Worst stewards

[Railway Blue]

Which team has the worst stewards.

I will nominate Swindon Town. Absolute Neanderthals. About 15 years ago we played them at County Ground. I paid £20 to get in. The stewards then insisted in searching my bag ~~ fair enough. They then started unwrapping my silver-foil wrapped sandwiches. I protested and they told me I was being ejected (before I'd even got in). I sold my ticket to a sympathetic Chester fan and paid £15 to go in with the home supporters. I wrote a letter of complaint to the then chairman whose name escapes, but surprise surprise I got no answer. I would not go there again, although it's unlikely we'll play them again in the foreseeable future. Special mention also for Notts County stewards, who insisted on Chester fans sitting down and aggressively ejected a few who ignored them while all around the ground County fans were standing.

 

[GTFCfish]

FGR’s for thinking that an inflatable beach ball was a lethal weapon.

 

[Railway Blue]

Yes I experienced unfair treatment there too. A very good friend intervened and saved me from going for him, which would have resulted in a night in the cells for me. Never been back there since. You're right they are scumbags!

 

[WhiteRussian]

Ours have/had? a bit of a bad reputation with away fans. I'm not sure why but they seem to be a bit pushy. Maybe they are told to be like that.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Leeds were awful. Insisted in every single one of our fans sitting down even though all the fans in one of the home ends spent the entire game standing.
Most in this league are fair I would say.

 

[GTFCfish]

Leeds were awful. Insisted in every single one of our fans sitting down even though all the fans in one of the home ends spent the entire game standing.
Most in this league are fair I would say.

That happened with us at Wolves years ago, their fans all stood up giving us cut throat gestures but soon as any of us tried to stand up, ‘sit dowwwwn or yur owwwwt’.
Fucking pricks.

 

[valefan16]

Can’t say these days I’ve noticed any being a problem, in the past both Nottingham clubs have had a bad rep for over zealous stewards... sure one of them had an incident where someone ended up going down the stairs? Might be wrong on that though.

Crewe’s stewards got slaughtered last season by the Vale for poor organisation which led to many people watching the game in the stairwell as they failed to advise Vale fans to sit in the allocated seat and told them to sit where they want. Assume the fact we take 2000 there means half of them are not regualar stewards there though.

 

[Dan Phillips]

Rochdale, MK Dons, Charlton, Notts County and Mansfield.

Shambles the lot of 'em.

 

[Reginald Fodstain]

Once got threatened with arrest for standing up at Oldham, whilst Oldham fans were standing up literally 10 metres away. Otherwise never really had any problem with stewards, excluding Mansfield away one season, when a near riot kicked off and the stewards got excessively violent.

On the topic of standing up, I've never understood the mentality of people who go to away games, go on the back row, try to sit down and then call a steward on people standing up around them. Seen that happen a few times - the naivety/lack of intelligence is astounding.

 

[Boz]

Only done two aways this season so far. Don’t know how typical it is of L2 in general, but Crewe insisted in searching every away fan and weren’t best organised in making for an easy exit at the end of the match. Mansfield’s were fine.

 

[Gladders]

Stevenage

 

[DippyDon]

Nothing so far this season has been as bad as when we had wolves in League 1 a few years back.

 

[Si Robin]

Ours used to be universally disliked by home and away fans alike. Accrington fans actually boycotted our ground for a couple of years after their first visit led to a fan being choked and chucked out.

I've personally had issues with the Notts ones, although looking back I was a bit merry and acting the jumped-up bellend at the time. Still felt they were a bit overzealous though.

 

[shoddycollins]

FGR’s for thinking that an inflatable beach ball was a lethal weapon.
View attachment 10495

is that Dale Vince far left?

 

[shoddycollins]

Stevenage

is it just me or do Grimsby seem to have issues with all away stewards? I remember Stevenage having a major issue though, can't remember what happened but didn't the football supporters federation get involved?

 

[shoddycollins]

the only issue I've had with stewards was at Widnes (of all places) where we were playing Runcorn in the conference cup (of all competitions for the stewards to get arsy in). Me and a group of friends were approached several times by a steward who insisted he'd caught us drinking from a bottle of alcohol we'd smuggled in. We hadn't even been drinking before the game and didn't even have any soft drinks with us, but he was getting really threatening with us, telling us he would throw us out if he had to come up to us again. Backed down in the end though.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Worst/funniest steward experience I’ve had was Doncaster after they first moved to the Keepmoat. They insisted, and enforced, that away fans sat in their allocated seat. 300 away fans dotted all over the place in a 3000 seater away end. wtf.

Stewards are generally a bit dim on a Saturday job having to deal with a bunch of drunken mongs though. It’s never a great recipe but generally they’re ok and it’s obnoxious fans making things hard work rather than the stewards.

 

[Luke Imp]

Rochdale or Bradford.

Rochdale were trying to make people sit, which isn't unusual but the seats were covered in pigeon shit and they refused to clean it off or move people into better seating. They got quite aggressive and kicked people out.

The following season we went back and they were recording and we thought it was the crowd but it turned out they were doing some sort of steward training video. All very nice until the camera was turned off and they went back to being wankers, although the pigeon shit was no longer there.

Midweek in Bradford, un-allocated seating on the tickets and their stewards decided it was allocated and they'd choose where people sat, starting right in a bottom corner, filling a row, move on to the next row etc like we were school kids going into assembly.

Went down like a lead balloon, a scrap between fans and stewards (I think one of the stewards got sacked for starting it) and we all eventually sat where we wanted to after the head stewards ego took a bit of a bashing.

By and large there are no problems, though.

