Hooliganism and Violence Maine Road 80's/early 90's

[Kazzydeyna]

I'm surprised no-one ever started a business venture out of football hooliganism in the form of organised sport.
You see all these Eastern European hooligans meeting in forests to batter each other.

If you could create a format (i.e. 15 v 15, rules, proper safety gear, referees etc) and get it on PPV. Would be so funny to watch. Like real-life Wrestlemania.

It would never get off the ground mate. The hard core hooligan types would never go for it, they don't believe in equal numbers on each side. Theyd run a mile if it wasn't a 3:1 ratio in their favour.

I went to 1000s games in the 80s, never hit anyone, not even once. Never got hit myself. Not even once. I just met my mates, had too much to drink usually, and went the match then off into town, or home.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Yes it was what it was back in the day but going to a game is much better without it. A lot of us talking about it now might sound like we are glorifying it but we are just reminiscing of a time long gone except for a few youngsters trying to resurrect it. There is however a sense of pride in not allowing others to take liberties with our fan base and if at home in our city. That's just how it was.

I started going in 1968 as a kid and there was violence back then. I have no idea when it started but I always remember it. It must have been the late seventies/ early eighties when so called firms started up with names and calling cards and the fashion trend came with it. Before that teenagers just wore the fashion of the day but old clobber was advised away as you were more likely to be in a punch up. I remember having a crombie and tonic trousers, though it was jeans for the game. Also monkey boots which were cheaper than Doc Martin's. I remember polishing mine for hours before a game, we used to buy them from Jack's in Moss Side although I lived in Wythenshawe.

The continent took a while to catch up, indeed for a long time it was called the English disease. Before that it was mainly fan's fighting the police as the poor locals had little chance against a huge England mob made up of experienced hard core hooligan firms, padded out with beer monsters too. As it died out in England and banning orders etcetera came to the fore it had picked up abroad. This was/is unfortunate for what are now mostly decent non violent England fans as they are still seen as a big scalp by the foreign firms when in reality they are far from what they were back then.

Lads who get involved now are silly as with all the surveillance around their chances of getting away with it are slim. The problem is young males are aggressive in all the animal kingdom so I guess a bit of violence where they meet in groups will always occur.

I think the decades of the 70’s and 80’s were pretty grim too. High unemployment, Thatcher, power cuts in the 70’s. Little hope for the young. Like music it was an outlet. Nowadays most lads are more bothered by how their hair looks and how they are perceived on Instagram

 

[Manchester33]

Imagine there was VAR there as well? They’d never dare get it wrong !

LOL, Imagine watching a brickie from Scarborough RKO'ing a scaffolder from Widnes in Super Slow Motion from 16 angles. VAR would be a welcome addition to professional hooligan wrestling in my opinion.

 

[Shaggy]

Killed to death??

Yeah, killed to death.

One stand out game for me for carnage was Oldham away on Good Friday in the early/mid eighties.
Some pick pocket got proper battered on the corner terrace we were on.

The ladder going up in the stand opposite from the terrace up to the seats, those seats which were torn up and hurled at the dibble, think a female copper got ko'd from one. The huge ruck that went off in the Oldham end when they socred first (game ended 2-2, Kenny Clements was playing for them).

Oldham fans and the town in general getting smashed to bits, bedlam that day was.

 

[paulchapo]

I think the decades of the 70’s and 80’s were pretty grim too. High unemployment, Thatcher, power cuts in the 70’s. Little hope for the young. Like music it was an outlet. Nowadays most lads are more bothered by how their hair looks and how they are perceived on Instagram

Those are good points, it was mainly a written off generation and the underlying resentment and anger boiled over on the terraces and in towns. It was the one time a lot of the youth felt any respect or pride, plus a sideways chance to hit back at the establishment.

 

[Shaggy]

Kicked?

No, deffo killed to death.

 

[Shaggy]

Was that the McIntyre documentary one? I was at that game in the side streets back of the kippax after the game when they were cowering. I watched the documentary, some gobby little shite on it, supported West Ham I think. No idea why they all joined up with Millwall.

Nah he's some racist melt Reading fan, the year City went down into league 2, City lost at Elm Park and he got put straight on his arse.

 

[bluestevei]

any1 remember derby county away last game of the season, got the train from Donny and when it got to Sheffield there was hundreds of city going to the game any way we got to derby and it was kicking off down a street and police didn't know what to do, stay with us off the Sheffield train or go down the street, that was until most city fans ran down the street to join up with other city fans, at the end of the game hundreds of derby fans came on to the pitch and came over to the city fans at the side of the ground and all hell broke out the walk back to the station was interesting as well

 

[paulchapo]

Nah he's some racist melt Reading fan, the year City went down into league 2, City lost at Elm Park and he got put straight on his arse.

Ha ha I would love to have seen that, I bet it happened to him more than once.

When you watch McIntyre back now it's mad no one sussed out he was undercover. He even conned the Chelsea headhunters.

