Just a quick reply for you regarding the identities of the people involved. The stewards were the ones that told us that they were locals who were Plymouth fans and were quite well known to them. And today, the Bideford manager has said that most of them are banned from Home Park. His first reaction after the game was to describe it as handbags, but now after properly reviewing the incident, along with photographs of an 8 year old Bideford boy crying his eyes out after those morons tried to make a name for themselves, they are now in the process of banning them from Bideford. The big guy must be known by someone, as he seems quite recognisable, so perhaps they could pass on the message to him that the little boy wasn't hurt, neither was the lad he pushed over, or the girl he punched.
As you may know, we are a new club in our 2nd season, but apart from the new name, we are still Hereford United. Same fans, same ground only difference is we actually win a few games now
Our support is our biggest problem though. An average 2800 for home games is one thing. When we go away and take an average of 500 to clubs used to playing in front of 50, that brings it's own problems. Some of them are nice for us, as clubs like to make as much money as possible from our visit and thus they order in extra beer and food, serve alcohol throughout the whole game, and allow us to stand anywhere in the ground and drink away to our hearts content. Which means being stood 3 foot from the touchline behind a wooden barrier. But what it also means is that when you've had a few too many, the idiots like the ones at Didcot behave like morons and get the club into a lot of trouble.
What it also means is that we are an easy target for local hooligans from other clubs who turn up looking for trouble, as they know there are never any police and very few stewards at matches. Last year we had banned Forest and Birmingham fans turn up for league games. In the FA vase at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire, Aldershot turned up. This year, not so bad. Only Oxford fans at our game at Wantage. Trouble is, like at Bideford, we don't take a mob of our own looking for trouble, so it's the innocents who get caught up in it. And it's why we are so furious with what happened on Saturday.