Customer Reviews
blue max - By: Mr. Derek Morgan, 17 Feb 2008 
this book is a huge let down starts o.k then goes very week swerve it
The great white hope - By: dark white, 29 Jan 2008 
There's some points i would like to clear up .
I think Caroline as done a reasonable job .I wouldn't calll it the definitive account of The Leeds service crew to do that the book would have had to have been about 1.000 pages long, .What the book does is gives people a feel for what went on ..The biggest problem with these types of books is the format I.E .How do you do justice to 40 years of follwing a club like Leeds in a couple of hundred pages .
Some one mentioned it was not well researched .I disagree .Caroline travelled alll over the country meeting people who were or had been involved at sometime .This took her 2 years .Caroline Had access to around 1.000 pics ,scrapbooks etc , again the format was the problem .She could have done a pictorial book .There's also the valid point the a lot of other people's stories are missing lads from Harrogate,Wakey ,Selby ,Dewsbury,Banbury ,Oxford lads ,as well as many others etc,etc Some people declined & some people had dropped out over the years & others my not have known the book was being made.
Some one questioned why the team was mentioned ?
Well esscentiallly the majority of The SC were fanatical Leeds United fans or they were when i went to games in the 70's & early 80's
.unlike most other clubs .Leeds wouldn't have been at these places if the team hadn't been there .
Leeds turned at every game home & away ,every season. I have flicked through a couple of these books [which was'nt many ,then it was only the bit about Leeds] always say the same thing about Leeds .We went to Leeds once & didn't rate them.I think the the fact they only ever came to Leeds once tells you more about the truth.
The only one that had a incline of authenticity about it was Liverpool's "boys across the mersey" book .Scallly wasn't too bad either although it tended to consentrate on the Glorified violence too much .
The book is a bit disjointed in parts especiallly the part were Leeds were at their most active late 70's early 80's ,but thats were the bulk of information was from ..3 or 4 people relating incidents from the same game .Caroline had to make it alll readable to the reader & again had to edit stories .
A lot of people didn't want Leeds to do a book ,The initial feeling was why do Leeds need to write a book, everyone knows who the SC are anyway.
. also that fact that a lot of these books were written by firms that needed a bit of publicity . but as soon as people realised that it was going to be written there main concern was that it didn't read like alll the other "we've done everybody " books.
If it was going to be written it had to be honest as memory would alllow .
Warts & alll[in fact the Leeds book is probably too honest ].Nobody's invincible ,but reading some of the others you would think they are
Another criticism was the usual lads alll evolving through the skinheads ,mods ,casuals scene's etc
That was the natural process for the majority of working class lads .What did you expect a couple of lords ,a politicition & a hippie from Greenpeace who spent most of his time saving the planet then losses it at ER when he 's back home?
As for the book being boring ,well real life is never as exciting as glorified fiction thats why they make crap films about certain London teams .When the truth be told Those teams in particular only ever came to Leeds once untill the premiership started .[with the exception of Millwalll who have always come]
40 chasing 700 alll the time lol
At the end of the day the book is about a group of lads who loved watching Leeds United & were prepaired to fight for the right to watch them .There were a lot of scrapes ,some great laughs , great frienships & unfortunately a few were lost on the way RIP, MOT!
best by amile - By: nbd9, 27 Jan 2008 
This is by far the best hoolie book released for a long time & believe me Ive read them alll.The book covers everything from the late sixties to the present day .Lads from alll the different eras have been interviewed & the book should appeal to anyone who moved in those circles over the last forty years.Excellent accounts of days out at Anfield,Old Trafford, & White Hart Lane as well as riotous weekends in Blackpool.Also chronicles the local rivalries with Bradford & Huddersfield as well as the infamous battles with Chelsea & West Ham.Fair enough theres not a great deal about Istanbul but as the book explains that was a fairly recent incident & the scars still run deep for many, myself included who were in Taksim Square that night.All in alll a very good read & a credit to the author & alll those involved.
