The times they were a’changing 55 years ago - but perhaps not always for the better. It was 1968 and a new phenomenon was on rise. Football hooliganism.
Mirroring changes in the wider world - the dawn of the so-called ‘permissive society’, challenges to traditional deference and the rigid British class system, and the rise of violent crime since the beginning of the 1960s - UK football grounds were no longer places where rival fans might stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the terraces as they had done in earlier decades.
St James’ Park was not immune from the first strains of this new-style football “aggro”. If one of the earliest recorded episodes of widespread disorder at the stadium dated as far back as 1901 when Newcastle United and Sunderland fans clashed in the 'Good Friday Riot', for the most part St James', and other grounds, had been largely peaceful and safe environments.
