Farnborough fan here.

Well done last night. I was watching on the live stream (which there were issues so we missed parts of the game, but hey ho)

From what I did see, it was one of the worst performances of the season from us. We barely had any shots on target and yet again it was a poor performance on the road. We haven't won away yet and these long midweek trips (Torquay, Yeovil, Chippenham, Taunton) are likely to have an effect, whereas our home is second-best in the league.

Our manager was absolutely fuming last night, as can be seen in the post match interview.

Good luck for the rest of the season and we'll see you all in the reverse fixture.

A lot of grounds seem to head towards segregation for certain teams and it’s more common this season due to trouble.  Maybe a route for us.

That’s two games now (Taunton and last night) where there has been racist abuse from fans to our players.  Very sad to see.

Chipp_Bluebird wrote:

Wellard wrote:

Agree with what's been said by others. Best footballing performance on the season for me., although we do need to put some of those many chances away. Got a bit nervy at the end with the 9 minutes of additional time. A draw would have been very unjust as we dominated the game.
The tippy tappy from the back, mostly worked but a couple of nervy moments with one resulting in a corner.
Williams and Mehew have made a real difference and with everyone fit we really do have depth in the squad.

Couple of negatives, Sorry,  first being the crowd...we do need to see some improvement on this, very disappointing. Perhaps some improved marketing or a social media push.
The other being the issues at the Cricket end. We have seen and read on here many opinions, its the stewards, our fans, theirs etc.. etc..fact of the matter is, this is not the first time and it needs to be stamped out and quickly. Better stewarding?, has drinking around the ground not helped? Why are those involved not removed from the ground?
This will only turn the family supporter away.

Our lot in Cricket End not always been innocent but the events of last night were not their doing, they were making their way up towards the Sheldon End and a group of Farnborough fans set upon them. Our lot moved out of the way and gave them a clear path even and three Farnborough fans started throwing punches.
 

Don’t know what happened and wasn’t implying whose fault it was. Don’t really care either, fact of the matter is, that if punches were thrown and/or racist remarks made. How are those perpetrators still in the ground.
Stewarding needs to improve, else it will drive family supporters away.

Rarely do I watch from behind the goals so I have not seen first hand the three or four concerning incidents (Weymouth and Farnborough last season), Taunton this season, but after making small talk with a concerned younger supporter in the bar a few weeks ago, I was told that there were ongoing tensions between Farnborough and Chippenham and that there could be a stand off when they came to HP. After being surprised that such hostility existed at our lower level, I enquired if this had been mentioned to the club and the stewarding team. I was told it had. In light of this and the complaints about the stewarding i was expecting some notice from the club on social media that the stewarding throughout the ground for this game would be ramped up as a precaution.

To the untrained eye something went wrong with the stewarding and I find it unbelievable that after punches being thrown at half time and a major incident at the start of the 2nd half, we see a flare chucked on the pitch from the cricket end at full time and no reaction from those deployed to eradicate issues like this. As Wellard says - if there is no improvement around these matters, it will only drive family supporters away. And we don't have enough of these as it is.

Last edited by Argus (08/11/2023 3:50 PM)

Argus wrote:

Rarely do I watch from behind the goals so I have not seen first hand the three or four concerning incidents (Weymouth and Farnborough last season), Taunton this season, but after making small talk with one of our younger supporters in the bar a few weeks ago, I was told that there were tensions between Farnborough and Chippenham and there could be a stand off when they came down to us. After being surprised that such hostility existed at our lower level, I enquired if this had been mentioned to the club and the stewarding team. I was told it had and was half expecting some notice from the club on social media that the stewarding throughout the ground would be ramped up as a precaution.

To the untrained eye something went wrong with the stewarding and I find it unbelievable that after punches being thrown at half time and a major incident at the start of the 2nd half, we see a flare chucked on the pitch from the cricket end at full time and no reaction from those deployed to eradicate issues like this. As Wellard says unless there is improvement, it will only drive family supporters away. We don't have enough of these as it is.

It is all very bizarre, back in my younger days I enjoyed the singing and atmosphere at games and still do but I distance myself these days a bit more. I was speaking to one of them in the bar on Saturday and was told similar. I asked what games/teams do they think there would be issues and was told Farnborough and Weymouth and that was it, I asked what about Bath, Torquay, Yeovil etc and he looked at me blank in the face and just said they will be fine it's the Farnborough and Weymouth games that are the issue, it's due to social media apparently and then carries over to matchday and there were tensions last season at the home games with those sides.

I would strongly suggest if it isn't in thoughts already that the Weymouth game is segregated. First half last night the atmosphere was good and then it died a death second half partly probably as the half time events shook them up a bit. They have walked that way to towards the Sheldon End multiple times this season without incident and I feel that the stewarding/security team should have been more on the ball.

The reason the stewards are so reluctant to kick racists/violent people out is that they don't have the capacity to deal with something larger scale that could start from trying to remove an individual and for public safety at that time even though they have punched somebody is it better to keep that person in ground rather than try remove them and cause a bigger incident.

Agree with the one way system, have home fans go past the tunnel and bar and in that way for future games. Our supporters not fighting back I was very impressed with and I think that was partly down to deterrent as they didn't want to be ejected or banned, had they been not so calm that could have been very nasty.

Last edited by Chipp_Bluebird (08/11/2023 1:58 PM)