I'd imagine many posting on here like me were never a fully bona fide hoolie, but were nevertheless caught up in scrapes, or found themselves on the fringes of situations not of their own making.
It's a fantastic thread to relive some of these stories of a time that will never be repeated.
I said before two of my brothers were cockney reds, well one year early eighties Spurs were away to Man Utd, we arrange to stay with some man Utd lads and head up Friday night. Saturday morning we head into the town centre and into a united pub where all their top boys meet pre match. The cockney reds turn up and drinking and singing starts. Anyway a big commotion starts in the pub, apparently two undercover old bill trying to infiltrate the red army have been caught!
They bring them into the centre of the pub and sit them down while the whole pub is singing "kill,kill,kill the bill" I've never seen anything like it, they then piss in pint pots and make the old bill drink it!! All the while singing the same song.
A United fan standing next to me with his eyes bulging and his veins sticking out says to me " I fucking hate cockneys, but your alright" to say it was surreal would be an understatement.
The two old bill consumed at least 5 pints of piss each but no one laid a finger on them. I quess the fear of violence is greater than anything.
After the match it was back to the town centre for a few beers before the train home. We went into a place called the beer Keller another United watering hole. After a few pints the place gets attacked by city's firm the kool Kats, mayhem follows for twenty minutes and all goes back to normal.
After that day I knew I much preferred a few beers and a sing song in the pub pre match rather than the mayhem some people loved. I loved hearing stories of what they all got up too, but you can't get up to that stuff with a belly full of beer
I look back on those days with great affection and as the days I most enjoyed going to football.