Hooliganism at Norwich

[Captain Holt 228]

Can anyone around in the 80s give me an idea of what hooliganism was like surrounding NCFC? I know a general picture in terms of British hooliganism but never have really heard many tales of it involving us.

[Unhinged Canary 322]

Oh, it was carnage. There was tutting, fists being shook, raised voices and once there was a bin knocked over.

Dark days my friend. Ones we don't want to return to.

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 987]

I think it might have been worse in the 70's

I used to go to just about every game home and away from 1984 to 1990. Very rarely saw trouble, though I  remember a pub getting smashed up on the way home from  Grimsby on the league cup run 

[percy varco 117]

We had a brick through the window of our coach on the way home from that Grimsby game. 
Was in the Barclay when the Manc came through the roof. 
There were the chases down riverside road when a few ended up in the river. 

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 987]

1979

At home to Aston Villa

[Branston Pickle 2,382]

Very little - when at uni in the late 80s I did an extended essay about football trouble and remember one of my research texts saying “you have to go out of your way to find trouble at a Norwich match”. 

[Foxy2600 212]

Luckily not Hoolihaniganism

[pete 244]

Pretty benign at City until West Ham visited us around 1984.  Smart dressed Hammer fan suited and booted about 18 years of age just decked an older City fan one punch to face after a City goal.  Miscreant just walked away in front of me.  Not seen any other aggro, but Pompey at Fulham were intimidating 1970's. 

[Google Bot 1,748]

Can only speak about late 80s, and it was all concentrated away from the ground.  There's plenty of tales, but not necessarily what i'd call hooliganism.  It was more about stacking the odds in your favour, and not getting isolated from the pack.  Plenty of nasty **** went down though.

[Wings of a Sparrow 977]

Listening to the songs ringing around Carrow Rd in the mid 70s, you'd think we were a hot bed of hooliganism.

Allo, allo, Norwich aggro, Norwich aggro...

You're going get you're f***ing heads kicked in..

Your going in the River...

Etc, etc 

Local derbies of course could get a bit tasty, and I vividly remember West Ham and Spurs fans invading the Barclay causing huge surges.

[BigFish 1,560]

15 hours ago, Captain Holt said:

Can anyone around in the 80s give me an idea of what hooliganism was like surrounding NCFC? I know a general picture in terms of British hooliganism but never have really heard many tales of it involving us.

 

[cambridgeshire canary 4,733]

5 minutes ago, BigFish said:

 

United fans being sore losers? Nothing changes

[wcorkcanary 3,797]

5 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

United fans being sore losers? Nothing changes

They didn't have to lose to be sore, there was loads of trouble before the game too. 

[Wings of a Sparrow 977]

I like to think Til is in that video somewhere...

[hogesar 6,950]

13 minutes ago, BigFish said:

 

Something about hooligans in flared jeans makes them far less intimidating.

That and mullets.

[cambridgeshire canary 4,733]

12 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Something about hooligans in flared jeans makes them far less intimidating.

That and mullets.

I don't know.. The idea of some roller skater with flares on coming at you is pretty scary

[BigFish 1,560]

5 minutes ago, wcorkcanary said:

They didn't have to lose to be sore, there was loads of trouble before the game too. 

Pretty much. Back in the day the away section was in the Barclay, all standing, and before they put the fencing in seperated by a line of police. When we scored it turned out there were United fans on both side of the "segregation" and it all kicked off, the police line was pushed back and the City fans retreated onto the area surrounding the pitch where they watched the rest of the game. Would probably have been abandoned these days but there was an all round higher toleration of violence those days.

There is another clip somewhere with one the two guys who climbed on the roof falling through the hole they made ripping off panels to throw, getting up and running off with two coppers in not so hot pursuit. Genius.

[BigFish 1,560]

13 hours ago, Unhinged Canary said:

Oh, it was carnage. There was tutting, fists being shook, raised voices and once there was a bin knocked over.

Dark days my friend. Ones we don't want to return to.

Don't forget the days when the City (or Main as it was) Stand would throw cushions onto the pitch.

(This is genuine btw)

[shefcanary 1,247]

41 minutes ago, BigFish said:

Don't forget the days when the City (or Main as it was) Stand would throw cushions onto the pitch.

