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Daily Mirror
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
'I'm a former Man Utd hooligan – one firm made me fear I would die'
Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United 2-1 in the League Cup in August 1979 in a game that included a Glenn Hoddle goal - but one young fan who was there spoke about the chaos outside the ground One of the most notorious football hooligans in Britain says he and his pals were once 'butchered' by a rival firm – but he still has the utmost respect for them. Tony O'Neill, once known as 'the general' in the Red Army, spoke about an 'onslaught' Manchester United fans suffered during a visit to White Hart Lane for a League Cup night game against Tottenham Hotspur in 1979. Spurs won the match 2-1 but the real pain for Tony and his mates came after the 90 minutes, when they were attacked in the street. He said they were 'frantically panicking' at one frightening point but ended up laughing with relief to escape North London with their lives. Speaking for his 'Fan Culture' series on his Webby & O'Neill YouTube channel, he said: ' Tottenham was always fun, it was always dangerous, it gave you everything.' But he said the clash in 1979 was particularly violent and he remembered getting 'battered' by bloodthirsty Spurs fans. The author, whose books include Red Army General, said there was little trouble before the game, but said it was the 'calm before the storm', because Tottenham's mob was 'proper, proper organised'. Recalling how he walked out of White Hart Lane and turned right, Tony simply said: 'We just got smashed.' He added: 'They came from every angle, from every corner, and they came at us. And the police just couldn't control it. 'My pal, Harry Hamilton, he is getting dragged off by the coppers, because we are all fighting, and I mean proper fighting in the street, in a circle and it is hands, everything. They are coming from behind, coming at the side. 'And Harry is getting dragged off but by the time he is getting dragged off, I've got us against the wall, and there must have been about maybe 40 of us against the wall because it was just coming from everywhere. 'I just remember being in the middle of hands and legs going and I mean we are being whacked all over. I just remember seeing Harry going in the back of the car, and I looked at him and thought, 'You f****** lucky b******.' Tony, who went on to work security at Gary Neville's Hotel Football, added: 'And that is what makes it funny because there are certain things, this is dangerous, you are getting hammered, the lads are getting battered, getting butchered, and I've got these kids from Wythenshawe, I won't say their names they know who they are, screaming, screaming, 'Tony, save me, save me' and all that. And we are getting hammered.' He said the petrified younger lads in the mob started using him as a human shield. He continued: 'I couldn't go on the floor because they had hold of my body, using my legs and arms to fend these people off who were coming at me. 'There were just a few coppers running in now and again and as they went to the right to hit these Tottenham fans, the Tottenham fans were coming from the left. I thought, 'When is this going to stop?' 'The one thing that stood out with me all the time, I've known him all my life, great kid, cockney kid, Robert from Pekcham, he is trying to gee us up, I am trying to gee us up, like, 'Stay together, we are going to die here, we are going to die.'' Tony, who has been jailed three times for football related offences, said the group managed to stay together and edge closer to Seven Sisters station. But he said the street was 'full of Tottenham baying for blood'. Approaching the trains, he said a policeman on a horse tried to stop them getting through, despite them trying to flee an 'onslaught', the only word he said he could use to describe it. 'We were frantically trying to get in,' he explained, saying they dived under the police horse to safety. 'We were shattered, and I mean physically shattered, but we were laughing because we were all looking at each other like 'oh my god'. But we were still together - you can take a good hiding but still be together. But it was the part and parcel of Tottenham.' The lads eventually boarded a train to Euston and he said there was a relief at 'getting out there alive, without being put in hospital'. However, 20 minutes later, he said he experienced something he had never experienced before. In his own words, he explained: 'We got off at Euston and we were talking up the big street just before where the fire station is now, and right out of the side street, Tottenham, just come charging at us, big planks of wood and I actually mouthed the words, 'Oh my god, not again.' 'But we was in no mood to stand and fight, it was just like, there's Euston, get there, there is loads of them, they've got sticks, planks of wood, there is no point, we have had enough here, let's just get off, we didn't even entertain it. 'We might have been able to stand and have a scuffle but we took enough good hidings, enough is enough.' He said they were chased up the stairways at Euston but they managed to escape and make it back to Manchester. But summing up his experiences with Tottenham, he spoke about a mutual respect between the firms, and added: 'I just look at Tottenham and it had everything, from a young lad 13 14 years of age going there to a lad of 19 in 1979. It had everything and it was the best ground. 'It was always a battle.'
