I was on the coach to the semi of the league cup against west ham away, coach broke down, took all our cash to get another driver to take us to game and got stuck outside uptown park after losing with no coach!! Scary!
I was there that night and it was scary. Got bricked as soon as we were off the coach, police were worse than the West Ham fans inside the ground, thugs in iniform! I remember a WH fan had been stabbed at the home leg at HR and they had sworn to do the samReply With Quotee. A tense night in east London, glad to get home.
I agree, would make a great book.
Anybody remember Mr Sox? Ran on the pitch to confront Stratchen, I believe there's a picture of it in one of Stratchens books. He was also known to sell snide clobber.
may be Pennent only remembers their so called "victories ", i'm getting on a bit, but remember it like it was yesterday. pusb.Was at that West Ham game and the Liverpool one, both in the league cup. At Anfield the scousers got the shock of their lives, tthousands of City went, took the whole Kremlyn Road stand and half the Annie road. Little known fact the scousers in the kop confronted us after the game and were chased back into the kop and big scrap took place on the kop terrace for a good ten minutes with Cov more than holding their own. As for the West Ham semi, tough night .The cockney old bill were ruthless and spent all night taking City fans out. Something Cas Pennant forgot to mention in his hooligan book was the so called ICF got sorted at the back of the terracing after the game. They came in t.he gates to have a ruck about 200 of them but someone closed the gate and trapped them at the bottom, talk about Custers last stand, they were all well battered for a good 15 minutes and no old bill to rescue them. They tried a bit of revenge the next season by the main stand at HR but again got trapped and I remember distinctly our plod turning away and letting the Cov get on with it, something else Pennent forgot.
good firm the Ewings, jr was top boy.Anyone remember the Ewings that used to frequent the West end..mid 70's ....came from Earlsdon ... i think
Yes they did Kensington Road knew them well
that was MAURICE , TOP BLOKE, PROPER SKY BLUE LEGEND.Isn't that Maurice? (used to see him in Cheylesmore - needed a bar of soap, no offence Maurice)
that's mo, and city have had a few good go's at west ham , they were mainly living on the fear factor. lo's of mouth, if you never ran straight away , they wern;t so keen.Was Maurice the guy the old Kop used to chant "Cyril" at?
Loving the old stories, liked the ICF related one, never thought any Cov ever had any sort of stand against the ICF.
I have a great West Ham story from that away semi. We travelled in a van, no seats just sat on the floor supping beer. Someone threw a can to a mate ,Pete, won't give his full name, and it hit him on the bonce and cut his head, he wasn't happy. This lad was a proper street fighter and ex boxing champ at amateur level but not what I would call a hooligan, anyway near the ground the old bill stopped our van and seeing blood on Pete's head arrested him, roughly,punched him knocking a tooth out and he was dragged to the police van kicking and screaming and three coppers sat on him all the way to the nick. Still going off on one at the station they put him in a cell with about half a dozen West Ham in as they licked their lips Pete struck, knocked the teeth out of one, broke anothers jaw put another away leaving the other three quivering in the corner. Guess what they old bill did, c.harged him for breach of the peace and believe this or not took him direct to Upton Park and in the ground. They couldn't do anything about those left battered and bruised at the nick because they would of had to justify putting him in the cell with those fans in it. He got a £250 fine which he said was the best 250 he ever paid.True story and yes the ICF were mainly mouth but they had their boys, Bill Thompson who I have met was a freak and every year invaded the Chelsea shed end, a real nutter. We all had them. What are they doing nowi wonder ?
bill gardner jw, a big ginger brute of a guy, but away from the match an absolute gent , had a few beers and laugh at crewe station once,.what a story!!
love it, there really was some right nutters back then.
Thankfully trouble at football died down significantly in the late 80s, cops got on top and those two disasters at Heysel and Hillsborough had an impact.
last time i went with the firm , main road 2001, things changed , such as cctv, jail sentences and banning orders, and of course old father time creeping up/maybe growing up too.Covs hooligan element picked back up a bit in the 00's. Man city away 2001, Portsmouths revenge trip at home 2002(?), cardiff at home, Wigan believe it or not 2003
last time i went with the firm , main road 2001, things changed , such as cctv, jail sentences and banning orders, and of course old father time creeping up/maybe growing up too.
Last hurrah for Cov really. Few jailed there haven't really bothered since.
i was living on the other side of the world at the time , i saw it on tube, looked and felt to me another world which it sort of was.I think it's had it's day, all these books and hoolie films are showing it to a new generation all the clobber and such to me it was just something i grew up with , it was our generations thing, nowdays with all the new policing techniques , cctv, banning orders, jail, i think you'd have to be stupid to be involved, football has become a family event, in my day it was just about all working class blokes with lot's of pent up anger to release ( not an excuse ), but that was how it was , football's moved on and i'm glad.A few were out in earlsdon 2008 for Leicester at home, most involved were the new generation of hooligans though.
Shitzu HQ?Remember the Maine Road thing being in the papers (notably The Sun) and seeing one or two faces in the photos. Whenever I travelled I used to see a dark haired guy with a pony tail (in the Sun photo) who always seemed to be part of a middle aged crew. Saw him at Notts County away last year, and when I described him to one or two old City fans who travelled a lot, they instantly knew him as some sort of 'leader' of a crew - he looks like he's had a drink or two over the years, judging by the ruddiness (no offenceif you're some mad axeman!). Anybody know who he is? Seen him all over the place over the years - Southampton, Sheffield, Swindon (anywhere beginning with an S!)
Your all getting me nostalgic now and bringing back a lot of memories.
I recall as a teenager meeting in the a Silver Sword and walking to HR, but we used to go via the Zodiac so we were with some older lads who knew how to look after themselves. Walk through the old pool meadow, always fun, we used then meet up with those from the Elastic Inn.
After the game anyone who wanted a little action met on Pork Chop Hill ( why did we call it that?). Seen some heavy stuff around that area over the years.
I know they were not all nice times but these things stick in your mind, I remember getting into a nasty rumble with Derby and they started throwing milk bottles at us, or the time Everton ran up the stairs of the a Silver Sword and we ended up fighting in the over the bar till the police turned up. My worst scare was at Liverpool in the cup, it must have been 1980/81, we drew 2-2 and and walking back to coach we got attacked by around 100 nutters and some lads took a real kicking, just so many of them and it was in middle of a car park. Everyone was running around between cars, then they bricked the coach. I was so glad I had my donkey jacket with me.
Fascinating stories being recalled and it was all part of the culture of football in its day. Football hoolies came from all walks of life not only working class lads. It could be argued that a 'sheep mentality' prevailed at the time but if you didn't want to get involved it was never really a problem. Many was the day that I walked through a ruck and came out unscathed the other side.
As for the ICF, they were just a bunch of pussies innit.[/QUOTE]
Lovin it!!!!!!!!!!!
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