AN APOLOGY

[Aussie]

A moment of stupidity my effin arse! Premeditated lunacy more like, you knew what you were doing, you made the effort to take the whistle to the game and use it! You can contribute to Chris Todds charity in a very generous way before I`ll even think of forgiveness towards you! You also might consider writing an appology to both clubs whilst your at it! You really do have to make some ground back up here you bellend!

[jonnyfive]

A moment of stupidity my effin arse! Premeditated lunacy more like, you knew what you were doing, you made the effort to take the whistle to the game and use it! You can contribute to Chris Todds charity in a very generous way before I`ll even think of forgiveness towards you! You also might consider writing an appology to both clubs whilst your at it! You really do have to make some ground back up here you bellend!

Love you Aussie!

[DonnyGull]

Was at the game yesterday and reminded me of two things from the Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' film .....

ScottishGull, as Brian's mum in the film would have said "He's a very naughty Boy" - you were by your own admission a very naughty boy yesterday!!!! But that said you have done the right thing by issuing your humble apology, acknowledging your very stupid actions of blowing your whistle - the fact that it was while we were attacking, made the situation worse for you as shown by the hostility and fury of a couple of our fans.

The second reminded me of the stone throwing at the Roman guard (John Cleese I believe) - and all the locals saying and pointing saying "It was him, It was him" as a couple of irate Gull supporters did to you yesterday - pointing you out to stewards, it was perhaps the right thing to go out early to diffuse what could have turned into a nasty scene at the end.

The couple of Gulls fans who turned on you, should look at their own actions of using 'Foul and Abusive' language, not nice when there are children in the front row witnessing this - if they can shout that loud, then why not shout that loud for the team. Had they been on the Field of Play, they would have had an early bath too!!

Anyway I won't harp on too much, all I would say is apology accepted from me - just leave the whistle at home.

P.S. You confused the BBC Website text, as it showed Full Time as the 88th minute.

[AustrianAndyGull]

[ferrarilover]

In fairness to the plonker from North-of-the-Border, he did look like he would happily have seen a massive bird swoop down and carry him off to be pecked to death when people were pointing and calling him a ****. Poor guy must have felt just about as bad as any one man (I presume he's a man, despite wearing a skirt) could possibly feel.

Matt.

[jocktheknife]

Complete idiot, the fact that it was pre-meditated makes it ten times worse in my book.
I mean what kind of numbskull then blows it when we're on the attack?, I'm assuming that you brought it with you to blow when they were on the attack?

People pay a lot of money to follow the gulls away, only for a fool to spoil a chance for us to try and get 3 points.

You can shove your apology....hope the club ban you for such a (pre meditated) crass thing to do.

[lucy6lucy]

Where we in a goal scoring position? I guess we have to compare this to the Liverpool fan who threw that beach ball onto the pitch and the sunderland player scored with the ball deflecting of it. I guess he had 5000 fans rather than 221 to answer to and the world. Fair play mate your apology is honest and for that reason even though I wasnt there is accepted.

[Trojan 67]

Torquay fan in a skirt halts dangerous Torquay attack by blowing a whistle. You couldn't make it up really. Make sure you check if he is in the Prediction League and if he had the game down as 1-1 take the points off him!

Diamondgirl made the best point though. If it was just a moment of madness with no prior intent what the hell was the whistle doing in the sporran in the first place?

[ferrarilover]

If his Twitter is to be believed (no reason it shouldn't), OP is a referee anyway. Perhaps (and this is a long shot, so bear with me) he wears the kilt/sporran when he goes a-refereeing and simply forgot to remove the whistle upon his return to his home? He arrives at Saltergate (yeah yeah, I know) and comes across the offending article, purely by chance. Thus, no premeditation, merely the innocent moment of Buckie (ask your local Scotsman/monk if you aren't sure) induced madness.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Dom is a qualified ref Matt who refs all over Scotland. I reckon he is developing a form of work-based tourettes where he can't resist the urge to blow the whistle when out on social occasions. Perhaps saturday was the first sign of the disorder developing? I hope this work based disorder isn't catching otherwise i'll be turning up to York in November with a Rottweiler, a Deerhound, a pair of Yorkshire Terriers and a litter of Chocolate Labs! And when i let those buggers on the pitch when Rene is about to ripple the onion bag i'll be looking for the exits sharpish!