(This is genuine btw)

It would have happened a few times this season after some of the ref's decisions we've endured.

[shefcanary 1,247]

Generally it was worse in the ground in the 70's until they penned the away fans and the Barclay Boot Boys behind 10 foot fencing, with one complete section always empty (took a 1,000 off the attendance). Once they had it was mainly sharpened 2p pieces and the odd dart being thrown across the divide, but very few found their target. When they started lobbing them at the away goalkeeper (that Villa game), then they hung fishing nets or whatever at the front. Could see **** all of what was happening on the pitch by then.

I do remember before the fencing off a strange incident with the crush barriers. They went across the sections containing both home and away supporters. I think it was against Arsenal. Both sets of fans managed to set their end of one such barrier free of the support and then started to swing it using the middle support in the no man's land where the coppers were trying to segregate the two sets, as a pivot. The site of coppers and fans having to run and duck for 5 minutes was something to behold.

[keelansgrandad 5,407]

Boxing Day 1968. Leicester at home. We had all been drinking in the Orford and found ourselves right bang in the middle of the Barclay Boys and Leicester lads. City scored and there was an eruption as the Leicester mob charged the Barclay Boys. There was this melee and we were right in the middle of it. One of my mates went down and was getting a kicking so we tried to drag him away and were being punched and kicked. I felt a hand on my shoulder and without thinking took a swing. Unfortunately it was a Bobby.

Him and his mates grabbed me, marched me up to to back of the Barclay and shoved me down the steps. Good job I was still pished or I would have felt every step I tumbled down. I was taken into a room under the end of the City Stand. The Sergeant who was so big wherever you were in the room he was next to you, asked me "Court or a hiding?" I said "I'll take the hiding but not the face". Of course he put his leather glove on and belted me right on the cheek. Then a couple in the comic cuts and I was thrown out of the ground, along with plenty more.

Luckily, I managed to get back in at the River End. We beat them 3-0. A Leicester lad joined me, a skinhead. He told me that was his third run in with the Police since leaving Leicester. And he was only 14!

[Indy 2,472]

It’s funny but Leicester had a section of real arseholes, me & couple mates went to filbert street, parked up and started walking to the ground, we got cut off as about a dozen of their fans started following us on the way to the ground, we turned a corner and about 100 odd were all ready for some fun! luckily we were all in our teens so legged it. Luckily we caught up to some police who happily escorted us to the ground. Was lucky otherwise we’d have got a hell of a kicking! Wearing colours wasn’t advised at the time and we learned from that to keep colours out of sight till the game.

I do remember from early days in late 70’s kids would be safe from trouble thought it was around generally people weren’t hassled it would be an arranged get together by the groups to have a little rumble, it never really kicked off too many times in the ground.

Standing still remember being at the front of the stand at river end with pee running down the terrace and beer thrown too, then crowd surge crushing.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Indy

[TeemuVanBasten 3,303]

1 hour ago, BigFish said:

 

I once got in a taxi in Chesterfield with a 60ish year old chap who claimed to participate in that, as a Man Utd fan.

Would have called him a c*nt but was already late for a meeting so being chucked out of the taxi wasn't an option, just told him it was on Youtube if he fancied trying to spot himself.

[mannings bandy legs 248]

15 hours ago, percy varco said:

We had a brick through the window of our coach on the way home from that Grimsby game. 
Was in the Barclay when the Manc came through the roof. 
There were the chases down riverside road when a few ended up in the river. 

That Manc fell on my mate and broke his knee.

[BobLoz3 451]

17 hours ago, Captain Holt said:

Can anyone around in the 80s give me an idea of what hooliganism was like surrounding NCFC? I know a general picture in terms of British hooliganism but never have really heard many tales of it involving us.

Some people even set up a protest at St Andrew's Hall. Wild times 

[Well b back 2,604]

The Manchester United game that some are referring to where the guy fell through the roof was an accumulation of the whole day. Either BBC or ITV were filming for a documentary on football hooliganism. That was the day they picked and Manchester United fans were coming from far and wide to play for the cameras. The city was a wreck by the Sunday.

There was the Chelsea league cup semi final when a Chelsea supporter managed to get in the home part of the Barclay and went from the top to the bottom swinging a razor blade. 
There was the ( I think it was ) Man City game where a Man City supporter died ( I think he was stabbed ).

