Worksop respond to King’s Lynn cup accusations

The war of words between King’s Lynn Town and Worksop Town has continued following violence at an FA Cup tie between the two sides on Saturday.King’s Lynn Town released a statement yesterday saying that they felt the club’s supporters were put at risk following the 1-1 draw at Sandy Lane.This morning, the Tigers responded with a statement of their own in response to Lynn’s accusations.

It read: “It is very disappointing to see King’s Lynn’s official club statement penned by Travis Wright (September 29, 2024, 3:03 pm). and it is most shocking to read the tissue of lies and unreported, unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations.“The whole piece is subversive. For example, the statement “some Worksop fans were wearing leather gloves which we have further learnt to be part of ‘hooligan culture’ “ is simply ludicrous although the feigned naivety is quite endearing.“For 99 minutes of play, the match reflected the good-natured attention of the spectators and our fans took with good grace the King’s Lynn goal (against the run of play) which separated the sides until the final minute when we equalised to force a replay.“Only then did the behaviour of King’s Lynn fans turn ugly. Maybe our supporter celebrated the equaliser a little too exuberantly, but he did no harm to anyone and he certainly didn’t deserve to have King’s Lynn fans soak him with drink and aggressively move on him. “Neither should the scoring of an equaliser provoke a petulant childish act of violence from one of their players resulting in serious damage to a pitch-side “dugout. “Credit to the King’s Lynn manager and his assistant who were embarrassed and apologised, whilst agreeing on behalf of your club to pay for the damage.“If King’s Lynn wishes to apply National League rules concerning the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol) Act 1985 then that is up to them.“At Saturday’s match, there was no evidence of drunkenness or abuse of laws relating to alcohol purchase and consumption. We employ a very vigilant Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) and I can tell you that our Vice Chairman is also a licence-holder. “Regarding our match planning, on the day of the draw, we were in immediate touch with the North Notts Police unit, as we always do, and continued to feed them with information as we received it.“Given King’s Lynn’s reputation for crowd trouble, we approached arrangements for this match with some caution. “We contacted their secretary who advised that there would be 1 supporter minibus with 50 to 100 travelling spectators.“Nevertheless, the message came back from the North Notts Police unit to say that they could not see an issue with this game. “Therefore, we decided on a low-key approach but updated our expectations for attendance of around 750 we organised nine volunteer stewards and five SIA-Badged security staff with no segregation.“As far as we were concerned there was a minor disturbance which was quelled by our security staff. We have had no reports of assaults or injury, nor any adverse reports from Police or any other authority.“There will be no further statements on the matter from Worksop Town FC although we are happy to respond to any enquiries from bona fide authorities.”The two sides will replay at The Walks tomorrow night.