Stewards

[Behindu]

It has to be said on the other hand that amonsgt our fans there are a few who are possibly unequalled in terms of their negative qualities - rudeness and confrontation is not confined to the wearers of reflective jackets.

The obvious difference of course being, Behindu, that one set of people are the customers and the other set are employees who are expected to provide customer service .

I'm not sure that statement really means anything does it ?

[Silver Fox]

Don't you know the customer is always right? No matter what they say or do?

[Behindu]

Don't you know the customer is always right? No matter what they say or do?

You wouldn't be providing very good customer service if you simply allowed the customer to get what they thought they wanted....

[Huntley & Palmer]

Am I the only person that has zero interaction with Stewards?

Nope, never had to speak to one in my life in the North and have enjoyed myself as much as any of the other fans in the East Stand that feel they need to gesticulate to the away fans

[Jerry St Clair]

Nope, never had to speak to one in my life in the North and have enjoyed myself as much as any of the other fans in the East Stand that feel they need to gesticulate to the away fans

Do you get a better view from your elevated postion of self-righteousness?

I've been spoken to by stewards before - once for standing while we were taking a succession of corners and once for having a lightweight, plastic bicycle pump in my ruck sack.

None of my actions broke ground regulations, I was pleasant and polite both times yet I was still spoken to as if I were the scum of the earth.

[Hugo Boss]

I'm not aggressive.

So we'd never see you deliberately trying to kick someone then in a retaliation attack??!!

[zac naloen]

Am I the only person that has zero interaction with Stewards?

Nope, never had to speak to one in my life in the North and have enjoyed myself as much as any of the other fans in the East Stand that feel they need to gesticulate to the away fans

I congratulated the Stewards on doing a good job controlling the away fans once.

It's possibly the only time they've ever managed to do it though.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Am I the only person that has zero interaction with Stewards?

Nope, never had to speak to one in my life in the North and have enjoyed myself as much as any of the other fans in the East Stand that feel they need to gesticulate to the away fans

Thats not quite true though, is it - Ive seen you more than once bantering with Clive!! Which we all do - thats why he's there.

I often say hello to the steward on the way in because he sold me a Toots and The Maytals album once and the least I can do is say 'hello'. Apart from that, despite being the usual loud, slightly drunk, annoying and tiresome football fan like the rest, Im not surrounded by despots who flinch at a man standing up and occassionally swearing. [Then again, despite being loud and annoying, Im in no way looking for trouble]

The nearest Ive got is being told to sit down by a nineteen year old, but there is a part of my brain that really objects to being told what to do by teenagers, so I refused and he got the Police, not realising that i hate being told what to do by Police even more. I eventually relented, because the WPC was quite cute.

I dont think this happened at Reading, so Im not sure what my point is.

Ive also got home from a game to find I had a stanley knife in my bag!

[Skin]

atmosphere before stewards came up and moaned making us sit down > everyone sat on their ass!!

FACT

Absolutely.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Nope, never had to speak to one in my life in the North and have enjoyed myself as much as any of the other fans in the East Stand that feel they need to gesticulate to the away fans

Do you get a better view from your elevated postion of self-righteousness?

I've been spoken to by stewards before - once for standing while we were taking a succession of corners and once for having a lightweight, plastic bicycle pump in my ruck sack.

None of my actions broke ground regulations, I was pleasant and polite both times yet I was still spoken to as if I were the scum of the earth.

Not at all, I just don't feel the need to make an utter twat of myself by gesticulating to away fans, that was my point. You seem to have been rather unlucky then JSC, perhaps you should come and sit in the North?

[handbags_harris]

I'm not aggressive.

So we'd never see you deliberately trying to kick someone then in a retaliation attack??!!

Good point, well presented. Moment of weakness on a football pitch, and here I might add my behaviour on a football pitch is generally somewhat different to my behaviour off it

[handbags_harris]

I personally had a situation just before the Everton game where down in the concourse one of the senior stewards approached me from behind, pulled me around by the shirt sleeve and almost poked my chest through sheer force of pointing whilst stating that if I consistently continued to stand throughout the game as I had at the Chelsea game I'd be ejected

That sounds like assault to me, and IMHO you should have taken his name and reported it back to the club, Tango's are not allowed to assault fans in this way.

