A group of young, angry men leap drunkenly around a train chanting ‘We are evil! We are evil!’, a rival gang’s blood dripping from their faces. Decked out in matching cagoules, Fred Perry polos and pristine adidas trainers, they’re a private army, an invicible group of men linked by a love of violence and a unique gang identity. But do not be fooled – this is not the terrace tripe of Green Street; Kevin Sampson’s film has far more in common with the likes of Quadrophenia than any of those other shite British thugfests. The film is not really about football violence, see. It’s about identity, style, friendship and belonging. It’s about the casual culture of the 80s.

Carty (Nicky Bell) is a middle-class failed art student from the right side of the tracks who’s recently lost his mum. After seeing The Pack – a small group of football hoolies led by ex-squaddie Godden (Stephen Graham) in action – he becomes obsessed with them and wants in, badly. A chance encounter with gang member Elvis (Liam Boyle) at a gig leads to a bittersweet friendship, fuelled by a love of music, drugs and rum and black. As he is initiated into the gang, Carty’s life is turned upside down, and he is thrust into an orgy of organised violence, clumsy sex, cheap drugs and booze. Torn between the demands of his new friends and those of his career and sister, tensions build, and as the gang’s seams begin to rip apart by internal feuds, Carty must decide what his true identity is, before he loses everything.

Though Stephen Graham is criminally underused (he does his This Is England take-a-youngster-under-his-wing-thing), the performances in Awaydays are faultless. New British talent Bell and Boyle are both fantastic, and the soundtrack is incredible. Those looking for a ‘pwoper nawty hoolie flick’ will be disappointed. But for an insight into an extinct and fascinating football culture, Awaydays will cut through you like one of The Pack’s sharpened stanley knives.

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