I missed the GF tonight, but was at Wembley when there was similar trouble, and reading this thread, it appears its the same old problem, DRINK!!!.



After the cup final, a posted to letter to league express about it and said sale of alcohol should be stopped at all the finals.



I know some wont like the idea and most will know when to stop, I myself have enjoyed a pint through the 1st half at league games and when I finish that, I dont go for another.



But with cup finals and grand finals, they should be occasions for the fans to enjoy, but sadly they are been ruined by morons who have been drinking for around 8 hours non stop.

We were lucky enough to encounter a few drunken nob heads outside the ground we were sat in E234 and had a great view and enjoyed the game.

I went through the entire day without a drop of alcohol today, and don't feel like I've missed out. Sadly this is a concept lost on some.

I had a few cheeky drinks, nought stupid and loved every minute

and why not, don't we all. It's the ones who have no idea when to stop that I don't understand!

it baffles me when they spend anything up to £60+ on a ticket as well

It always goes on. Being a Saints fan I've been to most of our GF losses (and a few wins).



Quite often the trouble will be between fans of the same club. Last year was a better year, (even though we lost) as it was the first year for a while where there was little trouble near us. As a fairly young father, I would not consider taking my 2 little ones to a GF, even if we where favourite to win. Maybe if I could fork out for more expensive seats for all of us, but I can't say whether it's any better on the sides.



I've stood in many places in many gorunds, even in the middle of the Leeds South stand with my Saints shirt on. But it has always been the worst at finals for drunk louts. We often say well they are not real supporters but we never really know. They could be regular season ticket holders for all we know.



The RFL should take names and address' though of those arrested or removed by stewards and then report them to their clubs to deal with. If they did it at a home game, then the RFL would be fining that club for their fans behaviour. The fact it's a final run by the RFL, they seam to ignore this.

Do you think that the RFL had a bit of blame in this though?



We had a bunch of Leeds fans near us in the West 2nd tier - mostly well behaved and just supporting their team but a few who spent large parts of the game stood up and gesticulating to the Wire fans behind him. He was very lucky that he didn't find any trouble, although when someone did have a go at him he reported it to the stewards and had him removed!



Meanwhile our community club tickets were in the Leeds end and one of our lads got beat up before kick off and ended up in hospital.



The RFL allocated ends so surely common sense would say that they gave the tickets out for the right end! That said, the one fight we did see was between a group of lads in the same group!

I had plenty to drink yesterday - so did most of the people with us. We enjoyed the game and had a great day with not a sniff of trouble.



Sadly there will always be one or two that have a few drinks and think they're 10 men.



You will never be able to ban drinking at games as most of it happens before folk get into the ground. I don't know what the answer is, better trained stewards maybe or at least more vigilant but banning drinking completely is not the answer.



Anyone caught being a dick should be banned from ALL future sporting events. Have a combined register that crosses all major sports may help, although not infallible.

Sorry to hear about your lad getting hurt, that's appalling.



The allocation of ends though. How were the RFL supposed to know who'd be there in the final. Would you have had more or less drama with Saints fans?

Was your lad that ended up in Hospital the lad in the Wire away shirt by chance? If so that was a bloody horrible fight and I hope he is ok!

That fight was sickening. We were sat just a couple of blocks away from it and whatever that Wire fan did surely didn't warrant that! There was a lad in a pink t-shirt that gave him about 10 uppercuts whilst he was being held and somehow managed to stay in the ground which was appalling.



The one thing I always note about the trouble at GF's is a lot of the people involved aren't wearing colours. The Wire fan was but the other group involved could have been supporters of anyone.