Service Crew: The Inside Story of Leeds United's Hooligan Gangs

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Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. On 11th May 1985 a 14 year old boy died at St Andrew’s Stadium when fans were pushed by police onto a wall which subsequently collapsed following crowd violence at a match between Birmingham City and Leeds United. This then caused scores of Leeds fans to begin ripping up the seats within the stadium and throw them onto the pitch and at fans within the ground, this then caused the fans to clash with the French Police as they then continued to invade the pitch.

I found the book quite nostalgic in that I remember and knew quite a lot of the original protaganists.What then happens which brings the book to a three star is how the culture and more importantly the policing and organisation stopped hooligans at their core imposing penalties and prision terms and you can see this gaining more weight as the book progresses across the decades eventually leading to many in the book realising that its no longer worth it. When striker Peter Lorimer had a goal disallowed in a game which ended in a 2–0 defeat to the West German side, and having already seen their team have two penalty appeals rejected by French referee Michel Kitabdjian, scores of Leeds fans ripped seats from the stands and threw them onto the pitch. Give me a football hooligan any day rather than the gangs of chavs that hang about our streets causing misery for literally thousands of people up and down the country. The last game of the season at Brighton and Hove Albion saw the Sussex club relegated to the Third Division after Leeds beat them 1-0.

Apologies, I'm sure it has its nice parts and I was just basing my view on past experience, rather than any objective facts.I was expecting some explaination or personal stories of those involved, but it is simply the details of 20 years of fights loosely linked together. However, I had a look at the link posted above and there was some talk about Leeds being a bit indiscriminate. The Service Crew were first brought to the forefront within 1974 and were named after the public service which brought the fans to the away games, instead of the heavily policed special football trains which were organised for such instances. Nowadays however, the club very much distances itself from the service crew and anything that they carry out.