Chorley FC v FC United of Manchester-10 September-Well Done Lancashire Police!

Lancashire police close in on a man smoking in a pub!

I've lived in four police areas, Manchester, Derbyshire, London and now Lancashire. Without  a doubt, and I'm not going into a long list of reasons, Lancashire police are the most inept bunch of clowns I've come across. They are useless, in fact they are worse than useless.

Thanks to their ineptitude, and the idiots who run Chorley FC, a day out at a non-league football game has been ruined for hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Without any consultation with FC United Chorley met the police and announced the following restrictions for our game on September 10th:

-Kick off  moved from 3-00pm to 11-30am.
-Game to be all ticket.
-FC United to get 530 tickets to sell only to season ticket holders.
-Chorley fans, with a voucher from one of three previous home games, could buy four tickets each.

FC United have absolutely no history of trouble, home or away. Chorley claim the restrictions are in place because of their fans attacking Chester fans last season. So why restrict FC United fans?

It was Chorley fans, allegedly supporters of league clubs who attended for the day, who attacked Chester fans. So why allow Chorley fans to buy four tickets that could easily get into the hands of the yobs who caused trouble last season?

The trouble last year came about because the club skimped financially on segregation of Chester and Chorley fans. The segregation broke down and violence ensued.

The police insisted that Chester move their fans' coaches during the game. The Chester fans weren't informed, went to where they had left their coaches and were promptly attacked by yobs.

In a nutshell the Lancashire police and Chorley FC couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. Anybody who has watched football for a few years could have told the police and Chorley that their organisation for the Chester game last season was inadequate.

FC United have the biggest support in the Evostick Northern Premier League. What has angered so many FC United fans is that regardless of our record of exemplary behaviour, the police and Chorley, with no consultation with officials from FC United, brought in these draconian restrictions merely as a dummy run for when Chorley host Chester again this season. So if you live in Lancashire, get dragged out of your bed in the early hours and taken to the local nick don't worry, it's probably just a dry run for when they have to nick a criminal!

But don't forget, FC United could probably have taken over 1000 fans to Chorley. So the cock-up suits them as their manager has publicly expressed his wish to see FC fans outnumbered by Chorley fans for the game.

Eventually the league ordered a meeting between the two clubs, the league and the police. That meeting took place yesterday.  There was complete intransigence on the part of the police and Chorley FC. This shows that Chorley and the Lancashire police have learnt nothing from last year's disastrous Chester game. The board of FC United are not prepared to put FC fans at risk,  so there will be no tickets sold to FC United supporters. Strangely, following that decision by FC United last night, Chorley moved the kick off to 12-30.

So thank you to Lancashire police and Chorley FC. You have screwed up between you a great day. Instead of running out to a crowd of maybe 2000+ and a great atmosphere the players will be running out to a few hundred and no atmosphere. And Chorley FC are likely to make a big loss on the game having to foot a huge policing bill but with  a fraction of the crowd they had expected.

Perhaps the lesson for Chorley to learn is that we may follow FC United home and away in huge numbers but don't take us for granted, we're not here to be dumped on. We left Manchester United to form a new club because we were tired of being treated like crap, the Glazers being the final straw. We sure aren't going to sit down and let Chorley FC and the Lancashire police shaft us.