The details of the actions Police took to ensure they kept Portsmouth and Southampton fans apart at the football match on Saturday are being reported in the Portsmouth News.
They went to considerable lengths. Ones you would expect more for a high risk diplomat being transferred through London, or a high profile terrorist being taken to court.
The only way Saints fans could get into the game was to agree that they would only be given their tickets if they accepted the Police escort to the match.
Rolling road block
The Police ran a rolling road block, stopping traffic from entering the path of the convoy of 42 coaches carrying the Southampton fans. The coaches were also surrounded by what was described as a “heavy police escort”.
Many roads were blocked to public access around the stadium and Police manned five 8ft tall metal barriers put up at key points around Fratton Park.
April rematch – Similar tactics
As the match was a one-all draw, there’s going to be a rematch at the St Mary’s Stadium in April.
Superintendent Rick Burrows led the operation the Police labelled ‘Delphin’, is quoted in the Portsmouth News report saying, “In the interests of fairness we said at the very outset we would do it for both games.
“The likelihood is we will use it for the return fixture.
“We will tweak it slightly to make it as slick as possible and make sure the fans and the public aren’t too inconvenienced.”
Image: Screen grab from Portsmouth News report
