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Editor backs photographer after spat with football boss

A daily editor has leapt to the defence of a press photographer who was involved in an angry exchange with a championship football manager.

Dan Westwell, who supplies match day pictures to the Nottingham Post, was covering the fixture between Millwall and Nottingham Forest at The New Den for the regional daily last Tuesday evening.

Mansfield-based Dan had been sitting pitch-side when Forest manager Billy Davies sent one of his staff to ask him where he was from.

Dan told the club representative that he was from Nottingham but after the game, Davies approached the photographer, shouting: “Where are you from? Where are you from?”

Dan Westwell is confronted by Forest boss Billy Davies

Said Dan:  “I just sat there in stunned silence not knowing if he was going to hit me or threaten me or what he was going to do.

“I was just thankful that the Millwall stewards were on top of their game and were on the scene straightaway.”

Photographs of the incident show the pair exchanging words and a steward trying to intervene the altercation.

As Millwall fans began chanting at the Forest manager, he was ushered away by club stewards.

Nottingham Forest later issued a statement on their website describing Dan’s conduct as “unprofessional” but Post editor Mike Sassi said that the allegation is completely unsubstantiated.

“Dan Westwell is a professional sports photographer who has an excellent reputation for his pictures and his journalism,” he told the paper.

“We regularly use Dan’s photographs – both in-paper and online.

“His pictures also appear in a variety of other publications, including the Forest match day programme.

“I’m very disappointed that Nottingham Forest have chosen to publish their statement without approaching The Post.

“Their allegation of unprofessionalism against Dan, is completely unsubstantiated.

“To reiterate the point, we have had no complaints from Millwall, the police or anyone else at Tuesday night’s game. Including anyone from Nottingham Forest.”

The full statment from Nottingham Forest stated: “Due to the unprofessional conduct by a Nottingham Post photographer during the Sky Bet Championship fixture between Millwall and Nottingham Forest, club officials had reason to take the matter further.

“The issue was raised with the steward and the fourth official and then a subsequent meeting between manager Billy Davies and the senior steward took place after the match regarding the incident.

“The club is aware that the Nottingham Post was represented at the match by Paul Taylor and photographer Dan Westwell.”

10 comments

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  • December 9, 2013 at 9:31 am
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    Davies is always moaning constantly about his squad size, the officials and the opposition – at every club.
    Even for him though, to berate a photographer from Nottingham, who was seemingly also giving free pix to the editor of Forest’s matchday programme, is a new low.
    If Forest hadn’t dropped two points to Millwall, would he have even stopped to give this bloke grief?

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  • December 9, 2013 at 9:53 am
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    Well done the Post Editor. All too often these days perhaps because of falling circulations regional newspapers have to take it on the chin. It is so pleasing that someone has let authority know that we are still alive and kicking!! Cheers, ken jackson

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  • December 9, 2013 at 10:52 am
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    Isn’t the club statement libellous?

    If I was Dan, I’d get a lawyer….

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  • December 9, 2013 at 11:29 am
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    Could this alleged spat possibly be because the Post had the audacity to write about the appointment of Mr Davies’s cousin to a senior role in the club. On September 30 the Guardian wrote: ‘The Football League’s commitment to its rule requiring club owners and directors to be “fit and proper people” is being called into question by events at Nottingham Forest where a suspended solicitor, currently under investigation in Scotland for possible impropriety in the collapse of his law firm, is being employed in a senior role’.
    Keep digging wee Billy.

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  • December 9, 2013 at 1:16 pm
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    Before we pass verdict on the whole saga….couldn’t we be told what actually happened, exactly what the incident was? At present we’re only hearing part of the story.

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  • December 9, 2013 at 1:50 pm
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    That was the incident. He was just sat there taking photos. Saw on one Football Forum that he was seen speaking (and laughing) briefly with one of the Forest subs who was warming up. Hardly reason to be approached by the manager

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  • December 9, 2013 at 5:13 pm
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    Hi Observer 50, this is what happened.

    During the second half I was sat along the touchline in between the half way line and 18 yard box taking photos of the game & Forest bench (as I was doing it for the paper in Nottingham and ironically, giving some pics to Forests programme too!). Billy Davies sent one of his staff out to tell me to stop taking pics of him so I said “ok fair enough” and went back to sit on my camera case along the 18 yard line. Within a few minutes I’d got Jonathan Greening standing behind me watching me edit my pics on my laptop and one of the subs standing 2 yards in front of me blocking my view of the pitch.

    At full time Billy Davies came straight over to me rather than the Forest fans and started screaming in right in my face “WHERE ARE YOU FROM? WHERE ARE YOU FROM?” The stewards had to pull him away from me. The Millwall fans were going mad & the stewards moved me ‘for my own safety’ even though the Millwall fans were telling BD where to get off and asking me what that was all about. The police asked me as well. I saw a photographer & asked him if he got pics & he got some of Billy right in my face which have gone all over the place now. That is it. Forest then tried to cover their own back (and embarrassment) by making a statement 24 hours later (!) saying I was being unprofessional, this was after Davies himself said in his post match interview that the incident was “nothing”! However they didn’t state what I was doing to make that observation! And they still haven’t done.

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  • December 9, 2013 at 7:15 pm
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    Fair enough Dan – sounds as if you were indeed simply doing your job – your explanation is greatly appreciated.

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  • December 9, 2013 at 8:51 pm
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    Sounds like you did nothing wrong, but Mr Davies could have used a better way of letting you know that you, for some reason, annoyed him. I’m sure loads of football fans get irked by his damn whistling, but none shout in his face!

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