You see that isn't true. I used to stand right down the front of The Holte behind the goal as a kid and there was all sorts going on in the box. Defenders standing on a strikers foot so he couldn't jump was a good one, as was raking your studs down the back of an opponents leg as the ball came in. Plenty of shirt pulling too. What you didn't have back then was endless close-up replays on telly telling us how disgusting it all was so only us budding child defenders studied how our heroes did it from the terraces!
Oh yes, if you got caught you were in trouble, but as a centre-half myself i got away with all sorts, much of it blatant cheating!I once played with a bloke whose trick-in-trade was to stick his thumb up the backside of the player he was marking, but he was a bit strange.
Sigh
.Never saw trouble at the Albion, and believe it or not not much at the Bloose either, maybe i was lucky.