Apparently, the prior story of what happened in the brawl at the soccer game on Saturday wasn't quite right. According to two articles in the Express & Echo on Monday and Tuesday, the fight was started outside the old Debenham's building (at the intersection of Longbrook Street with Sidwell Street/High Street) by a group of "yobs" who weren't even at the game. Reportedly, these "yobs" (which is apparently slang for young, working-class men with no social graces) attacked a group of fans from the other team (Monday's paper) or pre-arranged a fight with their counterparts from the other team (Tuesday's paper). The police responded, and five of them found themselves facing a mob of 50 people. They called for backup, which is why we saw SO many police descending on the area on Saturday afternoon.
To give some perspective, we were at Poundland, which is two stores down from the old Debenham's, say about 50 feet. As the police reinforcements started to arrive, the fight dispersed into a dozen smaller fights that spread throughout the city centre, the largest of which ended up at the bus station. The police have made two arrests, and are reviewing CCTV tape to see if they can figure out who else to arrest and ban from ever attending soccer matches in Exeter again.
The Exeter City Football Club condemns the actions of these people who they refuse to have as their supporters, and they fully support the police in busting heads. Glad they got that off their collective chest, because the police did nothing of the kind, so far as I can tell.
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