Daily Mirror
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Ex-Man Utd hooligan says one firm 'was different level' after nearly killing him
Former Manchester United hooligan Tony O'Neill has been jailed three times for football offences and he has now spoken about coming up against bricks and blades during one dangerous away day A former hooligan recalled risking his life on a brutal away day where he claimed ambushing fans were armed with bricks and Stanley knives. Tony O'Neill was once regarded as Britain's most notorious football hooligan. Back in the 1970s, he became a key figure in two Manchester United firms, Red Army and later the Casuals, and hewas known as 'the general'. But on April 23, 1974, he travelled to Merseyside when he was just 15 to watch a soon to be relegated United take on Everton at Goodison Park. And speaking on his Webby & O'Neill YouTube channel for his 'Fan Culture' series, he spoke about the chaos that unfolded. His mum initially forbade him from going but eventually he joined up with The Red Army who made their way to Liverpool. He said people had been speaking about the game for weeks. Tony remembered: 'We knew what we was up against. This was going to be war. And I mean war. We were going to take on the scousers.' He said hundreds of United fans packed the trains before arriving at Lime Street Station where trouble immediately broke out. Tony said the group stood their ground before being welcomed by bricks once they started to make their way to the football stadium. 'Bricks came flying over at us while we were on the march,' he said. 'What a solid march, but a frightening walk if you were on your own or in small groups. But not this gang, this gang was massive and it was solid. There was no moving it.' He said this was a victory for the firm but the real violence took place after the match where Everton came out 1-0 winners in what was a night game. 'I was depressed because I knew we were going down,' Tony recalled. 'But we knew what we had to do. The gates open and we have got to be at the front. We knew the rules going there. This has always been the motto, go out there and whatever happens, happens. Take it to them. Don't go hiding, don't be sneaking off, especially in Merseyside.' Fights broke out outside Goodison Park but disputes between United fans took place where some wanted to get on coaches back to Lime Street and others wanted to march back. Tony was one of the ones who walked and he said it was 'absolutely stupid' and the "daftest thing you can do in the dark at Merseyside'. 'You are going taking your life in your hands,' he added. Despite knowing he was going to get ambushed, Tony and the now smaller mob reached the end of Stanley Park, and that's when the real danger commenced. 'That was the nightmare of all nightmares,' he recalled. 'They all were Liverpool fans. They just come screaming down the side street, straight into us. 'Oh my God, I just bottled it. What is going on here? This is a nightmare. They had the street and they were running down it straight into us and people just bottled it straight away. 'There is no disgrace in it whatsoever, you were outnumbered, in the dark, you were ambushed. And they caught us. I just legged it straight down.' He added: 'I didn't look behind me to see what is going on because this is now your life and you also know you are getting robbed, you are getting slashed, you are getting beat up, you are getting done in, there is no mercy here. They were out to get you and they were everywhere. I just kept running and didn't look back. It is every man for himself.' Asked to elaborate on Stanley knives being present, he added: 'Everyone was up for a fight, that's what was happening up and down the country. But these took it to a different level and that was what you were fearful of.' Running for his life, Tony said bricks rained down on him, and at one point his shoe fell off, forcing him to kneel down while his two pals sprinted away. He described being 'so relieved' to get back to Lime Station unharmed, calling it the longest run of his life. 'I got away with my life, and I mean got away with my life,' he said. Speaking about the atmosphere on the train back, he said: 'We were all made up. This is the blueprint of how we are going to go to Liverpool or Everton in the future. We knew we could take it to them - it just needed a little more organising.' Tony, now the author of Red Army General and The Men in Black, then said within 18 months to two years, Manchester United became the main firm in the country. The former hardman now lives a very different life, and in 2017, he started working at Gary Neville's and Ryan Giggs' Hotel Football. He was handpicked by Neville to work security and speaking about his role, he once said: 'I've stopped going to games. Me and my wife Debbie do the rooftop at Hotel Football on a match day. 'The whole idea is to make it about the supporters' clubs. The Hotel is a four-star, but the intention of the hotel was to be where the fans could mix. 'The whole idea was to make it accessible, near Old Trafford, for the fans. I get the supporters clubs in. I get the right people in. People love to mix and see proper United fans.'
