A former member of Birmingham City's Zulu Warriors singled out an infamous firm when discussing the hooligan group that provided their toughest competition.

Barrington Patterson, known by many as 'One Eyed Baz', built a reputation as one of the most feared football hooligans in the 1980s before changing his life around with a job in the local community.

The former MMA fighter, who was reportedly blinded when his sister threw a can at him as a child, travelled up and down the country with Birmingham City when hooligan firms were still commonplace in football.

He was part of the notorious Zulu Warriors, formed in 1982 in the Birmingham suburb of Chelmsley Wood, and shot to fame after he was featured in the television documentary The Real Football Factories, hosted by Danny Dyer.

The Zulus firm were widely considered as one of the top five toughest firms of the 1980s. Patterson, meanwhile, mentioned three groups when discussing those who provided the toughest competition.

'Baz' mentioned firms from Leeds United and Millwall, but he singled out West Ham’s Inter City Firm as the toughest of all.

'One-Eyed Baz’ ran for his life after incident involving firm

Patterson would rarely back down from a fight, but he once recalled running back to a train station after being subjected to vile racist abuse ahead of a game against Coventry City.

Speaking on the James English Podcast in 2019, he explained: “One of the first scary ones I went to [was] when we played Coventry back in the early 80s. We played Coventry away. And I was running for my life."

“Hey, I ran straight back to the train station,” he added. “That one was scary.”

After racking up “maybe 20” offences related to violence, but “none football-related”, Patterson turned his life around in the 90s and became known for his work to combat homelessness and campaigns against knife crime.

He also set up the Birmingham Homeless Support Team (BHST) after witnessing a school friend sleeping on the streets.

Barrington 'Baz' Patterson was once a member of Birmingham City's Zulu Warriors hooligan gang. Image credit: Getty

Patterson passed away in March 2022 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 58. After his death, he was honoured by Birmingham City with a minute’s applause ahead of a match at St Andrew's.