Police claim success with only three arrests at Oxford United-Bristol Rovers game (From Oxford Mail)
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Police claim success with only three arrests at Oxford United-Bristol Rovers game
8:07am Sunday 10th February 2013 in News By Jason Collie
THREE people were arrested at yesterday's highly-charged match between Oxford United and Bristol Rovers.
There was a heavy police presence at both the Kassam Stadium and Oxford train station for the visit of Bristol Rovers for the League Two clash.
Police said their operation was successful, although there were several incidents between rival fans in the area immediately surrounding the Kassam just before kick-off.
Police said one man from Bristol and two men from Oxford were arrested. However they have supplied no details on what grounds or if the men were subsequently charged with any offences.
The police presence included several officers on horseback and at the end of the game there were massed ranks of officers at either end of the north stand, where away fans were, to prevent clashes.
Estimates on the number of Rovers fans vary between 1,400 and 2,000.
Superintendent Christian Bunt, the Oxford police commander who was leading the policing operation, said last night: “Today’s football match involved a substantial policing operation to ensure it ran smoothly and safely.
“It is a shame that a few people today thought it would be ok to attend and try to disrupt the enjoyment of others. We will now be carrying out a post-match investigation to establish the full circumstances.
“We have been working closely with the club staff, to plan for today and deal with any potential troublemakers so that it was a safe environment for everybody to support their teams and enjoy the match.”
Bristol Rovers won the match 2-0. Click through to read the match report.
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Comments (14)
10:49am Sun 10 Feb 13
OxfordResident says...
Its not hard to check the official away attendance as being 1932 - it is publically published....
I do have to say that at least some of the incidents were caused by an uncontrolled charge by the mounted police after a minor incident, that actually drove groups of fans together at pace.
11:00am Sun 10 Feb 13
faatmaan says...
L
11:45am Sun 10 Feb 13
Beau champ mummy says...
12:31pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Myron Blatz says...
3:19pm Sun 10 Feb 13
WitneyGreen says...
6:31pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Grunden Skip says...
7:01pm Sun 10 Feb 13
JanetJ says...
7:52pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Doctor69 says...
8:01pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Grunden Skip says...
8:13pm Sun 10 Feb 13
davecuddoufc says...
I promised them that there wouldn't be any trouble from our fans, in the pub. Their fans were well behaved, to be honest.
Around 2-30pm, I heard a commotion and saw a large number of police officers charging towards the pub entrance. Apparantly, a group of Oxford fans (NOT from the Priory) had done something to provoke the Rovers fans.
I have never seen so many officers at the pub!
10:38pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Brenda Jackson says...
About time the Hoolies got up to speed and found some Gee gees of their own to compete with TVP's finest, would make for quite a spectacle, more than could be said for the erm football, which was an assault on the senses.
The manager clearly has no pride, just sitting out time until the inevitable, he must know his days at the Club are numbered, if he were to resign most at oufc would say he'd done a reasonable job, with limited ability.
11:07pm Sun 10 Feb 13
dorsetbob says...
1:58pm Mon 11 Feb 13
Grunden Skip says...
11:07pm Mon 11 Feb 13
Chippenham red says...