Carl Moran – Man City – Blazing Squad

This week Awayday Radio caught up with Carl Moran, the author of Blazing Squad: The Inside Story of Man City’s Young Hooligans.

Carl gives us an honest account of his experiences following City around the country with the Blazing squad firm and gives an insight into what it was like being a football casual in more recent times and the camaraderie and mutual respect that is gained with like-minded lads from his own and other firms.

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How did you get into football and why?

Played football growing up as a kid but never really got into watching it till about 10 or 11. Most of the people near me supported United, so I went with City just to be different.

What was your first memory of trouble at football?

I can’t remember the first I saw if I’m being honest, I remember being fairly young and seeing two groups of City going at each other. The first I was involved with myself was West Ham at home in 2006, It went off after the game, they had brought loads up on coaches and we attacked their escort outside the ground.

When did you become a football casual?

I would say around 16/17 something like that, for my age group the films were a massive fucking influence on us, Football factory had not long been out, then a couple of years later Rise of the Footsoldier, Green Street too which let’s be honest wasn’t very realistic, then you had the remake of the Firm and we all started going mad for the 80’s gear, Fila and that. We felt the football casual scene was back in the mainstream at the same time we were going about doing our thing.

What’s your favourite song?

Being a Manchester kid I was always heavily influenced by our own music scene, all the Manchester bands and that, but if I had to pick just one fave track I’ll go with an old school track, Oasis-Hello.

What was you’re music scene on away days?

It was a mixture between Manchester bands and current stuff at that time. Being from Manchester we were blessed to have some amazing fucking bands, Oasis, The Smith’s, Stone Roses, James, New Order, Joy Division, Courteeners, Happy Mondays I could go on, so it was a mixture of stuff like that and newer stuff of the time. Kasabian was big at the time, and the Arctic Monkeys, I listened to a lot of that, another band that’s worthy of mention is, The Enemy, what a band they were and their music went hand in hand with the whole football scene, their song, Aggro, is written about football violence, so I’m told.

What clobber do you wear down the match?

I am into the clothes side of things but not to the extent of many others. For me, it was all about the fighting and that, rather than the clothes, but don’t get me wrong, it’s still nice to dress nice, nobody wants to look like a scruffy cunt, if you know what I mean. I would say I’m very stereotypical, Adidas trainers, Aquascutum scarf and a Stone Island jumper or jacket.

Who are your main rivals?

Yeovil Town without a doubt haha, Nah, it can only be one team, United, the hatred runs deep!

What was your biggest battle with them?

Dozens and dozens over the years, more often than not we came out on top easily enough, but we got slapped off them a few times, the most brutal battle I was involved in against United was in 2011, lads on both sides had to go to the hospital, I included. I had to get my head stapled back together, one of their lads had a finger bitten off, It was pretty nasty, we literally wanted to fucking kill each other, they came on top that day, I’m not going to lie.

Who else did you have a good battle with?

Shitloads of teams over the years, we were pretty active. We had a mint fight with the Zulus down in South Brum that was top. Long story short we didn’t even play each other or out, I’ve literally rung up and said if we come to Birmingham we’ll go anywhere you want, will you meet us? They said, yeah, too right, we agreed on 20 v 20 and set a date for the following month. I was filming for a BBC documentary that morning when we met in the town to get the coach, the BBC wanted to come to film it but I obviously didn’t let them. We arrived in Brum in some rough as fuck council estate, big tower blocks the lot, with random cars driving past us shouting “are you the Manchester kids? you’re in trouble now” etc. I knew we had to win this fight or I would make myself look a right dickhead, but Birmingham are good, one of, if not, the best around, which is the reason why I picked them, we had it with them for what felt like half n hour but was probably only a few minutes, but it was toe to toe non-stop. We won that fight but what a firm they are, they’re proper kids, best lads we’ve ever had it with that’s for sure, there was so much respect between us in the end, the way it should be.

Who have you come unstuck against?

Bolton believe it or not, people laugh when I say Bolton, but they had a few decent kids.

Name 5 firms you rate and why?

Birmingham, proper kids who can fight.

Stoke, what you see is what you get, you get a lot of nob heads who mess around and play games, didn’t find any of that with Stoke, was easy enough to meet them because they’re very game lads.

Everton, we had a few things with them over the years, they came to Manchester time after time and put themselves on offer, if you want it with Everton, they will meet you, what more can you ask for?

Shamrock Rovers, so obviously the scene in Ireland isn’t what it is over here, they will be the first to admit that, but don’t be fooled, they still do have some firms over there, It’s no secret I’m mates with Shamrock and have been going over there for a decade with them, similar to us at City, they don’t fuck about playing games, if they say they have x amount of lads and will be at such n such a place in 10 mins, they will be, aside from playing the game right, they have some proper game lads.

Hibs, in recent times as well as myself going over to Dublin some Hibernian lads have done as well. Now I don’t know much about the Scottish scene but from what I’ve seen with my own eyes them Hibbs lads are decent, always at the front.

Five firms you don’t rate and why?

Celtic, no Rangers bias here, I attend catholic church and I am from Irish heritage, just from what I’ve seen with my own eyes, we went to Glasgow about 150 of us all together, told them what pub we were in, about 90 of us at the time and they wouldn’t come, told us to come to the Gallowgate, so about 50 of us broke off and marched down, we got there to see loads of police van’s waiting and the bars empty, Scottish police told us not to talk to Celtic, said they’re all grassing cunts and said it was them who told the police where we would be, to balance it out I did hear that in the ’90s they were a decent mob, but I can only go off what I saw that day and what I saw that day was embarrassing!

Aston Villa, to say I’m less than impressed with Villa would be a huge understatement, one time they ran into a supermarket to get away from us, another time a hotel, one time they had us turn up at a pub to meet them, and nobody was there, It turns out they had already gone home on the train before the match had even started! they did get the better of us once though, but even that was because they went about it in a scummy way, said they wanted 15 on 15 no tools, fine no problem. We got there and hundreds of the cunts pilled out of the pub, set us up big time. Villa run away like little girls unless they massively outnumber you, complete muppets, basically not worth a wank.

Man United, don’t get me wrong on their day they are more than capable and have some game lads, but they fuck around and play games and half the time don’t even turn up, It used to be if they didn’t outnumber us massively they wouldn’t dare come near us, In recent times however, to be fair to them they turn up and have it, although it must be well over 10 fights on the bounce we’ve run them all over easy enough.

Bohemian, Bohs, is another Dublin team, and are Shamrock’s rivals, similar to United in the sense if they don’t outnumber you they don’t seem to wanna know, but with united to be fair to them will come to us and have it, you’ve got more chance of winning the lottery than Bohs coming to Shamrock’s area, even when they play away at Shamrock they won’t leave their own area, Shamrock have to go to the other side of Dublin to Bohs area to meet them, by anyone’s standards that’s a bit embarrassing.

Firm number five isn’t actually a firm, its southern firms in general, listen, is there decent firms from down south? yeah there is, are there tough kids from London and the south? yeah 100%, all that being said, I just don’t think the southern firms are a patch on the northern ones, for me the Nothern firms are on a different level as a general rule, obviously, there are some awful mobs in the north too.

Finally Carl, a question a lot of people would ask who are not into the casual culture is, what was the main draw for you to get wrapped up into the scene and that way of life?

What I enjoyed about being a football casual is representing Man City and Manchester, the greatest city in the world and I’m proud to be associated with it, but what I enjoyed the most was the bond with the other city lads, we were a close tight-knit crew, there were lads with us that was 10 times gamer than I could ever be, it was a pleasure to stand side by side with them lads for well over a decade. MCFC OK.