These guys like your style, Scottish Junior Cup fan!
As much football as we all watch, there are still matches that slip below the radar so I don’t expect that anyone saw the Scottish Junior Cup tie between Bathgate Thistle and Bo’ness United last weekend. The match was held in Bathgate, and the trouble started even before the supporters entered Creamery Park (really? awesome name!).
In the pubs before the match there were some sectarian chants being sung loud and proud, and that quickly devolved into Bo’ness supporters entering the match singing about the murder of Bathgate schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton.
Surprisingly, the classy Bo’ness supporters didn’t stop there, as one 20 year-old nonce unfurled an 8-foot flag emblazoned with a Nazi swastika. Apparently this is standard behavior for a certain element within the club’s supporters, although their shenanigans most often occur during matches with Bo’ness rivals Linlithgow as evidenced by the banning of one individual from every ground in Scotland for throwing a flare onto the pitch during the last derby.
To be fair to Bo’ness, chairman Dougie Sneddon is aware that these fans are causing problems, but he feels unable to stop them: “For big matches we have to hire extra security on top of the police, and this costs us half our gate money. It’s a very awkward situation but what can we do about it? We have all our buses vetted by police before we travel. We really can’t do anymore.”
Well, perhaps the stewards could have asked to see the content of the 8-foot flag being brought into the match? It would have at least avoided the “Sieg Heil” chants that resulted (NOTE: Video is from 2 seasons ago, as Bo’ness apparently have a fetish for fascism):
Another one of the Bo’ness arguments: the club officials have to live in the same town as these kids and wouldn’t feel safe if they had to confront them. Seriously.
Huns without bus fare.