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How was the 'Bubble'?


FreemantleSaint

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Bus 16 was good, plenty of singing, felt very safe the whole trip and efficient and should be used in future. Police on moterbikes raced of to let us straight though lights and roundabout. Fair plays to the young guys on the back of the bus who rang Pompey Knob John up and wished him well

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It completely ruined the day. Less drinking time and being made to jump through hoops made our support sh*t.

 

Without being sarcastic do you normally go out drinking at 11am on a Sunday morning or is it that you don't enjoy football unless you've had a few. I'm all in favour of a few pints before/during/after a 3pm KO, but for a 1pm KO? It seems people are getting up early just to go drinking.

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Without being sarcastic do you normally go out drinking at 11am on a Sunday morning or is it that you don't enjoy football unless you've had a few. I'm all in favour of a few pints before/during/after a 3pm KO, but for a 1pm KO? It seems people are getting up early just to go drinking.

 

I started drinking on the train at 7 so thankfully I wasn't affected that much. I don't need a few beers to get up for a game like Pompey away though, but many others may have done seeing as vast numbers were happy to stand in silence in a game where 3,000 of us should be giving as much abuse and hatred to them as possible. Not letting the two sets of fans near each other before or after took some of the enjoyment out of the day too. The walk to the ground from Fratton was fun the last two times. Getting in on buses and not really seeing and Skate all day took the enjoyment out of the day completely.

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You lot who think the bubble is great need to be shot,the old bill are sterilising the game and cleansing out fans that could potentially cause problems that is why our support was sh!t today,only the good boys and girls were allowed to go and it was reflected in the atmosphere.

 

Considering there were quite a few there who have served bans or been acquitted and plenty of dressed lads I would suggest otherwise.

 

Like it or not, the bubble worked as they said it would and is here to stay.

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Without being sarcastic do you normally go out drinking at 11am on a Sunday morning or is it that you don't enjoy football unless you've had a few. I'm all in favour of a few pints before/during/after a 3pm KO, but for a 1pm KO? It seems people are getting up early just to go drinking.

 

I never knew James May was a Saints fan.

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You lot who think the bubble is great need to be shot,the old bill are sterilising the game and cleansing out fans that could potentially cause problems that is why our support was sh!t today,only the good boys and girls were allowed to go and it was reflected in the atmosphere.

 

Why not just ban away fans?

Or at least insist they must travel in official coaches under escort?

Make all stadiums alcohol free?

Out of town with no pubs nearby (like Colchester)?

 

As you say, let's just sanitise the game.

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You lot who think the bubble is great need to be shot,the old bill are sterilising the game and cleansing out fans that could potentially cause problems that is why our support was sh!t today,only the good boys and girls were allowed to go and it was reflected in the atmosphere.

 

Agree, football today is dull enough. This bubble ****** has taken it to a whole new level.

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it was a complete pain in the arse, wasting me a lot of time and costing me more than it should. I feel for fans that come from London and the like. Not sending bus tickets by post was illogical and downright obtuse by the Police and the club.

 

FYI Newcastle pay for their fans coaches and fans can choose whether or not they use it. Our club just seemed happy to make money out of it. A helicopter FFS and Police on the bridges at Whitely. Crazy.

 

Having said that they got us there before kick off safe and sound. So it will be seen as a success by most, especially those that would have gone by bus anyway.

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Other than needing the loo for the 40 min wait till 11.10 for the bus ot leave the stadium and the trip to Fratton you can't fault the method. On paper it looks like an expensive waste of time, had to be up at 5.30am to pick up a mate and drive to the stadium (when originally I would have gotten the train to the ground like any other game), but this is not "any other game" and no matter how stupid they looked at home (unable to play decent football, unable to sing and a crowd full of utter mongs) it was the only game I didn't care about having a nice drink and a fun day out. I just wanted to see the game and feel good that we are actually going somewhere with the club.

 

The police clearly could never use this for every game (too many games on a saturday) but for a one off we felt like the pope to come grace the heathen masses and it was more fun just being able to go to the big away game without having to put up with hassel than going, a mess happening and it really taking away from the general fact of how rubbish their place is (nothing beats seeing an old man giving the V from behind his curtain or some 20 something woman mouthing off out the car at our bus!)

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Had a cracking day out bus 5 from the stadium on the top deck was a real laugh, hurling abuse at every skate on the way in and out quality. Banter with their boys at the end singing your going home to your sister really p*ssed them off!! Felt like a defeat on the way home because we were so much better than them, but lets hope this result has stopped the away rot.

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It did seem a fairly slick operation, what with the bike cops giving up priority through each junction.

 

But it still wound me up that I had to travel from Chichester past Portsmouth at 10:00am, to go all the way to Southampton to get on a bus (that I had to pay extra for) just to go straight back to Pompey.

 

After the game I asked a Copper if there was any chance that I could stay behind and just get a train home from Fratton. He was a right jobsworth and said that "it was a condition of entry of the game that you had to go back on the bus too". Obviously I ignored the idiot and went to find another copper who actually had a brain.

 

The second copper was clearly more intelligent than the first, and after checking that I had no colours (or burberry) on said that the busses were running to a set schedule and that anyone not on the buses at departure time would be left behind, so if I wanted to take my chances that was fine.

 

I let the steward on my bus know that I was making my own way home and then sat and waited for the busses to go. I then walked out past the fratton end towards the station as the police took the barriers down, didn't get a second look from the Pompey fans making their way home. Was back at home with a cold beer by 4:30. It would have taken another 2 hours in the bubble.

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I thought it was pretty slick, bit of a laugh and is probably here to stay. The police report only one arrest in the Echo, presume it's the guy who brought in the flare so they will justifiably point to this statistic as a measure of success. I did say to my mate that I couldn't remember the last time I had gone to a game without a beer or three and I didn't realise what goes on in the hour before kick off as I am normally in the pub or at the bookies kiosk; makes me sound like a gambling alcoholic, which is fair!!

