Experiences of Hooliganism (Pompey or Otherwise)

[Sam_Brown]

Having a chat with a guy through work who was born in Pompey but never really became a fan because he experienced some of the nastier sides of the game back in the day.

I think I'm fairly wet behind the ears (doesn't feel like it sometimes!) compared to some on here so curious as to whether people feel things are better these days compared to the past and what peoples experiences have been. Mine are probably fairly tame to some of the things I've heard but I'll start off...

Coventry 2001 - Went to the game at Highfield road where a fair few Pompey fans stormed the home supporters. Was right next to the Coventry fans so only a few meters away from where it was all kicking off. Pretty scary to experience as a kid but didn't get hurt myself.

Millwall 2000ish - Can't remember the exact time but remember Millwall raining bricks and bottles on the south stand roof from outside the ground and it kicking off a bit outside. Think Clarridge missed a penalty for Millwall.

Southampton 2010 - At St Marys. First time going to a derby game and remember the police escort into and out of the ground and bricks being pelted at the coaches. Saw some young kids being threatened (both sides to be fair)as well which isn't on at all.

How's that compare to what you guys have seen? Thought we were all over this sort of thing until saw what happened at the Euro final which wasn't a great example to set to the rest of the world.

[Northstander]

Have had bricks heaved at me by Scum fans as we all were herded back to the Station from St Marys by the Old Bill. Also similarly bricks thrown by Millwell after one evening game (after we had been kept inside by the Met for around 45 minutes).

[Pompey55]

Coins from the upper stand and next area at the City Ground at the Leicester play off game
But the funniest thing I remember was in late sixties at the junction of South Stand and Fratton End (no segregation in those days) against QPR was half a dozen blokes in neat suits and bowler hats attacking each other with Umbrellas as a kid I found it hilarious not realising the how serious
Obviously I know now it was a la Clockwork Orange
Also before segregation there was some perceived kudos in away fans trying to invade the home supporters end this applied to Pompey both home and away it was commonplace to hear the Fratton End chanting ‘you’re never take the Fratton End’

[Northstander]

One of my memories. Think it was 1990 Wolves had taken the whole of the Milton End. At half time lots of aggro between them and our fans on what was then the North Terrace. The Old Bill came on with 2 Police Dogs.. For some daft reason Woolfie their Mascot was on the pitch, one of the dogs took a fancy to him. Wolfie didn't enjoy it though but did escape any damage. thanks to the handler keeping a firm hold. It gave both sets of fans a good laugh and settled both down.

[StMonkton]

Pompey Birmingham cup tie in 1972 ish.

A hateful experience in every sense.

Got there early by bus from Coventry where I was a student. Within 30 seconds my scarf had been spotted and I was leant on by some Blues fans. No violence but very threatening.

Proceeded ( accompanied by a couple of neutral mates) to buy some chips from a van. Just about the worst food experience of my life.

Anyhow, onward and upward , so we joined the short and peaceful queue to enter the south side of the ground . The peace was quickly disrupted as a hundred or so Pompey fans (?) ran in to join the back of the queue.
Clearly they had run away from a significant contingent of Birmingham types. A minute or so later bottles and bricks started sailing over a corrugated iron fence. The queue had nowhere to go, most of the missiles where nowhere near the intended target , landing instead among elderly supporters and children.

Luckily no serious damage was sustained and we wandered in shortly afterwards.

The game was awful. Probably the worst PFC performance I ever saw . We were always going to lose from about minute 3. It was so bad that in the second half when we managed to put 3 passes together one of the loudest noises of the day happened. It was a mixture of laughter and ironic applause.

No trouble for me on the way home, but it was raining pretty hard by then to complete a miserable afternoon.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Newport County away. My chum got a good ass whupin on the side streets returning to the car. My Welsh accent was better than his.
Cops took my Doc Marten laces once on the tube...cant recall which match but they held up about 20 of us and snagged our bootlaces.

[Pompey55]

I remember in late 70s a whole train being quarantined by the old bill on the way to scum because all the bulbs in the lights had been thrown and the train pretty much wrecked I found it amusing because my brother was on the train going ice skating in scum
They never let anyone off the train until the game ended

[pompeygunner]

Palace away in the league cup 76. Carnage before during & after. 3 of us got chased by Palace on Croydon station after the OB decided the carriage was too packed & turfed us off the train, the palace mob had broken bottles. Argyle away 83 was interesting, Millwall @ home in 81. They rioted basically, Barry Kitchener had to go in amongst them to calm them down in the ME. They were threatening to do a full on pitch invasion. But they were everywhere. Massive brawl in the bogs underneath the old FE. I "tied a knot in it"!!
Chelsea @ home 84-loads of punch ups before the game. Plenty of others but those ones immediately come to mind.

