Banbury United's board fears fines after fans throw flares and other items at Saturday's game

The club’s board of directors released the message to fans yesterday (Monday August 21) regarding the crowd trouble at Saturday’s National League North home fixture against Chester.

The game saw Mark Jones’ Puritans take the three points home after experienced winger Tope Obadeyi netted the only goal of the game in the second minute.

However, the board fears that the damage caused by a small element of the Banbury fanbase will lead to the club receiving fines from the FA in the amount of several hundreds of pounds.

The board has stated that they are awaiting letters detailing the fines the club will be ordered to pay and that they would rather spend the money on players and ground improvements.

In the letter addressed to all supporters, the board said: "Our message to anyone looking to create or participate in a disorder is that you are not welcome at the Banbury United Plant Hire Community Stadium. We take the breaching of our ground regulations very seriously, as well as the threat to the prosperity and reputation of our community-owned club. Fans should take confidence that this misbehaviour is being dealt with in conjunction with our security team and authorities, which will result in disciplinary action being taken.

"We are well aware that most people reading this are not part of the handful of culprits of this detrimental behaviour. However, we hope that through this communication and the networks of you, our true fans, we can manage to push out the signal that Banbury United Football Club is more strictly enforcing its ground regulations this season.

"Thank you for doing what you can to help your club maintain and nurture its family atmosphere and positive sporting trajectory. Let’s build our resilience together as one club and protect what we all love."

The club is now looking at introducing a number of CCTV cameras around the Banbury United Plant Hire Community Stadium to better police the crowd, and it will use disciplinary action from Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) to lengthy or lifetime bans.