| Football violence 10:23 - Oct 18 with 12105 views | noggin |
I follow a terrace culture group on Fb, not because I ever got involved but because it has always fascinated me. Anyway, a recent thread was discussing Swansea going in the home end at Millwall. A Millwall supporter was saying he remembered it and that the only other group to do it was Ipswich. I presume that was the 78 game but does anyone know if that was intentional or a terrible mistake? Did Ipswich really take it to Millwall at the Old Den? |  |
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| Football violence on 20:51 - Oct 18 with 2202 views | Bluespeed225 |
| Football violence on 14:06 - Oct 18 by MattinLondon |
Where was that extract taken from? Cheers. |
May have been from ‘Suited & Booted’, chronicling his journey from skinhead, through football and onto punk. However, Ipswich fans had taken a bit of a liberty at a previous game in Bristol which he comments on. I actually used to work with one of the chaps , Whitton boys with the Geoff Crane crew. |  | | |
| Football violence on 21:11 - Oct 18 with 2131 views | WeWereZombies |
| Football violence on 20:15 - Oct 18 by bluebudgie |
I was in the North stand most of the 70s and I never heard the chants of Roots . The programme wasn't shown on UK TV until late 1978 so couldn't have happened, your recollections are wrong. Ipswich Town had a large black following(check the footage of Town fans at the 1978 Cup final!) and some I attended matches with after a drink in the Falcon, if there had been any racial chants there would have been a riot as skin colour did not matter as we were all Town fans and we DID chant" Ipswich lives in racial harmony" many times to opposing racist fans, some of the worst, by the way, was from Norwich and they would often be singing racial chants and throwing National Front leaflets over the fence! So I'm very proud to say that Ipswich Town fans were in my opinion the least racial fans in the country. [Post edited 18 Oct 2022 20:32]
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Maybe it depended on where you stood in the North (I was usually midway between the middle and the East Stand and about two thirds of the way down - I'm not tall so the combination of fewer people in front of me and the crash barrier there worked OK). I know what I heard (and also I rarely, if ever, heard 'Ipswich lives in racial harmony') but I am not going to accuse you of rose-tinted glasses. Just saying that Portman Road had quite a varied mix back then. For example. the only time I heard the 'Ipswich Republican Army' chant was at a packed ground and being sung by Churchmans ! I think there might have been a bit of an intake of breath around me at that one. |  |
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| Football violence on 21:37 - Oct 18 with 2095 views | LegendofthePhoenix |
| Football violence on 13:38 - Oct 18 by StochesStotasBlewe |
Pretty much how I remember the day.
My dad said I was mad going to Millwall (I was 17) and remember him telling me not to take my scarf. Took no notice as usual, but the scarf got rolled up and hidden under my coat once we got in the ground.
Scariest match I’ve ever been to and have never been to an away game at Millwall since. |
Me, my older brother and my Dad used to go to almost all matches home and away back then. But for the game at Millwall, it was very obvious that it was not gonna be safe for teenagers, so my bro and me stayed home. My Dad went, with no colours, and was on that open terrace. When he returned, he said he had just been silent all game, but it had been the scariest time he had had at a football match. He said there was an old guy, about 70, standing on the terrace in front of him, minding his own business. He had an Ipswich rosette on his coat. A Millwall fan ran up to him and smashed a bottle on his head. Utter scum. |  |
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| Football violence on 21:56 - Oct 18 with 2068 views | DJR |
| Football violence on 21:11 - Oct 18 by WeWereZombies |
Maybe it depended on where you stood in the North (I was usually midway between the middle and the East Stand and about two thirds of the way down - I'm not tall so the combination of fewer people in front of me and the crash barrier there worked OK). I know what I heard (and also I rarely, if ever, heard 'Ipswich lives in racial harmony') but I am not going to accuse you of rose-tinted glasses. Just saying that Portman Road had quite a varied mix back then. For example. the only time I heard the 'Ipswich Republican Army' chant was at a packed ground and being sung by Churchmans ! I think there might have been a bit of an intake of breath around me at that one. |
Maybe all of our recollections are wrong, or it did depend upon where you stood. I was much closer to the away fans in the North Stand, and as I said in an earlier post, don't ever recall racist songs or chants from our own fans not least because quite a few of them were black. But I do recall the "Ipswich lives in racial harmony" been sung on quite a few occasions. Of course, such a song didn't take place all through the 70s but was probably a reaction to the abuse that our black fans received, and occurred around the time of the rise of the National Front in the late 70s. I might add that your mention of the Roots song does ring a bell, but from what I can recall that song was instigated by or sung in support of our black fans who would have received a fair bit of abuse in those days. Finally, I remember Ipswich Republican Army being sung many times in the North Stand, and particularly recall seeing at close quarters the anger it produced in fans from Birmingham. [Post edited 18 Oct 2022 21:58]
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| Football violence on 22:22 - Oct 18 with 2037 views | ArnieM |
I remember travelling to Towns FA cup at Cardiff by train. We won ( it was the start of our 1978 cup winning trail. As the train drew out of station we told by police on the train to pull the blinds down and get on the floor because the train was going to be ambushed as it went under a bridge ….. and it was , bricks came flying through the window , glass everywhere and a bloody long cold journey home. You wonder why police didn’t go to the bridge before the Cardiff fans did ( if they knew it was a hot spot ) …., plods all for a bit of easy overtime I guess. |  |
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| Football violence on 22:38 - Oct 18 with 2021 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Football violence on 13:26 - Oct 18 by thebooks |
I started going in around 79 (when I would have been 7) with my grandad, who'd smuggle me into the NS. The away fans were in there as well.
