He moved from Ireland and use to go to celtic games all the time and got a job in barnsley so moved here and as we all know barnsley is a friendly owd place and he got talking to some mates at work and pub and found his first game away at Middlesbrough (80s) and never looked back and brought me up to do the same away from sectarian violence. Anyone remember this match? he can't exactly remember details as he was plastered. but he said their was thousands of barnsley fans and it was mayhem. What was the score? Wasn't a big match? He can't remember score. He just remembers one of the biggest followings ever from barnsley?
5th round FA Cup game if I remember rightly.Think we lost 2-1. We were 3rd Division under Norman Hunter back then and took huge followings away from home.
Lost 2-1 FA cup Fans in many sections of the ground. Mayhem during and after the game. Fights going on all over. Ambushed from the cemetery walking back to busses. Cops on horseback chasing boro fans over graves. Just another day at the office. Estimated 12/14k from tarn I believe. Horrible place. Was Ayresome park and it’s surroundings. Horrible fans.
Similar to what he remembers. He had his mates telling him "dont worry its not like this every match, thas just copt an unfortunate one lmao"
5th round FA Cup game in February 1981. They were 1st Division and we were 3rd Division under Hunter. It was the promotion season and we'd already knocked out Chester, Rotherham, Torquay, then Enfield after the replay at White Hart Lane. Dad said I couldn't go as I was too young (I was 13), he wasn't taking me. Gutted. Sulked in room all day Saturday. Lost 2-1. Gutted even more. Sulked some more.
Only games my dad refused to take us to were Chelsea and Leeds in the late 80's. I was pretty sulky about missing the 4-0 match in the FA Cup! I'm guessing that some away matches in the early and mid 80's must have been pretty horrendous by way of personal safety.
I've never been as squashed as at that cup game. They kept cramming people into the corner section. If I remember right there were 37000 in Ayresome Park that day.
Reyt game. They had a decent side with some top players. Took a 2-0 lead and we thought we were in for a battering. But we stuck at it and Mike Lester scored a brilliant goal to put us right back in it. Gave it a right good go but couldn’t find an equaliser. As ever in those days, our third division side (soon to be second division) didn’t care who we were playing - they went out to win. Oh, and as others have said the smog monsters gave us a very warm Teeside welcome.
One of my favourite away days, even though it was frightening as hell. We could have equalised late on. After the game we were penned in behind the turnstile wall for what seemed like an eternity (as was the fashion at the time) and were pelted with rocks over the wall and urine from the 'fans' above. It is rumoured it was one of the largest, if not the largest, away followings of any domestic English match. I was in the corner which was designated for Barnsley fans, crammed in like sardines. Though as evidenced by the video posted on here recently of Lester's goal, there were many Reds fans behind the Boro goal too We'll never see atmospheres like this anymore.
I was there. Me and my dad, unfortunately arrived a bit late and went in the first turnstile we came to, in the home end. They quickly twigged that we were from Barnsley but were friendly enough. One said to us on the way out that we'd played the best football they'd seen all season - including Liverpool.
I went to Stamford Bridge 81/2 season. I was on my own, driving down the road in London somewhere, totally lost, when I saw a lad walking along in a blue scarf. I stopped and asked him the way to the ground and he said give me a lift and I'll show you. So we're on our way and he sees my red scarf on the back seat and says "Don't wear that and don't go in the away end, there's going to be trouble today. Go in the shed, stand near a copper and keep your mouth shut.". So I did and sure enough there was mayhem in the away end at half time. The shed magically emptied and they all went round the back of one of the side stands and poured into the Reds fans at the far end.
Being an old romantic, I took my then fiancee to the game. We were sat in the main stand where the players' tunnel was situated. As there was only the two of us and we were separate from the mass thousands of Barnsley fans, I was determined to keep quiet and safe. All that disappeared when Mike Lester scored. Thankfully, it turned out there were quite a few Barnsley supporters round us, too. From there on in, my initial intentions vanished, I was screaming encouragement for the rest of the match! My fiancee wasn't impressed!
When you recall all the trouble you saw and in some cases involved with be that home or away and the amount of times you were penned in and crushed together as you were held back before they opened the gates to let you out then the mad surge as you all spilled out of the ground .....makes you think..... in reflection anyone of us that experienced the above could have easily witnessed and been part of another hillsbourgh or heysel disaster at any given time......thankfully we weren't but many a time we could have been dont you think
Nothing as dramatic as that mate but when we were playing QPR away in the promotion season, there's just me and my wife and we lived in Reading, so hadn't travelled far, so thought I'd leave about 1 ish, get there about 2 ish, steady walk round, try and find a quick bite to eat etc. etc Anyways, we couldn't find where the ground was. Twas the days before satnav's and mobile phones and we were just endlessly driving round West London trying to "find the floodlights". Decides to ask in a local shop/post office for directions to the "Football ground", which they duly help us out with. It wasn't until we'd driven another 6 miles in heavy traffic that we were heading towards Twickenham stadium! Bugger! Turned the car around and headed back towards the general direction of where we thought it was. It's getting close to 3 o'clock now and we're definitely going to miss the start of the game. A few minutes later start to see the supporters walking to the ground and asked a couple of them where to go and where to park. "Oh, there's nowhere to park round here mate, it's all street parking, you need a permit! But the ground is up there, blah blah blah" ****, we thought, but drive closer to the ground, couple of side streets later and there's a primary school, gates open with a couple of spaces in the car park. Big sign on the gate, stating Football Traffic will be towed away, blah blah blah. It's 2 minutes to 3 o'clock now, so there's nowhere else to park, so f.cuk it, into this primary school car park we go. Leg it towards the ground and get there 2 minutes past 3. I think we did a 4 minute mile that day! We thought we'd worry about the car later, I mean what's the worst that could happen!? It's the league game where we lose 1-3. Back out of the ground after the game, neither of us could remember where we parked due to the fast run beforehand. Walking round these side streets for about half an hour, eventually find the Primary school. Gates still open, car still there. Totally undramatic ending to the proceedings!
Getting in at two minutes past, not too bad. Me and @Chef Tyke once took leave of our senses and decided to go to Tranmere away around Christmas 2003-04. And as we were at our parents', that meant driving not from Yorkshire but from Lincolnshire. It was really icy and the traffic was mayhem. We got very lost around Oldham ended up reversing down the Mersey Tunnel after accidentally entering it, and finally arrived at half time. We'd been listening on the radio, so we knew that we'd been battering them. We finally sat down looking forward to the second half, and Ian Hume immediately scored. We were then pretty awful for the rest of the game, and we wondered why we had driven six hours for 45 minutes of terrible football. Then Antony Kay popped up with an equaliser in the last minute. Cue pandemonium and the journey suddenly seemed worthwhile. I think that Chopra even had a chance to win it in injury time. That would have made for a good journey home!
Great story. Talking about Tranmere, once took my wife for a Birthday "treat" to the game on 1st November 1994. We lost 1-6. Some Birthday treat that was for the wife lol.