Boro away, 5th round 1981. Cracking game, lost 2-1, came away with a pocket full of the coins being chucked at us for 90 minutes. Horrible walk to & from Ayresome Park - lads getting picked off at every street end. Train got bricked just after setting off back. Bring back the specials!!
got nearly killed by a police horses arse squashing me against a wall, then had a right scrap near like a little canal /stream, anyway it was backs to the wall stuff ,remember thinking no point running we gonna get wet ,after the game was a nightmare everywhere good job we didn't win
I used to go to games with a couple of guys who were significantly older than me, both of whom are unfortunately no longer with us (RIP Ian and Ken). Anyway, Ian knew Michael Spinks pretty well, and was able to get us tickets in those parts of the ground that hooligans were not generally able to access. Except at Middlesbrough that is. We were sitting near the dignitaries, enjoying a very good Barnsley performance, when about 50 ‘Boro morons found their way up into our stand and absolutely scared the sh*t out of everyone. Thankfully, the police dealt with the situation quickly, but it’s something I’ll never forget. Anyone pining for the good old days would do well to bear in mind that some of it was not very good at all.
Villa away was seriously bad one year,my mate asking the way to ground in middle of this terrace row nearly got us killed
I was at Newcastle Poly and came down on the coast train with a mate also a Barnsley fan . We made a school boy error of looking at the map in the precinct . Ended up being chased by a group up the precinct ,fortunately we were able to get to the nearest refuge before getting our heads kicked in , M&S .
Walking back to the busses. We were Ambushed from the graveyard. Them daft buggers jumping up from behind gravestones throwing bricks and getting run out by police on horseback rampaging through the cemetery.
Thankfully I've managed to avoid violence at matches. The closest I came to a beating was at Hartlepool, late 70s. Stuck in traffic at Scotch Corner, our coach arrived late. Match had already kicked off, so we all piled in through nearest turnstyle, chanting "You Reds" and suchlike. Wrong end. There was a visible surge in the home crowd, as they started to move towards us. We made our way sharpish to a small door down in the corner, in the partition that separated the side stand from behind the goals (where we'd blundered into). The door was locked. Just as it was about to turn nasty, a row of policemen got between us and the home fans. Then, inexplicably, one of them opened the door and they all filed through, locking the door behind them and leaving us to our fate. At that point, we decided enough was enough and we all piled over the wall and cut across the corner of the pitch, before jumping into the side stand. Only time I've ever been on the pitch during a game. My mate and me went and stood halfway down the stand. It was still in with the home fans, but they were a bit more civilised. We even felt safe enough to leave our scarves on. Icing on the cake - at half-time, Jim Iley passed us on his way up the tunnel, smiled and said "Alright, lads". Made our day. Well, we were only 16, and easily pleased.
My Dad said I couldn't go to the game. I was only 13 at the time. Sulked in my room all day. Checked the results on vidiprinter at 5 oclock. Sulked some more.
What contrast to going there nowadays. When we won under Hecky we parked up in those terrace streets and walked through their car park to our end. My mate had his scarf on and we got chatting to some villa fans at a burger van, then walking around the car park a villa fan cheerily wished us all the best and said we had nowt to fear - he turned out to be right. I find football to be generally like that these days, and a far cry from the trouble of the 70s and 80s. Maybe it’s because I’m in my 50s? I just feel confident about going anywhere. You didn’t back then, your heart was in your mouth going to some places.
I was at Poly here at the time - nearly got brayed up by both sets of fans. Getting through the police cordon to go back to my digs took some explaining to plod.
Yes we had to mingle with the Boro fans to get our train back to Newcastle after being in the unsegregated part of the ground , scrapping everywhere
