General
- Wednesday April 16th, 2008 @ 11:04
ST PATS THANK FANS FOR PATIENCE & CO-OPERATION AT SETANTA CUP
Last night St Patrick's Athletic hosted over 800 travelling Linfield fans to Richmond Park. This travelling fan base, one of the largest to visit Richmond Park in recent years behaved impeccably over the night and gave their team great support.
One incident where two Linfield fans were ejected from the ground following a scuffle with gardai was captured by the press and the resulting images shown in the national media may have given the impression of more widespread trouble occurring at the match which was simply not the case. The match night arrangements ensured that fans were successfully segregated at the game itself and also when leaving the stadium.
While St Pat's fans were maintained in the ground Linfield fans were escorted directly to their buses. A small group of Dublin youths did appear in the area as the match finished, these were not supporters of the club and had not attended the game. With the home support being kept in the ground and the street outside the ground clear this group was easily identifiable to the gardai and were ordered to move on. One of this group was subsequently arrested for criminal damage to a wing mirror of a car. No further arrests or instances of match-related trouble are understood to have been reported to the gardai in the area.
St Patrick's Atletic Football Club would like to thank both sets of fans for their patience and co-operation as well as our match night security teams and local gardai for their excellent work on the night.
