The Red Army’s antics-including a bloody at-sea brawl with West Ham supporters, on a ferry to Holland-led to crowd segregation. After United was relegated to the second division, in ’74, its hooligan firms terrorized soccer grounds up and down the country, culminating in the fatal stabbing of a Blackpool fan.
And in this violent epidemic, Manchester was a hot spot.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher convened a “war cabinet” to address it all. Doors at some stadiums were closed to visitors.
In London, a fan was killed in a postmatch riot. In the Midlands, a goalkeeper was injured by a block of flying wood. They would take over train cars and brawl with police. Hungry-for-blood fanatics would sharpen the edges of two-pence coins or spark plugs and throw them into crowds. Innocent bystanders, in the stands or on a train platform, would find themselves stuck between two factions of overcharged supporters-say, Manchester United’s Red Army and Liverpool’s Urchins, to single out some usual suspects-and get punched or clubbed. In the 1970s and ’80s, while a young Massey was stealing crates of beer from Whitbread’s Brewery and getting sent off to reform school, hooliganism, a part of soccer since the sport’s inception, was spiraling the English game toward its dark nadir. “When they have a drink,” Massey said of his neighbors, “the lads from Salford, they just like a fight.” If there’s one thing a Salford lad enjoys more than a pint of Boddingtons, it’s a good scrap. This foundation of hardship, leavened with the coarse culture of textile factories and docks, and baked in with resentment from feeling looked down upon by richer Mancunians and more blue-blooded Londoners, was a recipe for Salford to become England’s most proudly pugnacious place. Street gangs have a celebrated history in England, dating back to the Dickensian poverty of the Industrial Revolution, and this is the type of place that gives birth to those gangs: poor and blighted, with terraced houses and scads of small pubs. Salford stands in stark contrast to the Premier League sheen of Old Trafford, a short walk away. While the north of England has seen an influx of immigrants in recent decades, Massey’s hometown has remained, as Simon Harding, a criminology professor at the University of West London, puts it, “the last bastion of whiteness in the north of England.” And largely, over the years, Salford has stayed that way. Technically, the canal’s terminus was just west of Greater Manchester’s core, in a dock city filled with working-class ruffians and roustabouts. Even 40 miles inland, the port was the third-busiest in Great Britain. In 1894 the 36-mile Manchester Ship Canal let pass its first vessel. Factories sought direct access to the Irish Sea, the Atlantic, the world. In a textile worker’s home on Silk Street or Chiffon Way, a dozen people might sleep in a single room. As workers streamed in from the countryside, poverty reigned. The world’s first industrial city, though, suffered growing pains. Soon Manchester was Cottonopolis, the global epicenter of textile manufacturing. Manchester’s fortune had been cast during the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, when the once-sleepy Lancashire township’s climate and proximity to coal mines proved perfect for producing cotton and wool clothing.
In his world, nothing was more dishonorable than spilling to the cops, especially in Salford, the hardest part of Great Britain’s hardest, grayest region-a balkanized place of tough guys and gangsters, every one with a chip on his shoulder. If I was to talk, I’d just hang myself.” “If I got nicked and I’ve done something-I’ll go to prison,” Massey told the BBC. Look out for the latest Liverpool FC promo codes and Liverpool FC vouchers to get a better deal on your desired watch or top.Massey had considered grasses, or snitches, to be the lowest of the low. There are occasional main sale periods, such as after Christmas when excess gift stock is sold, or when team strips or other key features of Liverpool FC gifts change and require fresh stock! You might be lucky enough to snap up some goodies in the Liverpool FC sales. You'll sometimes find Liverpool FC discount codes on official branded merchandise, whether you hanker after a Liverpool FC badge, tshirt, mug, pen or other paraphernalia to celebrate your team!Ĭheck back here for the latest Liverpool FC voucher codes as they go live. The retail branch of the world-renowned football club, the Liverpool FC club shop has a Liverpool FC online store as physical store.