It's true that Portsmouth fans are many things. Passionate, noisy and intimidating are certainly words you could use to describe us. But there's also no running away from the fact that we once managed to get ourselves a bit of a reputation; in those heady days of the 70s and 80s, the 6.57 would run amok up and down the country and smash a few people's heads in. All in the name of "supporting the club", of course.
In the 1990's hooliganism seemed to die down, but we still managed to get the odd incident. QPR, Fulham and Coventry all saw the faces of old crawl out of the woodwork and spark off a bit of trouble, but on the whole the club finally seemed to have moved on. The atmosphere and support inside the ground stayed as fierce as ever, yet the lunatic fringe finally seemed to be out. Personally I took in every home game last season and a fair few away, and not once did I witness any trouble, or get the suspicion any was likely to kick off.
And yet today, new Home Office statistics show that we're the worst in the country. Our 146 arrests last season towers over second place, Leeds, with 109. Bizarrely, Manchester United are 3rd with 108. There are a few things that bother me about the stats in general, rather than just ours specifically. How many of these arrests were actually inside a ground? To use an example relevant to us - 120 of the arrests listed in the Home Office document relate to Violent and Public disorder relating to the Southampton riots - how many of those actually attended the game, and how many would have been out that weekend looking for trouble in the pubs and clubs if they hadn't have had football as a handy excuse? The same questions will no doubt be asked by every club named on the list - idiots without a fleeting interest in the club can cause a lot of damage to the name. I'm not trying to defend their actions at all, but the lack of detail brings with it ambiguity.
The problem that REALLY bothers me, however, is the lack of mention about convictions following the arrests. Let's take the example of John Westwood - arrested as Leicester for being drunk, he was later released without charge because there was no evidence. Presumably, this still counts on the final total. How many other fans out there have been arrested within the ground, only to later be let off free because of no crime actually occuring? Personally I know of four or five - and for everytime it happens, the stats start looking a little worse.
I'm not denying that we have our share of troublemakers. It's a sad fact of life at every club that there are those who are out for a fight, and it just so happens that we seem to have more than others. I'm not going to try and attempt some awful socio-economic commentary about poor income, housing estates in the area, island mentality etc - it's a fact, and it's been proven down the years. However, I still feel these stats are made in some quarters to seem worse than they are. Around 480,000 attended home games at Fratton last season - that 146 arrested is a "whopping" 0.03%, and yet the coverage and exposure this minority receive would have you believe that the other 99.97% were out doing the same thing.
