Liverpool (and Celtic) have You’ll Never Walk Alone, Manchester City have Blue Moon, West Ham have I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, Manchester United have whatever the ‘terrace poet’ appointed by the marketing men in charge at Old Trafford tells them to sing. Even the rugby clubs have their own anthems, the only, and I mean ONLY, thing that they can maybe feel superior to us about.
What do we have? Don’t even think about seriously claiming Can’t Help Falling In Love, Sunderland have been singing that for ages. Sadly, Bread of Skeltons rarely gets an airing these days. That leaves our only unique terrace chant/song as Mauled by the Tigers. Still, it’s better than most have to offer.
Rich Lusmore (author of Not All Ticket and follow up Special Attraction), states that it first debuted at Kilbowie Park, Clydebank in a July 1991 pre-season friendly and that it was the brainchild of prolific chantmaker Steve Finch, who rewrote Yellow Submarine as “we all follow a black and amber team“.
The hand movements came later, and it was taken to the bosom of City’s support. Younger fans seem to love its childish appeal, older fans appreciate that it’s just plain amusing and a more inventive way of reminding opposing fans of the fact that their team is losing than simply chanting the scoreline.
A few fans may harrumph at how camp we all look, but we know this, and it’s never camper than when thousands of hardened, tattoed Hullensians are singing it in unison. However, it’s also funny, and never funnier than when it’s being chanted at Anfield or the Emirates.
Over the years an unwritten etiquette was formed, in the Football League it takes a three goal margin for any lead to be considered a bona-fide ‘mauling’, but this can be relaxed depending on the occasion, and if City are breaking new ground.
As a club with only limited top flight experience relatively speaking, beating Manchester United for the first time in the Premier League makes a Mauled by the Tigers rendition a moral obligation, even if the margin was two goals instead of three. Normative ethics are crucial here, as no matter how much fans may want to sing it, beating Coventry 1-0 away is by no means a mauling, it’s a mild pawing at best.
It’s unlikely, given that among English clubs there’s only Millwall who it might apply to, that anyone is going to permanently steal it off us, even if our impressive start to the 2026/27 Premier League campaign saw a brief spate of “pecked by the Magpies” and “scratched by the Black Cats” suggestions on Social Media. Most importantly though, it’s ours, in all its self-deprecating, camp, mocking glory.