KHAN - Memoirs of an Asian Casual by Khan Riaz

Author:Khan, Riaz [Khan, Riaz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Countdown Books
Published: 2013-02-24T23:00:00+00:00

XXIMalley’s Story – Junkie Firm

The first time we went down to football was in 1976, and it was against Sheffield Wednesday. We went down with this family from New Parks, and we were sat in the Main Stand. We’d lost 4-0, and the referee awarded Wednesday a penalty. My friend’s mum didn’t like the decision, so she jumped over the barriers, went straight to the ref, took him down the tunnel and whacked him with her handbag. She got banned for 12 months; the first person to have been banned from football.

I was brought up on Stevenson Drive in New Parks, and in the 70’s it was the sort of area where you had big families of four-plus. My mum had six kids. Basically, it was really poverty stricken around our area; we never really had anything, just a council estate. When we were kids, all we did was play football. It had a real community spirit everywhere, and you never really used to see much racism as everybody was the same in terms of material possessions. The area I lived in also had a reputation, and most of the kids feared us because of the street I lived on. No one messed about with any of us. However, we did get into trouble, and in that system you got to know who the bad lads were. I used to go to Bowling Street Juvenile Court, aged 12/13, and I used to see members of the BBB there. At first there was animosity, but then we started getting on with each other.

It was Skinheads in those days, but we were Rude Boys. One defining moment was when one of the estate kids’ brother, Everton Carr (black lad), played for City; the whole estate of New Parks turned out for his first game. For me it was representative, as we used to play together in the park. So it was starting to feel like family, and it made you want to follow City more.

We used to hear all these stories of going away, and the very first time I went away was when Jock Wallace was manager and we’d won the league, in the 1980-81 season. We went to Leyton Orient away, and I recall it was Larry May who got the winner for us. There were thousands of Leicester fans that had gone down to London. We had gone on a coach from our estate. When he scored it just went crazy, with everyone running on the pitch. It was unbelievable. That was it for me, from that day.

I’ll never forget when we played Liverpool, in about 1982. We were in town outside the Clock Tower, when this coach pulled up right on the outskirts of the city centre. Someone said there were loads of birds in town, which I didn’t think anything of. We were just loafing around a place called Playland, where the arcades were, and then I saw them. These so-called ‘birds’ were flick-heads; it was the Scousers from the coach, and it was the first time we’d seen Casuals.

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