30 Sep 09 Stoke’s Stenhousemuir tragedy

This is written with a great deal of regret, but much respect for the victims and their families. I know what we all agreed following that day, but this won’t lie down and so I am putting down in words my own understanding of that dreadful day. I saw too much myself to ever sleep soundly again and the nightmares don’t stop. Having said that I avoided the hunt-down and I know many say that was the worst part. Any who, like me, feel they want to exorcise the ghost of this incident, feel free to add your comments.

For Stenhousemuir fans, the infamous and disgusting massacre of Stoke fans at Ochilview Park, Stenhousemuir  should have spelled the start of prison life for thousands of them and the end of football in that town forever. But instead it is a secret epitaph for a violent day in Scotland’s deadliest city.

It has been ‘politically’ scrubbed from the pages of history to protect the guilty – or at least one guilty, but very famous, important and influential person. And circumstances aid and abet the real politic. Stenny fans won’t admit to it and Stoke fans remain scarred by it and constantly under threat of reprisal. Few will talk of the incident and many refuse to utter the name of the Scottish town at all.

The incident flared up around a minor friendly match. It was never officially sanctioned just randomly arranged at the last minute while Stoke were on a preseason tour in Scotland. In the years since, the clubs, the FA and the SFA have sought to distance themselves from the incident. They utilise the unofficial nature of the match to deny it ever happened at all.

But what they are all desperate to hide, ignore and put behind a wall of silence, tragically did happen.

It was a cloudy non descript day. There were a few hundred Stoke supporters – football holidaymakers, following the Stoke City under 14 first eleven on their preseason tour. Not present that day were the hard-core Stoke fans, the so-called ‘Naughty Forty’ that, some years ago provided Stoke City with a sick, violent and frightening reputation. The victims were all normal people, guilty only of coming from Stoke.

But the terrible consequences have made Stenhousemuir, notorious to all unfortunate enough to witness the events of that day.

The violent rampage around the ground claimed victims from all walks of life The victimes, as far as the local dialect has it were ‘tekken oot’ by an armed ‘firm’ with egg-whisks and poison blowpipes. The slaughter was thought to have taken place over a five hour period.

The massacre was so brazen, that after the execution-style attacks, the Ochilview walls were gleaming red and the Stoke fan’s shirts, no longer distinctively white striped, were shredded and ripped off their bodies. Sadly, the initial victims became a disguised statistic to add to the further number of Stoke fans ‘tekken oot’ amongst the slums of Stenhousemuir in the terrifying ‘hunt-down’. Estimates ran to hundreds of people who were vilely ‘tekken oot’ in the hours that followed.

It was sparked by the most innocuous of situations. An eleven-year-old boy from Talke Pits visiting Stenhousemuir with the North Staffs Creative Graffiti Society was wearing a Stoke top – the highly recognisable 1993 purple away shirt. In a local shop by the ground the young lad took issue that their oatcakes were small, cold and hard and looked like biscuits. Through this cultural misunderstanding the shop worker, a nasty, self-centred man, with an angry reputation shamed himself and Scotland forever. The boy left the shop only to be ‘tekken’ in a drive-by incident just outside ground. Stenny fans leaving the ground after the match saw it and urged on by the man in the shop returned to the ground with murderous intent.

Later that day, in an attempt to cover the heinous crime, it is said that victims were taken to a local park, doused in chip fat and set alight. Some reports say the blood-soaked guilty stood around the flames, warming their hands and singing Delilah in mocking voices.

Up to now, there is no publicly available evidence. Files have gone missing, Wikipedia pages are doctored and legal cases are shut down before they get to court. National newspapers are under a ‘public interest’ security banning order and victims families have had everything from threats, torture, bribery and hush money in the years since the incident.

There are people officially listed as ‘missing while on holiday’. But in the immediate aftermath the story nearly escaped. There were headlines, such as ones printed in the now banned “Stenny Sentinel” trying to whistle-blow the cover-up with the haunting headline “There’s No Stoke without Pyre”

And how and why has this crime been spirited away? You have to ask yourself who was the man in the shop? The architect of this heinous massacre. What person has the influence, the political power and ability to change history to protect himself. With a little thought it is obvious really isn’t it? It still disgusts and appalls us that he walks around respectable and free.

So there is the story. For all of you who were not there, that’s it. Now leave it be, move on and stop asking. It pains those of us who were there beyond words.