Everton warn supporters over future pitch incursions

We are all as passionate as the person next us, but don't do harm to the club.

I grew up in a generation that was caged behind steel fences.

I don't for one minute believe we will go back to those days.

Celebrate and enjoy the beauty of supporting Everton. But do it respectfully.

Sad, because pitch invasions are generally not dangerous as such...and the severe consequences come later - but there's probably no way to frame when they are justified and when not, even though we intuitively know when they're understandable and likely to happen. They're not even that common and never were, ironically.

I also queston whether the children really want a players shirt of are they encouraged by their greedy parents, to go-a-begging, in order to sell the shirt on ebay or some other auction site.

The issues have been made clear, there will be zero tolerance of 'pitch invaders' and if it ends up costing Everton FC precious league points or a place in a cup competition, will it have been worth it? Of course not, like that Everton official / Policeman screamed at Andy King when he was being interviewed after the 1978 derby at Goodison "Get off the Pitch!" Link

If Andy couldn't be on the pitch for an interviews after scoring the winner for Everton in a derby, then nobody should be on the pitch unless they are players or officials.

The players are professionals at work. Running on the pitch should be an automatic lifetime ban! Also not every player wants pushing around and tormented when conceeding a goal!

Pitch invasions have the potential to turn ugly!! Just stay off the pitch!!! Or take the punishment! Simple really!!!

I was 13 years old and had only been out of plaster for about 2 weeks having suffered a broken ankle. Amid the joy and hysteria, all I could think was that if he gets on the pitch, how do I get home?!!

I don't think he was really that concerned with the logistics.

I think it is important for everyone to take some responsibility for this and, if we see anybody looking to get on the pitch, stopping them. Anyone who does encroach should immediately be banned and, where it is a youngster, the “responsible” adult should also be banned.

I think the players must also act more responsibly and the habit of running off the pitch towards the fans must also be discouraged as this only encourages fans to run towards them.

I know a lot are kids but they need telling, my lad knew he wasn't going on. It's embarrassing, for club, the players who probably feel bad, some kid asking for selfie or top. But we have to make a stand.

Barry, the signs are okay, at least they are respecting the rules. I'd rather kids did that than run on. If the players gave a top or gloves to kids who don't run on, it sends the right message.

It comes down to responsibility on both sides.

But never ever take away the ability for players and supporters to connect.

Otherwise the men in grey suits win the day and take our game away from us.

The most cringe worthy for me is the signs they hold up asking for a players shirt.

Brian Clough dealt with one such pitch invader by giving one of his own fans a right hook, for running onto the pitch.

Having said that, the very last home game at Goodison, before we move to Bramley Moore, there is nothing that will stop me going on the hallowed turf and common sense from the football league should allow this.

Given how cheap life appears to have become in this day and age, probably due to the pathetic sentences given out, it is literally only a matter of time before some cowardly moron stabs a player/ coach/manager/ref

It is only a game after all, everybody deserves to go home safely.

As I see it, I could bet on the emotion of people going for most of their lives, leaving Goodison Park. But why not wait till our last match is played and the club allowing all supporters to take a walk on our hallowed ground?

I would love to see a final day at Goodison Park, attended by the players the manager and all the fans who wanted to come and say farewell to our home ground. Whether it's to sit and recollect about the history of our home that we're leaving.

My dad used to cycle down from Haydock and then do his shift down the pit when he got home. We'll all have memories and I'll be sobbing good style on that day, I know I will.

If our club has the will, we could have a day at Goodison to say our farewells in style, not a few mad minutes after the match.

Hopefully, the club will plan a day to remember and for remembrances. Until then, it's right that the cretins keep off the pitch when points are at stake.

But it has to stop. Aside from the sheer foolishness, anybody who puts his 6-year-old kid over the barrier and tells him to go run around in the postgame crowd is risking the child's safety. And the teenaged morons sliding around on their knees looking for cheers are the worst. Good for the club shutting it down.

Barry #5, never seen that before. It's hilarious. That copper is the size of a medium tank.

Danny #12, that's a great story. Hope you've teased your dad many times about it over the years.

Brian #16, must disagree. I think a little kid holding up a sign politely asking for a player's shirt is lovely.

As you know we know so many people who sit in different areas of the stadium, would be nice for everyone to be able to have one last meet on the pitch and say our goodbyes to the old Lady, one last time, and all together.

The open day fans Day one you mentioned is a very good idea as well and could work better, being able to be on the pitch with those we know, rather than spread over all 4 corners of the stadium works for me.

