Monday 7 May 2007

Football Hooligans

My experiences of football trouble
I'll start by listing the 5 worst things that have happened to me at football matches.

1) Having a petrol bomb thrown into a crowd of us (West Ham fans) by a Newcastle fan at St James park in the late 70's
2) Narrowly missed being killed by Liverpool fans throwing lumps of concrete from a bridge onto us while walking towards Anfield, again 70's.
3) Having my head split open by a full beer can (beer? or piss?) lobbed from the Liverpool side of the Holt End at Villa park during the 81 League cup final replay.
4) Being run over after the same match by a Liverpool fan who just drove his car at about 20mph into a crowd of Hammers fans, luckily no one was seriously hurt except maybe him after his car was turned over.
5) Being punched in the face by a Liverpool fan outside Upton park, just for asking him if any gates were still open, as I'd arrived late for the match.

I've been to a lot of away games at places like Millwall, Old Trafford, Leeds, White Hart Lane, Stamford Bridge and others who get tarred as having bad fans, so this is my top 5 list of places not to go.
1) Liverpool (see above)
2) Stoke (rock throwers and mobs of angry kids)
3) Newcastle (mainly because of the petrol bomb incident)
4) Portsmouth (lots of abusive drunks)
5) Spurs (police policy of keeping you back after the game, causes aggro)

Been to Millwall 6 times (including 3 games against the Hammers) and not been involved in any trouble, tabloid hype builds that one up, although we do hate each other.

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