It was completely different, and definitely better in a lot of ways: noisier, more fun, more of a genuinely communal experience etc., but one thing not mentioned here was how racist it was. That has improved immesaurably. |
I never heard any racist comments from any Ipswich fans in the North Stand - ever!
I went to every game in The North Stand back then and away fans would Seig Heil en masse but the reply from our section was always "Ipswich lives in racial harmony"
Edit - I just saw the same thing mentioned just after I replied to your post.
Another thing - BNP turned up in town before one game leafleting and recruiting on the Town Hall steps - only to be turned over by Tony S and his merry men - who nicked all the leaflets and then offered them to everyone as a giggle in The Falcon [Post edited 18 Oct 2022 22:42]
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| Football violence on 22:45 - Oct 18 with 2015 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Football violence on 14:06 - Oct 18 by thebooks |
That's a lovely account, and I don't doubt it. But I'm afraid some Town fans definitely made monkey noises if a black player got the ball.
If I'm misremembering that I'd be very glad. |
There is no way that happened in the North Stand, I can't speak for other stands but to do that in The North would have meant instant hospitalisation.
Edit - I suppose it was possible on a rare occasion towards the Cobbold side - away from The Brothers [Post edited 18 Oct 2022 23:05]
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| Football violence on 22:55 - Oct 18 with 2008 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Football violence on 20:31 - Oct 18 by DJR |
The multi-racial nature of our fans in the North Stand was in sharp contrast to the fans of visiting teams who were white to a man, so I wholeheartedly agree with what you say in your last sentence. |
I was with Budgie on many an occasion and we had a large black presence in both The Falcon and following Ipswich and we really did used to live in racial harmony.
Skin colour was never an issue and still isn't - I have seen Budgie called all sorts of things on here from people that don't know him and they couldn't be further from the truth. Black and white we were a band of brothers and they were halcyon days
It makes I laugh | |
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| Football violence on 22:57 - Oct 18 with 2002 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Football violence on 21:11 - Oct 18 by WeWereZombies |
Maybe it depended on where you stood in the North (I was usually midway between the middle and the East Stand and about two thirds of the way down - I'm not tall so the combination of fewer people in front of me and the crash barrier there worked OK). I know what I heard (and also I rarely, if ever, heard 'Ipswich lives in racial harmony') but I am not going to accuse you of rose-tinted glasses. Just saying that Portman Road had quite a varied mix back then. For example. the only time I heard the 'Ipswich Republican Army' chant was at a packed ground and being sung by Churchmans ! I think there might have been a bit of an intake of breath around me at that one. |
IRA - Ipswich Republican Army was sang almost every other week in the North Stand - and it was stolen from YRA - Yorkshire Republican Army | |
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| Football violence on 08:19 - Oct 19 with 1788 views | ElephantintheRoom |
It was not an all ticket match so it was easy to go where you wanted - or didn’t want to go. My father, brother and I always used to go in the ‘home end’ - not for any need for a fight but because it was always fun to hear about the match from the opponents perspective. Yes you learned not to celebrate or look glum - but most supporters seemed happy to chat to some Ipswich supporter in their midst - even at Milwall | |
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| Football violence on 08:31 - Oct 19 with 1782 views | DJR |
| Football violence on 22:55 - Oct 18 by Lord_Lucan |
I was with Budgie on many an occasion and we had a large black presence in both The Falcon and following Ipswich and we really did used to live in racial harmony.
