Interesting account from Hampden steward

[guillaume]

This guy gives a good account of the after-match scenes.
Have been wondering myself about the lack of the usual line of police you get at full time in Hampden.

The man, who was working in an upper tier of the stadium, said he saw one line of stewards and "two or three lines of police" at the Rangers end of the park.
By comparison, at the Hibs end there was just one line of stewards and one line of police officers.
He said he saw a "small minority" of about 40 or 50 Hibs fans who went to the Rangers end of the pitch to "goad them".
"That prompted a section of Rangers fans to come past the advertising hoardings and obviously violence breaks out," he said.

The steward added: "The violence only lasted about five or 10 minutes, if that. Within about 10-30 seconds of the fighting breaking out, the police were on the pitch."
Some minutes later, mounted police arrived, he said.
At one point he saw a number of people targeting Rangers goalkeeper Wes Foderingham.
He said: "I even saw one or two Hibernian fans get into the Rangers goalkeeper's face.
"I watched that - that was pretty disgusting. You do get some select few idiots who do that but, credit to the Rangers goalkeeper, he walked away from it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36361043

[Humo]

The most important thing to note is that when the rangers fans went onto the pitch that's when violence broke out no before. How could they of ran on to defends their players and staff from nothing?

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[Lancs Harp]

I would say it was several minutes not 10 to 30 seconds from the fighting breaking out to the arrival of the police. Personally I thought they were very slow to act considering there were so many of them on duty and had spent the match I close proximation ie stationed at either end of the south stand.

[sh00byd00]

There should have been more police at our end. However, after that, the police were going to be damned if they did, damned if they didn't. I think the police did the right thing. The only other alternative was to go in heavy handed and we would have all been on this forum today criticising them for doing so and it could have made things worse. Now, we're criticising them for not acting swiftly enough. I may be alone in thinking this, I think they did the right thing under the circumstances that unfolded .

It's the same thing about the stewards opening the gates onto the pitch. There's been some naive fans on here stating that by doing so, they were encouraging the pitch invasion. No, they were attempting to avert a crush of some sort by opening the gates. They had no other choice but to open the gates.

Some fans should also take responsibility for their actions. It's okay to go in player's faces because the police should have been there to stop them. Really? How about they just not do it and join the majority of fans on the pitch just celebrating?