Alexander Litvinenko Were there any fists actually thrown? It looks like Reading fans weren't stupid enough to rise to the bait.
In which case the stewards called it right and did a decent job of stewarding by incident - a few verbals didn't actually hurt anyone, but if they'd waded in and tried to stop the verbals that would have guaranteed the whole episode kicked off, with probably others from the coaches joining in and instead of a minor incident you immediately have a major incident. Instead, they let it pass, observed and were probably ready in case it did kick off - but the aim is to get people onto the coaches and away as quickly as possible, rather than get involved to stop something minor and at the same time effectively stop the coaches from leaving.
So what would you actually like them to have done?
I'll give you the benefit of doubt in case you posted at the same time as murts_the_god, although times of posting don't seem to support that. If you had read what he wrote, fists were thrown and people were hit. What's more, as RL suggests, this was always likely to happen in that sort of situation. There was absolutely no guarantee that at least some Reading fans would rise to the bait, so I don't subscribe to your laissez faire approach. In fact, I'm getting increasingly peed off with the club letting away supporters do what they like because to intervene might create a problem for the stewards (it made a pleasant change to see tangos and police actually go into the away stand against Chelsea and hoik out a trouble maker).
The club have to pay for policing so why don't they insist that the police earn that money and position themselves where there is most likely to be trouble i.e. by the away transport. (if GC is correct and there were no police at all at the game then the tangos should have been used)
This incident just shows how ridiculous the 'safety fence/gate' concept is - 'we'll inconvenience the home supporters by making them walk right around the stadium and then, when they get there, will allow the aways supporters give them hastle as they walk by their buses'.
