West Ham secured their progress to the next round of the Con Cup with aplomb against fellow group favourites Anderlecht, a comfortable 2-0 win was on the cards courtesy of goals by Benrahma and Bowen before a late penalty gifted to the visitors ensured the traditional anxiety fans have grown accustomed to over the years had a chance to test the nerves. On another day Hammers could have put the game well and truly to bed early doors but David Moyes, mindful of the club's domestic commitments, had to maintain a balancing act and as such managed to get his team to do exactly what it said on the tin, win the game, top the group and find themselves needing only one more point from two games to avoid having to play extra conference cup games.
A less than pleasant aspect of the game was the extraordinary amount of pyrotechnics that were somehow deployed by the away fans, it wasn't just the odd flare being ignited it was more like a mini katyusha rocket assault because so many were sent into the West Ham home fans adjacent to the visitors. The Stewards, most of whom are on minimum wages were powerless in the face of what they were dealing with and the situation was only brought under control when the riot police arrived towards the closing stages of the game.
Now anyone attending games at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium will tell you of the 'finicity' nature of the security searches carried out ahead of games, woe betide you if you happen to have a plastic bottle containing a soft drink with you that actually has a lid on it! You are generally asked tyo remove the top or not be allowed to pass without leaving the bottle or drinking the contents before being allowed to proceed to the game. So how come were SO MANY flares brought in by the away fans?
This is a serious question that needs a proper response from the club and the authorities, Anderlecht will most likely escape any form of 'real' sanction and West Ham will probably get fined because their fans had the temerity to throw back the burning projectiles that had been raining down on them...social media is ablaze with coverage, excuse the pun!
Sooner or later someone will smuggle something more sinister in, their is always that chance, but mitigating the risk is possible ONLY if the away fans, particularly those from abroad, are strenuously searched on entry as opposed to being waved through as they currently are, indeed they are actually escorted to the ground by the Police and then and it beggars belief, actually fast tracked into the ground with little or no heed given to searching anyone!
European nights are special and should be enjoyed thoroughly, but unless someone can get a handle on the types of security breaches seen tonight, including an aggressive pitch invader, then things could turn really ugly or even tragic.- Ed
Comments
Dont forget the one man pitch invasion Nev
U.E.F.A. will no doubt sanction us for failing to control the crowd...laughable when you see Frankfurt last season...Europe is it really worth it?.
as for something more serious i was in the away end at Newcastle the year the molotov cocktail was thrown into us and some poor lads trousers and leg on fire....So will U.E.F.A. do something about it? i suspect the last two letters of there name will tell you that.
yes agree
with you nev and bikeman some thing has got to change and some one has to be in charge of the away fans and take responsibility almost strip searching the home fans and escorting the away fans without searches to there seats is appalling and is double standards at the very least .
It's an absolute joke
English fans cause trouble & the book is thrown at them! But these cowardly foreign fans with their flares,their so called 'ultras' attacking fans at odds of 50 - 1,seem to get away pretty much scot free...havnt the dilldos or brady grasped yet that these foreign pr*cks all do it when they come to the L.S?? I despair,as others have said stewards paid minimum wage are having to deal with these tossers,no wonder there is trouble
I personally think the United
I personally think the United Kingdom as a whole is being shit on from a great height,we suffer the lot,if we dare to say anything about the Daily Dingy lot coming over we are racialists,we are supposed to open our arms to all an integrate with them and make them welcome,they dont want us to do that,they come and start their own enclaves and bring our areas down,you see it in all the cities,musnt say anything though no no......Now we are seing it in football,the foreigners come over and can do what they like,i sit on an end seat,sometimes my foot may be on the stairway,and i get asked to put my leg in,but flame throwing,ripping the seats out is acceptable....Weve been too easy.