should that be changed because of mindless actions of a few. Chuck the idiots out at first sign of trouble they will soon get fed up. They need educating in how to behave . Lets get them in a classroom with their role models , say Amor , Cockayne & Aiton and be told by them their behaviour is not acceptable and is not supportive of the club & players. Making the rest of the fans pay for their behaviour by making everyone stand in North terrace is not fair.

While the ideas a good one it won't work, the blokes i saw gt thrown out are beyond any sort of help, Sue they are complete thugs and not just silly misbehaving rugby fans who have drunk too much, these could be dealt with in the classroom.

I'll say it again, none of the people i saw get thrown out and i did stand very close to the idiots looked like the average fan, complete hardcore thugs and not young lads, i have never seen these guys before at Wakey or Cas.

While a few from both side got a bit giddy i believe it only kicked off because of these thugs, otherwise we may have got away with a noisy singing stand.

I say this again as well, thanks to the stewards for being able to deal with these hardcore thugs.

Good morning GRLA - good to meet with you the other night - i was the yound cas lad that was talking to you in the line for the bottle bar. I commend you for both confronting the idiot in question and for your gracious retreat. With idiots like that around you never know exactly whats going to happen.

The club do need stewards at the bars to help control things a little and to help the young girls in the bars - what would have happened if the refused some one drinks or as in this case a fight breaks out in the line. You cant leave those grils on their own to calm things down.

As we were saying at the time - half the problems were bought on by the issue of segregation. I have been going to watch Cas Wakey derbys at both Belle Vue and Wheldon road for about ten years now and from an my perspective i have not seen any real significant trouble at a derby game before. banter yes - a few charged moments but nothing of any great significance.

However as soon as the statement was made about segregating fans and making one end "the home end" you could tell it would cause trouble. Someone said about the 80's football mentality and looking to tear it up. Ask any hooligan or read the books written by a hooloigan of the time and they always say that getting into the home teams end & causing an issue was the aim. Get into the Arsenal noth bank end or the Tottenham Paxman Road stand was what they wanted to do and when in cause as much trouble as possible.

By making an end almost exclusivly for the home team you will invite large group of a teams supporters to congregate in one area and provoke one another. Unless you have a seperate stand which it ticket only you cant stop it - especially in old grounds such as ours.

Allow fans to inter mingle and you naturally disperse large opposing groups - its not guarenteed but it seems to have worked for the last x number of years.

The other thing that all clubs need to do (mine included) is stop people coming into the ground under the infuence. I saw both cas and wakey fans downing bottles of wine literally 15 yards from the turnstyles (exit B i think) who once inside could hardly walk or talk. It would not take a great deal of effort to put a couple of stewards outside the ground - spotters if you like that would refuse entry to such people at the gates. That way all clubs can control the flow of beer once inside.

Like many people, I think the statements re the North stand and 'The city is ours' were interpreted by the mindless minority as provocation and a licence to cause trouble. Most people with more than one brain sell could see it was merely hype used to build up the crowd numbers and in that respect it worked.
With hindsight I believe the statements about the North stand were probably an error. It would have been better if Wakefield supporters had simply followed what many suggested and simply arrived early to claim a spot in the stand.
If you want to segregate supporters have a look at how it's done in soccer, with supporters herded like cattle to the ground and lines of stewards separating them in the ground. Do we want to go down that route? I don't think we do and we certainly couldn't afford to.
If you want to go in the North stand fine, do so, I will and if it means setting off half an hour earlier, so be it.

That is an excellent idea and one that as you say should be employed at all grounds. I would add that the club should have at least shut the bar on the North Stand if not all the bars once the trouble started and certainly once drinks started getting thrown.

[The other thing that all clubs need to do (mine included) is stop people coming into the ground under the infuence. I saw both cas and wakey fans downing bottles of wine literally 15 yards from the turnstyles (exit B i think) who once inside could hardly walk or talk. It would not take a great deal of effort to put a couple of stewards outside the ground - spotters if you like that would refuse entry to such people at the gates. That way all clubs can control the flow of beer once inside.'"

regarding segregation - there are not many grounds now where there is no segregation between fans. the fans are segregated at all of the "new" stadiums i.e. wigan, hull etc

i can only think of wakefield, cas and bradford where there is no attempt at segregation

(i know that some home fans are allowed in the "away" areas e.g. hull kr and warrington, but if the clubs needed to enforce segregation that could easily be controlled.

Hi Hatfield Tiger,
Many thanks for your support the other night. It was a shame our conversation was interrupted by the antics of that moron. Your insights into development efforts down south were fascinating.
In your post, you make some good points about integration defusing the " us versus them " mentality. Also, I enjoy talking to different people, as most folk have something interesting to say, yourself being a good example ( that's also reason I read these forums regularly: I never stop learning about the game of RL or how it's organised ). What a shame it would be to lose the opportunity to mix with other fans.
W.r.t. The other issues raised, I've contacted the club ( essentially, same content as my post) & await their response, with interest. Will post if anything worthwhile comes out of it.
Take care & hope to see you (& that goes to all true Cas fans) @ Wakey again!

