Rovers complain to Football League over Blues call off (From This Is Local London)

What exactly do Rovers hope to get out of this? The comments from their chairman Nick Higgs in this paper earlier in the week showed he has absolutely no grasp of the danger to Bristol Rovers supporters from the lightning OUTSIDE of the away end, not to mention for players on the pitch or the waterlogged state of the pitch.
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Incidently, has Mr Higgs apologised for the behaviour the morons his club brought along who vandalised WWFC facilities?

Desperation?

You don't really think Mr. Higgs is going to apologise for his supporters behaviour !! He dos'nt even now the meaning of an apology, he is only interested in getting the FA to alter the abandonment, typical attitude expected after the game was abandoned.

At best the WWfc Safety officer panicked - at worst he cheated! Neither is good for Football.

Why was the alleged danger area between the back of the stand and the Pylon not fenced/roped off? Why were no hazard signs in place? Why were Rovers fans kept in a "dangerous" stand for 30 mins. after the abandonment - they should have been evacuated as soon as the "alleged" lightning strike was noticed ? Why were they then made to walk through the danger area with no sign of WWfc safety officers to be seen. WWfc have a lot of questions to answer, for the integrity of the game.

Ardent Pirate wrote:
At best the WWfc Safety officer panicked - at worst he cheated! Neither is good for Football.

Why was the alleged danger area between the back of the stand and the Pylon not fenced/roped off? Why were no hazard signs in place? Why were Rovers fans kept in a "dangerous" stand for 30 mins. after the abandonment - they should have been evacuated as soon as the "alleged" lightning strike was noticed ? Why were they then made to walk through the danger area with no sign of WWfc safety officers to be seen. WWfc have a lot of questions to answer, for the integrity of the game.

Furthermore.......Wh
y was the game not stopped when there was lightning near to the ground during the teeth of the storm, rather than when the electrical activity had died down? Why were Rovers subs allowed onto the pitch for a kick about when there was such a risk of a lightning strike that the game had to be stopped? And if this risk was so great why was a member of the ground staff allowed to wander around the playing area clutching a metal fork? And finally if the proximity of the Dreams Stand to a pylon means that fans are put at risk during electrical storm activity how on Earth is the stadium given a safety certificate?

Bristol Rovers will never change always have and always will be bad losers.And please will somebody at that club sort out the unruly supporters that follow them.

True blue says "
Bristol Rovers will never change always have and always will be bad losers.And please will somebody at that club sort out the unruly supporters that follow them."

Didn't realise that we lost. Thought we won the game fair & square. All our fans know it was a stich-up, most of your intelligent fans - that excludes you - know the same.

There are questions to be answered and hopefully the football league will give an impartial and honest answer.

Ardent. Thankyou for that at least we have intlligent fans !!! Not a bunch of morons hell bent on making trouble when they don't like the decision.

eastvillelad31 wrote:

Ardent Pirate wrote:
At best the WWfc Safety officer panicked - at worst he cheated! Neither is good for Football.

Why was the alleged danger area between the back of the stand and the Pylon not fenced/roped off? Why were no hazard signs in place? Why were Rovers fans kept in a "dangerous" stand for 30 mins. after the abandonment - they should have been evacuated as soon as the "alleged" lightning strike was noticed ? Why were they then made to walk through the danger area with no sign of WWfc safety officers to be seen. WWfc have a lot of questions to answer, for the integrity of the game.

Furthermore.......Wh

y was the game not stopped when there was lightning near to the ground during the teeth of the storm, rather than when the electrical activity had died down? Why were Rovers subs allowed onto the pitch for a kick about when there was such a risk of a lightning strike that the game had to be stopped? And if this risk was so great why was a member of the ground staff allowed to wander around the playing area clutching a metal fork? And finally if the proximity of the Dreams Stand to a pylon means that fans are put at risk during electrical storm activity how on Earth is the stadium given a safety certificate?

