Quote Originally Posted by Organ Morgan. View Post
That Bristol Rovers game all those years ago I had resolved to swerve any trouble as I had tired of being twisted up by HM constabulary. Anyone and everyone hoping to indulge in some recreational violence made it to that game as the crush to enter the ground confirmed. I was stood near the back of the open terrace when I heard a familiar voice close behind start a chant. It was someone called Frankie (Humphreys?) who I didn't know to talk to but he must have been the club's most active hooligan as he always seemed to be near or usually at the centre of every dust-up home and away.

We moved much lower down the terracing waiting for the teams to appear when from nowhere a group of half a dozen real handy looking lumps appeared at the bottom of the stand before us screaming anti-Welsh stuff and inviting any of the thousands to fight them. They were ignored initially as everyone else must also have assumed they were pissed-up or drugged-up Cardiff fans as no sane people would invite being stretchered away by St John's Ambulance people. They were Rovers fans though and it was a horrible sight seeing a swarm surround and mercilessly boot them senseless in an ugly feeding frenzy. I was one amongst several who coppers chose at random to bundle out of the ground.

After the game making our way through the streets it was one incident after another, and sure enough it wasn't long before I spotted the remarkably energetic Frankie getting stuck in.
My one and only time as a Grandstand season ticket holder was our 02/03 promotion year and Frankie (you're right about his surname) was sat behind me. I didn't know what to expect when I first noticed him, but he was absolutely fine all year in a part of the ground where there were, far, far, too many moaners for my liking.

The first away match I went to was when my uncle took me to Fulham in 1968 when I was 12. I was so excited that I insisted we got into the ground about ninety minutes before kick off. Of course, there was virtually no one in the ground when we got in, but after about fifteen minutes, a group of about twenty five City fans entered the Hammersmith End (we were opposite them in the end away fans go in now) and started signing "we have taken over". As the minutes passed, more and more Fulham fans began to enter the Hammersmith End with this lot of City fans stood in the middle of the terrace declaring their Cardiff allegiance loud and proud and finally the home support felt confident enough to charge them - they didn't get far because the City fans fought them off easily with one of them taking the fight back to the Fulham fans, I was told by someone in school during the following week who was into football violence that it was Frankie.