OSC Statement
After all the controversy surrounding Hull City’s trip to Leeds United on New Year’s Eve, how refreshing it was to see the behaviour of the Tigers’ fans at the game.
There were fears before the game of possible crowd trouble, heightened by West Yorkshire Police’s counterproductive and unjustified measures to attempt to restrict travel to the game.
There also appeared to be surprisingly little segregation between the rival fans at Elland Road, despite the vast swathes of empty seats in the rest of the ground.
Nevertheless, there was no trouble either before or after the match as the 1,700 travelling fans fully justified the relaxation of restrictions by conducting themselves impeccably throughout.
The Boxing Day trip to Crewe also saw exemplary behaviour – as, in truth, has every away game this season.
The Tigers’ sizable travelling army of fans have been a credit to the club all season, as they have for the overwhelming majority of the time in previous years.
We are delighted to see the club’s supporters represented in this way, especially given the publicity which is attracted on the isolated occasions when a negative situation does happen to rear its head.
On this occasion, there are only positives to report. The fans have been a credit to the club, despite the perception that trouble was in store for the clash with our local rivals.
Hopefully, this will be taken into account in future seasons, and City will be given a higher ticket allocation, closer to the traditional 10% of the ground capacity, by West Yorkshire Police.
The decision to limit City to just 1,700 tickets was strange in itself, given the fantastic atmosphere when the same authority allowed us to sell out two sides of Bradford City’s Valley Parade ground last season.
Here’s hoping that next season – assuming the two sides meet again – an increased number of Tigers fans brings about a better atmosphere. We can only hope that such a positive story regarding our fantastic supporters will receive the praise it deserves within our local media.
