Chester FC: Lancashire Police answer our four key questions relating to crowd trouble at Chorley

Feb 24 2011 by David Triggs, Chester Chronicle

IN response to the numerous complaints we received from fans in the wake of Chester FC’s match at Chorley on Saturday, The Chronicle posed four key questions to Lancashire Police regarding their handling of the fixture.

The top-of-the-table match, which the Blues won 1-0, was marred by crowd trouble in and around Victory Park.

Here is what Superintendent Richard Robertshaw told us.

Why was there initially no police on duty inside the ground for a match which attracted Chorley’s biggest crowd for years and where there was already enough concern about safety issues to ensure scaffolding was in place to segregate rival fans?

A decision was taken after liaison with Chorley FC that this fixture would not be policed, on the basis that there was no intelligence to suggest disorder would occur. Chorley FC matches are not policed as a rule and there is no history of any violence or disorder at the ground, there is just a small number of club stewards to look after arrangements at Victory Park. The decision to segregate supporters was made by Chorley FC as usually this is unnecessary at the ground.

Why did the police wrongly direct Chester fans leaving the ground away from their coaches and onto parkland where, as it turns out, Chorley fans were waiting to attack them?

In meetings with the club prior to the game the position was that the visiting supporters’ coaches would be dropped off and collected on Pilling Lane, which is logical as the Chester supporters were housed at the Pilling Lane end of the ground. In conversation with club officials inside the stadium it became clear that the away coaches had dropped off on Duke Street and were due to collect there at the end of the game.

On the grounds of public safety I took the decision to move the coaches back to Pilling Lane where I understood they should have been in the first place. This decision was taken in view of the disorder that had ensued in the stadium prior to kick off. The information about moving the coaches was communicated to the Chester supporters via the tannoy but it may be the case that some supporters did not hear it. Notwithstanding this I intended to ensure that officers deployed at the exit gate reinforced this message, although the situation was superseded by officers having to immediately deploy to the pitch to protect Chester supporters from the 150 or so ‘Chorley supporters’ who had entered the pitch to confront their counterparts. On this basis I accept the officers from the gate area were deployed to the pitch as this was the area of greatest threat although it is of course, a matter of great regret that the gentleman was injured on Pilling Lane Recreation ground.

Why, after such a volatile afternoon inside the ground, when home fans were stopped from confronting visiting supporters at the final whistle, was there so little evidence of police on duty in the area of the park where Chester fans, old and young, male and female, were viciously set upon?

As I have indicated earlier, a large number of resources were sent to the pitch to keep back the 150 or so people who were intent on attacking the Chester supporters.

Mounted officers deployed to the park immediately after the final whistle and there were a number of other officers there as well. They were joined by the officers from the ground as soon as the threat from the people invading the pitch had been addressed.

Was there any dialogue between Lancashire Police and your Cheshire counterparts prior to Saturday’s fixture and did the talks suggest that any serious disorder was a possibility?

There was extensive dialogue prior to the match between ourselves and the football intelligence officer from Cheshire Police, with responsibility for Chester FC. In fact the officer and his colleague attended on Saturday and formed part of the Reassurance Operation. Although Chester FC have a small ‘risk group’, as in fact do most clubs, the pre-match intelligence did not suggest any pre-planned disorder would occur.