It’s no surprise that opinions are divided when it comes to the cheeky actions of Auckland FC fans prior to Saturday afternoon’s New Zealand Derby.
As Auckland supporters travelled in their droves on foot toward Go Media Stadium, they were presented with a golden opportunity to inconvenience their bitter rivals, as the Wellington Phoenix team bus travelled up the road toward their shared destination.
Before long, the Wellington bus was surrounded by Auckland fans who contributed to the team being delayed on their trip to the venue by 15 minutes, as estimated by Wellington head coach Giancarlo Italiano post-game.
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Italiano was eager to highlight the minor inconvenience was “not a big thing” in the grand scheme of the afternoon in Auckland, after the Phoenix were dismantled in a 6-1 derby defeat. But he did question whether security could have been tighter to allow the team bus safe passage to the venue.
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“It’s not a big thing for me,” Italiano said. “I’ve been around football a long time, I’ve seen a lot of crazy things with buses and so on.
“I just thought there was a lack of security, which I thought was a little bit unprofessional – because when the team bus comes in, you need someone to escort it through, because these things happen. But I’m pretty sure they’ll rectify that.
“There was some banging (on the bus). There were some people just walking on the street, delaying the bus. There were a couple of chants – I couldn’t understand what they were saying. But look, it’s a nothing thing for me.
“Again, these things happen. I wasn’t shocked. I think I was just a little bit worried about my bus driver who was getting very angry. It’s all good.”
“We turned where the railway was – sorry, I don’t know the roads here – and it was the road that leads up to the stadium,” Italiano continued. “The (fans) were all walking up at the same time we were coming up with the bus.
“The issue wasn’t (that) they were walking up, it was just more about having a clearance for us to actually move up the road. When they started coming out there was just no security around for a long time, so that was probably the bigger issue. We were there, I don’t know, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, something like that. We were stalled quite a bit.
“We were 15 minutes late I think, and we were talking about having a delay of the game. It’s probably something no one anticipated would happen, because for me, usually you have a contingency plan that you’re going to have a team bus come through, and if something happens you’ll have security leading it.
“Look, they’ll learn. Next time, it’s not going to happen.”
Auckland head coach Steve Corica was also asked about the Phoenix bus delay post-game and, although admitting it was the first he’d heard of the pre-game incident, the victorious derby coach quickly formed a succinct and simple response.
“Did they? No, I didn’t know that,” he said.
“But that’s quite funny, isn’t it?”
