Hooligan autobiographies found themselves, rightly or wrongly, under many a football fan’s Christmas tree yesterday. Fearless gang leaders from Aberdeen to Aldershot have taken to the typewriter to publish their gritty memoires and here at Abbey things are no different. In an explosive new tome, Abbey chairman ‘Big’ Jim Whittaker charts the 2012/13 activity of his own mob, the Just For Men Crew.
Taking their name from the famous mens hair colouring product, the Just For Men Crew quite simply refused to dye, whether that be their grey/white locks or out on the battlefield. And holding down respected committee positions at the club allowed the mob to creep around the North West Counties Football League Division One undetected. In this exclusive chapter Jim tells us about the lads’ visit to Rochdale Town away last season, arguably the Just For Men Crew’s finest hour.
Big Jim: In 2012 there were a lot of really useful firms operating out of the North West Counties and the Just For Men Crew were one of the best in the business. The problem was, because we were new, we were always on the outside looking in. It was time to make a bit of a noise and show them we could handle ourselves.
Three of our top boys, Derek ‘Daggers’ Denby, myself and Gordon ‘Left Hook’ Lester, decided we were going to take Rochdale Town in their home end, the main stand at Butterworth Park. On the face of it, it was a ridiculous thing to do. They were pretty handy and had a big reputation, but that didn't mean nothing to us. We were ready to make our mark and didn't care how we did it.
We got there early and kept a low profile. Among the Bovril drinkers watching the warm up were two Rochdale pensioners chatting away to themselves. “They call him Killer you know,” said one to the other pointing at Abbey striker Martin Pilkington, unaware that our killer pincer move was actually underway in the stand.
Pretty soon the whole place was filling up. There were quite a few rum faces in there but I can't say it bothered me. All I was thinking was: "You're going to get it, you pie munching numpties!"
It was actually their chairman who clocked us. I can remember him saying something like: "I can think of a number…the three goons stood over there," and it all kicked off. Even though they hit us with everything they had, we took it. All I can remember is Daggers screaming: "Hold the line, just hold the effing line," and we did.
I didn't think they could believe that three of us had taken about 40 of them at their place. They just melted away, flicking the V's at us and looking like a total set of girls. I saw their match-day secretary with blood dripping from an open head wound but to be honest I was too wound up to care.
We walked away from there with our heads held high. The Formby Boys would have to take notice now. The Just For Men Crew had well and truly arrived.
We’ll Never Dye, the story of the Just For Men Crew, is out in all good book shops from Jan 1.
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