Portsmouth's 6.57 Crew, named for the time of the train they took to away games, were the most talked-about casual football firm of the 1980s and 1990s. Labelled 'the worst in the land' by the police, this is pompey's true shocking story. For the first time, the firm's insiders reveal the truth behind the tabloid headlines. Cass Pennant is the best-selling author of Want Some Aggro?, Congratulations You Have Just Met the ICF, and a hugely successful autobiography, Cass. Rob Silvester tavelled on the 6.57 train many times and became a part of the notorious group of fans. As a no-holds-barred look into a world of turmoil and violence, this is an unsurpassed book. It's required reading not only for football fans, but also those who want to know the amazing facts about a social phenomenon that changed the face of British culture.
Оглавление
Cass Pennant. Rolling with the 6.57 Crew - The True Story of Pompey's Legendary Football Fans
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Glossary
Rob Silvester – 6.57 Crew
The Original Portsmouth Skinheads
Pompey Animals
READING AWAY ’77
PLYMOUTH AWAY ’81
PLYMOUTH, THE LEAGUE CUP TIES ’80–’81
PLYMOUTH AWAY ’83
Millwall Was Our Main Foe
MILLWALL AWAY ’80–’83
MILLWALL AWAY 1983
FA CUP ’81
THE REPLAY
MILLWALL HOME ’80–’83
BATTLE FOR WATERLOO
Chelsea Give It. CHELSEA AWAY ’83
CHELSEA HOME ’83–’84
QUICK DASH ACROSS LONDON
THE JOKERS WERE WEARING NORMAL CLOTHES
Newcastle, The Warriors
Leeds. LEEDS AWAY ’83–’84
LEEDS HOME ’84–’88
LEEDS REVISITED: FA CUP 5TH ROUND 1997
Team Called Scum
THE PLAYERS
SCUMMER’S NEW GROUND
Cardiff, You’ve Got To Respect
CARDIFF AWAY ’82
CARDIFF HOME ’83
CARDIFF AWAY ’83
CARDIFF AWAY ’84
We Went Through the Divisions. ARSENAL
BARNSLEY AWAY ’83–’84
BIRMINGHAM
BORO
BRADFORD
CAMBRIDGE ’84
HEREFORD
HUDDERSFIELD AWAY
LEICESTER
LINCOLN
MAN CITY AWAY ’84
SHEFFIELD UNITED
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
STOCKPORT
SUNDERLAND
TOTTENHAM
VILLA
WEST HAM
WOLVES
SUMMARY
Turning Up When Not Playing. OTHER PEOPLE’S GAMES
Derby, No Race Riot
Docker Hughes 6.57 Party
Honfleur Trip and Riot
FAREHAM LOYAL
Break 4 Love
Where Were You at Fratton Park?
UNUSUAL METHODS OF TRANSPORT
OVERKILL
Robin ‘Fish’ Porter 1961–1994
AND FINALLY
Also by Cass Pennant
CASS
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE JUST MET THE I.C.F
WANT SOME AGGRO?
Copyright
Отрывок из книги
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY WIFE KAREN FOR HER CONTINUED SUPPORT AND FOR MARRYING ME WHERE I WANTED … ALSO TO MY CHILDREN BLAISE AND DEXTER ‘SO BEAUTIFUL TO ME’.
Rob Silvester
.....
‘In this season, ’79–’80, when I started going away, Pompey had always been renowned for violence at away grounds, even going back to the sixties, you know, they were famous for having skinheads and Blackpool seafront in the ’69–’70 season, which you’ll read about in the book. But, anyway, the ’79–’80 season kicked off with what had sort of become a regular thing – Swindon Town – home and away in the Football League Cup. Anyway, I can remember being 16 getting a train up there. I met some boys from Fareham, which is another place just outside Portsmouth, and they always had a good firm turning up, and we got the train. We arrived at Swindon – normal thing, straight into the nearest boozer. It was already full of Pompey, mainly from Cosham, Leigh Park – and sort of dribs and drabs of, you know, official supporters’ coaches and people who’d made their own independent way up there. As normal – well, it wasn’t normal at the time – this football-going era was just losing the old routine of taking people’s ends, but Swindon looked like an easy touch. I think Pompey had been there the year before and cleared it out, so it was just sort of carrying on the tradition of going in and taking Swindon’s end. Got in there and there must have been about 150 of us from all the firms that I’ve mentioned and within 10 minutes of getting in there, it had kicked off. Swindon just sort of backed off. Because they had a big old end in them days and they sort of backed off. There was a little bit of fighting, mainly scuffles. The Old Bill came in and broke it up and marched us to the opposing end. This was the first time I’d been involved in anything like this, but I sort of just carried on with the crowd I was in and ended up in their end.
‘That season saw away violence: at Hartlepool away and, bearing in mind how far that is from Portsmouth, you know, to go up there and kick off wasn’t a bad thing. I think there was Wigan away that season. Bournemouth away on a Friday night – that’s 50 miles up the coast for us. Bit of a liberty getting in their end, 50-handed. Same thing – within 10 minutes, clearing it out, the Old Bill separating people. Even though there wasn’t really anyone firm-wise at Bournemouth to get separated from. There was a few big games that year and at home games Pompey were capable of pulling in 15,000 which in ’79–’80 was good for Div 4 status and wherever they went they had good turnouts. But there wasn’t any really big teams in the Division 4 as you can imagine at that time. Portsmouth’s got Southsea seafront and with its clubs and nightlife, etc., so everyone at the time used to meet up there weekends. If we were going away the next day or if we were at home, people used to talk, you know, about what the firm was like that was coming down. But, as I said, in Div 4 ’79–’80 there wasn’t a lot of teams with organised firms to come down and even nearly have a go.