I suppose trouble has been brewing for a while now. Earlier this season I and others have raised concerns on here over bad behaviour we have seen. I even apologised to a Huddersfield fan on here since I was so ashamed of the experience they suffered from one of our so called fans.

Trouble is becoming more present as undesireables are going to our matches home and away. Like before I believe that we need to strictly enforce a zero tolerance policy. Reading comments from people on here it sounds as though our stewards are a lot more tolerant or less bothered than we are about what we see/hear. Remember the pre-recorded messages a couple of years ago with a woman's voice saying "Rugby League is a family game".

I think Andrew Glover should now make a short term investment in security for his long term financial return. I would suggest doubling or tripling the security presence for the next 4/5 home games. The stewards should be on a strict zero tolerance instruction and investigate all complaints. Anyone who is clearly drunk or acting in an aggressive or provocative manner should be evicted immediately. I am unsure on the legal rights of this but when I was at University, anyone banned from the Union bars had their pictures pinned up at the entrance door. If legally feasible we should take their picture and have it on display at each turnstyle.

After 4/5 games I think the message will start to get through and then these idiots will either start to behave or just (hopefully) stop coming. I know some people say that be evicting people we are reducing gate money but I strongly disagree. If people don't feel safe then they will stop coming. No one wants bottles/punches thrown at them, or being splattered in beer or subject to serious verbal aggressive abuse. We are talking about the long term reputation of the club.

The issue of segregation is not something I am opposed to and with the new roof why not, the home fans should benefit, make an atmosphere and make our home games like a fortress (with regard to on field performance). Cries of "We can stand where we want" is really pathetic, it is Wakefield's ground, not the visiting supporters ground. When I go away I go to where the hosting club advise I should be. Cas fans, I suspect, in a majority don't want to ground share so they cannot believe that they have home rights (choice of where to stand) in Belle Vue. I appreciate we were fully mingled before and the incidents previously were a lot more minor than last Friday.

Thankfully, my season ticket is to sit in the east terrace so I saw very little of what happened in the North stand, plus I was focused on the game. The reports of incidents on RL fans are shocking. Irrespective of whether they are lifelong fans, first time visitors/first time season ticket holders or just visiting this match for the sole intention of trouble, action is required. To hear that only 3/4 stewards were present in the divide until the police arrived sounds like shocking planning to me. The script was set for a lively atmosphere. A roof to sing under and create an atmosphere, which from where I was sat sounded great and made me very excited for the future. Little wonder that fuelled with easy access to beer things were going to get heated.

I would be quite happy for the North stand to be home fans only so we can create an atmosphere, even if it does mean I have a bunch of solely away fans stood in front of me. We have been denied a real home game atmosphere for so long, a small bunch of idiots should not deny what this club has long been missing.

Yet again I reiterate, please WTW show a zero tolerance to the growing presence of mindless, drunken thugs present at our game. I certainly don't want to see punches thrown again because someone complains that their children are subject to hearing bad language. It is not an unreasonable request. Just because someone is so inarticulate that they can't show their passion in a positive manner does not mean that someone should be hurt.

PLEASE ANDREW GLOVER, INCREASE SECURITY AND SHOW ZERO TOLERANCE.

As long as you segrigate fans you will get trouble. The north end has been the away fans area for god knows how long and Wakey fans have stood with them with little or no trouble. I would say no segrigation and let fans stand where they want and just think on before the north end had a roof on no one wanted to stand there except away supporters. I uphold the "family game" theme and segrigation is not the answer.

]
That's right, drag Fev into this. Anything to deflect from your own club eh? Both sets of fans were causing trouble at the game so rather than stir things up with fans of a club who weren't involved in the match why not put forward solutions to get your own house in order?
It has to start at the games where there isn't a big aggressive confrontation between sets of supporters. Start by identifying the idiots who are stirring things up and being abusive, get them reported to the stewards and get the club to take action. As individuals become known then the stewards can be better placed to deal with these in the future. At a big game there are always going to be fans turning up to cause trouble but fans should help police their own support and let these yobs know they aren't welcome.Get a few burly blokes to have words with them and most of them will soon calm down. Leaving it until after the game when these individuals disappear until the next big game is too late as we at Fev have found.

Calm down - the comment about Fev fans was meant to be tongue in cheek. I'm perfectly aware that most clubs have a minority of "fans" who'll use a bank holiday and a late kick-off as an excuse to get bladdered and cause trouble. I'm not trying to deflect attention from our own problems. The only point I wanted to make was that I seem to remember this fixture being put forward to an earlier kick-off to avoid that. Just like the Hull derby kicks off earlier too. All day boozing followed by a game in the evening is a recipe for disaster.

It appears that because of the trouble in the last few seasons that we have suffered every time there is an incident we get a mention or even the blame for something we weren't involved in.Cas forum suggests that Fev fans might have been involved so you can see why i'm on the defensive.
Clubs have to clamp down on the small incidents and have a zero tolerance policy even at the risk of upsetting some season ticket holders if they are involved.
Clubs need to work together and it is with some trepidation that I look forward to Fev's meeting with Cas. Hopefully the clear segregation policy that has been announced will work but away from the ground I fear the local scroats will be loitering with intent to cause trouble,. I just hope the police are primed and ready.