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Brentford Chief Executive, Mark Devlin, has critisised Celtic fans for ‘spoiling’ last weekend’s friendly at Griffin Park, and has gone on record in the Hounslow Chronicle to apologise to local residents for the ‘disruption before and after the game’.

It is clearly of grave concern that this negative publicity coincides with a time when Brentford fans are being encouraged by the club and supporters’ groups to write to Hounslow Council and urge them to support the new stadium plans at Lionel Road – could the events of last Saturday have armed already disgruntled residents, and those councilors who aren’t aligned with Brentford FC’s visions, with all the ammunition they need to up their ante?

I have to admit, my first sight of Celtic fans before the game was hundreds of them encamped on the lawn opposite the Royal Horse Guardsman pub, sprawled out in the sunshine, with several urinating against the garden fences of the houses that front that part of the Ealing Road… They meant no harm and offered no threat, but if that had been my front garden, I know what I would have thought. Complaints have already been made about the noise, vandalism, as well as the mass of litter left behind.

Devlin has pledged to help the police track down those Celtic fans who invaded the pitch or let off flares and smoke bombs inside Griffin Park, but considering only two arrests were made on the day, it is unlikely that the authorities will spend too much manpower on the incident, which was boisterous and unfortunate, but, as Beesotted.co.uk reported on the day, never violent or confrontational on any significant scale. Either way, in the great scheme of things, Brentford fans would rather see arrests over the unresolved Tick Zone credit card fraud scam than a kill-joy crackdown on a few bevied up Celts who had at least bothered to travel to support the fixture.

Devlin, who has yet to make an official statement on the club’s website, used his interview with the Chronicle to say; “We would like to apologise to any local residents who may have suffered as a result of this behaviour. We were of the understanding that there would have been a police presence in the area of Griffin Park from early on Saturday morning, especially as some pubs were open earlier than normal…. As always, the Club will reflect on the match with our safety group, which includes representatives of Hounslow Council and the Metropolitan Police. This will take place soon.”

Celtic fans will be livid at being dubbed party spoilers and hooligans, especially when several Hoops’ websites have already heaped praise, rather than criticism, on their fans for the intensity of their passionate fans. The comments made by the Holy Poet on Etims.net is typical of their view of events last Saturday.

“Mr. Rossler showed his appreciation of Celtic’s fans by applauding us after the final whistle blew. Then a few ran onto the pitch to celebrate the victory and in the midst of them was Neil Lennon. More came, then more and the police seemingly knowing it was all in fun, stood back – this time so did the stewards, taking note of how police handled things. It was noticed by the Celtic crowd, those still in their seats anyway, how the police were laughing and joking with the crowd who were climbing over to get onto the pitch. They were letting them on and the crowd, although huge at this point, paid back the Police’s trust by leaving in a disorderly manner but without causing any damage. The reports on Sky told a very negative side to this. Not a misinterpretation but plainly and simply trying to make us look bad in the eyes of those who were not there. According to them we were jumping on the crossbars when in actual fact, one guy swung on it. The police even escorted some of our fans back safely across the barriers. This was our third meeting but Celtic’s first win against Brentford EVER! I don’t think we’ll be coming back next year as their Club and Brentford as a whole aren’t ready for us yet.”

We’re not sure what kind of risk assessment would have taken place ahead of the Celtic fixture, but in retrospect, and with local residents angry at 6,000-plus lashed up Glaswegians partying on the streets of Brentford while they were trying to take their nearest and dearest off to Waitrose/Dancing Lessons, and with the fixture looking to have cost the club money rather than being a money spinner, the graph is surely nudging into the ‘worse case scenario’ end of the scale at the moment, which should make Thursday evening’s Fans Forum extremely lively.

Beesotted.co.uk’s video from the match, and fans’ pre and post-match reactions, can be viewed on the video at the top of the page.