Violence breaks out at football match

A football boss has said a violent clash between fans at a Matlock Town FC match at the weekend was the worst he can recall in decades.
Matlock town fc troubleMatlock town fc trouble
Matlock town fc trouble

Matlock Town FC chairman Tom Wright said he cannot remember seeing anything like the violence at Saturday’s Matlock versus FC United match in the 37 years he has been with the club.

The police were called after fights broke out in the second half of the match – attended by nearly 1,000 people – at the club’s Causeway Lane ground.

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Witnesses reported seeing a group of men congregating at one side of the terrace, followed by punches being thrown.

Matlock town fc troubleMatlock town fc trouble
Matlock town fc trouble

A video shot by one witness shows stewards struggling to keep the factions apart.

Mr Wright said: “There weren’t any Matlock fans involved in the incident.

“FC United have played against us the last five years. We have always had a good relationship with them, so there is never any trouble.

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“I think they were just some people there who were not connected with the club.”

Mr Wright said the club always puts on extra staff at large matches.

“There were 14 stewards for the small incident and they managed to sort it out,” he added.

“The stewards did an excellent job. They went down there and prevented any more trouble.”

He add that he thought the incident had been a one–off.

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James Griffiths, social media manager for Matlock town FC who was at the match at the time, said he thought the stewards had handled the situation well, commenting: “It’s sad that it happened.”

However Daniel Buck, a FC United fan who lives in Chesterfield, said he didn’t think the stewards did an adequate job.

He added: “The stewards simply could not handle it – poor stewarding from Matlock Town FC in my eyes, because there was nothing to stop the fans going at each other, no segregation, no steward enforcing the no alcohol in sight of the pitch rule and no one searching people as we went through the turnstile.”

He suggested that in future there was more segregation was enforced to stop the same thing happening in the future.

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A Derbyshire police spokesman said: “We did have an incident reported to us of some minor crowd trouble after a drink was thrown.

“Officers attended and the situation calmed down and resolved itself and no complaints were made to police.

“Officers remained in the area after the game and visited local pubs but there was no more trouble. No one was arrested and no injuries were reported to us.”

To view a video of the incident, or comment on this story, visit the Matlock Mercury website, www.matlockmercury.co.uk

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