The stand was the safest place to be during the storm, and the game wasn't called off because the stand was unsafe. Are you seriously criticising WWFC for not putting your fans into greater danger by evacuating the stand?
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Questions about why the game wasn't suspended during the thunder storm have to be addressed to the referee. In my opinion he's completely lost control of the situation and refused to make a decision on calling the game off due to a waterlogged pitch, and roped the safety officer in to cover his hide.
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Questions about the safety certificate of the stand will have to be put to Wycombe District Council and the Footballing Licensing Authority. Seeing you appear to be such an armchair expert on awarding safety certificates to sporting venues you clearly have something to tell them that they clearly missed.
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The alleged absence of stewards from
the away end exit can probably be explained by the amount that had to be drafted in to the club office to protect our staff from the threatening behaviour and vile language coming from your less-than-gracious fellow Gasheads, not to mention trying to catch the culprits of the vandalism of our facilities.
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And Wycombe Wanderers aren't taking lessons on sporting integrity from sprinkler aficionados like yourselves!

Bill Sheppard Says..... "Questions about the safety certificate of the stand will have to be put to Wycombe District Council and the Footballing Licensing Authority. Seeing you appear to be such an armchair expert on awarding safety certificates to sporting venues you clearly have something to tell them that they clearly missed.

Yes, thats already been done - and by the way WWfc REALLY DO need to take lessons on sporting integrity, hopefully by the Football league!

I am not really interested in one individual's opinion on the referee and the pitch conditions.
The game was called off by an employee from WWFC not an independent referee or League official. The way that this appears in terms of objectiveness does seem to be rather open to question. As does the duty of care or potentially lack of it that WWFC had for the conscientious member of the ground staff and Rovers players that were allowed onto the pitch in such dangerous conditions.
Also I do not think that it is unreasonable to question the risk assessment procedure that WWFC followed after the Dreams Stand was "hit by lightning".

Did WWFC 'do it right?' is what it boils down to.

Let the people who have no urge to get personal and opinionated investigate a situation, that appears to have been mismanaged at the very least, and let them report back to all in an open and transparent way.

eastvillelad31 wrote:
I am not really interested in one individual's opinion on the referee and the pitch conditions.
The game was called off by an employee from WWFC not an independent referee or League official. The way that this appears in terms of objectiveness does seem to be rather open to question. As does the duty of care or potentially lack of it that WWFC had for the conscientious member of the ground staff and Rovers players that were allowed onto the pitch in such dangerous conditions.
Also I do not think that it is unreasonable to question the risk assessment procedure that WWFC followed after the Dreams Stand was "hit by lightning".

Did WWFC 'do it right?' is what it boils down to.

Let the people who have no urge to get personal and opinionated investigate a situation, that appears to have been mismanaged at the very least, and let them report back to all in an open and transparent way.

If you're not interested in the referee's decision not to take the players off when it was thunder and lightening, thus endangering players' safety just because your team was winning then that just shows what sort of a 'supporter' you are.
And I'm sure the readers of the Bucks Free Press have no interest in your amateurish ground safety assessments and baffling desire to be evacuated from a safe stand in the middle of a thunder storm into a more dangerous situation outside of the ground. During the height of the storm Rovers fans were kept in the stand, where they were successfully shielded from the strike in their vicinity by the structure of the stand. What more did you expect WWFC to do? (incidently, if the area where away supporters are allocated at the Memorial Ground was struck by lightening, then there would be serious injuries, if not deaths.)

BillSheppard says "And I'm sure the readers of the Bucks Free Press have no interest in your amateurish ground safety assessments and baffling desire to be evacuated from a safe stand in the middle of a thunder storm into a more dangerous situation outside of the ground. During the height of the storm Rovers fans were kept in the stand, where they were successfully shielded from the strike in their vicinity by the structure of the stand". ........ Make your mind up Bill, if you are now saying the stand was safe - inferring the pylon behind the stand was safe - Why was the game abandoned???

