Roker Park immediately post Hillsborough. Squashed against barriers and the 'security' fences. We were transfergd to another stand, however we left immediately, as we both felt sick.
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's Agreed Bradford in 1970's was pretty scary as a young un. Old Den as an adult equally so. New Den is like a trip to Legoland in comparison. Middlesboro , Liverpool, West Ham, Wolves all keep you on your toes. Portsmouth you keep your head down. The best away days for me were in the 1st Clarke era when we used to take thousands to lower division teams and literally take over their whole ground. Rochdale, Lincoln, York, Stockport etc - not much fear there, they were like home games. Plenty of friendly clubs where there are generally sound fans; Charlton, WBA, Palace, Watford. East Mids, East Anglia teams mainly ok.
Aye Port Vale forgot about them, quite nasty. especially when they beat us in an FA Cup tie late 70's time.
I remember at Main Road sat 2 feet away from some Manc rude boy, he walked all the way to the up to us and said "you lot are avin it aftaaaar!' walked back to his seat and spent the rest of the game staring at me, nice!!
Port Vale was horrendous admittedly - good memory on that one. After the complaint they invited me back as a guest of the chairman in their exec. Leaving the ground was just as hairy that day too - absolute animals. Luckily I took my mate Lynne with me and she had a fast BMW at the time. Came in well handy. But Birmingham city is then one where I am always properly fearful for my knackers and kneecaps. Last time I went there was crazy. London Tykes have some right stories from the playoff year - they were always rolled out on long train journeys home in the old days. Now I think about it the worst day I've had personally was the Cardiff match when Hodges had the reigns temporarily. I got away lucky that day, never seen as many hard cases at a Barnsley match and that was just the Barnsley end. I have the police CCTV DVD of that match somewhere- was quite enlightening and not in a good way.
I still think I'd have picked the one where I actually go hit rather than where I was scared of getting hit.
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's Nah 12000 is the current seating capacity - I think the standing capacity was around double that something like 25000 I used to stand in there as a student at Liverpool Uni and it had a great atmosphere - almost as good as Oakwell in the Clarke and Hunter standing up days I havent been in it since it was made all seater but it cant be the same. Only been in the away end since watching us beat them !
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's I only ever stood on the Kop at Anfield once. Quite an experience, as you got knocked about all over the place. It didn't help that they stuck four goals past Boro. I ended up about 50 yards away from where I started. After standing on the Ponty for years and always meeting my mates in the ground because we stood in the same place it made me reailse that Liverpool fans couldn't possibly do that.
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's When were you at Liverpool Uni, Farnham? I was there 1975 - 78 (Economics, Accountancy and Business Law). Millwall's ground is the worst I've been to. Had to access it through some tunnels under a railway, and was expecting to get a "Millwall brick" any minute. Even the OAPs seemed to be wearing bovver boots!
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's Another vote for Millwall in the 70's. F Troop, wearing surgical masks, staring and hissing at us through the fences all match. Then waiting for us each end of some very scary railway underpasses outside the ground I think. Stopped a coin with my nose at Maine Road once, would have been worse without the bridge on my glasses. Two worst for me. And Leeds third.
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's Incredibly, Cambridge United, early eighties. Boozer packed to the rafters with Reds. About 2 o'clock, all the windows imploded and a hail of bricks through said broken frames. Landlord locked all doors, so the local intelligentsia attempted to pile all the garden furniture against the doors and set it alight. Fortunately the cops turned up... According to the coppers, it was the work of a Cambridge branch of Chelsea loonies.
St Andrews After we stuffed 'em 4-0 in the 2000 playoffs. Very ugly atmosphere. I also remember a game at Main Road in about 1984 (drew 1-1, Roger Wylde scored for us I think) their fans never watched any of the match, just concentrated on hurling abuse at us. Hillsbrough deserves a mention when we won 1-0 in 1983 (King Ronnie scoring 2 minutes after coming off the bench), we were hit by a hail of coins, one of which hit my mate's glasses and might have took his eye out if he wasn't wearing them.
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's Wow, that sounds incredible! Must have been non-Cambridge Utd supporters!
Re: Valley Parade in the 1970's Yes, Gordon, I agree with that. I was in Liverpool for 3 years in the 1970's, and went to Anfield several times. Your arms got pinned against you, and the crowd swayed forward 50 yards without your feet touching the ground. Amazed nobody got crushed or trampled. Very, very scary.