This tended to make an easier job of splitting up the other mob and dispatching their less robust members quickly. In later seasons the information for the meeting point was often communicated by the use of party invitation cards that detailed the venue and time.

It was a gang of guys fighting another gang of guys and, yeah, it was about adrenalin and excitement. He claims to be a passionate Hibs fan, but it appears what happened off the pitch was often more exciting for him than events on.About 30 members of the CCS were said to work as doormen – and control of Edinburgh’s doors meant control of the city’s booming rave scene and drug culture. After mismanagement during the late 1980s, Hibernian were on the brink of financial ruin in 1990 and in June of that year, Wallace Mercer, the chairman of Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts, proposed a merger of the two clubs. One of our initiatives is a fundraising evening at East End Park this Saturday, where we will have a number of ex-players and managers appearing. They were one of the UK’s most notorious gangs of football casuals during the 80s and 90s – but some within the feared Capital City Service branched out from matchday brawling into serious organised crime.

Another approach employed to evade police observation involved meeting representatives of an opposing gang the day before a match and showing them a route and pub to congregate in that could avoid CCTV detection. In readiness to face other hooligan gangs a formation was opted for that consisted of a front line of around twenty self-proclaimed "nutters" who initiated the confrontation with their rivals and directly behind them were other enthusiastic battle lines ready to support the attack. One of the original members of the Hibs Capital City Service he has been at the heart of every CCS encounter, apart from those he missed while in prison.The Hibs boys travelled to London on the Friday and their evening was spent drinking, while some were smoking cannabis as well, as they recounted hooligan tales from the past which ran into the wee small hours. During filming the director requested that the Hibs boys sing some CCS songs and chants and they complied much to his approval. The railway network provided convenient access to the requisite city or town centre and from there the CCS would walk to the football stadium regardless of distance. Although football-related violence waned from its worst days, Hibs casuals continued to be involved into the 21st century. One friendly at home that had been arranged with Chelsea in the early 1990s had potentially serious trouble averted by police action against a travelling group of well known Chelsea hooligans.

the CCS were just about to take Aberdeen's title as top dogs in the country for the rest of the 1980s", "the CCS were in the mid to late 1980s the team to beat no doubt about it.Blance reveals all about his criminal past, terrace thuggery and jail terms in Hibs Boy: The Life And Violent Times Of Scotland's Most Notorious Football Hooligan. Many fans realised they would miss the game if they waited in the bridge queue so,like us,headed down to Albion Rd. Over the years accusations of a range of criminal activity not linked to football has been levelled towards the CCS as a whole as well as individuals within it. This afforded the opportunity for bonds to be forged through the shared experiences of following the team and responding to the actions of opposing fans. However, the congeniality was not a constant throughout the rest of the Hibs support who, in the main, still wore team colours at matches.