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Fans condemned as footage emerges of fighting in the stands of Squires Gate v Bury

A small group of fans have ben condemned as footage emerges of fighting in the stands of Squires Gate v Bury, a league opener, on Saturday.

The Shakers kicked off the 2024/25 North West Counties Premier Division season on the Fylde Coast with 1,000 fans turning out for this one.

After a fantastic pre-season, Bury had won seven out of our seven games with four clean sheets, only three goals conceded and 14 goals scored, plus recruitment had progressed well over the summer, so considering that, and aiming for promotion to the Northern Premier League, they are expected to do well.

And that is exactly how it was looking, 31 up after 42 minutes, but suffered set-backs, going on to bottle a 4-2 lead on 61 minutes with Squires Gate fighting back with the final score 4-4.

Squires Gate 0-1 Bury, Irywah Gooden (6)
Squires Gate 1-1 Bury, Dean Ing (10)
Squires Gate 1-2 Bury, Rustam Stepans (34)
Squires Gate 1-3 Bury, Rustam Stepans (42)
Squires Gate 2-3 Bury James Hughes (47)
Squires Gate 2-4 Bury, Bryan Ly (61)
Squires Gate 3-4 Bury, Dean Ing (63)
Squires Gate 4-4 Bury, Dean Ing (74)

Fighting in the stands marred this one however, as you can see below…

Interviewer: “Neil, you’ve asked to come on camera after today’s game away at Squires Gate, which finished 4-4. Just give us an outline as to why you’ve asked to do so.”

Bury CEO Neil Sears: “Yeah, obviously, you know, we’re disappointed. We would have wanted a win for the fans first game of the season, but ultimately we couldn’t get it. But then things quickly changed after the full time whistle too. What I can only describe as absolutely disgraceful behaviour from a certain fraction of Bury fans.

“Again, I find myself talking about the 1%. These fans act in a disgraceful way. They’ve aimed completely unacceptable abuse at the chairman of football club, Marcel De Matas. They’ve aimed completely unacceptable abuse at myself. We understand fans have opinions, we understand fans have a voice, that’s absolutely fine. But when our chairman had a child involved as well, and then punches a throne and it’s just complete unacceptable and unwelcome behaviour from a small section of the fan base.

“So my message to those people is what I’ve said since I’ve been here, I am not going to accept that kind of behaviour. I will continue to push down on that kind of behaviour. It is not welcome at Bury Football Club. We are a family club. We want people to come down with the families. Children have a good time and this is not going to continue to happen.

“So I will continue to work collaboratively with away clubs and I will take investigative action this week with the relevant authorities. And some of these people can be expecting some knocks on the doors, because it’s not going to happen anymore at this football club.

“Hopefully, I’ve made myself abundantly clear my expectations of our fan base.”

Interviewer: “Just to follow up on that. Obviously, this week there’s been, obviously, communications between yourself and Squires Gate, and obviously various statements have been made in terms of supporters who have received bans from Gigg Lane. Just from your perspective, can you clarify the club’s position on what happened with that?”

Neil: “Yeah, of course I can. So, ultimately, first thing I’d ask is for everyone not to believe just what they read and hear on social media.”

“Ultimately, we try and work collaborative with football clubs for avoidance of doubt. The people who are currently banned from Gigg Lane do not have what’s called a football banning order through the courts. That is only applicable in League Two and upwards. The people that are currently on different bands from Gigg Lane have what’s called a ban from Gigg Lane, which is effectively private property. When we travel away from home, we cannot enforce any bans. We haven’t told any clubs to enforce bans. If a club asks for our opinion on the matter, we will give our opinion on the matter. We will do that within the current legal framework, despite numerous people on social media thinking they understand the GDPR law. We have broke no GDPR laws. We have acted within the legal framework which we are allowed.”

Interviewer: “And obviously, as you said, you’re going to take action on various behaviour that we’ve had seen this afternoon, I guess. Will that work take place imminently?”

Neil: “That investigation will start literally, when I get in my car and I drive home from Squires Gate, there will be people sending in social videos. No doubt there will be already things now, what time, we are now five to six, there will be things now on social media about the behaviour that’s happened. No doubt Manchester FA will probably pick up on that and the police will probably pick up on that as well.

“And that’s for my thoughts and in my view, if asked, I’ll be asking the book we throw at all of them.”

Interviewer: “And just obviously a word on Squires Gate, as you mentioned before, in terms of the sort of open dialogue that you’ve had with them this week. Obviously for them, it’s a disappointing end for what is a sort of record attendance and a good opening game of the season for them. If a Squires Gate fans seeing this, what’s your message to them in terms of how this wouldn’t ever happen again at a game involving Bury and Squires Gate here in Blackpool?”

Neil: “Yeah, I mean, all I can do is apologise to Squires Gate for a very small. I want to keep saying that because it is a very small percentage of our fans behaviour. We want to go to an away ground, we want to accept their hospitality, we want to ultimately have a good football match with them where they can obviously make a large amount of revenue from. And no matter what the result, we all want to go home, shake hands and have a beer together.

“Unfortunately, yet again, I’ll be spending the majority of my working week dealing with poor fan behaviour, which means I won’t be able to deliver the things that I want to deliver. Many thanks for your time, Neil.”

This is what Twitter users are saying with fans condemned as footage emerges of fighting in the stands of Squires Gate v Bury…

@maccers1968: Fully support the club on this. The behaviour was deplorable and as a witness to this and being a retired police officer am more than happy to put in a statement for what I witnessed. There is NO excuse for this

@maccers1968: @NeilSears6 I’m a retired cop and witnessed the atrocious scenes at the end of the game. I’ve already contacted @marceldematas with my full support and happy to provide a witness statement. Fully support the club on this

@Wilson78Dale: Just leave the club

@Thomas1974Chris: By way of balance, a lovely volunteer for Squires Gate spoke very highly of Bury fans & said we were a pleasure to have at the ground.

@Duckers56132160: Any AFC fans wish that they’d stayed where they were yet?

@thepigeonpost: west fan here – completely support you on this, Neil. a small minority of Bury fans make any game against you intolerable for the rest of the league (and i, of course, expect that small minority to be in the replies here). they desperately need weeding out.

@QuarmRich: Agree or disagree with the CEO if you think abuse is the answer then your just as bad

@wroberts291: Absolutely shameful behaviour from some so called Bury supporters. The perpetrators need to hang their heads in shame. There is no place in our club for people who behave like that.

@SkippaLatte95: #BuryFC just want to say that today was a frustrating result but what happened after the game with the minority of muppets that started fighting and being aggressive towards board members in front of their children…grow up, you do not represent Bury FC as fans your not wanted!

@GossGemma: How anyone can condone this and laugh about it is disgraceful. These so called fans need to be stopped. That poor little girl 😡 It’s family club and this behaviour is not wanted or acceptable!!!!! @buryfcofficial

@GT1490: Fair play- that takes some balls after the abuse he received from the minority today and the scenes post match. The idiots are as much of a threat to the future of this club as Day was. Re-starting was about BFC being a community- we can’t let the few ruin it for the majority.

@Steph021191: Ridiculous behaviour again. Embarrassing for us as a club now 😔 This did not need to happen today, as a witness seeing what happened & the after math it needs to be acted on. This is not the reputation Bury FC deserve 🤍💙

@mozzerjnr: Disgusting, i dont agree with everything Marcel says but fuck me, he’s stood there with his KID! Marcel is approachable and will talk what need is there in this? Another day of been embarrassed to be a Bury fan

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