The Fifth Column
Retired ex-cop
When we played at Withdean, despite the parking restrictions, many people would still park around the Withdean area and I have to admit I was one of them although in my defence my Dad was getting on and couldn't do the walking up the hill at the park and ride, I couldn't secure a parking space at Withdean as he wasn't registered disabled so we used to park up in Valley Drive. Stewards with no powers whatsoever used to patrol Valley Drive and the surrounds looking for errant fans parking up and not one of them showed any compassion to my old man despite him being old and less mobile.
This really got my goat and made me even more stubborn and park up in the same spot where some resident felt the need to put assorted cones on the kerbside every home match, he also used to come out and abuse us using foul language and being aggressive despite never having anything of the sort aimed in his direction, If he'd been polite and reasonable I might have considered not parking there but the guy was a complete bellend. I used to just move the cones or occasionally just drive over them or chuck them in his garden but the over zealous stewards were something else. They would jump out from the shadows and threaten to get your car towed or ticketed despite having no legal powers to do so, they threatened to identify me by getting the police to check my car on PNC however swiftly backed down when I told them that neither they nor the police had an legal power to do so if i wasn't committing an offence and it was only being done to see if I was a season ticket holder, they would say anything to try and stop anyone parking there. One day a pleasant steward politely asked me not to park there and so I didn't as he had made a perfectly reasonable request in a perfectly reasonable manner but for the most part they were all jobsworth cockends which I delighted in ignoring. I even had one run to the stadium in front of us once to prevent us getting in and saw him out of breath and excitedly providing a description of us to another steward near the entrance as we walked right past him, it was quite comical at times. I know there were supposed restrictions in place by the club at the time but they were all largely ignored by thousands of people and I can't help feel that had Withdean been in a less affluent neighbourhood there would have been no such pandering to the residents.
This really got my goat and made me even more stubborn and park up in the same spot where some resident felt the need to put assorted cones on the kerbside every home match, he also used to come out and abuse us using foul language and being aggressive despite never having anything of the sort aimed in his direction, If he'd been polite and reasonable I might have considered not parking there but the guy was a complete bellend. I used to just move the cones or occasionally just drive over them or chuck them in his garden but the over zealous stewards were something else. They would jump out from the shadows and threaten to get your car towed or ticketed despite having no legal powers to do so, they threatened to identify me by getting the police to check my car on PNC however swiftly backed down when I told them that neither they nor the police had an legal power to do so if i wasn't committing an offence and it was only being done to see if I was a season ticket holder, they would say anything to try and stop anyone parking there. One day a pleasant steward politely asked me not to park there and so I didn't as he had made a perfectly reasonable request in a perfectly reasonable manner but for the most part they were all jobsworth cockends which I delighted in ignoring. I even had one run to the stadium in front of us once to prevent us getting in and saw him out of breath and excitedly providing a description of us to another steward near the entrance as we walked right past him, it was quite comical at times. I know there were supposed restrictions in place by the club at the time but they were all largely ignored by thousands of people and I can't help feel that had Withdean been in a less affluent neighbourhood there would have been no such pandering to the residents.
