The cool cats

[City Raider]

great times! not one for the violence personally but can't deny the edge was frigging exciting

 

[cyberblue]

Whether you were a part of it or not, if you were a 'youth' in those times, the whole hooligan 'thing' was exciting. There is nothing new in that. Every generation has its tribal association and because that association revolves around young males, there is invariably some violence . In the 60's it was Mods and Rockers fighting on Brighton beach, in the 50's it was Teddy Boys, the 40's WW2 satisfied the requirement, the 30's had more street gangs than any other era etc. It does seem to have changed a little over the last 25 years , possibly due to the general apathy with everything by a large section of the population, although there are still gangs.

As someone said previously, it was of its day and I can tell you that as a teenager, being at a game against United when the atmosphere was explosive and hundreds of fans going at each other was an experience like no other. Great when you are an 18 year old looking for excitement in an otherwise pedestrian life, but you view it differently 35 years on.

In the 70s & early 80s if you went to an away game you had to be up for a bit of Mither ,if you wernt street wise & willing to get stuck in you would have been in deep shit .now a days families .women on there own & young kids can go to games in relativly saftey that was never the case all them years ago

 

[awest]

Charlie Millwall? Stoke away for Trevor Francis debut in the paddock next to their end. Good times? Indeed they were. Anyone else on the coaches that day?

 

[Oh YeahOh Yeah]

Having read the previous posts I don't get the feeling anyone is trying to "gloryfy" the violence,or make heroes of people. It's just older Blues reminising about how it was back in the day. In the 70's it was a world removed from the modern day,sanitized "Match day experience". Going to some away matches would be a truly frightening experience. Very little police presence away from the grounds,and local hooligans wanting blood from any away supporter. Leeds,both scouse teams,the Rags,Middlesbrough and Birmingham spring to mind as really hairy places to go,along with any of the London teams. Me and my mates were never the scrapping kind,but knowing "The Cool Cats" would be there gave us a sense of security. So in that respect they were looked up to,as you knew if they were there you had a half decent chance of getting home in one peice. I can vouch for that after getting legged at Birmingham in 78 by their fans in our segregated area an hour and half before kick off and ending up in hospital after a spike on the perimeter fence pierced my leg as I climbed over it.
Someone mentioned earlier about the names of the various "firms". To the best of my knowledge,Millwall had "The Treatment" and "Bushwhackers". We had "The Cool Cats", other teams had names for their firms but the name reflected the area of the ground they populated. The Rags being "Stretford Enders",the Dippers being "The Road End" etc,so in a name like "The Cool Cats",that wasn't a reference to the teams ground,I found it quite innivotive. I stand to be corrected on any factual mistakes I have mentioned.

 

[its a Barm]

Having read the previous posts I don't get the feeling anyone is trying to "gloryfy" the violence,or make heroes of people. It's just older Blues reminising about how it was back in the day. In the 70's it was a world removed from the modern day,sanitized "Match day experience". Going to some away matches would be a truly frightening experience. Very little police presence away from the grounds,and local hooligans wanting blood from any away supporter. Leeds,both scouse teams,the Rags,Middlesbrough and Birmingham spring to mind as really hairy places to go,along with any of the London teams. Me and my mates were never the scrapping kind,but knowing "The Cool Cats" would be there gave us a sense of security. So in that respect they were looked up to,as you knew if they were there you had a half decent chance of getting home in one peice. I can vouch for that after getting legged at Birmingham in 78 by their fans in our segregated area an hour and half before kick off and ending up in hospital after a spike on the perimeter fence pierced my leg as I climbed over it.
Someone mentioned earlier about the names of the various "firms". To the best of my knowledge,Millwall had "The Treatment" and "Bushwhackers". We had "The Cool Cats", other teams had names for their firms but the name reflected the area of the ground they populated. The Rags being "Stretford Enders",the Dippers being "The Road End" etc,so in a name like "The Cool Cats",that wasn't a reference to the teams ground,I found it quite innivotive. I stand to be corrected on any factual mistakes I have mentioned.

i remember that game at brum i was in early too very scary not many in at the time and got a good kicking coppers did fuck all remember our coach and many other having quite a few windows put in.

 

[Danny Hoekman]

Those who are probably 35 and under possibly don't understand what it was like to follow City in the 1970's and 1980's especially away from home. Nobody is bigging up these people or glorifying in the violence but it happened and it is part of football's history. Even going to watch City at places like Grimsby carried danger, it wasn't just at places such as Leeds, Millwall etc.

Grimsby was a tough one... believe me!

