Making sure fans go home safe (From Daily Echo)

Making sure fans go home safe

9:00am Saturday 13th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(2)

So Saturday dawns and like police football commanders all over the country I get ready for today's match.

In many cities across the country derby games are a regular event. Here it’s a bit more rare. Well, once in 5 years. But before 2005 there were several Saints v Pompey games and they were all high octane affairs. It has to be said, but it's often forgotten, that the last 2 games at Southampton went well and a good policing operation was a major part of that success.

Can we repeat that today? Have we planned well enough? Yes I think we have and by about 3 o'clock today we'll know. I still maintain that today is about a great sporting event run safely by the club and police for the benefit of everyone.

If I doubted for a second the level of interest in this match then yesterday's endless press interviews etc. would have made me realise just how big this is for the 2 cities.

I've said before though that football or any big sport wouldn’t be the same without rivalry.

By far the majority of people who will be at St Mary's today are there for the sport and good healthy rivalry.

The few who take their club and city loyalty too far and wish to spoil such a great occasion will have to contend with a large and professional police operation and they may have to answer to the courts and face a banning order.

How could any true fan risk being banned from seeing their team? Beats me.

I hope people in the city who are not interested in the game and just want to go about their normal business also know that we are there to allow them to do that. At key times of course there will be busy streets with traffic and crowds.

There will be lots of noise and singing and chanting. That's nothing to be concerned about and we will have a police presence around the city all day. Most of the pubs are opening later in the morning and will be closed after the game for a couple of hours and I hope this means the City centre will clear quickly during the afternoon.

Here's wishing everyone a good day.

Not all the fans will go home happy but at least, if I have my way, they will go home safe.