[Trojan 67]

If his Twitter is to be believed (no reason it shouldn't), OP is a referee anyway. Perhaps (and this is a long shot, so bear with me) he wears the kilt/sporran when he goes a-refereeing and simply forgot to remove the whistle upon his return to his home? He arrives at Saltergate (yeah yeah, I know) and comes across the offending article, purely by chance. Thus, no premeditation, merely the innocent moment of Buckie (ask your local Scotsman/monk if you aren't sure) induced madness.

Matt.

Buckie-fast wine perhaps ?

Never tried it myself so can't knock it.

Any truth in the rumour that it leaves you whistling ?

[bengull]

I was stood no more than 2 foot away from Dom for the entire match and firstly would like to disassociate myself and any of the regular back steppers from his actions. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do and I was as pissed off as anyone but I can assure you he is genuinely sorry and ashamed for what he did. I know that is no consolation to the travelling gulls whose hard earned and expensive day out might have been compromised by his silly disruption but this is now going to hang over him for a long time to come and that is a lot of weight to carry.

I can assure you he is not a day tripper on a jolly for his five minutes of fame, he is a dedicated fan who forks out his hard earned too to come from Edinburgh 3 times already this season, and 4 times last. He is mortified at the effect it has caused and though obviously a bit of prior thought would have seen this avoided, as Ferrari points out, his biggest mistakes was not in actually blowing his whistle, but the timing in doing so, and then failing to realise the serious implications of his action. Once it had dawned on him though, he did the right thing and walked. Standing up to that abuse and then the walk of shame out of the stand could not have been easy and I am sure he will be remembering those catcalls on his lonely journey back to Scotland.

I can assure you that is completely out of character of the man. I only met him at Rotherham last march and was taken by his sociable and gentlemanly manner, he was planning his maiden trip to plainmoor and needed a place to stay, I offered him my floor as a last resort, an offer he asked to take. He treated myself, my family and the house I live in with nothing but decency and respect and out of the blue handed over a bottle of alcohol both to myself and my dad at Fleetwood on the opening day as way of thanks for the hospitality. I certainly won't be holding a grudge.

I felt slightly let down by him yesterday I must say, but he has apologised and apologised some more and my initial feeling of anger has changed to sympathy. He is a passionate fan who looks forward to seeing his team massively, i just feel sorry that he has let himself down in a moment completely out of character! He took his medicine like a man in the face of vicious abuse from all concerned, we've all aired our thoughts now let that be the end of it and let him show us what a passionate and loyal fan he is at his next chance to see the Gulls.

That said, I would agree with Andy that some of the abuse was a trifle OTT, swear at him once or twice and get it out of your system, but not for 2 or 3 minutes nonstop. There is a small element of our support who wait for moments like this and absolutely revel in them- someone does something stupid and older man takes a gleefull opportunity to tell younger and smaller man what he thinks of him, probably had a bad week and took all his anger out on the miscreant. It was a uncondonable incident, but not on a par of inciting a riot of pitch invasion etc. I am sure there are many supporters in any given stadium with shameful secrets to hide.

Before one home game last season I was assembling some furniture with a multi-purpose penknife which I then put in my pocket. It was only when I got into plainmoor that I realised I still had it in my possession and in certain circumstances it could be construed that I was a hooligan carrying a weapon with the intent to harm. There are any number of reasons why he may have been carrying a whistle, but none why he would choose to blow it during the match, that is his mistake. Didn't it alter the result? I don't think so, will it have an adverse effect on our club's reputation or season? Again no. Is Dom sorry for what he did? Yes, very. Will he do it again? No. Will some people choose to hold this grudge forever more when more heinous crimes have been committed by fans still welcome week in, week out in plainmoor? Yes.

Last word on the matter to the referee who chose to clap the incident. Reckon he should get his own house in order before he goes rating other refereeing performances. Another inconsistent and shocking refereeing performance, I doubt he could have blown for full time as competently as ScottishGull did.

[DonnyGull]

I was stood no more than 2 foot away from Dom for the entire match and firstly would like to disassociate myself and any of the regular back steppers from his actions. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do and I was as pissed off as anyone but I can assure you he is genuinely sorry and ashamed for what he did. I know that is no consolation to the travelling gulls whose hard earned and expensive day out might have been compromised by his silly disruption but this is now going to hang over him for a long time to come and that is a lot of weight to carry.

I can assure you he is not a day tripper on a jolly for his five minutes of fame, he is a dedicated fan who forks out his hard earned too to come from Edinburgh 3 times already this season, and 4 times last. He is mortified at the effect it has caused and though obviously a bit of prior thought would have seen this avoided, as Ferrari points out, his biggest mistakes was not in actually blowing his whistle, but the timing in doing so, and then failing to realise the serious implications of his action. Once it had dawned on him though, he did the right thing and walked. Standing up to that abuse and then the walk of shame out of the stand could not have been easy and I am sure he will be remembering those catcalls on his lonely journey back to Scotland.