Went to Grimsby in the 85/86 season on The Star Bar coach from Glossop.
We arrived nice and early and all the pissheads went on the ale. A couple of us younger lads went for a mooch around the town to check out their lads. Ended up getting split up and legged all around the town by some of their boys after asking us the time!! They saw us coming a mile away in our semi flares, gazzelles and sambas.
Grimsby were behind the times and still knocking about in bleached skin tight jeans and Puma California trainers but they were game lads and like most northern towns back then if you wanted a fight you didn't have to look far to find one.

Wasn't there a City lad stabbed at that game??

 

[skybluepete]

Having read the previous posts I don't get the feeling anyone is trying to "gloryfy" the violence,or make heroes of people. It's just older Blues reminising about how it was back in the day. In the 70's it was a world removed from the modern day,sanitized "Match day experience". Going to some away matches would be a truly frightening experience. Very little police presence away from the grounds,and local hooligans wanting blood from any away supporter. Leeds,both scouse teams,the Rags,Middlesbrough and Birmingham spring to mind as really hairy places to go,along with any of the London teams. Me and my mates were never the scrapping kind,but knowing "The Cool Cats" would be there gave us a sense of security. So in that respect they were looked up to,as you knew if they were there you had a half decent chance of getting home in one peice. I can vouch for that after getting legged at Birmingham in 78 by their fans in our segregated area an hour and half before kick off and ending up in hospital after a spike on the perimeter fence pierced my leg as I climbed over it.
Someone mentioned earlier about the names of the various "firms". To the best of my knowledge,Millwall had "The Treatment" and "Bushwhackers". We had "The Cool Cats", other teams had names for their firms but the name reflected the area of the ground they populated. The Rags being "Stretford Enders",the Dippers being "The Road End" etc,so in a name like "The Cool Cats",that wasn't a reference to the teams ground,I found it quite innivotive. I stand to be corrected on any factual mistakes I have mentioned.

From what i remember, and used to see spray painted on walls it was " kool kats " i might be wrong ?

 

[scotty123]

Having read the previous posts I don't get the feeling anyone is trying to "gloryfy" the violence,or make heroes of people. It's just older Blues reminising about how it was back in the day. In the 70's it was a world removed from the modern day,sanitized "Match day experience". Going to some away matches would be a truly frightening experience. Very little police presence away from the grounds,and local hooligans wanting blood from any away supporter. Leeds,both scouse teams,the Rags,Middlesbrough and Birmingham spring to mind as really hairy places to go,along with any of the London teams. Me and my mates were never the scrapping kind,but knowing "The Cool Cats" would be there gave us a sense of security. So in that respect they were looked up to,as you knew if they were there you had a half decent chance of getting home in one peice. I can vouch for that after getting legged at Birmingham in 78 by their fans in our segregated area an hour and half before kick off and ending up in hospital after a spike on the perimeter fence pierced my leg as I climbed over it.
Someone mentioned earlier about the names of the various "firms". To the best of my knowledge,Millwall had "The Treatment" and "Bushwhackers". We had "The Cool Cats", other teams had names for their firms but the name reflected the area of the ground they populated. The Rags being "Stretford Enders",the Dippers being "The Road End" etc,so in a name like "The Cool Cats",that wasn't a reference to the teams ground,I found it quite innivotive. I stand to be corrected on any factual mistakes I have mentioned.

i remember that game at brum i was in early too very scary not many in at the time and got a good kicking coppers did fuck all remember our coach and many other having quite a few windows put in.

I was there that day, about 10 of us went in the back of a van, very dodgy day but our lot stuck together as we always did and came through unscathed, only trouble was we stopped off in Walsall for a drink on the way back and got ambushed by the locals outside the pub, running battles up and down the carpark and in a local cemetery, Daffy got his head split open by a bottle

Not glorifying anything about those days in the 70s but you had to fight to survive if you wanted to watch your team, most away supporters hated coming to Maine Rd, they thought it was a nightmare, i,v seen so called hard mobs bring thousands to Moss Side and got wasted everywhere, yet i'v seen Wigan bring a mob of 200 lads and storm the Albert and the Clarence, weird times indeed

 

[Hoghead]

Charlie Millwall? Stoke away for Trevor Francis debut in the paddock next to their end. Good times? Indeed they were. Anyone else on the coaches that day?

Was there - but saw no hooliganism. Thought it was a new dawn (again) with Trevor scoring 2 on his debut and Gary Birtles not hitting a barn door for the rags.

 

[Young_TomO]

Its a tribal thing, like somebody pointed out before.

It will never completely disappear.

Still football grounds are much safer now