Skin colour was never an issue and still isn't - I have seen Budgie called all sorts of things on here from people that don't know him and they couldn't be further from the truth. Black and white we were a band of brothers and they were halcyon days
It makes I laugh |
The sad thing is that these days I don't see many black faces in the crowd at Portman Road, despite the fact that Ipswich have probably more black players than ever before. I don't know the reason for this, but I see the club this month have featured a black fan, Mark Haynes, in their My Club, My Town feature, although this has been done in the context of Black History Month. I think the club has to do more on this front, and mirror what it has done to make the club a more welcoming place for girls, women and the LGBT+ community. | | | |
| Football violence on 08:54 - Oct 19 with 1739 views | Radlett_blue |
| Football violence on 22:57 - Oct 18 by Lord_Lucan |
IRA - Ipswich Republican Army was sang almost every other week in the North Stand - and it was stolen from YRA - Yorkshire Republican Army |
Well, "YRA" was probably a better choice than "YMCA". |  |
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| Football violence on 08:57 - Oct 19 with 1735 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Football violence on 08:31 - Oct 19 by DJR |
The sad thing is that these days I don't see many black faces in the crowd at Portman Road, despite the fact that Ipswich have probably more black players than ever before. I don't know the reason for this, but I see the club this month have featured a black fan, Mark Haynes, in their My Club, My Town feature, although this has been done in the context of Black History Month. I think the club has to do more on this front, and mirror what it has done to make the club a more welcoming place for girls, women and the LGBT+ community. |
It's not really unwelcoming to anyone though is it?
People have a choice to choose to go or not to go.
Football has changed immeasurably since the 70's though, it's more of a middle class thing now. | |
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| Football violence on 09:10 - Oct 19 with 1706 views | BloomBlue |
| Football violence on 21:56 - Oct 18 by DJR |
Maybe all of our recollections are wrong, or it did depend upon where you stood. I was much closer to the away fans in the North Stand, and as I said in an earlier post, don't ever recall racist songs or chants from our own fans not least because quite a few of them were black. But I do recall the "Ipswich lives in racial harmony" been sung on quite a few occasions. Of course, such a song didn't take place all through the 70s but was probably a reaction to the abuse that our black fans received, and occurred around the time of the rise of the National Front in the late 70s. I might add that your mention of the Roots song does ring a bell, but from what I can recall that song was instigated by or sung in support of our black fans who would have received a fair bit of abuse in those days. Finally, I remember Ipswich Republican Army being sung many times in the North Stand, and particularly recall seeing at close quarters the anger it produced in fans from Birmingham. [Post edited 18 Oct 2022 21:58]
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Well I remember "trigger, trigger shoot that n*gger" ringing out especially from the North Stand in the late 70s, early 80s.
Personally I don't think we as fans were anywhere as bad as most clubs but it definitely happened at PR. |  | | |
| Football violence on 09:14 - Oct 19 with 1704 views | noggin |
| Football violence on 09:10 - Oct 19 by BloomBlue |
Well I remember "trigger, trigger shoot that n*gger" ringing out especially from the North Stand in the late 70s, early 80s.
Personally I don't think we as fans were anywhere as bad as most clubs but it definitely happened at PR. |
Have to admit, I heard that too, as well as something about Fashanu escaping from London Zoo. | |
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| Football violence on 10:07 - Oct 19 with 1672 views | Lord_Lucan |
^^^^^^^^^Last two posts^^^^^^^^^^^^
Didn't happen, no way, bullsh1t | |
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| Football violence on 10:10 - Oct 19 with 1663 views | Radlett_blue |
| Football violence on 08:57 - Oct 19 by Lord_Lucan |
It's not really unwelcoming to anyone though is it?
People have a choice to choose to go or not to go.