 

[Gladders]

is it just me or do Grimsby seem to have issues with all away stewards? I remember Stevenage having a major issue though, can't remember what happened but didn't the football supporters federation get involved?

Yeah that was over bra gate. But I went to that and the game the season before. The excessive searching wasn't an issue for me, I get that (although bras is a step too far!) it's the excessive stewarding, standing at the front of the stand in a big line and forcing people to sit in which they then cannot see because your stood in front of them and wondering why they refuse to sit.

2 seasons in a row the stewards caused issues that weren't there, just because a large number of town fans turn up doesn't mean there is going to be issues and what issues happen is caused by your own incompatent stewarding. Don't intend to go that ground again.

 

[Tranmerewhite]

Any of the “big” midlands clubs are terrible.

Expect militant stewards at any of Forest/Birmingham/Wolves whilst they allow home fans to sit directly above away fans and spit at them or throw object all game.

Best fan experiences I’ve had would be Yeovil or Bristol rovers.

 

[Indian Dan]

Which team has the worst stewards.

I will nominate Swindon Town. Absolute Neanderthals. About 15 years ago we played them at County Ground. I paid £20 to get in. The stewards then insisted in searching my bag ~~ fair enough. They then started unwrapping my silver-foil wrapped sandwiches. I protested and they told me I was being ejected (before I'd even got in). I sold my ticket to a sympathetic Chester fan and paid £15 to go in with the home supporters. I wrote a letter of complaint to the then chairman whose name escapes, but surprise surprise I got no answer. I would not go there again, although it's unlikely we'll play them again in the foreseeable future. Special mention also for Notts County stewards, who insisted on Chester fans sitting down and aggressively ejected a few who ignored them while all around the ground County fans were standing.

15 years ago? And you had to dredge this up, yet again.

From what I remember about the furore surrounding ‘sandwich-gate’ it’s no surprise you were ejected after using processed cheese in said sandwich. Will those Chester fans never learn?

 

[Tranmerewhite]

15 years ago? And you had to dredge this up, yet again.

From what I remember about the furore surrounding ‘sandwich-gate’ it’s no surprise you were ejected after using processed cheese in said sandwich. Will those Chester fans never learn?

Tbf they’re never going to be football league again so they need something to cling to.

 

[Son of Cod]

is it just me or do Grimsby seem to have issues with all away stewards? I remember Stevenage having a major issue though, can't remember what happened but didn't the football supporters federation get involved?

Not really, the fact that Lincoln fans reacted to the Stevenage bragate thing and had our backs tells you that we were in the right over it. Then what else was there recently? The FGR thing was all about a bit of a loud mouth Town fan and an overzealous steward. The Barnet one was totally ridiculous too.

 

[shoddycollins]

Not really, the fact that Lincoln fans reacted to the Stevenage bragate thing and had our backs tells you that we were in the right over it. Then what else was there recently? The FGR thing was all about a bit of a loud mouth Town fan and an overzealous steward. The Barnet one was totally ridiculous too.

Was the Barnet one I was thinking of, didn't that drag over a few seasons?

 

[Son of Cod]

Was the Barnet one I was thinking of, didn't that drag over a few seasons?

Haha, yeah, the steward said he feared for his life because someone bonked him on the head with a shark when we were both down in the Conference. It was during a playoff push which saw us have a few themed away days, Barnet being inflatables. Barnet went up that season, then we went up the next season and tried to organise another inflatables party but they said we weren't allowed so then we hired the mariachi band. So yeah, it did spread across three seasons, but only really because we were in different divisions for one of those seasons. Was definitely the most good natured of those three mentioned.

 

[Back in the DHSS]

No particularly bad experiences with stewards personally. Getting my feet trampled on in the Ice Cream Van stand at Crewe by some bacon faced stewards is about as bad as it’s got.
In the days before stewarding both the South Yorkshire and West Midlands constabulary were a spiteful nasty lot.

 

[GTFCfish]

Any of the “big” midlands clubs are terrible.

Expect militant stewards at any of Forest/Birmingham/Wolves whilst they allow home fans to sit directly above away fans and spit at them or throw object all game.

Best fan experiences I’ve had would be Yeovil or Bristol rovers.

It’s a strange one because I’ve been to Wolves twice and both times they were absolute fucking bell ends, yet been to West Brom 3 times and had no issues whatsoever there, and we won 2 of those 3 so you’d think if they were gonna have issues it would be in one of those but their stewards were spot on every time.

 

[Si Robin]

West Brom stewards threatened to throw me out of the ground for daring to talk to my, then, girlfriend.

WBA fans were sharing the stand we were in and it just so happened she was in the same stand, so we met in the middle at half-time and 3 of them waded in to break us up. We weren't even rowing (which was rare for us).

 

[Greenacres]

Best fan experiences I’ve had would be Yeovil or Bristol rovers.

I tend to remember the better ones, but I'm not really the sort of person who sets out to antagonise or cause drama, so my chances of a positive impression might be better than for some. For me in no particular order, and for unknown reasons, I received a particularly warm welcome at Hartlepool, Leeds, Ashford Town (Middx) and Nuneaton. Clearly I wasn't watching Rovers at all of those and it might have been due to the opposition coming from a long distance away or I was just lucky to meet stewards who had a friendly outlook.

 

[Indian Dan]

Walsall is the only ground I’ve been thrown out of, locked up until the coaches had left and fined £25 - back in 1975 ish.

When they let me out of my cell they also released a host of other Swindon fans who’d been arrested. We all legged it to the nearest pub where, surprise surprise, there was a huge punch up and half of us got arrested again.