Brentford Football Club have shown a disregard for the safety of their own supporters in appealling to their own fans to expose Saints supporters in home areas.

In a "Southampton Match Update" on their official website Brentford have shown that for some reason they have little regard for the safety of either their own supporters or those of visiting fans.

By denying Saints upporters extra ticket for a game in which their stadium will be little more than half full, Brentford themselves have created a situation that has the potential for serious public disorder, both inside the ground and outside it with ticketless fans.

Saints and brentford fans have no history of trouble between them, indeed with last seasons game seeing the away section sold out, the home stands has a fair smattering of Saints supporters in them and that case looks likely to be repeated on Saturday.

But do Brentford do the sensible thing and make provision for Saints fans in home areas ? no they announce that Saints supporters will be ejected for no other reason that they are Saints supporters, the press release after stating that ticket sales ceased at 4pm Today and that their would be no ticket sales on the day are virtually admitting that they can see problems on the horizon, but their answer s this

"Any supporters other than Brentford supporters found in home areas will be ejected from the ground regardless of whether or not they have a ticket for that area, In this respect we would ask supporters to liase with the nearest steward to alert them of such incidences"

Brentford are themselves stoking up the fire and creating an atmosphere of hate not just amongst Saints fans miffed at having to hide their colours but amongst their own fans, put bluntly if a child is injured in an incident where a home fan has pointed out what he thinks is a Saints supporter, Brentford football club will be to blame.

Far better to accept that there will be Saints supporters in home areas and create a segregated area for them to be moved to and watch the game, after all the majority of the crowd their on Saturday just want to go and watch a game of football, be they Saints or Brentford fans, I hope that someone at Brentford Football Club sees sense and instead of creating a witch hunt makes plans so that decent supporters of both fans can go to the game and watch it peaceably and safely.    

Photo: Action Images

re1 added 22:58 - Apr 28 another one who writes an article without knowing the facts ! Do I have to role out our cup game vist to the Saints again..anyway good luck, 3 of our regular back 4 are missing...must be an away win
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stmichael added 23:20 - Apr 28 To be fair Nick when have we ever let away fans sit anywhere other than the away section at SMS? When have we ever given more tickets than necessary in fact i can think of sever al games when we have done the same as brentford. When have we ever accepted away fans in home areas? Someone always wants to fight them or grass them to a steward. They have given us a very fair percentage of a small ground. Any Saints fan with a ticket in the home end good luck , be respectful and you might get away with it. If you wear colours and jump up and and down then expect to be thrown out. I would not be happy to see away fans in mass larging it in SMS home sections.

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SaintNick added 09:29 - Apr 29 What you have both said has some truth to it, re1 confirms what i written, that brentford seem willing to jeapordise the safety of their own supporters to prove a point for what they perceive to be a snub 6 years ago, if this is the case re1 needs to remember the facts and those facts are that Brentford initially declined the full allocation of tickets and by the time they decided thhey wanted more they had been sold. stmichael is right in all that he says, but that doesnt make those facts right, we are still rooted in the premiership when we filled the ground each week etc. In fairness to Cortese he wanted to move the away supporters at sms so that he could A. create one big home end that doesnt need to be given to away supporters for games when they could sell more tickets and B. to allow away teams to take more tickets when we could let them have them. I have always maintained that if away supporters go in the home stand as long as they are respectful they should be allowed to, do we want to live in the modern age or regress to the bad days of the 70's/80's

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BLEEDRED added 10:17 - Apr 29 Brentford fans have turned around the ticket situation for the 2005 game to be Southampton's fault when it was clearly their own c**k up. Firstly they had the option to take extra tickets or even ask for the extra allocation to be held in reserve but declined as 3200 would more than cover their away support. Then for some reason but the tickets straight on general sale with no restriction on who many could be bought . Then a week before with season ticket holders missing out started to complain about Southampton's refusal to sell them more tickets. As for their fans being ejected from home areas, yes some were thrown out but many more remained as they did not cause problems. But for Brentford to ask for their fans to conduct a witch hunt is not only wrong but could cause a riot imaging the stewards trying to eject a elderly couple just for supporting the Saints !!! (could happen because I know of a couple in their 60's who have tickets in the home stand and have been to games for 50 years who now fear for their safety all they want to do is watch a game of football)

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SaintNick added 10:53 - Apr 29 Bleedred is spot on here
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re1 added 11:33 - Apr 29 all true ..maybe, anyway have done my bit and am taking a Saints mate with me...he has to sit on his hands the whole game !
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Andylad63 added 15:39 - Apr 29 re1 knowing saints your sfc supporting friend will have absolutely no reason will have no need to sit on his hands with the only exception to wipe away his tears and they will not be suffering from pins and needles when he gives you your victorious hand shake before you head off to the hot spots of west london.
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re1 added 20:18 - Apr 30 my tears !, Brentford reserves well beaten by a good side, and a good set of fans...enjoy the championship
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