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

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Brighton was the last away match of the season and a few decided to go down on a minibus to London on the Friday before the match.

The point was, we had a massive away following which got bigger in inverse proportions to the clubs success. Brighton away a couple of months later was, however, a day that some Leeds lads can’t be too proud of. There was nothing new about this concept, my mates and I did it in 68/69 for the same reasons, the only difference was in 1980, there were thousands at it, so of course, the media get hold of it, a story is born, myths perpetuate, and then you have a cult with a cult following. 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. Leeds vastly outnumbered the home fans and police with dogs tried to keep them in check in the East Terrace but failed to stop some climbing over the fence and onto the pitch to carry Brendan Ormsby aloft.Leeds United have a well known football firm known as Leeds United Service Crew, in 1985 when football hooliganism was very popular in England, the BBC Six O’Clock News made a special report regarding the worst football firms causing mayhem up and down England, with Leeds United Service Crew listed amongst the worst five clubs. 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. Leeds had the opportunity to get promoted back into the top flight so it was a massive turnout as 10,000 fans descended on the South Coast.

The police eventually launched Operation Wild Boar to take down the ringleaders, only to convict a small number of relative fringe players. Haha I personally dont look like a trouble maker, im female for starters (not that that should matter but you get what I mean) And as for Stone Island tops, I have never worn anything like that in my life and never will *shudders* I think we will all be ok if, as you say, we stick to what you are actually going there for - to watch football! 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.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.