I didn't think anything of it at the time, nothing more than a steward wanting a confrontation. Not interested in making a complaint unless the incident is serious. This is mere trivia really.

[bcubed]

Meanwhile it was like a Benny Hill sketch in the SE corner. During the first half at 0-0:
First one steward came up (just as the atmosphere was building) telling everyone to sit down. Ignored.
So then he goes back down and after an emergency meeting at the bottom 2 stewards come up. Ignored.
They go back down (atmosphere actually quite good by now), another conference at the botom, 3 stewards come up. Ignored.
This goes on and on until 6 stewards come up pestering everyone to death, just when it was getting really noisy, everyone sits.
Alas, atmoshphere dies.
Thats when I noticed how cold it was as well.

You might have noticed that the Arsenal fans in the front section of the away end were being pestered all night by the stewards for persistent standing, so it's hardly as if RFC fans were being singled out

simply not true.
From up close in the East stand I could see some, but very little intervention and none of it was productive - They stood all game.
When this happens, it cetainly makes you feel that you are being singled out and doesn't seem to happen at most other grounds

[Sharpy]

FLTLR is going to try and steward y25 for us sometime soon

[The 17 Bus]

I personally had a situation just before the Everton game where down in the concourse one of the senior stewards approached me from behind, pulled me around by the shirt sleeve and almost poked my chest through sheer force of pointing whilst stating that if I consistently continued to stand throughout the game as I had at the Chelsea game I'd be ejected

That sounds like assault to me, and IMHO you should have taken his name and reported it back to the club, Tango's are not allowed to assault fans in this way.

I didn't think anything of it at the time, nothing more than a steward wanting a confrontation. Not interested in making a complaint unless the incident is serious. This is mere trivia really.

and there's the rub, you could have made it uncomfortable for him but you just let it go, on too many occasions the Tangos do not let it go, and every minor incident is treated as serious.

[Compo's Hat]

FLTLR is going to try and steward y25 for us sometime soon

Doubt it will be in Y25.

Anyway, how did you know that?

[Huntley & Palmer]

Meanwhile it was like a Benny Hill sketch in the SE corner. During the first half at 0-0:
First one steward came up (just as the atmosphere was building) telling everyone to sit down. Ignored.
So then he goes back down and after an emergency meeting at the bottom 2 stewards come up. Ignored.
They go back down (atmosphere actually quite good by now), another conference at the botom, 3 stewards come up. Ignored.
This goes on and on until 6 stewards come up pestering everyone to death, just when it was getting really noisy, everyone sits.
Alas, atmoshphere dies.
Thats when I noticed how cold it was as well.

You might have noticed that the Arsenal fans in the front section of the away end were being pestered all night by the stewards for persistent standing, so it's hardly as if RFC fans were being singled out

simply not true.
From up close in the East stand I could see some, but very little intervention and none of it was productive - They stood all game.
When this happens, it cetainly makes you feel that you are being singled out and doesn't seem to happen at most other grounds

The back rows were stood pretty consistently but there was a concerted effort to make the front blocks sit down. For nearly all of the first half there were tango's and stewards in the steps next to each block asking them to sit down.

[Behindu]

There are stewards specifically assigned at every game to trying to get the away fans to sit down.

I reckon Reading fans would be better off watching the game and supporting the team rather than second guessing the stewarding of the away fans.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Though of course, watching the crowd is sometimes more interesting

[cmonurz]

There are stewards specifically assigned at every game to trying to get the away fans to sit down.

I reckon Reading fans would be better off watching the game and supporting the team rather than second guessing the stewarding of the away fans.

Fans would be better off full stop if they went to football to watch the game, but there are more than a few pockets for whom the experience quite sadly has to include embarrassing away-fans baiting and altercations with stewards.

I sing and shout and swear and stand with the best of them, but like H&P, have never been approached by a steward or given them reason to.