Hornets fans were shocked by the actions of stewards during the half time break of the Doncaster game. Several of Spotland's now infamous yellow-coated perils descended upon a section of the home fans issuing ejection threats based on an apparent complaint of racist remarks being hurled at Dragons coach St John Ellis. The complaint was that 'someone' in a particular section of the stand had made a comment towards Ellis sometinme towards the end of the half.

The stewards were unable to identify the supposed culprit and when one Hornets fan - who goes to home and away games with his dad - tried to extract further details regarding the accusation from the steward concerned, he got rather uppity. The 'someone from this side' Simply couldn't be identified. The steward also told supporters that they had to stop shouting comments at the bench - even though the Dons' coach seemed quite happy to turn round and argue the toss on several occasions.

Anyway, I've sat in that section of the stand ever since we were thrown out of the Wilbutts Lane stand and, while it gets a bit passionate at times, it never gets nasty. And in 31 years of watching Hornets, the only racist comment I've heard came from a Carlisle supporter about ten years ago.

The facts as I saw them were: Yes, some supporters were engaged in backchat with St John Ellis, who should know better - but I didn't hear any racist comment. And yes, danders were raised - passions tend to run high when one of the opposition has attempted to decapitate your scrum half. It's a game that raises the passions - a fact lost on Spotland's stewarding fraternity.

But for them to descend mob-handed issuing threats of ejection, then placing stewards eyeballing the crowd, almost willing them to fart so that they can have an excuse to get involved is yet another example of over zealous (re)action.

It's possible that St John Ellis misheard something, but to brand us racists is a very serious accusation. That the stewards huffed and puffed, waved their radios about, but took no action suggests that there was no case to answer.

And if there was no case to answer, why come issuing threats in the first place - especially in the section of the crowd that gets behind the team in the most vociferous way? Would they rather the club's most dedicated fans sat in silence and applauded politely at the right moments?

Once again the stewards' hamfisted approach spoiled the afternoon for a lot of people. Given the difference in nature between the games and their supporters, one would hope that the Stadium Company's stewards would have a 'football head' and a 'Rugby League head', but it seems they don't.