After the games gangs of Norwich supporters would try to get to the train station to attack the away fans. 
There was the Watford game when we were in the end with no roof. The Norwich fans ( it was raining ) ran across the pitch to invade the Rookery.

Bricks coming into your coach through the window were quite common.

I must say Norwich fans were quite tame though. Living in Birmingham I have been to Wolves v WBA derbies and Villa v Blues. These make Norwich Ipswich games seem like a day out with one of your mates. Although I didn’t actually see it there was a day when Wolves fans set a pub full of WBA fans on fire, beating up the Wolves fans as they came out. Once we were in a box at Wolves and those who know Molineux will know the away fans are below and the Wolves fans above. This was a Wolves v WBA game and suddenly we thought it’s raining, until we realised, yes you’ve guessed it the Wolves fans were p****** on the WBA fans.

I was at the infamous Villa Blues game where Dublin got sent off. That was scary. There were Blues fans everywhere and they were happy to fight even if they were outnumbered 50 to 1. There were Blues fans in boxes, unplugging the hot water boilers and throwing the boiling water over Villa supporters.

I was also at the Blues Stoke game when the Stoke fans ( they feared nobody ) in invaded the pitch, one of them removing the corner flag from the ground and hurling it at The Blues fans.

The dark days.

[MooreMarriot 215]

 

1 hour ago, Well b back said:

The Manchester United game that some are referring to where the guy fell through the roof was an accumulation of the whole day. Either BBC or ITV were filming for a documentary on football hooliganism. That was the day they picked and Manchester United fans were coming from far and wide to play for the cameras. The city was a wreck by the Sunday.

This is the one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuOqV6-kQ1Q

But when it comes to falling through a roof:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egWbklcsfFw

Apparently he suffered no serious injury !

 

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by MooreMarriot

[Satriales 214]

2 hours ago, Well b back said:

The Manchester United game that some are referring to where the guy fell through the roof was an accumulation of the whole day. Either BBC or ITV were filming for a documentary on football hooliganism. That was the day they picked and Manchester United fans were coming from far and wide to play for the cameras. The city was a wreck by the Sunday.

There was the Chelsea league cup semi final when a Chelsea supporter managed to get in the home part of the Barclay and went from the top to the bottom swinging a razor blade. 
There was the ( I think it was ) Man City game where a Man City supporter died ( I think he was stabbed ).

After the games gangs of Norwich supporters would try to get to the train station to attack the away fans. 
There was the Watford game when we were in the end with no roof. The Norwich fans ( it was raining ) ran across the pitch to invade the Rookery.

Bricks coming into your coach through the window were quite common.

I must say Norwich fans were quite tame though. Living in Birmingham I have been to Wolves v WBA derbies and Villa v Blues. These make Norwich Ipswich games seem like a day out with one of your mates. Although I didn’t actually see it there was a day when Wolves fans set a pub full of WBA fans on fire, beating up the Wolves fans as they came out. Once we were in a box at Wolves and those who know Molineux will know the away fans are below and the Wolves fans above. This was a Wolves v WBA game and suddenly we thought it’s raining, until we realised, yes you’ve guessed it the Wolves fans were p****** on the WBA fans.

I was at the infamous Villa Blues game where Dublin got sent off. That was scary. There were Blues fans everywhere and they were happy to fight even if they were outnumbered 50 to 1. There were Blues fans in boxes, unplugging the hot water boilers and throwing the boiling water over Villa supporters.

I was also at the Blues Stoke game when the Stoke fans ( they feared nobody ) in invaded the pitch, one of them removing the corner flag from the ground and hurling it at The Blues fans.

The dark days.

Blimey. Setting fire to a building with people inside, and throwing boiling water at people. Absolutely insane, and savage!

[TIL 1010 3,519]

8 hours ago, Wings of a Sparrow said:

I like to think Til is in that video somewhere...

I was on duty there that day but not in the video.

Edited November 8, 2022 by TIL 1010

[TIL 1010 3,519]

4 hours ago, BobLoz3 said:

Some people even set up a protest at St Andrew's Hall. Wild times 

The 80's that you quoted was an EGM of shareholders.