AN Ambleside man has expressed outrage at the behaviour of fans at a football match between Ambleside and Windermere.

Ben Abdelnoor went to watch the game between the two sides at Rydal Park and his experience was spoiled by the bad language used by some of the spectators. He was also angry about the amount of litter that was left behind afterwards.

"I had decided that I'd go down and watch because I enjoy local sport," said Mr Abdelnoor. "At first all seemed very well and good natured, but then two people turned to me and apologised about the language.

"There were about 30 or 40 supporters who were chanting like you do at football matches, but it was in a public park with children nearby. It was unbelievable.

"I asked a couple of embarrassed fellow supporters whether anyone had confronted them, but no one seemed to want to. I was utterly shocked.

"I then walked back through the park later on that evening and the amount of litter left behind by supporters and teams was disgraceful. They had turned the park into a litter bin."

Mr Abdelnoor contacted the Westmorland Football League and the FA to report the antisocial behaviour. He also contacted South Lakeland District Council about the litter.

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Ambleside have been playing games at Rydal Park because their Rothay Park ground was damaged in the floods.

A club representative said: "We completely agree with the complaints. The language and behaviour of some of the people who came to watch was atrocious.

"It was a group of lads shouting abuse at the players and the referee. We do not condone anything like that but at the end of the day we can't stop 30 people coming to watch us in a public place.

"A couple of our lads told them to stop the language because there were kids about, but because we weren't on our own ground we had no authority to make them go away.

"If the damage had not happened to our own ground and we were playing there we could have said they were not welcome and forced them to leave but because they were on a public park there was not a lot we could do about it."

The Westmorland FA has contacted both of the teams involved about the complaint.