Stones vow to end anti-social behaviour

MAIDSTONE United co-owner Terry Casey has revealed anti-social behaviour from some of their ‘supporters’ has cost the club thousands of pounds – and they will be banned.

The Stones claimed a memorable 4-0 victory over their promotion rivals Dartford last week but the occasion was marred by the actions of a few.

Casey has warned how the Maidstone’s reputation is being damaged by their behaviour while also hitting the club’s purse strings.

“The desperately sad fact is that on the Sunday following that epic performance, Bill, Oliver and I were pre-occupied by the behaviour of a tiny number of spectators who went to great lengths to try to ruin the day and ruin the reputation of the club that we love and care about,” he said.

“There were issues on both sides of the segregation line but what was most embarrassing and depressing is that there were a number who were standing within the Maidstone section and behaving like idiots – pretending to be supporters of our club.

“They are not supporters of Maidstone United. They are a liability and their behaviour is massively damaging to our football club.

“Because of their anti-social behaviour, your club has had to pick up a police bill for thousands of pounds and we will also need to increase the stewarding for future games.

He continued: “We would much rather use this money to improve our facilities for real and genuine supporters, who care about our football club.

“This behaviour drives away proper football supporters and if this continues our club will lose thousands of pounds more because people do not want to witness conduct that, if we saw it on the street, we would expect the perpetrators to be arrested immediately.

“We must all work together to stamp out this behaviour. If you see anybody attempting to hurt or harm our football club with violent or abusive behaviour then you must let us know and we will ban them.”