I can assure you that is completely out of character of the man. I only met him at Rotherham last march and was taken by his sociable and gentlemanly manner, he was planning his maiden trip to plainmoor and needed a place to stay, I offered him my floor as a last resort, an offer he asked to take. He treated myself, my family and the house I live in with nothing but decency and respect and out of the blue handed over a bottle of alcohol both to myself and my dad at Fleetwood on the opening day as way of thanks for the hospitality. I certainly won't be holding a grudge.

I felt slightly let down by him yesterday I must say, but he has apologised and apologised some more and my initial feeling of anger has changed to sympathy. He is a passionate fan who looks forward to seeing his team massively, i just feel sorry that he has let himself down in a moment completely out of character! He took his medicine like a man in the face of vicious abuse from all concerned, we've all aired our thoughts now let that be the end of it and let him show us what a passionate and loyal fan he is at his next chance to see the Gulls.

That said, I would agree with Andy that some of the abuse was a trifle OTT, swear at him once or twice and get it out of your system, but not for 2 or 3 minutes nonstop. There is a small element of our support who wait for moments like this and absolutely revel in them- someone does something stupid and older man takes a gleefull opportunity to tell younger and smaller man what he thinks of him, probably had a bad week and took all his anger out on the miscreant. It was a uncondonable incident, but not on a par of inciting a riot of pitch invasion etc. I am sure there are many supporters in any given stadium with shameful secrets to hide.

Before one home game last season I was assembling some furniture with a multi-purpose penknife which I then put in my pocket. It was only when I got into plainmoor that I realised I still had it in my possession and in certain circumstances it could be construed that I was a hooligan carrying a weapon with the intent to harm. There are any number of reasons why he may have been carrying a whistle, but none why he would choose to blow it during the match, that is his mistake. Didn't it alter the result? I don't think so, will it have an adverse effect on our club's reputation or season? Again no. Is Dom sorry for what he did? Yes, very. Will he do it again? No. Will some people choose to hold this grudge forever more when more heinous crimes have been committed by fans still welcome week in, week out in plainmoor? Yes.

Last word on the matter to the referee who chose to clap the incident. Reckon he should get his own house in order before he goes rating other refereeing performances. Another inconsistent and shocking refereeing performance, I doubt he could have blown for full time as competently as ScottishGull did.

As a former Referee myself I would have to agree with you - Scottish Gull's 'Full Time whistle' was far better than the Match Referee's and heard by the whole crowd - perhaps Scottish should donate it to the said match official, as I didn't hear his Full Time peep!!

[AustrianAndyGull]

Great post as usual Ben, points duly noted and 100% agreed with as a decent and moral member of the yellow army. I just hope Dom doesn't feel ostracised now and decides not to come anymore after all, it was only maybe a handful of people giving the abuse and Torquay have a few thousand fans at least so they can't all be holier than thou surely? Interesting comment about the ref clapping Ben, i did notice that and thought at the time that he was possibly a bigger prick on the day than Dom for doing that. ( sorry Dom ) How unprofessional and immature was THAT! And yes it is true, he was a bag o'sh*te!

[Rach]

I know I'm going to get a lot of stick and abuse for a long time and I accept that!! I am extremely sorry and dismaid by my childish and foolish actions at chesterfield away today. This is completely out of character as many who have met me at the games will agree with. As reports suggest that I was thrown out these are completely wrong I was advised to leave for my own safety, advice that I promptly took. I would like to apologise, firstly to Billy and Rene whose attack I ruined!! Secondly to the rest of the squad and Mr Ling!! Thirdly to the club (TUFC) and the Yellow Army!! And lastly to all involved at chesterfield fc!! I have let myself, my friends and fellow supporters down because of a moment of utter lunacy. For this I beg forgiveness and pray that you all take my word that hand on my heart i will NEVER EVER BE SO STUPID AGAIN!!

I do not know why I did what I did but as I have said I am deeply dismaid and full of regret, and wish this whole situation never arose, for this I am Deeply very very sorry.

Please find it within yourselves to forgive me, I realise that all trust and respect I had built up within the Yellow Army has now diminished and it will take along time to gain it back. But as I Know and other members have said TUFC is one big family. I don't want to be banished away for as I have said a moment of sheer lunacy.

Sincerest wishes

Scottish

what went through your mind i don't know