The mancityfans.net football forum

Brass tacks documentary from 1988 featuring city -v- liverpool and peter swales. how close was football to being banned?

[youtube]q-1pvudO7hY[/youtube]

Arjan Van Schotte wrote:Brass tacks documentary from 1988 featuring city -v- liverpool and peter swales. how close was football to being banned?

[youtube]q-1pvudO7hY[/youtube]

I was at the FA Cup Q/F versus the dippers, nasty atmosphere in the ground -fighting in the stands during the match particulalrly in the north stand, a fan coming on to the pitch to remonstrate with the ref after lakey was adjudged to have brought down Johnston I think it was for their pen.

Lots more trouble outside the ground probably fuelled by the 4-0 defeat. They were very hostile days as the documentary highlights. Luton acted in a way that helped the locals feel safe but the club suffered financially. It seems the game from a spectator sport perspective has come along way from those dark days.

This was one of my first city matches, and i have to be honest and say the hugely hostile atmosphere in and around the ground was one of the things that got me hooked on footie. Pretty much every away day was like a battle to get home unscathed.

It's easy to forget how bad it really was, and with one sweep of thatcher's pen, away days could so easily have been a thing of the past.

I often wondered at the time and watching this documentary has reminded me again. Why was david evans involved in football in the first place if he had nothing but contempt for the people who watch it?

I remember the Liverpool game on this film very well. I genuinely thought we had a chance of beating them and going all the way until I found out george fucking courtney was the ref. Some things have changed at least, as now we can beat anyone regardless of who the cheating bastard in the middle is.

interesting to view, membership schemes is at all games these days, atleast in the higher divisions.
Away fans is a vital part of the game IMO.
BTW that Alan Dyer figure must be an act played by Sean Connery, looks like him and sounds like him.
CTID!!

Tokyo Blue wrote:I often wondered at the time and watching this documentary has reminded me again. Why was david evans involved in football in the first place if he had nothing but contempt for the people who watch it?

the socialist in me says that david evans was a thatcher plant - sent to try and bring the working class'' game to it's knees, and i actually believed that at the time.

to be honest, the conditions at stadiums/on special trains/the herding at the time, etc etc was shocking, but i have to remind myself that the behaviour and attitude of what i would call a large proportion, if not the majority of travelling fans at games those days was as bad if not worse.

Cheers for posting this - took me back and I forgot how much I hated David Evans and that plastic pitch.

Remember going to Luton in 89 or 90 when it was still all members and away fans banned. At the time memberships were passing around the clubs. There were big pockets of City behind the goal and nobody made any secret of who they were supporting and it was Luton fans who had to keep their heads down. There was no trouble, at least not where I was, but if it had kicked off god only knows how it would have ended.