Did bad reporting harm the attendance ?

[Gullscorer]

Rovers fan on their forum said there was never any trouble, but their coach was escorted out of Torquay by police motor bikes and a police car. What was all that about? Certainly it was the police who talked up the possibility/probability of trouble. Palm FM merely had the stupidity to promulgate it. The outcome was some nice easy overtime money for the police, paid for by the club. And it seemed to me there was a ridiculously large police presence yesterday. It does make you wonder, sometimes, about our police..

[Gullscorer]

This from Bideford Gas, on the Bristol Rovers Fans' Forum:
From what we saw the Police enjoyed their day out and no doubt the overtime money will be well received.
Have never seen so many police at a game, an absolute joke in my opinion.
Feel sorry for a small club like Torquay who will have to foot the bill!
The only trouble for want of a better word we saw was the steward supervisor in our end who seemed to have a bee in his bonnet about something in the first half, indeed he looked to be the one instigating the trouble!
Did notice he had disappeared from the away end after halftime.
Anyone else see this idiot performing?
Oh almost forgot, three motorcycle cops and one car to escort a supporters club coach out of Torquay, another case of over reaction on their part!

And GasHeadBlues:
Didn't witness any trouble today despite the best attempts of Steward No. 46 behind the goal before kick-off who seemed hell bent on stirring up trouble, he looked like a nasty piece of work and I was delighted to note that after he went over to the police control point he was unseen for most of the rest of the game. perhaps the old bill cooled him off a bit.

[BritishGAS]

Hey Chaps, How have you all been?

I havn't been on here for a fair while, after that horrible cretin got the boot, I thought I would leave you guy's in peace for a while.

I just came back to say what a credit to the 4th division we both were yesterday, it was a cracking game with a fantastic atmosphere.

It is very nice to hear that us Gasheads impressed you yesterday, during the summer after the Paul Buckle affair, I think the relationship between us both became a bit strained.

But hopefully this has put all that behind us, and we can be mates

I sincerely hope you get promoted come may, it is just unfortunate that Mark Mghee was not installed a couple of months sooner as I feel we would be up there with you too, but it came a tad to late.

Good luck for the remainder of the season, and fingers crossed you get a top three spot.

[Glostergull]

Yes there were at least two bays at the defending end of the Popside which were empty or at least sparsely populated.

I would have said 4,500 was an accurate assessment of the capacity of the ground at present.

tufc4life1 wrote
I was stood up end and it wasn't completely packed but was close the only bit which was empty was the block by where players come out, reckon you could of got 50/100 more fans in the end at tops.
Found some of there songs funny and you could hear them laughing at some of our songs the banter was fantastic, had most the ground singing hands up if you hate buckle.

Not sure how many you can get in a bay but if you take an average between those two figures I still think that would make the pop side really packed without reaching the full capacity.

Nice to see us all friends again and long may it continue.
One thing that really troubles me from reports that are coming from The Rovers Fans in particular is the bahaviour or steward no48 and the large number of Police in attendance with the escort into and away from Torquay. I came into Torqauy Myself at around 2pm and was surprised at the large number of Police Officers with motorcylces and Squad cars to stop Supporters stationed between Newton Abbot and Kingskerswell. What on earth have they been on.
Something really needs to be said about this. It seems as if they are tarring us all with a brush from the bad old days of the Large clubs which had a reputation for aggro. Rovers have never really had any history of Violence with Torquay and even though there was a strained relationship over the summer it never spilled into violence at the Mem when we played them up there so why would they do it here. Seems someone wanted to talk it up to justify a large payday. It needs to be stamped out just as surely as the trouble was years ago.,
And as for that Steward. I think there needs to be some sort of enquiry as to why this keep happening, It's no coincidance that other fans are reporting stewards who go over the top at our patch as well as we are. They are to serve us and keep the peace. Not to stir up trouble. it spoils our good name.

To all the Rovers fans. Thankyou. Anyone of you who wants to talk football will be wellcome at my Model Shop in Yate. We get all sorts of Footy Fans in there.

[Gullscorer]

Hey Chaps, How have you all been?

I havn't been on here for a fair while, after that horrible cretin got the boot, I thought I would leave you guy's in peace for a while.

I just came back to say what a credit to the 4th division we both were yesterday, it was a cracking game with a fantastic atmosphere.

It is very nice to hear that us Gasheads impressed you yesterday, during the summer after the Paul Buckle affair, I think the relationship between us both became a bit strained.

But hopefully this has put all that behind us, and we can be mates

I sincerely hope you get promoted come may, it is just unfortunate that Mark Mghee was not installed a couple of months sooner as I feel we would be up there with you too, but it came a tad to late.

Good luck for the remainder of the season, and fingers crossed you get a top three spot.

Thanks BG. Yes, that's what football is all about. Look forward to our teams meeting in League One the season after next. Best of luck.

[Dave]

To be fair to the Steward , he was in charge of that area and clearly had been placed under a lot of pressure because of this scare story, he just needed to calm down a bit , and with stewards and police, they are damned if they do, damned if they don't, so we must be fair.

I just do not understand why there was a need for such hype because it was Rovers, there was no more or less risk of trouble with Rovers as there was with Plymouth and Swindon who both sold out our away end, and Oxford who brought a fair few down, and remember the 2009 F.A cup tie with Oxford I do, there was a group of Oxford fan's in the home end that day who tried to start trouble with us, I was caught right in the middle of them. yet no hype whn they cam down.

If we are promoted, our Police/ security, and club are going to have to learn fast how to handle large away supporter numbers, we could have one or both Sheffield clubs, looking at the bottom of the Championship , Portsmouth are as good as down, and the likes of Forest, Millwall, Bristol City and Coventry are by no means safe.

The fan's fo these clubs have a different mentality to us, not saying they are trouble makers far from it, however football is a way of life to them, and they will not worry about a 5 hour drive to Torquay on a cold wet and windy day, nor will they stay at home with a mug of hot chocolate, as some of our fan's will.

All I am saying is welcome away fan's , treat them the same way as how you want to be treated when visting there grounds, and be on hand to deal with problems if they happen, dont predict them and make yourself look foolish.

[kbgas]

good morning all
just popped in to say we had a great weekend , and were made to feel welcome everywhere we went
have to agee with forevertufc about the steward , we were stood near him , he did nothing wrong and was only trying to keep the gangway clear ,

[Glostergull]

Rovers fan on their forum said there was never any trouble, but their coach was escorted out of Torquay by police motor bikes and a police car. What was all that about? Certainly it was the police who talked up the possibility/probability of trouble. Palm FM merely had the stupidity to promulgate it. The outcome was some nice easy overtime money for the police, paid for by the club. And it seemed to me there was a ridiculously large police presence yesterday. It does make you wonder, sometimes, about our police..

I am pretty sure according to the law that Football clubs are only liable to pay for any Police on duty if they are actually inside the premises of the stadium. That in large part is why Stewards entered into the argument. It lowered the cost of Policing. Outside the stadium and around the Town. That is covered by the normal policing budget..
I agree it seemed an easy overtime payment and I never heard anything to suggest the Police had anything to do except enjoy the sunshine.
Even the More tiddly members of Both clubs don't generally need locking up much nowadays, Just leave em in a deckchair on the beach somewhere and they'll sober up and wake up to a lovely view. assuming they aren't floating away on the tide of course.