I'll bet you that the vast majority of those idiots on Sunday were in full time work. It was a complete lack of control after a full day on the ale that did it.

It is the lack of proper sanctions that causes it. These people walked past the stewards as if they were not there and having caused mayhem how many were arrested? None as far as I can see.

When I was a kid the Warrington Borough coppers had a minimum height of 6' 0". Most were 6'4 or more and a couple of them would have sorted those morons who would have finished up in the cells and been summarily dealt with.

The forces of law and order have been emasculated and now we have little rotund bespectacled figures who look more like the seven dwarfs in visi jackets rather than the huge coppers of my childhood. Successive governments have been responsible for this process and we are seeing more and more of these public order situations where the police are ineffectual and, if they dare to bare their teeth, they ate vilified by all and sundry.

The Widnes club and the Rugby League authorities have issued the usual pious platitudes and declarations of intent but they will sit back and hope it does not happen again, but it will and it is only a matter of time before the wheels come off big time.

Neither the clubs nor the police are prepared to invest the resources either to deal with the morons at the time or to track them down and bring them to book so these people think, with just cause, that they are fireproof

I find it a little frustrating that Widnes seem to be almost using this as a publicity exercise now, as they clamour to prove the great extents they are going to to identify the tools involved. I'm assuming they'll use this to help defend against a fine too.



The fact is, they didn't choose to make such a song and dance after the trouble at our place (though they did use their same 'tellus' email address!), so have to take their share of the blame.

Trouble is that as soon as an arrest is made, the arresting officer has to stay with that one individual and cannot deal with other incidents. There seemed to be 8 police officers at the ground - if each one had made an arrest that would have left over a hundred others on the pitch who they could do nothing about. When they know there will be substantial evidence to make retrospective arrests, there is no need to do so immediately if it weakens the police's ability to restore order.

You been reading something I posted elsewhere?

Don't think so, just common sense.

Something that some on the VT don't appear to possess.

What you say makes sense as far as it goes but,if you read further in my post, you will see that I complained at the lack of resources thrown at the problem. You saw about eight police officers you say but it is unlikely that they were all initially deployed inside the ground as the RL would have to pay for them. You will have noticed that they arrived when the worst of the disorder was over and some of the Widnes 'fans' were returning to their end of the ground. They were probably initially deployed on crowd control outside the ground and had to be brought in. It is usual for a token police presence in the ground and the 'policing' of the crowd is down to the stewards. So given the situation they where in, you are right in your argument. My argument is that such situations of insufficient undertrained, physically deficient people policing such events should not arise. After all, it is not as if Widnes do not have a reputation for loutish behaviour.

Incidentally, on the video I saw a Widnes fan was detained by the police, yet the media reported that no arrests were made which must mean that he was released without charge or reported for summons which, again is the cheapest way of dealing with him. But is it the most effective? I think not.

I suspect that if you knew how many uniformed police officers were on duty in the Wigan and Leigh area at 4.45pm last Sunday you would be unpleasantly surprised.

Dont remember seeing any police at the Wolves V Leeds game. IF that was the case, were the police at the Widnes V Cas game there because of a) policing policy of GMP, b) previous history of Widnes fans, c) they had actually been called to the game because of the issues before hand with bottles etc being thrown at coaches......or d) I was at the Saturday game with my eyes shut ?

Looking at them I would say they had come in after the pre-match problem with the coach. from their actions when they came on the pitch they didn't seem to have any public order expertise and looked like they had been cobbled together at short notice.

Interesting thought, there wasn't a hint of anything unsavoury at our game. However, from an off field perspective I'm really quite relieved that we weren't playing Widnes as Lord knows how bad it could've been? We aren't exactly lilywhite ourselves at times and I think the idiots on the pitch might just have got a reaction and some might say what they deserved in front of a national TV audience.



There but for the grace of God....