Please try and read what was said in my last post and inwardly digest it before putting words into my mouth.

I stand by what was said and hear no impartial or reasoned answers to some basic questions. The main point being did WWFC do it right?

There is no need to get personal about all this, I am not interested in the blinkered views and o pinons of one individual but am calling for the process that surrounds last week's abandonment to be investigated.

Along with that I do question whether WWFC did follow its duty of care to all those present at the game in a diligent way.

If WWFC did it right then they have nothing to worry about. But maybe there is a bit of panic spreading around Adams Park as WWFC is now refusing to refund the visiting fans. The reasons for such a U-turn I am sure will be justified but I cannot think of a reason why, unless WWFC may believe that there will be no replay.

Are we be getting a bit of 1930s Soviet-style news manipulating here - with events becoming non-events and being scrubbed from the record, while alternative versions of what happened become accepted as fact?
I have just looked for the ‘Angry scenes as Match is called off’ headline here, which had about two dozen posts on it, and was posted at about 8.30 on 25 August, the day of the match, and can’t find it – however there is a headline: ‘Rain rescues Blues as match abandoned’, apparently posted on 25 August, minutes after the match was abandoned - (see: http://www.bucksfree
press.co.uk/sport/98
94316.Rain_rescues_B
lues_as_match_abando
ned/) and another one ‘No complaints as Blues match abandoned’ http://www.bucksfree
press.co.uk/sport/98
94359.No_complaints_
as_Blues_match_aband
oned/#commentsList)
Yesterday the comments on the ‘Angry scenes’ headline were already being edited and now it has disappeared – what is going on here Comrades Carswell, Feldberg and Stalin – sorry Carswell, Feldberg and Cohen?

Are we be getting a bit of 1930s Soviet-style news manipulating here - with events becoming non-events and being scrubbed from the record, while alternative versions of what happened become accepted as fact?
I have just looked for the ‘Angry scenes as Match is called off’ headline here, which had about two dozen posts on it, and was posted at about 8.30 on 25 August, the day of the match, and can’t find it – however there is a headline: ‘Rain rescues Blues as match abandoned’, apparently posted on 25 August, minutes after the match was abandoned - (see: http://www.bucksfree
press.co.uk/sport/98
94316.Rain_rescues_B
lues_as_match_abando
ned/) and another one ‘No complaints as Blues match abandoned’ http://www.bucksfree
press.co.uk/sport/98
94359.No_complaints_
as_Blues_match_aband
oned/#commentsList)
Yesterday the comments on the ‘Angry scenes’ headline were already being edited and now it has disappeared – what is going on here Comrades Carswell, Feldberg and Stalin – sorry Carswell, Feldberg and Cohen?

Mr Stape wrote:
Are we be getting a bit of 1930s Soviet-style news manipulating here - with events becoming non-events and being scrubbed from the record, while alternative versions of what happened become accepted as fact?
I have just looked for the ‘Angry scenes as Match is called off’ headline here, which had about two dozen posts on it, and was posted at about 8.30 on 25 August, the day of the match, and can’t find it – however there is a headline: ‘Rain rescues Blues as match abandoned’, apparently posted on 25 August, minutes after the match was abandoned - (see: http://www.bucksfree

press.co.uk/sport/98

94316.Rain_rescues_B

lues_as_match_abando

ned/) and another one ‘No complaints as Blues match abandoned’ http://www.bucksfree

press.co.uk/sport/98

94359.No_complaints_

as_Blues_match_aband

oned/#commentsList)
Yesterday the comments on the ‘Angry scenes’ headline were already being edited and now it has disappeared – what is going on here Comrades Carswell, Feldberg and Stalin – sorry Carswell, Feldberg and Cohen?

Oh - it's back again - http://www.bucksfree
press.co.uk/news/989
4400.Angry_scenes_af
ter_Wanderers_match_
abandoned/