Stevenage v Swindon pre match chat and matchday thread

[Jimmy HaveHave]

I totally agree and if you notice they tend to do it away at the small teams

[DiV]

Another decent result. So much shite on here again today which seems the norm now on the match day threads this season. Empty cans make the most noise. Shhhhhhh

I reckon a can of small stones would make more noise than an empty can.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

If your reaction to the stewards being a bit shit is to try and tear the stand apart, then you’re still a cunt.

Some of our fans are pathetic wankers, no two ways about it and I wouldn't try to defend them. But the stewards have to be aware of the type of people they are dealing with. Unfortunately a lot (by no means all) of stewards are pathetic wankers themselves. When you have one group of dumb dumbs trying to control another group of dumb dumbs looking for the slightest excuse to kick off, it's never going to end well.

I don't know the answer but it seems to me 'matchday steward' is one of those countless jobs that is totally undervalued and not even seen as a proper job, often by those doing the job themselves. Other examples are supermarket workers, bin men, street cleaners. There are dozens more but the point is they are ALL important jobs and should be valued.

Dealing with large crowds of people is difficult at the best of times. But when you consider that a lot of those people are going to be in an aggressive state of mind in the first place and that mood will have been fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol and/or drugs and it becomes almost impossible. That is unless you have adequate training and experience, you are working as a team to a set plan and are getting paid something approaching decent money. It should be seen as a profession and not just something people do for a few quid on the side.

But yeah, a minority (albeit quite a sizeable minority) of our fans are low life and make me want to throw up.  

[Peter Venkman]

Can't disagree with any of that OST.

Having been a senior steward at the CG for nearly 15 years back in the 80s and 90s I can confirm that there are in general 4 types of football steward.

1, really does a good job and enjoys the job.
2, overly officious little hitlers.
3, only doing it for the wage.
4, not bothered about the job but go for the chance to watch football for free and get paid in the process.

[AMayesIng]

Good insight PV. Which type were you? As 'Senior Steward' I'm guessing 1, with a bit of 4?

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Can't disagree with any of that OST.

Having been a senior steward at the CG for nearly 15 years back in the 80s and 90s I can confirm that there are in general 4 types of football steward.

1, really does a good job and enjoys the job.
2, overly officious little hitlers.
3, only doing it for the wage.
4, not bothered about the job but go for the chance to watch football for free and get paid in the process.

You must have witnessed some right knobs during that period when football hooliganism was still very much alive.

[Peter Venkman]

Good insight PV. Which type were you? As 'Senior Steward' I'm guessing 1, with a bit of 4?

100%

[DiV]

Also, I guess stewarding isn’t (m)any people’s full time, day jobs.
I imagine a lot to be agency as well.

My dad was a steward in the early 90s
Think he mostly just went to watch the football.

[Formerly Drummer Boy]

There is no fucking excuse for knob fan behaviour, shit stewards or not, sometimes our fans, especially at away games, embarress us as a club.

The stewards are shit? fine, stewards are shit at almost every ground but that doesn't give anyone the excuse to throw shit on the pitch, rip up seats and generally act like a thug, it just brings shame on the club and fanbase.

Maybe one of the things I missed out from my rundown in the turn of events, a particular steward was goading a small group of Swindon fans who ended up saying to said Swindon fans 'come on then'. I appreciate people should be the bigger person and not resort to throwing fists but I don't quite understand what else said steward expected to happen by telling them to start a fight. That steward ended up getting dragged off by his colleagues after it all kicked off.

It's half a dozen of one and half a dozen of the other but it seems everyone who didn't witness what happened has squarely apportioned 100% of the blame on the fans, sadly, including the club.

I've personally fired off a complaint to Stevenage for the way they handled the entire match. Yes, Swindon fans did shit they shouldn't have done but the stewards enabled and let it happen when they are supposed to be the ones in control.

[Peter Venkman]

Also, I guess stewarding isn’t (m)any people’s full time, day jobs.
I imagine a lot to be agency as well.

My dad was a steward in the early 90s
Think he mostly just went to watch the football.

I have worked with your dad.

Stewarding at Swindon went over from club controlled to agency around 93ish IIRC we went from being emplyed by STFC to being People Recruitment in Commercial road.

We often had loads of stewards from Reading and Slough shipped in for home games, they were in the "in it for the wage" category and were totally disinterested in even being there, I expect this to still be the case.

Back then I would say that 75% of all stewards were in it just so they could watch the match and get money for doing so. All were Swindon fans that did that.

One benefit of People Recruitment taking over was we had the chance to swteward Wembley Internationals and England cricket games at the Oval and Lords. We also did a lot of away games too in the Premier League and the following couple of seasons.

In short, stewarding needs better training than a lot of clubs offer, just turn up and keep an eye on things seems to be the way now at any level under head steward or "stand supervisor". We used to have Summer training sessions with the police held at the CG each year.

[Crackity Jones]

There was possibly the perfect opportunity to voice displeasure at the stewarding to Rob Angus at Half time when he and Clem joined our fans. Maybe the second half escalation could have been prevented?

[Peter Venkman]

Maybe one of the things I missed out from my rundown in the turn of events, a particular steward was goading a small group of Swindon fans who ended up saying to said Swindon fans 'come on then'. I appreciate people should be the bigger person and not resort to throwing fists but I don't quite understand what else said steward expected to happen by telling them to start a fight. That steward ended up getting dragged off by his colleagues after it all kicked off.

It's half a dozen of one and half a dozen of the other but it seems everyone who didn't witness what happened has squarely apportioned 100% of the blame on the fans, sadly, including the club.

I've personally fired off a complaint to Stevenage for the way they handled the entire match. Yes, Swindon fans did shit they shouldn't have done but the stewards enabled and let it happen when they are supposed to be the ones in control.

Personally I would have videoed him doing that and sent it straight to the club and police and made a formal complaint to his supervisor.

I know that in the heat of the moment thats not always possible though, but lets face it, one twat of a steward goads you then there is no need for it to resort in physical confrontation or violence especially when it brings the clubs name into disrepute and sometimes sanctions against the club.

Alcohol has a lot to answer for.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

There is a video on twitter showing stewards ushering away one of their own. Don’t know how to copy it from there to here!

[donkey]

I noticed that.

It could be a great option for Sundays when feeling a little delicate. I think I'll download it.

Bollocks to that, I've got the original on cassette.

[Posh Red]

There were Town fans ripping down advertising boards from the back of the stand long before the dick steward got into an argument with a Town fan.

It was generally fine & good humoured until it looked like we were going to lose, there’s no doubt that some fans were looking for a fight and they managed to get a Steward to react so it could give them a reason to kick off.

To be fair the Stewards shouldn’t react, and the dickhead that did should never be able to do the job again.