A few cups of tea and a soak in a hot bath and I am back..

I travelled to Brighton. I was wearing my colours (only person I saw all day / evening in them) we were marched the long way to Brighton station to board the train to Falmer. This was to be expected and to be honest all the chanting, shouting and attention we attracted through town was part of the tie and the away day experience. It was a buzz to be part of that..

Took forever to be put on the train , police filmed us constantly. Again expected. Didn't get off at falmer until kick off. That's when the problems began. Through Brighton we were kept kettled and therefore protected by and large. At the perimeter of the amex it was a free for all. We had to pass several of their entrances to get round to ours (this is one thing which they could do with changing in future) now bear in mind I was wearing colours you had Brighton to the left, us to the right and a line of police packed shoulder to shoulder down the middle like a wall. An officer pushed me with full force on my shoulders over to the Brighton side. They were fighting to get at our lads, all sorts were being thrown from both sides. I was asking then shouting to be let through away fRom them to my own supporters and the police refused and kept pushing me back. I wasn't drunk, I wasn't laity or swearing and they put me into a situation of being hurt. Eventually an officer grabbed me and shoved me back to my fans in front of horses which were being driven through the crowds to disperse them.

Bha fans were running out of their entrances to try and get to our fans. I walked round the bend to our entrance and was met with smoke bombs everywhere and absolute total chaos. So we literally arrived in the middle of it all. I will post a photo of the scene which greeted us at the end.

We were then kettled , they rode their horses into us, they sent dogs into us. We had to use the back of coaches to toilet in the 60 odd minutes we were kept there. They started to make the cordon smaller and smaller and with that began the crush and surges of fans. You had no control over which direction you were pushed in it was like being on a wave being tossed about. Scary. At one point I stopped and tired to stand still so not to be knocked to the ground and a police officer punched me in the back between the shoulder blades and shouted to keep moving.. their attitude stank. They treated us like animals and vermin.

Taken back to falmer and made to stand there for ages as there was no train for us. At Brighton they refused to let people leave the station and we were shouted and sworn at by police to get on the bedford train at the next platform. I approached an officer to ask if it called at London.bridge and I was spoken to like filth and shouted at to get on the train. They were vile.

Edited by Michaelawt85 (29 Nov 2017 1.14pm)

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When I was a young girl my Mother said to me.. You listen here kid you're CPFC

Who the hell takes deodorant to a football match?

This post has been merged from a topic called 'Ashamed to be Palace tonight' by Midlands Eagle

But surely the Police/Stewards/club would have expected, and known/identified fans without tickets in the Brighton area prior to match? This could have been avoided with a simple checkpoint 25/50m prior to the turnstile, where you had to show your ticket to gain access.

I'm not condoning the actions of the minority, and they should be held bang to rights. However, the planning, stewarding and policing was completely substandard and "real" fans missed out as a result.

This post has been merged from a topic called 'Ashamed to be Palace tonight' by Midlands Eagle

I was a neutral (I'm a Maidstone fan) sitting in the Brighton end near the Palace fans. I thought it might be worth giving my perspective.

I was a bit late and got in about 2 minutes after the game started. Outside the ground it seemed to me that there was a lot of posturing going on by a group of 200 or so Palace fans coming off the train, and the riot police who seemed quite gee'd up for it (I'm sure they were on plenty of overtime).

I've been to games with far nastier atmospheres than that, though - it seemed to me that this minority were having as much fun baiting the police as the police did in dressing up in their shiny uniforms waving their sticks about. I can't say for sure, but my suspicion is that things got properly violent after people stopped being let in and tempers started to flare.

There were definitely Palace fans being let in when I got there, so it must have been after that they shut the gates completely, rather than before the kickoff as one poster suggested.

I'm sorry to hear about how long you got kept behind after the match - it is a bloody nightmare getting people away from the ground after the game as the trains are crap and the buses get snarled up in traffic, so I think this was as a result of the poor transport links rather than any malice on the club's part. 45 minutes after the match there are still a huge number of people close to the ground trying to get into the station or out of car parks, so I think there was a genuine safety issue there.

If only the match had had this many talking points...

It's not a question of outright blame, yes Palace supporters turning up with out tickets ultimately caused the problem, but should the police have anticipated this and acted earlier to prevent it happening. What is going to happen when Liverpool play down there at the weekend ffs?

One supporter of hacking argued that without it "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week's practice -Blackheath secretary at first meeting of the F.A

This post has been merged from a topic called 'Ashamed to be Palace tonight' by Midlands Eagle

The fact that this is even necessary is embarrassing, I wouldn't call these troublemakers palace fans. They're probably just a load of dickheads that don't have anything better to do with their lives other than inflict violence on others.