'A mob of 1000 skinheads running along a road is a frightening sight. Into the tube gates we rushed. On the tube, there was the usual knees up mother brown, with the whole carriage full of skinheads jumping up and down, the train rocking from side to side. Mile End and all out...want some aggro?' It's the 1970s, a time of skinheads, Doctor Martens, violence and trouble on the terraces. The Mile End Mob rule Upton Park. Long before the days of the ruthless InterCity Firm casuals, they were the first guv'nors of the terraces, striking fear into the other West Ham mobs and fans. Micky Smith, die-hard Hammers fan, was there in the thick of the action, he saw it all as it happened. Here he teams up with bestselling author, ex-ICF face and West Ham authority Cass Pennant to recall these action-packed and turbulent times. Indeed, it was the reputation and respect commanded by the East End Bovver Boys that drove a hardcore of hooligans to create the notorious InterCity Firm and establish their rule over the terraces up and down the country in the 1980s. Here is the story of what came before the ICF.
Thrilling, dramatic and brutally honest it will fascinate any football fan or social historian.