Ive read all this now, just a couple of things and ill be on me way..
Incidents like middlesboro are created in flashpoints where the fans goading of each other has nowhere left to go because they got too close to each other due to poor policing / stewarding / proximity....they weren't hooligans in the traditional sense... pissed off fans walking to coaches, that was an overeaction and skirmishes walking to cars, buses, etc ... that'll always happen.. anything inside the ground is alcohol and / or idiots, they must be potty..
Having grown up close to swills and witnessed the hooliganism of the 70s as a child (my bedroom overlooked the park and penistone road) todays hooligans cant really be compared to the beanie hat wearing - scarves around the wrist yobs i'd see week in week out battling it out on the main road or in the park, the fights went on for ages (an hour wouldnt be any exaggeration) and many bloodied fans came to ours and neighbours doors for help, when they knocked the houses down to widen the road they left the bricks there, bloody times indeed.. whilst ive never taken part, its been around me and football all my life, it'll always exist in some form but we wont ever see the toe to toe stuff of old anymore.... Why??
Cctv and the intelligence gathered means that if you like a punch up and want to be one of the boys then enjoy it while it lasts, the enjoyment will be breif, very brief, you can look forward to banning orders tags and sentences, sitting at home saturday afternoons while what seems like everybody else is travelling away or going to the meet up pub before the match.. good times will be had, but you'll be on the sofa at home waiting for the phonecall.. if you wanna ruin your teenage years and possibly your life if you dont wake up...then go for it, the longest fight you'll ever have is one you can't ever win..and the opposition in blue uniforms are better organised have better back up and turn out every match...
The mobs are smaller, so its even easier for plod, youd have to be mad these days.. just my opinion,
