Wanderers say their zero-tolerance stance on anti-social behaviour is already bearing fruit.

Home Office figures released this month showed Bolton to have the third-highest frequency of existing banning orders among their supporters, surpassed only by Championship clubs Millwall and Birmingham.

Over the last year more than 40 stadium banning orders have been issued by the club, ranging from six months to five years, many of which sit alongside court-mandated bans for criminal behaviour.

Wanderers have also introduced a membership scheme, which has established a database of more than 30,000 people, allowing them to better monitor who is buying tickets to watch games and where they are situated in the stadium.

The new season is only nine games old but chief executive Neil Hart says there is already tangible evidence which proves such measures are improving the matchday experience at the University of Bolton Stadium.

The Bolton News: NQNWNQNW (Image: NQNW)

“We can work more effectively with the police, collecting information we know who the individuals are, who enters the ground, where they sit,” he said. “We have safety and security measures around CCTV – what I call special ops on a matchday to identify and watch certain areas of the stadium. I think the Home Office numbers are absolutely a direct result of the measures we have taken.

“Some people might look at the table and say: ‘Oh my God, Bolton Wanderers!’ But I look at it as a positive because we are dealing with the situation.

“Let’s not beat around the bush, we had a small minority of individuals who have caused us problems over the last 12-18 months from a disorder, anti-social behaviour and in some cases criminal activity point of view.

“Those people are not Bolton fans and we do not want them here. Any other fan, player, member of the press or staff member would agree. We have to deal with them in an appropriate manner and we will continue to do so.”

Wanderers hosted Sheffield Wednesday on August 20, with more than 22,000 supporters in the stadium. Hart says the fixtures provided proof that the club is dealing effectively with problems of anti-social behaviour.

“That particular fixture had huge issues last season around the stadium – there were a number of issues inside the stadium and out. This year we had none.

“There were three arrests on the day, and they are all away fans, none of them were Bolton fans.

“That is absolutely about us working well with the police, stewarding the ground better, having a better operation as a whole.”

Hart says security problems were not addressed effectively in the years leading up to Football Ventures buying the club in May 2019, which left the new owners with an immediate dilemma.

“The club has not been in a position to do this sort of work for many years,” he said.

“Under the previous regime this simply wasn’t being done, so what you had was a situation where individuals who you may not want to be a part of the fanbase were engaging with some of those anti-social activities, behaviour, disorder.

“That was allowed to fester. And when Football Ventures came in, eventually I came in, an appropriate team of people, we looked at it and realised this is not where we should be as a football club.

“There is a lot of work to do in a short space of time and that is why we sit there third on that list.

“I would anticipate that it will plateau or come down but it does come down to need, and what is happening.

“Touch-wood it hasn’t been required this season to date but if it is in the future we will have no problem bringing it back straight away.

“Using, as an example, the Morecambe away game. We were all there, we saw the issues, and we had to work cleverly to deal with a small number of supporters.

“A minority of supporters behaved in a totally unacceptable way and there was disorder outside the ground. We had to basically work as a club to do an undercover operation the following home game to arrest those individuals as they arrived.

“We want this stadium to be a safe environment for people young, old, everyone and I think we are moving in that direction – but we will do whatever is required to get us there.”