The football season has again come to an end and some Football League clubs appear to have a great problem in controlling some our their supporters, who behave in a very disturbing manner and attend these matches often with knives and cycle chains solely for the purpose of assault.
You might be surprised to hear that in my young days in Whitstable I saw some bad sportsmanship from football supporters.
At the beginning of the present century, living in Waterloo Road, Middle Wall and Island Wall, were swarms of boys and youths.
Between them they had a football team and some were quite skillful players. But money was short and all the shirts were not the same colour, and neither did all have real football boots.
I forget the name of the club but its nickname was Waterloo Wets – their fathers were nearly all fisherman. In lean times, a shabby old lot.
Also living in the town were another class of boys and youths whose fathers were master mariners, or white collar workers, who also had a team called Whitstable Albions, in green and red shirts, and the perfect outfit.
Their pitch was on the western end of what is now a part of Seasalter golf course, well marked out, but with nets to the goal posts.
The Wets played well, but were beaten, and deserved to be, because their supporters all congregated behind their goal and when the Albion forwards got near they pelted them with mud.
R. D. Dale
80 Nelson Road
Whitstable