[GreenBlue]

Mid 80s. Birmingham. Travelled down from univetsty in Lancaster with a Brummy girl. After the match we were all being herded as one to the station to be put on the train to Portsmouth. There were clearly some who had driven and some like us who were not taking the train south but the police had no intention of letting anyone escape their ranks. Objects were raining down on us thrown mainly by kids but we were open. Luckily the girl I was with told me not to say a thing and pulled me to the edge of the cordon where she managed to persuade a copper that she and her 'boyfriend (me) were local and had randomly got caught up in the Pompey crowd. It worked and we made our own way back to the station but on route 2 lads went running by yelling "we're blues, we're blues" closely followed by 6 or 7 Birmingham fans with sticks. To this day I'm still convinced the 2 lads were Birmingham fans but as we caught up with them they were both on the ground in the road having taken a nasty beating. The girl's dad later told her that it was common practice for some Brummies to look out for opposing fans who managed to escape the police shepherding and beat them up. Glad I kept my mouth shut as she advised.

[Mr Dee]

Somebody called us wnakers v Leicester in the play offs

[Blue Walter]

I have been going to games from when the crowds were orderly and acted along military lines. I suppose most of the men in the crowds were or had been in the forces. The boys were generally well behaved because the disapline was a lot firmer then. Things began to change in the late 60's where the crowds became more tribal, especially in the younger element. I used to go to more away games then and I would say that I was in this tribal thing, although I was never involved in any of the violence. I did once write "Pompey for the Cup" on the toilet wall in the Oxford bus terminal (radical or what). I did see some bad things but I was never involved in anything particularly frightening. There is no doubt things are much better now but the tribalism is very much a confirmed status among football fans now. We used to go to the football now we go to see our team play another team.

[Weybridge]

Away at Coventry in 86/87 I think? It kicked off a bit when their fans got in the Pompey end. Police were worse than either set of fans.

Pre-season friendly at Bristol City? 90/91? (Guy Whittingham and Andy Cole swapped hat-tricks). Big fight up in the stands. I took my nephew to that one, and he was terrified. I was grateful we were in the terraces. Wasn't allowed to take him again...

Accidental hooliganism - Away at Hull, after a scrappy win where we were marginally less dire than the hosts. Walking out, me and a friend found ourselves exiting with the Hull fans. A random Hull fan decided to vent his frustration -

'Didn't deserve that, did we?'

My mate in his infinite wisdom, replies - attempting the worst Humberside accent ever 'Naw, Ah thort we werrr shiiite. Foooorkeeen deseeerved evrrrythung we gooort'. Before bursting into laughter. Cue punches.

[Blue Walter]

Away at Coventry in 86/87 I think? It kicked off a bit when their fans got in the Pompey end. Police were worse than either set of fans.

Pre-season friendly at Bristol City? 90/91? (Guy Whittingham and Andy Cole swapped hat-tricks). Big fight up in the stands. I took my nephew to that one, and he was terrified. I was grateful we were in the terraces. Wasn't allowed to take him again...

Accidental hooliganism - Away at Hull, after a scrappy win where we were marginally less dire than the hosts. Walking out, me and a friend found ourselves exiting with the Hull fans. A random Hull fan decided to vent his frustration -

'Didn't deserve that, did we?'

My mate in his infinite wisdom, replies - attempting the worst Humberside accent ever 'Naw, Ah thort we werrr shiiite. Foooorkeeen deseeerved evrrrythung we gooort'. Before bursting into laughter. Cue punches.

I found that last bit very amusing, thank you. We used to try and get off paying for the Gosport Ferry by pretending we were French. We claimed "No understanding of the English" when they told us we had to pay before we got on the ferry.

[StMonkton]

By chance it seems there is a Midlands trend developing.

In the early 1970s Wolves had an exciting team built round ex Pompey Derek Doogan. I was a student in the midlands and went a number of times to Molineux.

On one occasion they were playing Coventry where I was living at the time. A mate and I decided to travel early and were surprised how cheap the train ticket was. The explanation came when we tried to get on a train. We had tickets for the ‘Football Special ‘. These were basically trains full of 13 to 17 year old football fans/hooligans. We waited, got on the train and sat quietly for the journey as light bulbs were pulled out , beer spilled everywhere and a general atmosphere of mayhem prevailed. As we neared Wolverhampton, the sky darkened and the Black Country began to live up to it’s name.

At the station we were met by loads of police who escorted us to the ground. Every pub doorway en route was blocked by police holding back baying mobs of Wolves fans anxious to say hello.

As we neared the ground we slipped away to head for the Wolves end via a tunnel. After some amusing incidents with police , including the guy in front of us being bitten by a rather large German Shepherd, we reached the safety of the North Bank. The police strategy was then evident, the heavy presence outside wasn’t matched inside the ground where no more than 3 or 4 officers were standing in front of the Coventry end terrace.

Sure enough, after a couple of minutes several hundred from that end of the field ran towards us intent on invading the North Bank. A pitched battle then ensued in the penalty area at our end , uninterrupted by police. The Coventry fans were repulsed and the game took place without incident.

We successfully managed to get back on the train unnoticed and managed to survive a miserable trip back on the ‘Special’.

An interesting day.