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From a police perspective I would guess it was an overwhelming success. It’s laughable that the police can organise an operation of that size infinitely better than the ticket office managed to organise the selling, communication & distribution of the tickets.

 

For those of you who were so impressed with the police motorcycles and roads being blocked off, that happens every time the travel club goes there, that’s nothing new.

 

Personally I found the whole thing to be an inconvenience and I do think it contributed to a poorer atmosphere amongst out fans (not sure what the skates excuse was as I thought they were a bit more subdued than usual as well).

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You lot who think the bubble is great need to be shot,the old bill are sterilising the game and cleansing out fans that could potentially cause problems that is why our support was sh!t today,only the good boys and girls were allowed to go and it was reflected in the atmosphere.

 

So you think it would be better if the police left everyone to it and let everyone do what they want without any restrictions?

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will be interesting how they sanitise the area around SMS for the return' date=' a much bigger ground and home crowd[/quote']

 

THink it will be an easier job than at fratton. Seal off both ends of Brittania rd with bodies and horses, and use the metal barriers across the carpark and the two roads into Brittania. Fratton had loads of little rabbit warrens for them to worry about, and I'm surprised no one was waiting in one of those gardens backing onto the alleyway for a bit of aggro.

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THink it will be an easier job than at fratton. Seal off both ends of Brittania rd with bodies and horses, and use the metal barriers across the carpark and the two roads into Brittania. Fratton had loads of little rabbit warrens for them to worry about, and I'm surprised no one was waiting in one of those gardens backing onto the alleyway for a bit of aggro.

50 buses on Brittania road ?

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So you think it would be better if the police left everyone to it and let everyone do what they want without any restrictions?

 

What you mean like making their own way to the ground and going through the turnstiles by themselves? Your'e just plain crazy

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It completely ruined the day. Less drinking time and being made to jump through hoops made our support sh*t.

 

I'm afraid to say you are making yourself look a bit spoilt - and I do wonder if you have any other derby aways to compare it to.

 

I thought the organisation by the police was spectacularly efficient and a lot better than the two previous times I've been down there for a league match, when large chunks of us missed kick off -mostly due to the police not having planned for us being attacked - this time around the vast majority of Skates just didn't bother coming out for the confrontation - there was no threat of trouble at any point, we got to fly all the red lights, had police outriders, traffic stopped all around us, police on all motorway bridges, basically the team coach treatment - excellently performed.

 

Still not worth paying the extra £12 for the transport itself, and a few more toilets might have been an idea, but generally it worked very well, and having been heavily critical of the civil liberties aspect beforehand I have to say it WAS less hassle than getting hailed on in Goldsmith Avenue as an upturned car burned nearby in a petrol station. Not as likely to get the meatheads a-frothing, but then there was plenty of atmosphere nevertheless, and I am now harbouring 4 separate Fratton-seat-related injuries from the goal celebration !

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I'm afraid to say you are making yourself look a bit spoilt - and I do wonder if you have any other derby aways to compare it to.

 

I thought the organisation by the police was spectacularly efficient and a lot better than the two previous times I've been down there for a league match, when large chunks of us missed kick off -mostly due to the police not having planned for us being attacked - this time around the vast majority of Skates just didn't bother coming out for the confrontation - there was no threat of trouble at any point, we got to fly all the red lights, had police outriders, traffic stopped all around us, police on all motorway bridges, basically the team coach treatment - excellently performed.

 

Still not worth paying the extra £12 for the transport itself, and a few more toilets might have been an idea, but generally it worked very well, and having been heavily critical of the civil liberties aspect beforehand I have to say it WAS less hassle than getting hailed on in Goldsmith Avenue as an upturned car burned nearby in a petrol station. Not as likely to get the meatheads a-frothing, but then there was plenty of atmosphere nevertheless, and I am now harbouring 4 separate Fratton-seat-related injuries from the goal celebration !

 

Still wasn't anywhere near as fun. It wasn't the full Pompey away experience.

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The Skate bubble will be more difficult to protect getting from the m27 to SMS due to the populated areas it will need to go through. Eastern road was a doodle and just a bit by the Good Companion pub could have caused a problem.

 

We came back down the Bursledon Road and through the industrial estate down by the Prince of Wales, that's clearly what they will do for them, they'll just shut that whole area of Britannia Road and the industrial estate, there are a few flats on the way in but no different to going down the last bit of Eastern Road. It'll be no hassle at all as long as there's space for about 50 buses - and if there isn't they can send two convoys of 25 - I'm pretty sure our buses went in two tranches, we were at the Stadium before bus 30 got off the M27 and my various vids and pics from Bus 9 only show about 10 buses behind us.

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As I expected- they didn't check anyone so I had many beers!

 

I was honestly more worried about getting stuck on a bus for 3 hours and needing to p155 myself than I was drinking. Just listening to The Bloke Behind Me on the bus agonising before we even left convinced me "no drinking, not even soft drinks" was the right option.

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Was terrible. Caused me no end of hassle and took a large percentage of the enjoyment out of the day. I don't need to be treated like a child and kettled for 5 hours, I'm perfectly capable of making my own way to and from games without getting involved in any trouble.

 

The police will call it a success, but I would stop going to football if all games were like that, and I will seriously consider not going should they use it again from Fratton. If people want to go by coach that is fine, and the coaches had a police escort on two most recent previous occasions.

 

Some of the responses to this thread are symptomatic of Britain today, with everyone far too easily willing to obey 'authority' without question.

 

At least Spt Burrows will have to explain away two flares/smoke bombs in his report.

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