Firstly, I want to start by thanking the 858 fans who made their way to Latimer Park, to enjoy Saturday’s match against Leamington, and before you think I’ve gone mad I know the gate was 860. But sadly 2 ‘fans’ let the club and themselves down. One was identified for throwing a lighter onto the pitch and another was reported for making an inappropriate comment towards a match official.
The ‘fan’ who thought it was acceptable to throw a lighter at the opposing goalkeeper was identified by club stewards and ejected from the ground. As you would expect he has been banned from upcoming matches. Unfortunately, the fan who made the offensive comments has not been identified yet, but the official’s report suggests it probably was a home fan (due to the location of the incident). We will be reviewing match footage, to see if we can spot the incident.
We know that passions run high, and frustration can boil over, but there is no excuse for throwing any item onto the pitch. Likewise, we appreciate that a comment can be acceptable to one, whilst offending another, but the nature of the alleged comment falls into the discrimination category and if identified this fan will receive a ban too. Neither action will be tolerated by the club, and we ask our fans for your support in dealing with this problem. Anyone who breaches these rules will be ejected and will be subject to a lengthy ban.
The club is working hard to improve our facilities and to do this we need to increase our average gate and attract new sponsors. Let’s not allow the actions of the minority, and we really do mean the minority, spoil things for the rest of us.
We look forward to welcoming our fans to our next home fixture on Saturday 19th February 2022, against York City.
David Mahoney
Chairman
