Hollie Morris – Sheffield Wednesday
fan – talks sense.
I’ve read match reports, social
media comments and heard rants about how Leeds fans behaved and how they, as a
club, should be ashamed; with some people, most notably Wednesday manager Dave
Jones, calling for them to be banned. (“Leeds supporters should be banned from
every away ground until they sort it out.”)
But is it something we’ve never seen before? Is what happened on Friday
night something that shocked us because we really thought football had moved
on, or are some people using their bias against Leeds as a catalyst for
ill-thought headhunting? Does this problem lie within each and every club?
Aside from the Kirkland assault, the things I saw on Friday night weren’t
something new to me.
The fans’ surge towards the North Stand (and then later the South) may well
have been in retaliation to a song sung by Wednesday fans. And the song in
question may also have been in retaliation to a prior song by the travelling
support. But it’s like trying to sort out the chicken and the egg. You have to
ask yourself, before condemning Leeds, have you witnessed your own fans doing
this before? And if so, would you invite the same condemnation upon every one
of your supporters?
A few years ago at Barnsley away the Wednesday fans charged towards Barnsley’s
East Stand, with supporters breaching the barrier and clashing. Our fans began
this push towards the Barnsley fans and the Tykes retaliated. At this point, I
was stood amongst friends at the back of the stand; do I deserve to be lumped
in with those fans that had tried to get at their Barnsley counterparts? There
may have been fans behind their goal watching on, in the same way we were on
Friday, in disgust. They may have been sat with their children, just like those
Wednesday fans who are now debating whether to return to the football.
On Friday, I sat on the front of the Kop in my season ticket seat and
couldn’t hear either the alleged song about Istanbul, or the chanting about the
disaster. But I did hear the songs regarding Dave Jones and the Jimmy Savile
chants that DJ also mentioned in his post-match press conference. Again,
though, is this something confined to Leeds fans?
At the time I was disappointed in the songs I heard. And in previous games
this season, particularly Millwall and Hull, I have felt the same frustrations
with opposition fans chanting things I have felt were, even for football, below
the belt. But Wednesday fans may want to get off their high horse now. I went
to Ipswich away in 2006 – the year that Steve Wright had committed his serial
murders across Suffolk. I’ll not have to enlighten you as to what was chanted
at their fans, nor will I baffle you with what was said, affably, about Moors
murderer, Ian Brady. When did distastefulness lie under the heading of
“banter”? When I was a kid, my Granddad used to call us “Sheffield Wednesday
nil” in jest that we could never score. At what point did that turn into the
sorry state we have now? Banter has now become a “who can be the most
disgusting, repugnant and repulsive” contest.
At Charlton away in recent years I’ve felt the worst I have felt as a
Wednesday fan, as a fan of football in general, and as a fellow human being, to
be associated with the groups of our own fans we came into contact with. On the
train, tube, and out on the street, continuous, unrelenting racism and vile,
abhorrent abuse was chanted at general members of the public, not even involved
with the “society” of football. A lady was at the station waiting for her train
by herself and Wednesday fans took it upon themselves to shout abuse at her and
then stroll off as if it was her fault, and she was “fair game”, as it was
football day.
After this particular football match, I went home and seriously considered
whether to go to any more away games. I didn’t want to be associated with these
fans, and if this is what Sheffield Wednesday brought with it, I didn’t want to
be a part. It wasn’t all the travelling support. But the loudest are the ones
that get heard, and as representatives of our club, they had left me thoroughly
embarrassed, ashamed and downright disgusted in how Sheffield Wednesday was to
be perceived by others.
This is what some Leeds fans felt the other night. Some of the people I’ve
met through the football are some of the very best people you could wish to meet,
and are an absolute age away from the Neanderthal support witnessed at
Charlton. Living in West Yorkshire, I know a lot of Leeds fans; Leeds fans that
would have felt as I did had it been them at Charlton.
There were advertising boards being thrown from the top of Leppings Lane
onto the fans below and, again, having travelled to Rochdale last season,
wonder what the ‘Dale fans thought, looking on to the boards being ripped from
their ground to the tune of “We’ll do what we want”? These people do not represent
every person at the club. At our club; at Leeds; or at any club that we see
these things at.
As of last season, I personally felt that a section of Wednesday fans had
taken on their own persona – “we’ll do what we want” becoming the motto for
this idiocy. I hated it last season, and I hate it now. I hate that flares have
become something “we do” now. At Crystal Palace, kids near us were crying
because an idiot had brought a smoke bomb, then decided they didn’t want to
have it near them and thrown it in our direction. I do not associate myself, or
any of my friends, with these people, and we should assume the same stance
towards other clubs.
Wednesday cannot condemn Leeds because of bias against a local rival.
Because of a dislike for Ken Bates or Neil Warnock. Because we hate “Marching
on Together". Or even because Howard Wilkinson left us and did ‘you know what’
with Leeds a few seasons later (well... maybe a little bit).
We
can condemn the
people that truly believe they’ll “do what they want”, and those people that
show football, and football fans, up as the long standing (and untrue)
stereotype. They’re not Sheffield Wednesday. They’re not Leeds United.
They do not belong to football.
