Quote Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY View Post
There's absolutely no doubt about it that Cardiff fans doing horse impressions to Swansea supporters are mocking the death of Terry Coles at Rotherham who was crushed by a police horse

It's got nothing to do with the brawl between Morriston Rugby Club and 20 of our lot at Newbury Races
I am with Sludge on one aspect here, the Newbury story may or may not have happened, but that isn’t the intention of horse references. The intention is to cause offence. I can recall back around the late Nineties and early Noughties some chanting by Cardiff fans.

On Alan Davies there were two chants…

“Sssssss, gas gas, gas a Jack”, and the “Do the Alan Davies, Do the Alan Davies, la la la la la”. That was the arm-crossing that Sludge refers to.

I never heard too much about the Terry Coles, other than in the Canton End around 2003-05 from memory. I think the Portguese coach was running Swansea at that point. There were a few Barry and Blackwood boys singing the Goldie Looking Chain song that went “Drugs don’t kill people, rappers do”. It was changed to “Drugs don’t kill people, horses do”. At the time it seemed funny, but you realize it then really isn’t if the family on the others side hear it. Young tribal foolishness, and idiocy. Alcohol and group dynamics at a young age gives you a difference reference point.

No doubt tragedy chanting is offensive. But then again football all over the world is tribal. You don’t
go to football as in rugby, shake hands with the opposition, and say “Well done old mucker”. To me it is a waste of police resources to chase this stuff. The police have complained for years that they are short on resources so its about prioritisation. There is an opioid crisis in Swansea, theft of endemic proportions, and child abuse at estoteric rates. This doesn’t strike me as a priority for South Wales Police, socially ugly though it may be. The police should be chasing more hard crimes instead of looking for easy wins to make their statistics look good, and avoid high risk policing. Risk is part of their job, so chase hard criminals not a small bunch of football fan idiots who will be long forgotten by the following day.

My stepfather was at the foot of the Aberfan disaster, cleaning it up, back in the day. He told me horrific stories about what he saw, which as an 18 year I found harrowing. But when Millwall and Bristol City fans chanted about Aberfan I thought “Bloody lowlife”, shrugged if off, gave it back and got on with my day. I didn’t feign faux outrage on behalf of others, create a noise, and go squeaking to police or shouting about it. I just thought it reflects more on them than me.