At the Everton match on Saturday, I and many others witnessed police laying into a number of Everton fans who were situated closest to the Gooners in the south end. The police in question appeared to be very active with their batons. I was a long way from the incident and so wouldn't claim to be a viable witness, but clearly the Everton fans didn't appreciate this one jot as subsequent reports on Evertonian websites and forums would indicate. Their story is that they were being coined and pelted with other stuff from our upper tier, something which can be clearly seen on a You Tube video and cannot be disputed. They report that our stewards and police were slow to react to this despicable behaviour and that the reaction by some of their number was as a direct result and ultimately which led to aggro with stewards and subsequently with police. Now I'm not saying that this is all that happened or anything like the whole story because as we all know with most aggro there will always be more than one side to any story especially with regards to whom provoked what. That said I detest the concept of 'Arsenal fans' pelting opposition fans in the tier below.

Who did what to whom, where, why and when first may never be known even with the aid of CCTV cameras. Usually such preamble starts outside the ground and is fuelled by a minimal number of idiots who have overdosed on alcohol or other substances. I say usually but cannot actually recall any such incident within our ground(s) for many years now. My experience with Evertonians has normally been extremely positive and cordial as I would imagine most fans to have been. So regardless of who started what or did what to whom, why, where and when this episode is extremely regrettable to say the very least. Those 'Arsenal fans' in the upper tier throwing things, be that coins, food or other stuff, could not have been directly involved in any aggro at the time and so had absolutely no excuse to chuck anything even supposing they might have been involved prior to the match.

We all know that confrontations between fans can still happen but these are often initiated by arseholes who happen to be drunk. Idiots exist and sh*t happens, but what I have never understood is exactly why other prats feel the need to add fuel to a fire by joining in. Those days should be long gone. Chucking anything from the upper tier is not only obviously wrong but very cowardly and I condemn those who participated and would hope that they all get banned from our ground. I would also hope that our Club apologises for allowing it to happen, but as we all know the actions of idiots of whatever persuasion is beyond all reasonable control and at best can only be contained and acted upon after the event.

I would suspect that due to the prolonged period of continuing confrontations between some Evertonians and some police there must have been a major failure on the part of our stewards to deal effectively with the situation as it arose, whatever that situation might have been. A failure not surprising perhaps given its rarity value, but highly regrettable nevertheless. I trust that both the police and stewards will be reviewing their own actions and reactions in these sorry proceedings and would hope that the incident or incidents do not taint the usual cordial meetings between Gooners and Evertonians in the future.

Should any Evertonians happen to be reading this I'd like them to know that the vast majority of Arsenal fans do not condone such p*ss poor behaviour by anyone and would apologise on behalf of all reasonable football supporters for such abhorrent stupidity.