Manchester United football hooligans had a fearsome reputation in the 70s and a home match aginast them was more like an invasion as upto 15,000 Red Army could descend on your town or city. In August 1974 it was Cardiffs turn to face the invasion. What happened next will probably surprise a lot of you.
And, sorry, no videos from this match or the incidents.
You may be interested in these books by Author Paul Gratis.
21 Toughest British Hooligan Firms Ever! https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B7FF6Y7C
Worst Crowd Trouble Ever Seen At Major British Football Grounds Revealed : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09RN43WCP
30 Greatest Football Rivalries In Britain : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BKLV4BGZ
60 GREATEST FOOTBALL FEUDS IN RECENT HISTORY: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BVBS3RWT
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Cardiff vman United August 1974 this match will long live in the memories of all that were present Manchester United had been surprisingly relegated to division 2 the season before and this was their second away match of the new season in division 2 their Mass ranks had already taken over Leighton orient
At their first match of the season and 10,000 man united Red Army turned up for this encounter with Cardiff who they hadn’t played in 12 years what the Red Army didn’t know was that Cardiff had amassed a massive hooligan firm for themselves during the early 70s and they
Were fast becoming an Infamous firm called the Cardiff City Soul crew the scene was set for a memorable day in Cardiff for both sets of fans police and residents were on high alert with over 300 extra police drafted in and a steel fence erected at cardiff’s ninan Park
Before the game to try to keep the Rival fans apart 56 fans were arrested with scores of injuries including stab wounds and one policeman hospitalized after being attacked we let Cardiff fan Kevin recall the events Carnage is a word I used to describe that day Carnage from start to finish 10,000 Reds invaded
Cardiff that day I was outside Central Station with 15 or so Valley boys at 8:30 a.m. on the Saturday morning and trouble started soon after that I saw running battles around the station and near the old swimming pool it kicked off from around 9:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. and
I’m talking pretty much the whole time I cannot remember the name but the pub opposite weather spoons was smashed up by United fans they hung around the station area waiting for the trains to come in unfortunately for quite a few of them who straggled further out and into
Town were picked off by groups of City out looking for trouble things started turning nastier after 12:00 p.m. when hundreds of more Cardiff came into Central United fans ran a gauntlet of ambushes all the way to the ground many waited until they were in groups of 100
Or more and thought they were safe to make the journey to the ground which they were not a lot of guys went to that game that day had not been to a Cardiff game before and went just for a punch-up trouble continued in the ground throughout the whole match nonstop two
Fences separated the Bob and gra ends and both sets of supporters were Toe to Toe at times in between the fences missiles rocks and coins were constant I got hit with a coin cut open my bloody head the gra end roof had holes appearing in it one United fan
Had a small suitcase with him and at half time he opened it near the shop and it was full of rocks which he began to throw the gra end was so packed you could hardly move after the game running battles continued between 2 3000 up sloper AR I heard OD fans chant Cockney
Reds it was again pretty much toe-to-toe but Cardiff eventually got the upper hand and they were chased back to the train station quite a few few United fans were caught when they fell over in the ground the atmosphere was electric from start to finish and many never
Bothered watching the match as you were constantly watching for the next missile coming back and forth I’ve been to many games but nothing like that one man united fan Tommy told us Cardiff away at ninan Park 1974 was the maddest match I’ve ever been to fighting throughout
The whole day we were pretty Untouchable in 74 because we were in the second division and every away match was like an invasion with at least 10,000 United at most matches the only matches we didn’t dominate The Home firm were this one mil wall where we had two special trains breakdown Sunderland and
Portsmouth all the other grounds we either took their end or ran them ragged but Cardiff was the stand out for me it all kicked off at 8:30 in the morning when we arrived on the first special there was already Reds masked around the city center presumably from the night
Before I’ve still got my w50 ticket from the match I can’t remember Terrace tickets being sold for League games in those days only reserved seats it was first come first served in the standing areas perhaps Cardiff issued the tickets as you went through the turn Styles I
Traveled down with Jeff Malloy and Dave Kirk from Salford on the football special it was officially called the supporters travel club and run by Dave Smith the return Journey was £2 50 Smithy had persuaded the United and British Rail to let his people organ ized their own fans travel following
