Liverpool apologise to United over cowardly fans

DanH84 · 19 Mar 2006 at 12:27

Reds apologise for cowardly fans
Copyright Press Association Ltd. Sunday, 19 March 2006

Liverpool have apologised to Manchester United for the behaviour of their fans during last month's highly-charged FA Cup tie at Anfield.

Liverpool stadium and operations manager Ged Poynton has written to United admitting standards of behaviour had "fallen short" of that expected.

Poynton added in the News of the World: "We hold our hands up as a club. We deplore what certain fans have done. I use the word coward very reservedly but I class anyone who wants to throw a coin or something else when they are leaving as cowards."

The club and Merseyside Police have carried out an investigation after a number of incidents where United fans at the Anfield Road end were attacked by home supporters. There was one incident of human excrement being thrown towards United supporters as well as coins and food being aimed in their direction.

Poynton added: "I am ashamed to admit in one case excrement was thrown. How low can you get? We did what we could, we tried to brush people down and compensate those involved."

Tensions between the rivals had been running higher than usual going into the February 18 match - won 1-0 by Liverpool - after a controversial end to a Premiership encounter between the sides the previous month.

United's Gary Neville had run to celebrate in front of Liverpool fans after Rio Ferdinand headed a later winner at Old Trafford.

The cup tie was also marred by a section of home fans taunting United's Alan Smith after breaking his leg late in the match.

I know there was quite a lot of debate as to what exactly had happened but fair play to them for coming out and apologising. At the end of the day it's not representative of most liverpool fans at all but excrement throwing is pretty nasty.

DanH84 · 19 Mar 2006 at 17:38

Youstolemyname said:
Im still waiting for my apology from Manchester Police and Man United's stadium manager for their lack of protection offered to Liverpool fans at each of the last Manchester United vs Liverpool matches at Old Trafford for the last 19 years. Each time I have been I have been spat at, had missiles of some description thrown and and been called a thieving murdering b****** by Man United fans.

Fair play to Ged for apologising for the poor behaviour of a minority of Liverpool fans. They were out of order for the poo-flinging. However, I doubt any of this would have come to light if Man United had won.

Give it a rest, your fans did bad. Of course it's not every 'pool fan but there's no point trying to alleviate that responsibility by having a go at the other clubs fans in return. If you had an issue then you know where to report it. Otherwise take it on the chin and just accept that in this instance it wasn't anyone else being out of order.

DanH84 · 19 Mar 2006 at 18:43

'Dear F.A. please tell Mr. Neville off for making a funny face at us when we'd just conceeded a goal.'
Signed Mr Coin Thrower himself J.C

'Dear F.A. please give us all a knighthood.'
Mr Gizzagong R.P

Liverpool and Liverpool fans I agree have a track record of taking things on the chin and not whinging about anything.

DanH84 · 20 Mar 2006 at 11:37

yeah, all the united fans were big nasties whereas the saintly scousers merely stood up for themselves by responding. Possibly to protect their grandmothers who they'd taken to todays game and were sharing a picnic with.

I'm sure the london press did acknowledge Liverpool fans decent nature when you knew Alan Smith was injured. You were so concerned you all went outside to applaud his ambulance as well didn't you?

The point of this thread was that some of your fans had done wrong however an apology had been received and there was even a comment that it's obviously only a minority of fans who'd act in such a way. What is more disturbing is the fact that certain fans have to come on and start bringing in other incidents to in some way either alleviate blame or to create a feeling that 'yes, well thats a tiny minority of Liverpool fans but all United fans do it.'

Saying that your guys don't start singing about Munich until after we've started the Heysel thing is obviously rubbish. Stating that Liverpool fans don't complain when something bad happens to them is rubbish, some of you whined to the police when a player made a nasty face to you so lets not talk about Scousers being proper men who all deserve a knighthood probably.

Simple fact is I'm sure lots of united fans are idiots but I also know that lots of liverpool fans are idiots as well. What I can't see is the weird defense mechanism to people who you have no idea about. I'll defend my club but I acknowledge that there are lots of people who support my club who i'd have very little in common with.

As your club have accepted the blame lies with their set of supporters on this issue then a response similar to

'God, what a bunch of idiots to do something like that. I hate having people like that at my club dragging the whole bunch of our names through the mud. Every club has a few idiots it's just a shame that it was ours today.'

Would have been nice off just one person.

Oh as for source it was on the fa website yesterday under associated press feed with the title 'reds apologise for cowardly fans' I don't know how to bring up archived feeds but feel free.

DanH84 · 20 Mar 2006 at 13:31

you misread it then.

DanH84 · 20 Mar 2006 at 13:42

'I know there was quite a lot of debate as to what exactly had happened but fair play to them for coming out and apologising. At the end of the day it's not representative of most liverpool fans at all but excrement throwing is pretty nasty.'

From the initial post -apart from the copy paste of the story itself. I changed the thread title from the report title from 'reds apologise for cowardly fans' to 'Liverpool apologise to United over cowardly fans'

Massive arguments bound to ensue from all that weren't there? lots of points to be scored.

DanH84 · 20 Mar 2006 at 14:03

thankyou

DanH84 · 20 Mar 2006 at 20:21

Rotty said:
and for what reason was it posted ? if all the thread it read then it becomes obvious what the motives were

Maybe it was posted partially for your benefit.

Rotty 28th of Feb Liverpool v Man Utd racism thread.

I agree the stuff with the ambulance was out of order but the cups of stuff being thrown over the fans I am not convinced by , I was there and sat close to the manc fans

so surely you can see my reasons for posting this thread were purely altruistic

DanH84 · 20 Mar 2006 at 21:39

I didn't realise i'd asked other Liverpool fans to apologise. When i said it would be nice for someone to say 'what I posted earlier' i was referring to the people who had already commented on the thread.

I also didn't realise what I had said would constitute demanding an apology? what would anyone on here have to apologise to me for as I wasn't there?

My ire is largely because when posting this -which i consider a valid thing to post seeing as there had been some discussion on here about the incident at an earlier date- I tried to word it in a non inflammatory way stating that what happened was not representative of most Liverpool fans at all. I tried to steer clear of Scouse or other derogatory terms. The main reason for that wasn't actually that i was worried about Liverpool fans responses but more that I wanted to set a tone for United fans not to jump on the whole anti liverpool bandwagon which would have set up a big 'crap flinging' thing as has arisen. What then happened was instead of a degree of mutual condemnation of a couple of idiots was a revert to type of fan rivalry with past incidents being brought up again and again instead of a discussion of the current issue.

Bit of a shame really.