Page 140 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Parade before the
match took place in
the Railway end of the
ground, re-named in
2009 the Gil Merrick
Stand, in tribute to the
former Blues and
England goalkeeper
who went on to
manage the Blues
between 1960-64.

The hooligan element
of football sunk to the
pits of disgraceful Figure 60 Birmingham City FC
behaviour in the ‘80s, and Birmingham City had its own
group, the ‘Zulu Warriors’ who brought notoriety and shame upon the club
with their violent conduct at home and away games.

Intelligence reports warned us to be vigilant as these suggested that the
Leeds supporters would be infiltrated with large groups of National Front
supporters boasting they would wreck the game and cause trouble. As I
stood looking around at our numbers, I remember thinking that we seemed
low in resources if forecast troubles materialised. Historically the Railway end
had always been the unfenced family enclosure part of the ground for home
supporters. The visitors would be housed in the Tilton Road stand, fenced and
penned in.

Officers posted to the visiting supporters end of the stadium were warned
that many thousands more ‘supporters’ were travelling than was space in the
ground to hold them. It was believed that there were those among the visitors
who would try to use their large numbers to forcibly enable thousands of
visitors to gain access to the ground.
At the Tilton Road entrance to the ground there were a set of blue iron gates,
chained to stop unauthorised access into the ground and to prevent the
gates being forced open by fans already amassing in the Tilton Road end of
the ground. If successful in doing this, many thousands of extra fans would
have got into the ground causing critically dangerous overcrowding.

Before the match we received our duty postings. I was sent with another
officer to guard the blue gates. On arrival, the Tilton Road end was filling up
rapidly with Leeds supporters and the suspected violent agitating infiltrators.

Within minutes, it was clear the chain holding the gates would not be strong Page140
enough to withstand the pressure of hundreds of angry hooligans applying