Bulls News has received a number of complaints about the stewarding at Stockport. Fan Rob Powell has sent the following to Stockport County:
Dear Stockport County FC
Firstly let me congratulate the club and the team for wearing MS Society tee shirts and supporting a bucket collection around the ground. I hope the collection was successful for the 3 charities involved. My wife has MS and I have done many sponsored events to raise money for the MS Society. I am a past chairman and present vice chairman of the Hereford and District branch of the MS Society so I know how grateful the charity will be to receive such money.
Secondly I write what I do below having no sour grapes as we (Hereford United) have won 3 - 2 today, so I go home in good heart.
But I feel compelled to write to you and complain about the appalling stewarding at the match today. The stewards were heavy handed and aggressive. I go all over the country supporting Hereford United and am willing to pay good money to watch my team but object most strongly to be treated as a category A violent prisoner. My 'crime' was to stand on a bitterly cold open seated area! The result of the stewards heavy handed approach was to cause trouble and not to ensure the safety of your paying public. Surely there is no safety hazard when around 200 supporters wish to stand in front of their own seats. The only safety hazard, I would suggest, was to be made to stay seated and suffer the considerable risk of hyperthermia. Today, I saw the absurb sight of three stewards escorting a fan to the toilets and back again for fear that he may stop and stand to watch the football match!
May I humbly suggest that you halve the number of stewards you employ and allow your paying public to watch a game in peace. The remaining stewards would be more than adequate to ensure that public safety is maintained. This would save you money, cause less trouble and everyone would go home happy and entertained by the excellent football played.
Yours sincerely
Rob Powell
Update - Stockport have replied to Rob's complaint:
Rob
Thanks for getting in touch.
I'll pass your observations on to the relevant person at the club. We want all fans, home and away, to be treated with respect, and while the ground regulations insist on sitting, the stewards have instructions to take a commonsense approach to situations. The issue is less safety than ensuring that the ground licence is maintained - I am afraid there is nothing that a football club can do but to comply with the ground licencing rules, laid down by the local authority. But certainly fans ought not to come away from Edgeley Park feeling that they have been mistreated, and I am sorry that your experience wasn't as you would have expected.
County is one of the three league clubs owned by its fans, and we take fans being treated well as a key priority. The club's directors and senior management are all fans themselves, and have of course been on the wrong end of bad stewarding at other grounds.
So I will find out what happened on this occasion.
Congratulations on your victory. That Lionel Ainsworth was magnificent, and was the difference between the teams. Slightly tongue in cheek, I fear the high number of stewards might have been because we thought a few more Hereford fans would turn up, given your league position.
Best of luck tomorrow night against Leeds!
Regards
Dan Levy