The situation on Sloper Road after the game yesterday was both avoidable and unacceptable, and is something that I think the club should be made aware of.

I think that most fans were aware that the police intended to close Sloper Road to traffic for twenty minutes, after yesterday's game. Not too much of a bother, surely? A lot of fans park in Grangetown, and use the local pubs and food outlets, and although you might ponder the need for it, waiting a short while to get back to your car shouldn't really be too much of a hardship. However, as it turned out, we were kept there for well over an hour (until six o'clock - I checked the time), in the cold and wet, and the situation could have turned very nasty on more than one occasion, as tempers frayed, and items were thrown. Even when we were allowed to proceed, the road was narrowed considerably, using police vehicles to channel everyone through narrow gaps, with dogs and horses on the sidelines. All designed to intimidate and annoy the everyday fan.

The amount of police on duty was simply staggering. There must have been close to a hundred men and women on duty (maybe more), all the way down Sloper Road and beyond. There were half a dozen police dogs, at least six horses, maybe twenty or more vehicles, and many many policemen, all in full riot gear. Is this really necessary?

Why did it need such a presence to allow twenty or so coaches to leave the ground? How long does that actually take? Why not let them (the away fans) sit and wait, while WE all go home? Okay, I know that vehicles can end up sitting on Sloper Road, waiting for the lights to change, but if they had all those police on site, it wouldn't have been too hard to stop the traffic while they let them all out in one go. They (Bristol) should have been gone within 15 minutes of the final whistle. So why, with all those police present, did it take an hour longer, and come close to causing serious public disorder? Was that their plan?

We have had two of these road closures before, when Leeds and Bristol came last season. Then, the delays were a sensible twenty minutes, and I think most fans are reasonably okay with that. This time it went on too long, and was too heavy handed. It's time for a rethink.