Different times I know plus it was the year the jocks done the same at Wembley. Minus destroying the goal posts and bar. It can get dangerous, whether well-intentioned or not.

I think Brian Clough gave more than one Forest fan a smack or two, he was fined around £5,000 and banned from the touch line for the rest of the season. I think he got loads of stick from some people for his outburst.

Or similarly a cricket match. I can understand the supporters' feelings and the euphoria that a win can often generate, but please be sensible.

The only times I have ever wanted to get on to the pitch was to strangle the underperformers, whilst going off laughing and joking after we had lost a cup match or lost valuable points, but I didn't! :-)

Dramatic moments could always result in a spontaneous reaction but it shouldn't be too difficult for reasonable people to understand the pitch is not the stomping ground of the fans.

Guess we will find out how reasonable / sensible our supporters are.

But in the current age we live in, all football fans must respect the rules of the game and also the H&S aspects of football stadium management.

God for bid, some serious health issue impacted any one of us, or our families and friends at Goodison Park, or at an away game, and the medics and St Johns Ambulance can't do their job, due to pitch congestion.

But all aspects considered, Evertonians can and always will be the 12th Man, the difference – but they can be the best difference, and follow the rules.

Every body wins.

The Premier League will punish us and rightly so but also to send a message to all other clubs. This is not the '60s, '70s, or '80s where English football was looked upon by some as ''What do you expect from those hooligans?" The image is far more important and lucrative!

It's up to the club to come down hard on fans. The minority will spoil it for the majority! Just stay and wait for players to come to you! Personally, I think we are on our last warning. Up to the minority to behave and think of others!

Some kids went on more than once. One parent was laughing. One kid got physical when a steward grabbed him. All this delayed the rendition of Imagine at the end of the 'Match for Peace'. The irony.

Whatever your thoughts on invasions, the current policy is crystal clear. So ban the arseholes and their parents before the club gets punished.

The club's in enough mess to last a lifetime in terms of financial challenges and Board effectiveness

The best supporters by miles in any era and geography

Hope eternal.

“What's Our Name?”

"It fucking really winds me up, idiot kids being encouraged by idiot parents to run onto the fucking pitch after shirts.

It was bad enough recently with the shit signs each game, kids sat around like tramps with shite cardboard signs begging for shirts. Now it's run onto the pitch to pester their 'stars' for shirts, all the while hollered on by morons.

The pitch invasion at the end of the game against Palace was acceptable, the one mid-game was a disgrace. As is celebrating a friendly win against Blackpool by legging it onto the pitch like scrounging little scruffs.

I fucking hope it does not happen against Kyiv and I honestly think we are still under the radar for this shit. In a season where we may well struggle for points, is it really worth risking more points to say "I got Mason Holgate's shirt against Blackpool" like one little cretin appeared to...?"

If people can't see the damage that this is starting to do, and excuse such shite behaviour, then I make no apologies, but they are utter morons just like the idiots going onto the pitch.

I think there is a balance.

During the game, totally unacceptable and depending on the occasion, I understand your sentiment.

But I would never want to take away any connection between supporters and players. Particularly at away games, and regardless of result, it's great seeing the players come over and pay respect. If that is handing out a shirt, then it's a small, but welcome gesture that probably makes some kid's day.

Don't let the suits take our game away from us when 99% of the celebrations / relief, is mostly done with good intent. Not idiots, not scroungers, just passionate supporters.

It's people that think they all have to get that 5 minutes of fame to put themselves on YouTube or Facebook or whatever bullshit social media apps they are on.

You can tell these dicks time after time after time but it's right across the board now in English football.

Eventually yes, we will get a points deduction because it appears to be more of a problem with our fans at Goodison, and they are gonna keep doing it no matter what the club say.

Having said that, they are blues and, if it's drummed into them that their 5 minutes of fame may get us points deduction, I have faith in them to swerve it.

Mascots on the pitch, Frank embracing the kitted-out super fan more than once, the Kiev players wondering what was happening. . . some Everton players wondering the same. . . a lack of stewards for the end of a match. Kiev fans ignored, t he odd ending to the match and the Kiev team not able to do their lap of honour.

I think the club hierarchy only realised afterwards the potential problem that they had caused. The announcement absolving them of any blame.

Of course I do not condone the pitch invasion, but the club seemed to get carried away with the festivities of the night, as would young fans. I wonder who organised that ending? They or them made a right Horlicks of it.

The outpouring of emotion at the end of last season would have been acceptable if the club had changed their policy to accommodate the away team back under the main stand instead of the bloody Park End car park. The only issue is to ensure that away fans are not intimidated or are allowed to do the same, as we all know what can happen.

