It’s a worrying trend that appears to repeating what happened in the early eighties at Ilkeston. Groups of young fans for whatever reason are not getting to professional football and are latching on to the nearest available non-league club. When they attend they are encouraged by the more relaxed policing of these game to misbehave in the guise ‘having a laugh’. In the Robins infamous FA Trophy run in 1982 a group of alleged Derby fans were on their way to watch Derby play Millwall at the Den. For some reason they did not make it and ended up at Barnet who were hosting Ilkeston Town in FA Trophy. All he’ll let loose but Ilkeston won against the famous Barry Fry and Martin Chivers. It got a lot of news coverage and these fabs suddenly became celebrities. In the next few rounds the legend grew and by the time they faced Enfield in the quarter finals the inevitable happened. The ‘gang’ By now bedecked in green berets stole or bought from Ilkeston market place (they wanted red berets but the stall did not have any) again misbehaved and eventually managed to get the game abandoned. Ilkeston were 5-1 down at the time so the result stood and Ilkeston were banned from FA Trophy for a number of seasons. Unfortunately it was not the end of it as this element again reared it’s ugly head ironically against Tamworth a few years later (still with green berets). By this time all Ilkeston Town supporters were classed by the police as category A hooligans. This probably led to the heavy handed policing at the Scunthorpe away game in FA Cup were CS gas was used on football fans for the first time in the UK. The reputation of Ilkeston fans only improved when the hooligan got too old to cause any real significant trouble or they passed on. This is probably no help to Tamworth who do have some lovely people at their club. They may need to do more to deter the part time fans that besmirch their name but it’s not easy or a problem that is quick to fix. Nuneaton to a lesser extent appears to have similar issues and digging a bit further you some issues at Stourbridge and Halesowen. When I used to speak to Ilkeston hooligans to try and find their motivation they nearly all commented on how much fun it was being part of a mob and it was just a great laugh! I found it very depressing and it’s a real shame it’s surfacing again although luckily not to any great extent at Ilkeston. I have no idea what the solution. Does anybody else?

Tamworth have had time to think about it, and on reflection, none of it was their fault. What a surprise. Punching a steward though. Jeez.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21482922/football-match-abandoned-fan-fights-stwards-flares-tamworth-nuneaton/

Last edited by Trowell Nicky (22/2/2023 9:27 PM)

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​As far as I'm aware Tamworth got away with it when Ilkeston's supporters coach was attacked (Not their fault)
There was also trouble when they played at Nuneaton's ground so this latest event at Tamworth should finally bring some action. They can't keep saying it's not their responsibility.

I'm hoping that both clubs get a points deduction and a fine. Also the re-arranged match should be played in an empty stadium.

The Southern League officials may be reluctant to deduct points as they would no doubt like to see troublesome clubs  go into another league and both Tamworth and Nuneaton have a good chance of being promoted. The league will only be able to hand out punishments in accordance with what their rules permit.




 

So they have got away with it ... Still can't believe their statement that their were good as gold as in when asked to move away to a safe area they did.
But in the Lambs media they slated both sets of fans.