Correction : There was at least 32,552 as the bloke on the turnstile allowed my dad to carry me over the turnstile and sit me on his knee for the match!
I was 12 and sat on the fence like many more of us and hanging of pylons.What a brilliant atmosphere that was.
God brings back some memories this thread. Started attending in the late 70's bloke on turnstile to mi dad chuck over ill be right in the terrace ( west lower ) just at the start of the Clarke era promotions that cup run and others great times took for granted a bit. Would be great if we could revisit some of them feeling with young Alfie he started going the Stendel season and thought we didn't loose football matches learnt otherwise since great season but he just missed out on 2016 which for me as I missed attending from late 80's to 2013 to come anywhere near them times.
Man City Everton Liverpool Remember Neville Southall copping a load of verbals that Everton FA cup game.
Didn't there used to be some sort of kiosk/hut on there there selling Bovril or something like that..or did I dream it?
FA Cup replay v Leicester City, 1961. I was 15, I'd been to the first game the Saturday before at Filbert Street, 0-0, when they had been expected to annihilate us. The replay on the following Wednesday was, I think, a 2 pm kick off as we had no lights in those days. Just short of 40,000 in Oakwell. I've never been so tightly squeezed into a space, and I couldn't do it now. The Police with loud hailers were shouting from the touchline urging people on the terrace to move to their right as far as possible, to allow those still round by the East Stand bogs to get in. At the end of the game it took ages to get out of the ground and my feet hardly touched the floor as I was more or less carried out by the press. We emerged onto Grove Street like corks from a bottle of fizz. I wagged three days off school "sick" so as to make it convincing and went in disguise to the match wearing my Dad's overcoat and flat cap in case I was spotted and reported to school. Totally oblivious to the fact that anybody there who knew me must have been doing the same thing as me.
Hundreds went through a hole in the fence.at the bottom right corner of the Ponty End car park and climbed over the wall into the paddock. Happened at every big game.in the 60s.
33,792 biggest I've been in ....... though there are various versions of 33,xxx on the stats sites. Either way, probably one of my best nights at Oakwell
That would have been it for me too. It was a scary crowd and it moved in unstoppable waves and surges as the game ebbed and flowed. I was 11 or 12 at the time and everyone seemed bigger than me, my dad was conscious of us not getting trapped and pushed into a barrier so I'm not sure how much of the game he saw as he was constantly making sure we were safe. It were brill though. My step-dad regales us of tales of an FA Cup game in the 60s (I think) against Leicester City with a crowd that gets bigger with every re-telling, it's somewhere in the 50 thousands right now if you believe him.
Not all the schools gave the kids a half day then? It was just before I started watching them so missed out on that big game
Haha. No.I was only a little lad and went with my dad. I saw all these men going through the fence and then when we got in behind the Paddock, I saw the same lads climbing over the wall and into the ground. There must have been a barrel or something at the other side because the wall was about 8 foot high. Same thing happened against Luton in the 5th round and also for the Barnsley Boys Cup victory over Liverpool. The Paddock (Brewery stand) was where I stood with my dad and granddad for years so I saw illegal entries at most matches.
Not a prayer. We were specifically warned about wagging for such things, and that the outcome would be dire. A good flogging at least, and having had a few it was something to be avoided. In public in front of the assembled school and they were all watching to see if you'd cry before the sixth stroke. The stripes on your arse lasted for days. A kid in my class set up an insurance scheme to mitigate the pain. You paid a tanner in every week and then if you got flogged you could claim by the stroke. It soon collapsed because the iron-arses in the class would pay in and then seek a couple of lashings (very easily provoked) and cash in. About that time the Fowls played a friendly against Santos of Brazil at Fowlerton in an afternoon ko. Pele played. No lights of course. One of my mates wagged it and went and they were waiting for him next morning. Flogged but worth it. I wish now with hindsight that I'd gone with him to see Pele play. It would have been worth the pain.
Broadway gave us the afternoon off after we threatened to go on strike but at the assembly meeting to announce it Emma White said they planned to give us it off all along. Didn't believe her for a second.