From a Stoke City fan

"Firstly I would like to say well done for the three points on Saturday. The main reason for the mail is an apology of some sorts, although I fear it might fall on some deaf ears.

The 'idiots' who attach themselves to our away days have, no doubt, knocked back any chance of West Ham being a good away day in the future. This Saturday - as well as last season - I enjoyed a good day out in the Queens with no troubles and chipped in with Hammers on the friendly banter chat, pro's/cons of 4-4-2, hatred of Chelsea etc.

Sadly though it will, I think, be my last trip. I'm a middle-aged fan but the idiots/young ones/whatever polite name you would like to call them just don't have a clue and this will, I'm sure, mean any future trips won't be worth the hassle.

If they want to fight, great! Leave it to them to fight 'idiots' of similar mentality and as far away from London as possible. Even the 'etiquette' (and I use the term loosely) of not hitting scarfs/kids/etc seems not to count now. I am not a hooligan, and never have been but it's not exactly uncommon knowledge, is it?

No doubt that Sunday's FA Cup match will be a more hostile affair, which in turn would make the next trip to Upton Park hostile too. I'm sure that every decent Stoke City fan (...and there are some!) will wash their hands of these morons who have once again set our club's image back a few years. Please don't tar us all with the same brush.

I hope you all have a safe trip up to Staffordshire on Sunday - and that football is what the day is remembered for."

Well done that man , can't see Sunday being a quite day out though somehow , finguck shame

Good of him to say something...

Maybe if they start with sorting the bullies out in their team a more humane image will filter through and emerge from the terraces.

Personaly I dont think it has anything to do with their team. They are just a very phisical team nothing else too it realy. The problem is they have always had a little firm up there and one which was quite good in the hey-day of football hooliganism, trouble is they cant let go of that. You still see it every where you go but sometimes when a club like Stoke come to West Ham they think that due to our past repuation there is going to be a firm waiting for them, this is usually not the case so they move onto the next best thing which is intimidating anyone which in turn makes them feel like they have come to West Ham and turned us over on our own manor. We know this is not the case but for the small minded morons who only want to fight and ruin football for the rest of us they feel that they have had a good day out. It is times like this that a part of me wishes that the likes of Cass Pennant, Bill gardner, Andy swallow and the rest were still in their prime, they would have shown them who was boss and not one innocent person would have been injured.

love4hammers wrote:It is times like this that a part of me wishes that the likes of Cass Pennant, Bill gardner, Andy swallow and the rest were still in their prime, they would have shown them who was boss and not one innocent person would have been injured.

It is times like this that a part of me wishes that the likes of Cass Pennant, Bill gardner, Andy swallow and the rest had not written books and had films made glorifying hooliganism.

Blakey wrote:

love4hammers wrote:It is times like this that a part of me wishes that the likes of Cass Pennant, Bill gardner, Andy swallow and the rest were still in their prime, they would have shown them who was boss and not one innocent person would have been injured.

It is times like this that a part of me wishes that the likes of Cass Pennant, Bill gardner, Andy swallow and the rest had not written books and had films made glorifying hooliganism.

[2]

My first brush with hooliganism was getting my silk scarf nicked by 2 Stoke fans, one with a penknife, outside the Princess Alice in Forest Gate. I was about 13 & they looked a bit older (of course!). They ran off, probably to tell all their mates 'how they'd turned over a big WHU crew'. I yelled 'Bastards!' after them & ran off in the opposite direction.

Got home & told my Dad & he said 'well if you will go around dressed like a hooligan then you've got to expect someone to have a go'. Thus my life in a nutshell!

Ahhhhhh....Silk scarf.....I used to hang mine from a loop on me jeans

I was merely citing them as an example. I did not condone what they did in fact I think I said that hooliganism is a rather moronic practice. I simply meant that this would not have happened if the likes of them men were still in their prime today. Like it or lump but the kind of stuff that they write sells, and sells well. Most people can see beyond it and take what is written with a rather large pinch of salt, some do not it is the world we live in................

jiggs wrote:Ahhhhhh....Silk scarf.....I used to hang mine from a loop on me jeans

'West Ham United' on one side, 'The North Bank' on the other, Jiggs?

Maybe it's just me but I find it all quite entertaining. I don't mind watching others have a tear up for my own personal entertainment. I'd never go looking for trouble, and it was easily avoided at the millwall game etc etc. These folk who want a battle, can get one if they want it. Those who don't can easily avoid it IMO. If me or someone in my company got some attention, I'd definitely give it back, but I guess that's a lot different from going out looking for it.

Inside the ground is probably a different matter because then you get ordinary fans caught up in it which aint cool in the slightest. That's bang out of order.

Stoke will be lively, no doubt, but if and when it kicks off, I'll happily watch from a good few yards away :P

Dave M wrote:
Stoke will be lively, no doubt, but if and when it kicks off, I'll happily watch from a good few yards away :P

thought we would have seen some carnage at the Rangers Celtic game dude ..... nuffink .....

Johnny K wrote:

jiggs wrote:Ahhhhhh....Silk scarf.....I used to hang mine from a loop on me jeans

'West Ham United' on one side, 'The North Bank' on the other, Jiggs?

My memory fails me Johnny

Its age darlin , happens to us all , as JK says " It used to be all fields round here "

Geezer wrote:Its age darlin , happens to us all , as JK says " It used to be all fields round here "

It still is round here!

abbi normal wrote:

Dave M wrote:
Stoke will be lively, no doubt, but if and when it kicks off, I'll happily watch from a good few yards away :P

thought we would have seen some carnage at the Rangers Celtic game dude ..... nuffink .....

nah... there is never trouble at Rangers Celtic games these days. They play too often, and they don't even have proper firms anyway... just random stabbings in pubs, or bust ups in nighclubs, but that could be in finguck Dundee, or Edinburgh or anywhere (such is the scale of gloryhunting here).

Firms up here are Airdrie (by far the biggest), Aberdeen, Hibs, Dundee "utd?"(both clubs operate as one), St Mirren, Motherwell and sometimes Celtic and Rangers but not much.

Did it kick off in the potteries yesterday? or were they to busy celebrating cheating?

It almost did kick off, but police were quick to move in.

I was with my dad and sis. Hardly anyone in away support were wearing colours so on the way back to the carpark, we didn't even realise were walking with ICF, until some stokie came jogging towards me shouting "you aint in millwall now, are ya", by which time he got well clobbered by the police officer who came from nowhere. When we got to the car, ICF had gathered together at the Harvester and started making moves towards stoke but stoke couldnt get through police at the time we left.

I'd be intrueged to know what the end result was. I now hate stoke and I hope our boys stomped them.