Fans In Riot Scare

Disgrace!
By Scott Cooper
March 16 2003

Wolves Fans were left angry and confused after a simple fire drill needed around 60 Police Officers in Riot Gear to stop Wolves and Pompey fans being involved in ugly scenes of trouble.

Portsmouth yesterday showed that their current team is good enough to be promoted into the Premiership, but sadly, they also showed that their ground, safety regulations and evacuation techniques are miles off the Promised land.

 It took a line of around 60 Police Officers in riot gear to try and prevent mayhem after the final whistle as an ill-conceived post match fire drill went wrong - in dramatic fashion.

Each Premiership ground has to be of a certain standard and should Pompey get promoted, the FA will have something to say after a simple operation came so close to causing a huge riot between Wolves and Portsmouth fans.

 As the final whistle blew, fans in the North Stand were evacuated onto the pitch by stewards and, unsurprisingly thousands of fans headed menacingly across the pitch to the traveling Wolves fans who were locked in the Stadium, forced to stand and watch as fans rushed towards them gesturing offensively and taunting them with chants of "We are going up".

 Riot Police were rushed into the ground to form a line between the two sets of fans who were within only five feet of each other. Police then made no effort to remove the Pompey fans from the pitch as the so-called evacuation was still in progress as Wolves fans were being forced to stand and watch as even more Pompey fans made their way - unchallenged - to the Wolves faithful.

 Luckily for Portsmouth, the Police stopped trouble boiling over into fights, and eventually fans were lead away off the pitch. However, the Wolves fans were then held in the ground for an extra 20 minutes as Stewards tried to clear the surrounding area of the ground free from Pompey fans.

 Chants of "You dont know what your doing" and "Your not very good" were aimed at Riot Police as few tried to explain to the angry Wolves fans (with the majority still having a 4hr journey ahead of them) why they were subject to unchallenged abuse and locked inside Fratton Park for the best part of 45 minutes.

 A stunned Pompey Chairman Milan Madaric who watched the chaotic scenes from the safety of the Directors box told the Mail On Sunday "You are absolutely right, this could have been a riot and I will look into it"