Sounds fair enough. Everyone else's jobs seems like a piece of pss until you actually try doing it.

It appears our award winning Stadium is actually quite crap...and the architects who designed it did not consult with the Safety Police during the process....they certainly didn't consult the fans at any time...did they ?

Let's hope HDOne doesn't end up leaving us with further safety issues...like no fans are allowed at matches at all because all the shops and boutiques will be at risk....

When we played the semi final 1st leg play off against Millwall at home we all left the stadium together.
The Millwall fans who traveled on coaches 'crossed' with us to get to their transport.
Those who had come by car walked along side us back to their cars..(I went towards Fartown up past the 'Slubbers' even talking to one or two of them.

No Problems of any kind.

Why is this fixture treated differently ?

About 3000 more away fans and some old 'faces' coming out of the woodwork for their one game of the season.

Armageddon then...? Just like the Hull City game...as was witnessed with 5,500 drunken lunatics creating mayhem in Barnsley...I think not.

Yeah they were going to cause untold bother weren't they !
Even though there had been nothing reported before hand...or since ?

Only at Hudders apparently

Standard stock answer from Robinson he sent me something similar when I emailed him(and Hough/Clibbens who are yet to respond)

I asked the following questions
1) Who makes this decision
2) who has the final say on the decision? HTAFC,WYP or the Safety Officer
3) In the past it has been stated that HTSA(Huddersfield Town Supporters Association) would be consulted on these matters. So were they part of the discussions over the exit strategy?
4) can you explain how you come to this decision?
5) I've been fed the excuse before that the 'safety certificate' won't allow 4000 away fans to be held in the stand afterwards so could you please tell me what the limit is on away fans being held back according to the safety certificate
6) is this more about costs than health and safety.
7) why does this only happen at the John Smiths Stadium and not at Elland Road, on my past 3 visits to Elland Rd we have been let out at the same time as home fans and never seen any trouble

Good questions Wakey...what were his answers ?

This is his response.

Thank you for your email requesting information regarding the exit strategy to be put in place for the coming game against Leeds Utd. To be held at the John Smiths Stadium on the 26th October.

Contrary to the common misconception, there is no 'Hold Back' against either sets of fans at this Stadium. Both are allowed to leave at any time. The purpose of the strategy, agreed jointly by KSDL, the West Yorkshire Police and Huddersfield Town Football Club, is to take reasonable steps to prevent disorder in the area of the Stadium coach park. The decision is made after taking several factors into consideration.

For as short a period as possible after the game ends, steps will be put in place to minimise the mixing of opposing sets of fans to reduce the potential for disorder and to facilitate as quick and safe an exit from the Stadium as possible by all fans. As some Huddersfield fans will be temporarily restricted from leaving via Stadium Way, likewise some Leeds Utd fans will be restricted from leaving via the North end of the Stadium.

This has proved to be a successful tactic in the previous matches involving Leeds Utd. and has been agreed by the Police, KSDL and the Club. Of course, the Club listen to the representations of HTSA and bring their concerns to the discussions.

The John Smiths Stadium is not designed to facilitate the 'hold back' of spectators inside the Stadium. I am unable to comment on why this does not happen at other stadia across the country.

I am sorry to read you think this strategy is ridiculous and that you feel we are treating "the away fans like royalty and the home fans like muck" as we believe we are treating all fans equally and do not accept your comment to be the case. We are however, taking reasonable steps to prevent disorder and to make a visit to this game as safe, enjoyable and as memorable as possible for all who attend.

As you will shortly be aware, HTFC are to comment further on this in the local media.

Well I agree with what they are doing.
After all its done in the nam of safety .
I now feel that my 17 and 18 year old sons can now go to the game with out getting a good kick in. I can now relax now knowing there going to be safe .

I think they are doing the right thing as well. By keeping the majority of troublemakers apart, surely it's got to put a lot of people's minds at rest about getting back home/car safely.
There are always going to be the odd few that slip through, like last year when we cut back through town terrace back to jewsons, two numpties walking towards town fans , mainly families, effing n jeffing looking for bother. Sadly they got it!
Derby matches are always highly charged and if by doing this it defuses sufficiently, then so be it.
I totally disagreed with how the Hull match was arranged. They were panicking as though half of the worlds worst serial killers were coming along the M62! And in the end, how many came, about 150. Could have been a cracking atmosphere as well.

