I went to most of the aways late 70's and throughout the 80's, mainly with my two brothers. I think I can speak for most Blues who went then, nearly every away posed serious risks to one's health! Both scouse clubs were always difficult aways, especially Stanley Park and the locals with Stanleys. Leeds was always difficult walking to and from the ground, even waiting to get out of the ground meant looking skywards to dodge the inevitable rain of bricks being thrown our way. You always had to be careful going to Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham in the capital, but Millwall always the worst. Luton and Middlesbro were not for the faint hearted, as were Forest (seen plenty jump/pushed into the Trent off the bridge), Birmingham and latterly Stoke. I wasn't a fighter, just a survivor like the majority, but I was regularly grateful for Blues who would stand their ground (Guvnors, Cool Cats, Mayne Line Crew, etc) who drew attention from the headcases of the other team so we could manage to slip away and get into our cars, onto our coaches or get onto our trains relatively unscathed! The swamp was always tasty and the Spurs FA Cup Final of 81 (the replay especially) was particularly unpleasant.
But the scariest was the Full Members Cup Final weekend, because this went on for a full weekend rather than just one day. The derby game on the Saturday had skirmishes before the game, during the game (we were sat in K stand with a few of their finest smacking anyone who they thought were Blue), then after more skirmishes (especially on and near Warwick Road) trying to get back to the car. We drove straight from that game down the M6 to Wembley, giving V signs, stick, etc to all the cockney reds in their cars travelling back down south. What we didn't anticipate was this posse of cars, each full of angry reds following us into every service station on the way down south! You reap what you sow we learned that journey! Wembley the following day was particularly nasty, especially as we felt outnumbered by Chelsea, and especially on the car parks around Wembley. We had encounters with numerous Chelsea fans, particularly their NF following, before and after the game (during the game we watched the odd skirmish but weren't involved in any). I'm not glorifying it all. It was different times and just my experience of it. For what its worth I'm glad the game has cleaned up its act and the old bill are on top of it all, largely due to cctv and heavy sentencing. I'd much rather have a pint with opposition fans nowadays (apart from the rags obviously, and latterly livarpool).