LUFCW - By: LUFCBFD, 23 Jan 2008 WOULD JUST LIKE TO START BY SAYING CONGRATULATIONS TO CAROLINE GALL AND EVERYBODY ELSE WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE ORGANISATION IN WRITING THIS(GREAT)BOOK,CANT IMAGINE HOW HARD IT MUST BE TO WRITE A BOOK ON THIS TOPIC OR WHERE TO EVEN START ESPECIALLY WITH THERE BEEN SO MANY INCIDENTS SURROUNDING THE SERVICE CREW AND PAST GANGS CONECTED WITH LUFC OVER THE YEARS.AFTER READING SO MANY SIMILER BOOKS ON HOOLIGAN CULTURE I HAVE TO SAY THAT THE SERVICE CREW BOOK COMES OUT AS THE BEST READ IN A LONG TIME.THE STORIES AND ACCOUNTS OF WHAT HAS GONE DOWN OVER THE LAST 30/40 YEARS ARE IN MY OPINION VERY WELL PUT DOWN IN WORDS AND IN MY OPINION THE BOOK IS A GREAT READ TO ANYBODY WHO TAKES AN INTREST IN THE HOOLIGAN CULTURE,ESPECIALLY THE STORIES FROM THE LADS WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE ACTION IN THE EARLY DAYS AND THE 1980'S. WHAT PEOPLE FORGET IS THAT WRITING THESE TYPE OF BOOKS IS NOT EASY ESPECIALLY WHEN ITS ABOUT ONE OF THE BIGGEST FIRMS IN THE UK,YOU COULD WRITE TWO OR THREE BOOKS ABOUT THE SERVICE CREW AND SOMEBODY WOULD STILL SAY THAT THE STORY WAS'NT RITE OR THERE WAS'NT ENOUGH DETAIL,THIS BOOK HAS BEEN READ BY A COUPLE OF MY FRIENDS WHO TAKE AN INTREST IN THE HOOLIGAN CULTURE.BOTH OF THEM FOLLOW DIFFERENT CLUBS WHO HAVE THERE OWN HOOLIGAN ELEMENT,BOTH FRIENDS HAVE COMMENTED ON HOW GOOD THE STORIES ARE.ONE OF MY FRIENDS HAD WITNESSED A COUPLE OF THE AVENTS WHICH TOOK PLACE AND THOUGHT THE ACCOUNTS ON THE AVENTS IN THE BOOK WERE VERY GOOD AND IN HIS OPPINION VERY HONEST,HE COULD'NT BELIEVE HOW HONEST AT TIMES ESPECIALY WHEN OTHER BOOKS THINGS ARE USUALLY OVER EXAGGERATED IN HIS OPINION THE BOOK GIVES WHAT SEEMS A VERY TRUE AND HONEST ACCOUNT OF THE INCIDENTS THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE.IN MY OPINION ANYBODY WHO HAS GOT AN INTREST IN THE HOOLIGAN CULTURE, THEN THE SERVICE CREW IS TRULY A FANTASTIC READ ABOUT ONE OF BRITANS LEADING FOOTBALL FIRMS AND HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING!
Worst book on football hooliganism I have ever read - By: mark68068, 17 Jan 2008 
This book is very poor indeed. As other reviewers have said it skips wildly from one era to another. I have read countless books on footballl violence but this is easily the dullest & most disjointed. I thought a serious account of one of the country's most notorious footballl firms would be told but instead the book is a thousand snippets of confrontations that bare little relation to one another save the fact that footballl violence is involved. The development of the gangs is barely touched upon.
Instead of trying to piece together the actual story of the gangs alll it contains is a simple mish mash of accounts of fights without any apparent flow whatsoever. One Leeds fans description of an incident is followed by another's account of some other fight at an unrelated match, & so on & on & on.
The modern era is narrowed down to a few chapters & one of the most notorious occasions (in Istanbul in the UEFA Cup a few years ago where Leeds fans were ambushed & murdered) is inexplicably limited to roughly half a page. Instead more of the footballl club's on pitch performances & boardroom errors are highlighted.
Seriously - avoid this book. It's appallling! I hate to think what the Leeds firm members who contributed to this must think.