Years of persistent trouble on the trains for a while it worked and the journey to Cardiff was the usual Fair of sleeping off hangovers card games shove half penny football and avoiding the ticket inspectors if you hadn’t paid we didn’t know much about cardiff’s team or their supporters in those days we knew
It was a tough City but they’d been out of the top flight since 1962 and survived on attendances around 15,000 no match for the Red Army and it seemed seemed as 600 pairs of Doc Martins hit the platform at Cardiff station the walk to the ground was pretty unremarkable
Too United fans announcing their arrival with the customary songs accompanied by a police escort and a few K9 friends to help keep order near a ninan park a few skirmishes broke out and reds we met up with told horrific Tales of being chased through housing Estates by Bing mobs as
Soon as they got out of their cars or Vans more stories went round that the Cockney Reds coming in from London by train had suffered similar attacks we went straight in the ground United had one side along the pitch right next to it was their end the Grange only a thin
Wire fence separated the two parts of the ground the police tried to establish a no man’s land between the two sets of supporters that had varying success throughout the afternoon in the runup to kickoff the atmosphere was one of War supporters fought hard with the police
To get at their Rivals a few Reds had gone in the Cardiff end not an unusual practice at United games in the 60s and early’ 70s but this time it was badly judged the Cardiff Lads were up for it and after a brief outbreak of fighting the visitors were fortunate to find a
Way through the fence and the police to the safety of our Terraces in those days the Ari Bari on The Terraces used to calm down once the match started only to erupt again when a goal was scored or a controversial incident occurred not this afternoon it was one of those strange
Games where most people people in the ground spent half the time watching the Waring factions on The Terraces no reflection on the game itself simply the intensity of the action in that small corner of ninan Park few Reds who went remember details of the play not because
Of debilitating old age but because of the distraction around them there are few archive pictures of the action on the pitch but several of the fans and the police the attendance was 22 344 swelled by up to 8,000 Reds cardiff’s small Lunatic Fringe had mustered their troops from the suburbs The Hills And
The Valleys to try and give Doc’s Red Army a bloody nose our notorious reputation put the fear of God into many rival gangs but Cardiff weren’t buying that this was Wales V England glamour Hooligans V frustrated Plain Jane thugs incessant insults crude gestures pieces of bricks Rock and wooden staves were
Exchanged across no man’s land no holds were barred each side trying to outdo the other chance of Munich 58 we rare from opposing fans and still had a shock Factor halfway through the first half Cardiff sang it United supporters came back with chance of abuan a reference to
A disaster in October 1966 where Cole slurry engulfed a school killing 116 children and 28 adults Terrace culture reached a new low that afternoon in Cardiff the chant turned the already spiteful atmosphere toxic the 1- nil win kept United top with 100% record one point ahead of Fulham and Norwich the
Chants of United our back were sung with increasing conviction as they would be throughout that Winter life was good if you were a red but first we had to get back to the train station the events of the afternoon meant every red was on their guard now pre-match arrogance had
Given way to self-preservation the battle scenes immediately outside the ground as thousands of fans poured off The Terraces full of bile that had built up through the day with a worst I’ve seen it was absolute Mayhem a human cocktail of hate with police woefully trying to keep order it was every man
For himself then suddenly the fighting stopped a gap appeared in the middle of the pack I saw a lad laying on the floor he had been stabbed three or four policemen ran in to help in that second I decided it was best to get out of there and I headed for the station
Behind me the commotion had halted for a few moments within seconds it had kicked off again I made the train in the 3-hour journey home was filled with tales of the afternoon’s Events off the field that night’s football pink carried reports of running battle through Cardiff City Center the front and back
Pages of the Sunday papers showed graphic pictures of the Carnage Cardiff 1974 would live long in the memory for its violence rather than United’s great early form in the battle to return to the first division we thank Kevin and Tommy for their Recollections this match was in the infancy of football Hooligans
And appears to confirm the legend of both firms the Red Army and the Cardiff City Soul crew who have been voted in the top five of most people’s list of toughest hooligan firms ever thanks for watching please subscribe for notifications of next video and it really helps our Channel grow
17 Comments
Billy the Bus 🚌! "HERE YA GO BOYS, I BROUGHT YA TO THE AWAY END, SEE YA IN A BIT!" 😂😂😂😂 We need to hear about Billy the Bus aka Iver the Engine Driver of Mayhem.
