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R Views
by Ron Norris
It Shouldn't Happen At A Football Match

Watching four goals go past her beloved Rangers, Marian Skinner thought Friday night couldn't get much worse until, on her way back to White City station, she was struck on the forehead by a missile thrown by Cardiff fans.
 
Marian, as you may have gathered, is the Mother of our match reporter Simon Skinner and has been a die hard Rangers fan for seven years now. Her and Simon's father, Jim, have enjoyed watching the R's home and away and have never come across anything like the unfortunate incident that awaited them on Friday night.

Marian and Jim were held back outside the ground by the police who wanted to ensure that the Cardiff fans were all onboard the coaches home before letting them proceed. After a bit of a wait the police let them go and they began to walk to the station.

The Cardiff coaches lined South Africa Road to the junction with Wood Lane and when they reached this point it was clear that not all the fans were on board yet. Whilst walking up to Wood Lane a missile was thrown from the crowd of Cardiff supporters who were waiting to board these coaches. It hit Marian square on the forehead, splitting her head open.

They were not walking with a group of fans, they were alone. It was an unprovoked and cowardly attack on an innocent couple who were simply trying to get home. The frustrating thing is the people who did this will get away with it as they always do.

We believe Marian deserves better than that, therefore we will be sending copies of this article to David Davies, Sam Hamman, The Football League and the relevant police forces. We want something done to find out who thinks they have to right to assault someone in this way.

Most fans already had concerns going into this game that there would be trouble. Indeed it seemed ridiculous to everyone that the match was moved to a Friday night in the first place. Even the policeman that attended to Marian mentioned how he couldn't understand why the game had been moved, particularly, he said, as most of the Cardiff coaches had arrived in Shepherds Bush by mid afternoon. We would like to thank the officer in question for the first aid he administered to Marian so professionally.

Cardiff fans do have a reputation, which is unfair on the vast majority of decent, footballing loving supporters that we know they have and we apologise to them for drawing attention to this issue. However if someone doesn't then things like this will just be swept under the carpet and we are not prepared to let that happen.

There may well have been many other incidents like this on Friday night, Marian herself saw other people being treated for head wounds before it happened to her. However when it happens to someone you know it brings home the fact that even in this day and age violence still lurks at football.

ron@qprnet.com