While the Manchester United team coach incident grabs all the headlines today, little has been said about the dangerous crush along Green Street before kick-off with many supporters fearing for their safety on the last day outside the Boleyn Ground.
By Tuesday lunchtime, several hundred fans had already made their way to Green Street, by 4pm this had grown to many thousands and by 5.30pm Green street was completely packed just like five minutes before kick off on a normal match day. To make matters worst supporters without tickets had also travelled to the Green Street area to soak up the last day atmosphere.
Gates for the Boleyn Ground didn’t open until 6.15pm and Green Street quickly become gridlocked and rammed with people before 6pm. The police parked multiple vehicles in the middle of Green street which caused further problems and funneled supporters into tighter and tighter spaces.
One person caught up in the Green Street crush was the father of West Ham’s in-house DJ and friend of Claret and Hugh, DJ Leon Hyde. His dad Roland was pictured on Sky Sports News (below) receiving medical attention from the Police after getting crushed in Green Street and we have been told this was not an isolated incident.
West Ham fan Lee on twitter said “Met Police got it all wrong last night. Causing a massive crush on Green street trying to get the coach in. Kids were scared shitless”
John Ewan said “Alot of fans arrived early. I got there around same time & thought crush was caused by police vans blocking Green Street”
Mark Gurney said: “The crush was really bad mainly due to the police for parking so many wagons along the middle of Green Street.”
Peter Richardson said “Police vehicles created the Green Street crush which could have turned nasty with fans being told to turn back.”
Another twitter user by the name of Labroadley said “No mention of the poor police control down green Street beforehand/afterwards or the crush after the bus reversed back?”
Seeing my dad on SSN tonight been taking not well after the crap outside thanks to WH security Simon helping him pic.twitter.com/NEeWoAGuHB
— ⚒ DJ Leon ⚒ (@djleon1983) May 11, 2016
The gates in the East stand, did not open until 6-45
Bobby Moore Stand also did not open until 6.45
btw photograph is Barking Road not Green Street, OK I am being picky, sue me
…. it was gone 6.45 when the gates opened, there was a hell of a crush – we managed to choose Gate 18 where only half was opened for some reason – what a cock-up!
……that was at the West Stand!
Looks like a c*ck up all round, just glad nobody was hurt. Once again the Authorities, Club, police and MUFC have underestimated the size of our fan base. leaving hotel at 5.30 was probably okay for a normal match day, should’ve been warned. Police help cause the crush and the club don’t open the gates earlier to help take some of the pressure off. Add to that the morons that threw the bottles and now the press are having a field day, conveniently forgetting videos of Liverpool and MUFC fans doing the same to other clubs coaches recently.
Luckily enough the game was fantastic, the post match events are not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s difficult to keep so many happy. Great win and thoroughly deserved, truly fitting way to end it with a classic.
The attack on the coach was wrong but the facts need to be looked at that caused those scenes,
Every person involved with this club knew 60,000 people would turn up plus the normal traffic,the police put in resources for a normal game.
Man U are guilty for turning up at least 2 hours later then they should have been,
The papers took the worse things to sell papers as normal
What th all those Hammer fans in one area very angry,I have not heard on any attacks on Man U fans ?
So what’s this rot about the bad old days,
Under resourced police forces are now a daily occurrence,
No one has learned from Hillsborough,but they still blame the fans,
That’s Barking Road in the picture, not Green Street. I was in both places at around the times mentioned and never for one moment felt in any danger, btw.