Personally I don't know what all this hullabaloo is about. I attend most home matches, never see hardly any trouble, never feel threatened or inconvenienced, always arrive home safely, even after walking up the full length of Dalton Bank, awaiting to be picked up by my better half somewhere between there and Kirkheaton.

So for what it's worth, I reckon Town do a good job in policing matches, although some fans will always find something to moan about, otherwise they wouldn't be Town fans in the first place, would they?

So, Hoyley, Robinson, Cribbens, Robins & Co, you'll all do for me, so keep up the good work and to hell with the moaning minnies, because you'll never please them no matter whatever you do.

Mirf, I think you drink too much water with fluoride in it! People have a right to air their views or concerns. It's not 'moaning' as you put it, it's called having a point of view in a democracy.

As for the hold back, that isn't a hold back, but really is. I'm comfortable with the hold back when it comes to the Leeds fixture. There are those who would like to think that the Leeds and Huddersfield fans are brothers in arms. I would disagree, I've seen trouble in that part of the ground, outside the away end. Yes, there is a minority of numpties who want to converse with their fists. I'd rather have the inconvenience of staying at the ground a tad longer than for idiots causing chaos around the stadium, thus delaying my exit even longer.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

3 times acutely

Acutely too

Champers,

As long as they don't spend most of the game waving their hands and jumping up and down like their old man does, then they should be perfectly safe.

And oh LV69, stop f-cking moaning.

You got your wires crossed Mirf...I was quoting something Loui had said

I still suspect that Loui is Dean Hoyle on the wind up....

Mirf...I think you've missed the point (again)..

It's not so much about the kettling operation we have..despite the Police trying to say it isn't kettling...it's the blase' way in which it is announced not by KSDL, HTSA or WYPolice, but slipped into an article on ticket prices for the Leeds game.

There was no consultation, HTSA have made no comment and Town have made no comment..so the point is...This communicative club Dean Hoyle keeps telling us about...the one that listens to it's fans...that cares...you know...in actual fact they don't give a ferkin sheet about us.

Why don't they just admit it, and stop taking the peas...?

Hypocrites comes to mind...or worse, deluded.

It's the message this gives out..Now if you don't care one way or the other, fine...but personally I feel insulted to hear all this 'I am the BIG communicator' sheet...when in fact it's just so much kaka..

I find it amazing they can't answer a simple question about the safety certificate.

The only thing that i don't like about Dean , is his lack of ambition. He's happy to stick around the mid table of the championship for ever. No ambitious to reach the premier league at wall. He seems to talk the club down . Like saying we can't compete with the big boys in this league . Balaks to that i say. Look at Blackpool and Bradford Burnley Hull . There know bigger than us and all have been in the premier league recently.

I think Deano is still suffering from the t-shirts at Old Trafford fiasco...

To be honest I don't mind him talking it down a bit..it's not bound to be the truth anyway...but you wouldn't broadcast your intentions would you...

I also think as fans we have to realise that Deano's target of above mid table would be a sound achievement after last year. Having said that, we still have a long way to go..and by the time November comes round we could be in familiar territory ...

Thankfully Norwood and Paterson can now concentrate on getting stuck in for Town instead of saving themselves for that N Ireland World Cup rubbish..

Too many players are still hit and miss for me and without putting the mockers on for the Leicester game, we seem to have tightened up our leaky defence..

I think Dean is being totally realistic and honest when he says town are a selling club, and that the Championship is our level at this current time in our development.

Lets be honest, if we persist in selling our best players to balance the books then it will take an huge slice of luck, which Blackpool and other clubs had to reach the Premiership.

Town will never attract much more than 16,000/18000 fans now or in the future, no matter which league we are in and this is no where adequate to run a Premiership club, unless you are prepared to gamble and run up massive debts.

Being a successful businessman Deano fully understands the old adage that you cannot spend more than you earn, and their are plenty of examples of clubs who did, when you look at the current fortunes of such as Blackburn, Leeds, Wolves, Pompey, Sheffield United and others.

There will always be the odd club like Blackpool who spent little but still managed to reach the promised land and who is to say that Town couldn't follow them, although being realistic I reckon the Championship is our limit, unless of course we stop selling our best players and are prepared to gamble on our future and borrow more than we can afford. The only other option is to find a rich Sheik with more brass than sense, who can afford to bankroll us and write off any losses.

Too many clubs have already sacrificed their futures by chasing the Premiership dream, and I am fully behind Deano's current vision of building a club which is fully sustainable.