Football has changed immeasurably since the 70's though, it's more of a middle class thing now. |
And the average age of a football fan has increased by about 20 years since the 1970s, when the core fan on the terraces was a male aged 16-35. | |
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| Football violence on 10:11 - Oct 19 with 1661 views | noggin |
| Football violence on 10:07 - Oct 19 by Lord_Lucan |
^^^^^^^^^Last two posts^^^^^^^^^^^^
Didn't happen, no way, bullsh1t |
It did. You might not like it but it certainly did. | |
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| Football violence on 10:20 - Oct 19 with 1641 views | GeoffSentence |
| Football violence on 13:47 - Oct 18 by DJR |
Ipswich fans, given a relatively large Caribbean population for the time and quite a few black fans in the North Stand, weren't racist, as the contemporaneous account indicates.
It makes one proud to be a Town fan. |
It does, but despite that there were also chants of "Trigger,trigger, trigger", monkey noises and all the rest of it from Town fans as well. |  |
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| Football violence on 10:35 - Oct 19 with 1619 views | MaySixth |
No, we didn't. |  |
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| Football violence on 11:18 - Oct 19 with 1576 views | witchdoctor |
| Football violence on 11:29 - Oct 18 by ITFC_Forever |
A guy who lived in our road used to go all the time in the 60s and 70s.... his friend was a West Ham fan, so if ITFC were away and West Ham were playing someone decent, they would go to Upton Park.
He can remember a game in around 1966 when West Ham played Man U and the glass bottles against the roof tactic was used then, so crowd trouble was already on the rise in the mid-60s. |
talking of chucking stuff onto the rafters…late 60’s we were playing Charlton away and we kinda took their end….only by virtue of arriving there earlier than them…needless to say they were a bit miffed at this but instead of chucking bottles at the rafters it was a bag of flour…you can imagine the .non violent …carnage that caused…😂 |  | | |
| Football violence on 11:19 - Oct 19 with 1574 views | StochesStotasBlewe |
| Football violence on 09:10 - Oct 19 by BloomBlue |
Well I remember "trigger, trigger shoot that n*gger" ringing out especially from the North Stand in the late 70s, early 80s.
Personally I don't think we as fans were anywhere as bad as most clubs but it definitely happened at PR. |
I was a North Stand regular from about 1976 until it was double tiered and I can honestly say that I never heard racist chanting like that with the lads I stood or latterly sat with.
Norwich used to come out with some pretty awful stuff back in the day, especially at their place and we heard it at other grounds we visited but don’t recall chanting like that at Portman Road tbh. |  |
| We have no village green, or a shop.
It's very, very quiet.
I can walk to the pub. |
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| Football violence on 11:21 - Oct 19 with 1571 views | noggin |
| Football violence on 10:35 - Oct 19 by MaySixth |
No, we didn't. |
Just found this...Sounds like they probably went in the wrong turnstile.
"About 30 Ipswich got onto the CBL terrace & lasted about 3/4 minutes at the back singing their heads off . They weren’t mugs either , proper geezers albeit dressed in typical 70’s attire Jean jackets , shoulder length bleached hair etc , well into to their 20’s age wise. Next thing there was a slow mass movement of heads calmly making their way up the terrace from all angles . Cup of tea gets launched over them , Ipswich stood at first but they could now see what they was up against . Their was an opening at the back with a flight of stairs leading back to the turnstiles. Don’t know what happened to them but they vanished out of that exit with some pretty heavy duty thugs in pursuit.
That row set the tone for the carnage that followed.
I never liked Rod Stewart, but etched in my mind whenever I think of that day was We Are Sailing blaring out over the crokey old tannoy as the debris which included what looked like fence panels flew through the air up the Ilderton Road end . Felt sorry for them Ipswich in the corner and the very thin blue line took as much of a pounding as their fans . It seemed to go on for an age , game held up , geezers either being led round the pitch by OB or just walking about pitchside of their own free will ." | |
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| Football violence on 11:22 - Oct 19 with 1566 views | witchdoctor |
| Football violence on 14:36 - Oct 18 by WeWereZombies |
That's not how I remember it, a line of police four or five wide stood between the away support (placed net to the old West Stand and usually taking up half the North) and the home support (in the half next to the East Stand) from the back of the stand all the way down to the pitch. At half time in evening games you could see a thick surfacing of spit glistening on the back of the police coats when the lighting came on. And there was usually a chorus or two of 'Harry Roberts is our hero' directed at them. |
nope..the line of police came later…before that it was everyone for themselves..after the line of plod and before the erection of fences the was a kind of temporary waist high no man’s land structure | | | |
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