They called them the Cockney Reds. They came from London and the Home Counties to follow the biggest club in the country, and left chaos in their wake. Yet for decades they have remained a mystery to friend and foe alike - until now.
Robert 'Banana Bob' Cleur was there from the beginning. Raised in South London, he was in trouble from childhood and ran with a biker gang - culminating in a trial for affray at the Old Bailey - before the terraces took over his life. Cleur saw United when he was fifteen and was captivated by the excitement and menace of their vast following. The name 'Cockney Reds' stuck in the early seventies, by which time hundreds of youths from the South were following the team. Cleur emerged as their leader, working on building sites to fund his drinking and brawling trips around the country.
The Cockneys turned Euston Station into a warzone, infiltrated famous 'ends' like the North Bank at Highbury and the Shed at Chelsea, and arrived at other grounds when their team was not playing, simply for the trouble. As the violence grew worse, with the tragic death of a Spurs fan at underground station, Cleur saw the inside of jail cells in England, Spain and the Netherlands. By 1985 hooliganism had reached a peak and his gang was in the thick of it, engaging in an infamous clash with West Ham on a North Sea ferry, ransacking the town of St Albans during running battles with the police, and taking on rivals from Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester. Eventually the police ran an undercover operation to break up United's mob. Cleur was one of several dozen arrested but walked free when the trial collapsed.
The nineties and the noughties were dominated by European travel and a series of misadventures in continental cities, as respectability eluded the wiser but still wild 'old school' heads. Cockney Reds is a candid account of a period of terrace history that will never be repeated, and of the camaraderie and chaos of a hooligan gang based on enemy turf.
