FC Halifax Town: Bosomworth tells troublemakers to stay away

Unruly behavour by a minority of Halifax fans has included them encroaching onto the pitch at Nuneaton and Fylde, while Bradford Park Avenue supporters were subjected to threats and abuse after their team’s 4-0 defeat at The Shay two weeks ago.

Bosomworth used his programmes notes on Saturday to say: “Some Bradford PA fans leaving the ground last Saturday were apparently threatened and abused.

“Why can’t fans go watch a game, wear their club colours and win, lose or draw, enjoy the day?

“We have started a process of of meeting identified culprits initiating and enforcing disciplinary outcomes.

“16 have been identified so far and six officially issued with banning orders or signed an acceptable behaviour certificate.

“An ongoing identification process is being initiated to help eradicate this problem for the future.”

After the game, he told the Courier: “It’s an ongoing process but it’s important we nip it in the bud because it’s not what the club wants to be associated with.

“Nor do we want fans leaving the ground and being abused - it’s just not right.

“We are working on it with the police and the council.

“We’re trying to get as many kids as possible to come down and enjoy the football, they’re the future of the club.

“But if parents think ‘I don’t want to take my children down because there’s some people who don’t want to respect others’, then it’s not good for us.”

On the action that has already been taken against some supporters, Bosomworth added: “There are people who have been identified that we feel we need to act upon - some more leniently than others.

“The ones that have been banned - that’s until the end of the season.

“Whether it’s reviewed at that point or not, I don’t know.

“We then advise the away teams about what action they might take.

“All we want to do is improve the situation. If people are determined to cause problems I’m sure they’ll do it.

“But we’ve got to be vigilant. We’ve got 98 or 99 per cent of the crowd that don’t want them here.

“If they want to go cause mischief, take it somewhere else.”

Bosomworth also said there were no meetings in the pipeline with Calderdale Council after Halifax RLFC held talks with the council over their future at The Shay.

Bosomworth admits there are still improvements to be made on the pitch this season after a steady if unspectacular start.

“I think it’s a work-in-progress,” he added.

“We’re probably a few points behind where we thought we might be - a win from where we wanted to be after 12 games.

“If we’d got 24 points after the first 12 games we’d have been happy with that - that would have got us into the top five.

“We’re there or thereabouts and we’ve successfully negotiated another round of the FA Cup.

“We are looking to get the balance within the side right.

“We’ve brought Alex Simmons and David Lynch in and that might address a couple of things the manager was trying to do, but I’m not saying that’s all of it.”