The balance of the article was not in question.

The dedication of space, about three quarters of a page compared to bit piece SL reports and naff all on the draw is, together with the sub editing.

Because a game having to be abandoned due to crowd trouble is big news much more so than match results – there are around 27 matches every single weekend. Scenes such as occurred at the Keepmoat pretty much never – that makes it newsworthy.

Any complaints should be directed at the Queens fans involved, not at a newspaper for reporting it.



No there isn't. Which is why its not talked about after game. But if crowd violence caused, say, an FA Cup game to be abandoned, you can guarantee it would attract a lot more column inches, and TV coverage, than the Donny-Queens incident.

Still let's not let facts, or reality, get in the way of an opportunity for a bit of good old the-media-is-out-to-get-us paranoid baring of chips on shoulders. That's just not not the RL fans' way.

haven't read the article, but as long as it's taking hadfield's mind off the World cup debacle which seems to have given him some real grief if you read his page at the back of RLWorld rag for the last couple of months.

decent article in my opinion.
not too sure rugby league is 'reeling' from this though.

when was the last football game to get called off due to fighting on the terraces?

if that had happened in the 2nd round of the FA Cup, it would have been all over the primetime news.

I'm on about organised fighting after matches.

it's usually after the game (isn't it?). i remember going to a united-liverpool fa cup game a few years back and there being running battles behind OT. not a mention on either the local or national news.
i've walked behind the JJB on latics matchdays after the game and seen trouble.

No there is not.

I've attended football matches, from Northern Premier League level to the final of major tournaments (including major international tournaments) over a period of around 35 years, and I've only ever witnessed trouble once (last year, at Manchester City, when the 'Birmingham Zulus' came with the sole intent of causing trouble, in order to 'celebrate' their 25th anniversary). Trouble started in the ground after the final whistle and spilled out into the carpark and road outside.

But my point is that is the only time I've seen violence at football – whether inside or outside a stadium.

If it's a bunch of thugs, not even wearing football shirts, who want to arrange a fight well away from a ground because they like fighting, then it's a little bit ripe to call it 'football violence' and more than calling the sort of fighting that goes on regularly in town centres around the UK at the weekend 'town centre violence' would be an accurate or fair description of the actual phenomenon.

i watched united for over 10 years and saw plenty of bother. i've also been in wigan town centre when it has kicked off.
i've never been as scared as the day when waiting for the train to preston a load of millwall fans got off at wigan north western to be greeted by the waiting bobbies. it's not much fun when you've got a 6ft odd policeman shouting at you to 'get on the train, get on the f··king train!!'

If that's the game i'm thinking of, the column inches were dedicated to the fact that Liverpool "fans" were throwing bottles at the ambulance that was taking Alan Smith to hospital after breaking his leg.