I like to see players giving shirts to the kids. Most happily stay off the park to receive them.

And finally, I hate smoke and flares. very bad for my asthma!

I've never ran on the pitch in my life. I did walk across Wembley in 1989, because it was quicker than walking all the way back around the stadium towards the twin towers, and I agree with Brian, rather than his good friend Jim, about Everton's last match at Goodison Park.

If I'm here, I won't run on, but getting me out the ground might not be so straightforward, because no other place in my life has ever given me so many emotions. I can still remember the day I fell in love with the place, and although I'm slowly falling out of love with football, I will never fall out of love with Goodison Park.

I didn't go on the pitch at the Palace match. I just stood there absorbing the atmosphere, emotion and relief.

As I had somehow strayed into the away section of the Lower Bullens, many Palace fans stayed to enjoy it too.

I was last man standing until the nearby Steward kindly asked me to leave. He winked, smiled and put his arm around me. They could have ejected me throughout that match or re-directed me to where I should have been sat (Upper Bullens), but they left me to it.

Apart from me advising a couple of young supporters that they might want to watch the football rather than goad the Park End, it was all good spirits and I enjoyed the company.

Your comment has reminded me of an old friend Tony. At the last game before they seated the lower Gwladys, he pretty much had to be forcibly removed from his speck as he wouldn't leave!!

On a serious note, I do think the clubs need to control this better. It can't happen every match. Without wanting to be a curtain twitcher, if you watch carefully the footage of the Palace match on the Tunnel Access YouTube, watch how a female steward is facing the pitch and celebrates the goal.

I don't deny her or any other stewards' passion or dedication, but are they not there to face the crowd and control it? Within reason and not to the detriment of their own safety and security obviously.

But that sort of footage hardly looks good when the club is being accused of not controlling the supporters.

Drone Footage yesterday

Let the players leave the pitch, then invite the fans onto the pitch, for one last Goodbye to the old Lady, former players being paraded in the main stand etc.

Make a clear announcement to remain in seats and, if granted by the authorities, once the game is over, and players and officials have left the pitch, then fans can walk onto the pitch, and have a good old singalong like the Palace game.

For me, it is clear: do not run on the pitch during a game, or when the players and officials are still on the pitch.

Once that pitch is cleared, for Everton's last ever match at Goodison, with the match over and no-one having encroached the pitch, I really cannot see where the authorities could come down on a final after-match send-off, as long as it is done in a proper fashion, and supporters wait for the pitch to be cleared.

That's a good shout, Brian. The club should engage with and seek approval from the relevant authorities and manage something like what you suggest.

Does anyone know if we've stopped the Away Team Park End changing room thing? I don't even know why we kept it as long as we did to be honest.

Apparently he was inside one of the mascot costumes and it was all part of a surprise for the guy that came on to take the penalty at the end.

I think it's a dodgy situation for the club and who knows if if there's any way of stopping them invading as they have done. There'll be 40,000 or so at the match, can we all get on and say our farewells, I don't think so. If the club open the ground up for a day, that to me is a better option.

Alan and Brian Murray, totally agree. They're treated like cheeky chappies, just like they were at Heysel and Athens. We're treated like criminals. That Echo is pathetic... it's even got a red banner on the front... says it all.

Stay off the pitch. It is that simple.

In the same way I believed Eric Cantona should have been banned for life for his assault on the fan at Crystal Palace, the pitch is for the players and the stands are for the rest of us. We can shout abuse or sing praises to those on the field. But each has his place.

Heysels; airbrushed. We don't talk about it.

Athens; forgotten. I think that one is under the carpet or behind a couch somewhere in Lucifer's Den. Definitely file X. It never happened.

Our supporters get charged at by French Police and tear gassed in the town square at Lille, citing troublesome behaviour as the justification. It's left at that; it was the fans.

They unsurprisingly once again end up being involved in disturbances in Paris but the outcome is that the French authorities make a subsequent apology for poor handling and organisation.

That may have been the case, but there is a continuous factor in every incident they are involved in. It's them and their outraged entitlement.

Always outraged. Never embarrassed.

I said it was too early.

Brian, I was talking to you there about the pitch and the invasions we've had. The Premier League would love to dock us points...don't know where got the Barry from!

If we get fined then so be it and hope we learn from it, but it has to be dealt with and fairly for every club, not just highlight clubs outside the Big 6.

Strange chronology involved here, but I did notice that the BBC had it low down on their page.

I wonder if Talkshite will get all sanctimonious with them rather than little old Everton.