8:33am Friday 13th May 2005
By Dennis Aris
Supporters of Kendal Town feared for their safety after being subjected to intimidating behaviour ats of Telford United in the UniBond League First Division play off final, reports Dennis Aris.
The illusion of friendly non-league football grounds was shattered for Town fans who had gone to the game with a box of Kendal mint cake to hand out to the home crowd.
In the event they were threatened, intimidated and some driven from the ground before the match was half-an-hour old.
Facing an opposition crowd of 4,000 was always going to be daunting for Kendal's band of around 300 travelling supporters, but it became a nightmare when lack of crowd segregation saw them surrounded by taunting, swearing home fans, whose behaviour became aggressive after Kendal scored an early goal.
Supporters, including children, said they were told they would get their heads kicked in and would be going home in body bags.
Food and coins rained down on the Kendal dug-out and manager Tony Hesketh said: "I was the subject of a personal assault by a fan in the front row and Barry Stimpson (assistant manager) was subjected to intimidation all afternoon.
"Ian Kilford (midfielder) was punched as he came off the pitch.
"The majority of Telford fans were highly vocal, but well behaved, but when they get crowds of that size there needs to be better policing and crowd segregation," said Mr Hesketh.
Meanwhile, to the left of the main bulk of Kendal spectators, around 20 non-scarf wearing fans were confronted by an ever-increasing number of aggressive home fans and around 30 minutes after the kick-off they were chased from the ground and back to the safety of their coach.
The problem became worse after half-time when many ignored the PA instruction to remain on the terraces where they had spent the first half and flooded into the stand behind the Kendal goal where most of the visiting fans were gathered.
The behaviour of sections of the crowd even upset regular Telford supporters and in a flood of e-mail apologies to the Kendal Town website, one said: "Scum like this always seem to come out of the woodwork when big matches come along. They have nothing to do with football, and will crawl back into the ground until the next occasion."
A spokesperson for AFC Telford said the club had been unaware of any crowd trouble at the ground until information from spectators began appearing on their club website message board.
She said the club would be investigating, but segregation of spectators was not normally carried out as there were rarely any problems between home and away fans.
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