Second only to the terrible the footballing performance against Portsmouth comes the grim experience of becoming a 'socially-distanced' supporter.

The normally cheery and friendly Portman Road stewards and security staff had plainly all decided (been told?) that that they now enjoyed extra powers.

They were behaving like those people who were given the role of prison guards in that famous psychology experiment. No smiles, no welcome, no feeling of ‘Thanks for coming’ - just general antipathy and rudeness.

From the temperature check at first arrival onwards, the whole afternoon had the feeling of arriving at The Scrubs to serve out a long stretch.

I felt like the next person in a high-vis jacket was quite likely going to organise a strip search and take my clothes and belongings away in a cardboard box.

At the end of the match they organised our exit row by row - which is a perfectly sensible and reasonable thing to do in these pandemic times.

But the stewards decided (had been told?) that barracking Paul Lambert was contrary to regulations so they tried to speed up the fans’ exit by aggressively shouting ‘orders’.

Frankly an afternoon out at a pro-government rally in North Korea would possibly have been more relaxing.

Overall rating: One star: Not worth a visit even if you’re in the area (ironically a location only rarely attained by any Town strikers, but that's a different story).

stevieiriswattii added 18:08 - Dec 13 Although I can agree with you that it was a terrible performance, I have to disagree with everything else you wrote! My experience was that the stewards were welcoming & there to help. Hopefully this is a short term situation, re socially distanced supporting, whereas the terrible performances seem set for some time 😕
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WestStanderLaLaLa added 18:31 - Dec 13 Not my experience. All stewards I encountered were very friendly and helpful.
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Luggworm added 19:25 - Dec 13 Got to say my experience was the complete opposite, the stewards were polite and friendly and were top notch. In fact they put a lot more effort into making the day enjoyable than the 11 on the pitch.
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longtimefan added 19:36 - Dec 13 My experience was the complete opposite. No problems with the stewards other than the exit being poorly managed, with no row by row control or guidance whatsoever.
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Timefliesbyintheblue added 10:22 - Dec 14 Sorry Chazza; you must have been the only one treated in that way. The stewards and arrangements made for our safety and well-being were all first class. Like several on TWTD you take your venom out on the wrong folk. Credit where it was due; apart from the performance it was so good to be back.
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PortmanTerrorist added 10:27 - Dec 14 Garbage. Everything was run in meticulous fashion by those within our Club who have always maintained standards off the pitch. Where it fell down slightly was at the final whistle, they did seem to disregard the agreed protocol, probably something to do with the passions brewing in the stand after subject an abject performance, and did not stick to row-by-row exiting. They could not get us out of there quick enough, presumably to help avoid unsavory scenes. We took advantage and wandered out ASAP so as to not be part of anything, but I will not blame those that protest more heavily....as you might expect at any other Club!

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