 

[paulchapo]

I just found this online, talk about old enough to know better, it's from a while back but ageing hooligans still battling, nuts. For anyone too young to be there scenes like this happened up and down the country most weekends.

The end of a reign of terror

The end of a reign of terror

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[Shaggy]

I just found this online, talk about old enough to know better, it's from a while back but ageing hooligans still battling, nuts. For anyone too young to be there scenes like this happened up and down the country most weekends.

The end of a reign of terror

The end of a reign of terror

www.thesun.co.uk

See footage of that, it's mainly all bouncing around and arm flailing, running at and running away. Some Cardiff fella gets caught with a sucker punch from behind. It looks more like a chimp out at tea party gone wrong.

 

[Ribchester]

Best to ask them if they can remember the month and year that their ground moved from London to the swamp

Or from Maine Road the fukin gypsies

 

[Ribchester]

I have many traps and snares for cocky rags.i know more about their shitty club than they do,and prove it time and time again.
But only when pushed/provoked,when i am in the mood....
They all want to talk loudly about history...until i turn up,and decide to focus upon specific bits of their history..which they genuinely have no clue about.the shitty bits.got a long memory me.:)

Try asking them about when their home ground was Maine Road, or when the Rags had to use our old kits.

 

[Ancoats blue]

any1 remember derby county away last game of the season, got the train from Donny and when it got to Sheffield there was hundreds of city going to the game any way we got to derby and it was kicking off down a street and police didn't know what to do, stay with us off the Sheffield train or go down the street, that was until most city fans ran down the street to join up with other city fans, at the end of the game hundreds of derby fans came on to the pitch and came over to the city fans at the side of the ground and all hell broke out the walk back to the station was interesting as well

Yep , i was there .... that was a lively day!

As you say we had a large following there and some couldn't resist climbing over the fence to confront the Derby fans on the pitch.

 

[Tbilisi]

Yep , i was there .... that was a lively day!

As you say we had a large following there and some couldn't resist climbing over the fence to confront the Derby fans on the pitch.

I was there, 1980

 

[The Colonel]

Good thread you naughty boys.

The best/worst was the swamp away in 74, I could write a book about it.

I heard about the butcher complete with bloody apron and a cleaver on the pitch afterwards.

 

[Kazzydeyna]

I just found this online, talk about old enough to know better, it's from a while back but ageing hooligans still battling, nuts. For anyone too young to be there scenes like this happened up and down the country most weekends.

The end of a reign of terror

The end of a reign of terror

www.thesun.co.uk

I think this quote sums up the bravery of your average brain dead shithouse football hooligan, who, almost 100% to a man, would run a mile from a 1 to 1 straightener.

"MacIntyre said: “They beat my wife up when she had a brain tumour. I’m here
to see justice done. I’ve been running for ten years and now enough is
enough.”


Thank god we normal football fans managed to chase these cowards out of our game.

 

[Ancoats blue]

I heard about the butcher complete with bloody apron and a cleaver on the pitch afterwards.

Old Trafford wasn't a good place to be that day .... i was stood in the United Road Paddock (or the old cantilever stand, visible on the top photo) , you could sense that crowd trouble was brewing throughout in the second half , and when thousands of rags invaded the pitch from the Stretford End i think the majority of the coppers just gave up trying to stop them, and stood to one side of the pitch .... so we saw a situation where hundreds of rags then just scaled the fences at the scoreboard end in an attempt to mix it with City fans , who had by now, all congregated in the nearby scoreboard paddock ... and with the City fans now loudly taunting them, and nobody to stop them, it was only a matter of time before the rags entered that section too , where it all kicked off with the City fans ..... and it really DID kick off too!

It's probably just as well that we didn't quite take the number of fans to Old Trafford that day that we did in subsequent years, or there could well have been a real bloodbath.

 

[paulchapo]

Old Trafford wasn't a good place to be that day .... i was in the United Road Paddock (the old cantilever stand) , you could smell crowd trouble was brewing throughout in the second half , and when the rags invaded the pitch i think the cops just gave up trying to stop them .... so we saw a situation where hundreds of them scaled the fences in the scoreboard end in an attempt to mix it with City fans , who had by now, congregated in the scoreboard paddock ... and with the City fans now loudly View attachment 4117View attachment 4118taunting them, and nobody to stop them, it was only a matter of time before the rags entered that section too , where it all kicked off with the City fans ..... and it really DID kick off too!

One man stood tall that day......Mike Doyle. As they ran on the pitch a fair few went for Doyle who they hated.....he stood tall and backed them off with a steely stare and they thought better of it.

 

[Ancoats blue]

One man stood tall that day......Mike Doyle. As they ran on the pitch a fair few went for Doyle who they hated.....he stood tall and backed them off with a steely stare and they thought better of it.

Yep, he was never one to show any respect to United , was Doyley .. the guy was tough character, had nerves of steel , and his grandson looks to have the same 'steely' character and gritty determination to be a top player.