Opinion: Why do they call us scabs, mum? Understanding a football chant
I was born and raised in Stockport, but my family ties stretch deep into Nottinghamshire.
My dad grew up in Mansfield, the son of a miner, and he spent time working down the pit himself – just as many members of my wider family did, right up until the final years of the industry.
Mining wasn’t just a job in our family; it was an identity, a heritage, and a source of pride.
Because of these roots, I was brought up supporting Nottingham Forest and Mansfield Town.
As an adult, Mansfield Town – the Stags, became my true footballing home. I go to countless games each year with my 14-year-old son, and we’re proud season ticket holders at Field Mill.
Stags fans are incredible – noisy, loyal, united.
Away from home, we’re famous, and rightly so – for being that ‘12th man’.
But football has its uglier moments.
Last year, we couldn’t get tickets for the Carabao Cup tie at Chesterfield in August 2025 - a sellout derby in a rivalry known for its fierce edge.
Watching it on TV, my son heard a word shouted at Mansfield fans over and over again.
And then came the question no parent wants to fumble – ‘mum… why do they call us scabs?’
I could have brushed it off as simple rival banter.
But to understand the word, and to understand why it’s hurled at Mansfield supporters, you have to go back to a painful chapter in British history – the miners’ strike of 1984–85.
‘Scab’ is an old trade union insult meaning someone who works while others are on strike – someone who crosses a picket line.
The term became especially charged during the miners’ strike, when communities across the UK were split over the future of the coal industry.
In places like Yorkshire and South Wales, more than 97-99 per cent of miners joined the strike, but in Nottinghamshire the picture was very different.
Only around a quarter of miners walked out, with the majority continuing to work.
This division created deep resentment that has never fully disappeared.
These tensions were felt strongly around Mansfield and other Nottinghamshire pits.
Many miners there argued that the strike had been called without a national ballot, something they believed was essential for a lawful, democratic action.
This dispute led to Nottinghamshire miners breaking away from the NUM to form the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM).
Nottinghamshire miners disliked the NUM leader, Arthur Scargill.
He has been described as a braggart and a rabble-rouser, and he tried to force the miners out on strike at what could be considered the worst possible time, the summer, when coal stocks were high and demand was low.
That said, plenty of Nottinghamshire miners did go on strike, and that included the miners in my family at the time.
So how did this turn into a football chant?
Spireites didn’t originate the use of the term ‘scabs’.
Portsmouth supporters have used the insult, often adapted to ‘scummers’ against Southampton fans for years based on a story about dockyard disputes, likely in the 1890s, where it is claimed the Southampton workers broke a strike.
The rivalry between Mansfield Town and Chesterfield is now so closely tied to the strike that it is literally called the ‘miners’ strike derby’
The two towns share deep mining histories, but during the strike their paths diverged.
Chesterfield miners overwhelmingly struck, while some Mansfield miners continued working.
As a result, Chesterfield supporters began chanting ‘scabs’ and ‘strikebreakers’ at Mansfield fans, and the chant stuck.
Football supporters will always use derogatory terms if they know they are going to rile the opposition.
So when my son heard that chant during the Chesterfield cup game, he wasn’t hearing something new.
He was hearing the echo of a decades-old political wound that football simply refuses to let heal.
Although Mansfield winning 2-0 certainly helped us to heal….
But here’s what I want my son to know – this word doesn’t define us.
His grandad worked in the pits, so did his father, so did our relatives and they went on strike.
Our family lived the mining life, with all its risks, hardships and solidarity.
We are the product of that heritage, not of the political battles that tore mining communities apart.
The people who lived through 1984 had reasons for the decisions they made, reasons tied to livelihoods, principles, pressure, and sometimes fear.
Whole towns were split, sometimes street by street, even within families.
The word ‘scab’ flattens all of that complexity into an insult.
Football loves an easy insult, especially in a derby.
But reality is never so simple.
The chant survives not because it is fair, but because rivalries thrive on old wounds, and we remain proud Stags supporters, no matter what they call us.