Cardiff never brought a firm in the re-match too OT they would of got it right, for sure
I was there fair play to Cardiff, There was no Cardiff firm at Old Trafford in the return match.
Never understood Cockley reds, each to their own but why support a northern club? It's like someone from Manchester or the surrounding area following Arsenal
Fair play to Cardiff that day the whole of south Wales turned up .. valleys dockers headbangers from the estates..It was carnage I was 14 years old went on a supporters club coach.. Utd were everywhere charging about and Cardiff were doing the same fights everywhere..Gerry Daly penalty won the game i think we played in all white kit always looks good…I was with some older lads who looked after me thank God.. it must have been the biggest away following in Cardiff ever up to that point I doubt it's been bettered since.. Mad place but in the return game at Old Trafford Cardiff didn't bring any at all… Nothing..Zilch… Utd won the game 4-0 I think… Also I'm pretty sure Cardiff were not called the soul crew back then that came later probably late 70s early 80s highly respected but never done owt in Manchester… Definitely not in 74 either they must have been busy that day 😮
chanting about aberfan is the lowest sickest chant imaginable, munich chants are wrong but that is a disgrace if true
They also played millwall that season and it was a no show from the red devils not even the cockney reds show up .but yet they took 10.000 to Cardiff
went to a wales v england match at ninian park remember tony currie playing travelled down from manchester that was crazy as well
Red army wunch of bankers
Man Utd red army Pioneers in taking over grounds not many away fans fancied coming to old Trafford in the mid 70s fact
Millwall could of been on the same scale if the special train didn’t get smashed up and had to return to Manchester as it was unsafe
Cardiff dockers had the Utd fans running back to the station hilarious to watch as a kid🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
One major point, this was five years before the Soul Crew came into being.
As a 15 year old back then, those football supporters who followed City from Cardiff and the valleys were determined that that those from Manchester and the rest of the Utd supporters were NOT going to take over our capital city. And thus it proved. Utd more than met there match that day.
Cardiff bristol leeds newcastle london birmingham liverpool. Its gonna be tough to roll over a big urban area.but at least utd turned up.the return leg cardiff came in a taxi.
he mentioned the pub opposite weatherspoons there was not such a thing as weatherspoons back then more bullshit
The rags enjoyed a cult following in the mid 70s, and attracted every school bully from every village in England. Almost as depressing as 50 years later, and reading the exaggerated accounts (mostly from idiots now in their 70s).
Surely reading the comments here, Utds strength were just sheer numbers, 15k at home for Cardiff back then, you not going to get big numbers going away. At least they turned up at home against such numbers. But I do remember, one trip in the80s FA cup football special, Cardiff poor second division side, may average home gate 1’200, poor, but Millwall old Den Cold Blow Lane, 2000 Cardiff fans I was 15, scared as anything and excited as fcuk at same time. But numbers Cardiff didn’t have, generally and many years in lower divisions. But always turned out for all the big boys from the 1st division and all those crazy Londoners, West Ham Chelsea and northerners Leeds Burnley ect Birmingham to wolves stoke to Forrest, both Bristol sides , oh and those Swansea boys from the 80s and Newport. Different world wouldn’t want it now, but it was UK life back then even Police men beat up workers for fun, 😮 or was that just the miners 😂