Two can play that game

By Paul Berry on Feb 6, 08 05:42 PM

So the only Wolves fans able to travel to Cardiff for the forthcoming FA Cup tie will have to go via official coach and pick up their tickets from South Wales Police at a designated spot.

Not good, and perhaps a painful sign of the footballing times that the fear of crowd trouble should go so far as to impinge on a person's human rights.

Wolves are doing what they can to see if there any alternatives open to those fans who don't live in Wolverhampton, and hopefully the Police will allow some discretion in those cases.

And yet amid all the understandable grumblings of the affected supporters, I can't help thinking there's a slight bit of double standards going on.

Were those same fans pining for their Cardiff counterparts last January when they were banned from coming to Molineux after trouble the season before?

Probably not.

Sadly it seems that decision, taken by Wolves in conjunction with the various authorities responsible for safety, appears to have backfired as it always had the potential to do.

After all, do you think Cardiff's Safety Advisory Group would have had much sympathy when discussing this game's arrangements given their club's fans weren't even allowed the opportunity of travelling down in organised official coaches as Wolves will be doing next week?

No. Didn't think so. And thus Wolves' requests for an early kick off on the Saturday or Sunday without the restrictive travel arrangements ultimately fell on deaf ears.

Banning Cardiff last season was a decision which affected Wolves on the pitch as well as off it, the complete lack of atmosphere served as a hindrance to the team rather than help and the Bluebirds enjoyed the silence with a 2-1 win.

Every team has their troublesome minority of fans, Wolves and Cardiff are no exceptions, and yet to ban them en masse last year - whatever the good intentions - was an unfair slight on the club's decent supporters.

Heck, even Chasetown managed to house Cardiff with no problems a month ago.

What goes around comes around, and I can't help thinking this is payback time for that controversial decision of last January.

And with relations between the two clubs now presumably not exactly cordial, heaven help us if it now goes to a replay....