Infamous Football Hooligan Names Hardest 'Pound-for-Pound' Firm in England

A notorious former football hooligan has named the hardest pound-for-pound firm he came up against.

Everton fan Andy Nicholls was a season ticket holder at Goodison Park and was involved in match-day violence for 20 years before becoming an author of a number of books.

He has been banned from every ground in England and Wales and has served time in prison for football-related disorder.

Nicholls, from Wales, had scraps with several famous firms, including Chelsea, Leeds United and Birmingham City.

But he snubbed the likes of Chelsea, Leeds and Birmingham when naming the hardest pound-for-pound firm in England.

Nicholls opted for Middlesbrough, revealing his fights with their firm over the years.

He called Middlesbrough a 'sh*thole' and claimed all the people in the town had was going down the Riverside to watch football.

Andy Nicholls believes Middlesbrough have the toughest firm in England. Image: Getty

Speaking to James English on Anything Goes With James English, Nicholls said: "We had a thing going with Middlesbrough.

"Middlesbrough were, I think, pound-for-pound... Middlesbrough have been for years one of the best firms out there because they're big lumps... it's a f**king rough old sh*thole and that's all they got to do... was go the football and we had a thing with them."

The Toffees supporter later recalled a story of how his firm clashed with Boro's gang after a game.

"Usually your local rivalries are (Manchester) United, (Manchester) City and Liverpool to a certain extent and we had this thing with Boro like a f**king ding-dong for years," he added.

"F**king hell they come here one day and we were in the pub. Thought they'd long gone and then one of the lads had a call and said, 'f**king hell they're walking down, they're walking to Lime Street'.

"And when we came onside and we were in a couple of pubs and we emptied on them mate and they had a go, but we f**king battered them."

Ex-Manchester City hooligan Anthony Phythian echoed Nicholls' sentiment as he said Middlesbrough are one of the toughest firms in England.

"Do you know what, it was never teams you think, like the big clubs, it was always teams like Barnsley or tough towns like Middlesbrough," he revealed.

"Middlesbrough would bring 50 lads and they weren’t a big firm but f**king hell, just every one of them was just f**king at it. Just a close knit firm."