Nope,it was nigel that banged his napper after walking in to a lamp post,dangly Dave was a further 20 yards down the road and got into a bit of mither with about 20 of their lads so I ran down to back him up and ended up gettin mi coller felt by the old bill.
And it stank of fish!! That putrid smell wafting over from the Findus factory - made my stomach churn. Then you were cramped into a corner with massive pillars and wire mesh blocking your view. Wonderful memories!
Cardiff away , about 2002 was it? drew one all with them scoring a last minute equaliser. At 3pm there was about 200 Barnsley fans in the ground, at 3.05 about 200 fans of various allegiance turned up. none in colours, all in rockport and stone island. apparently they had been having a running battle all around town and this didn't stop once in the ground. suffice to say the match wasn't what they had come for. coppers wielding batons, fans throwing whatever they could get hold of at each other. the gates stayed locked until 6.15 as there was about 5000 locals on the road outside waiting to kill any Barnsley fan who dared venture out... i was staying at the in laws in cardiff, i realised the folly of trying to get out and instead got the "fans" bus back to cardiff train station, this was accompanied by 20 coppers and a bus with no windows. said fans were being herded onto a train and as i was now amongst them it looked for all money as if i was going back to Barnsley too, had to convince a copper i was staying local.... his exact words to me were "have you got anything with your in laws address on" ! i think the look i gave him said everything... was a decent day though all told !
My first ever away game, amazing memories of a mud-soaked Mal Shotton coming over to our fans and rousing us for one final roar with a couple of minutes left.
Shurrup yer gret big gay.anyway I heard it was warmer in my cell than on the bus back to tarn,didn't some cod heads put the bus windows through whilst the game was on?
I was at that 5-2 game, was all right in the ground, got chased all over after the game. don't matter if you've won and outrun them!
Reading away mid 90s.. bus broke down just inside berkshire with a flat tyer. for the pillock driver told us he didnt have a spare.. waiting on hard shoulder for 4 hrs for the recovery truck to turn up and for him to find a spare tyer under the bus... Worst away day ever that was, wonder if anybody else on here was on that bus that day.. i could have killed the lovely person bus driver....
Premier League season I was a young looking 15 year old. Went away to Derby. They kept us in just long enough for every Derby fan to get out of the ground and wait for us. This absolute mountain of a man grabbed me and was about to.knock seven shades out of me. Luckily his mate said 'leave him he's only a kid'. He hesitated then let go of me and went after someone else. I was proper shitting it. Managed to get back to my mate's brother's car, but there were fans scrapping everywhere.
Re: Hartlepool in the 1970's Got plenty of horror trips including Millwall in the 70s, Newcastle in the 80s & Milan 6 years or so ago. But, the worst for me was West Ham on an Easter Monday in the 80s - '84 I think. Travelled up by coach & as we're getting closer to the ground, the crowd is starting to gather. We've got blokes flashing blades at us and calling it on. One geezer on a street corner had a machete and another opened his long coat showing a sword! As we get nearer, we get surrounded by hundreds of West Hams finest & the windows go through - virtually every one. We're bombarded with debris and, after what seems like ages, the police turn up. We're told to get off the bus and prepare to be escorted to the ground - or so we thought. "You're on your own from here Taffs" was the response. The half mile we had to get down Barking Road was a battle from start to finish. We get into the ground and in those days you had to contend with the Chicken Run - basically through their "livlier" fans. It wasn't a case of trying to avoid trouble, you had no choice but to be involved. Got through to our section and joined the rest of our lot - and everyone had gone through the same judging by the blood & wounds on show. We were surrounded by West Ham and had to scrap throughout the game. West Ham are 1-0 up and the fighting has died down at long last. Then in the 84th minute, in typical City fashion, we only go and score don't we - just what we need. Thanks for that. I'll never forgive Ray Bishop as it all kicks off again! Outside was interesting to say the least and I arrived home battered, bruised and freezing cold - with barely a window in the bus, it was different in those days! We had 1500 or so there that day - around 300 went back the following year.
Re: Hartlepool in the 1970's Blundell Park, Ayresome Park, Maine Road, Upton Park....but the worst, Victoria Ground Hartlepool 1978....freezing, scared shitless, at least we got a draw.
Re: Hartlepool in the 1970's One of the best in football terms was the play-off win at Birmingham, but this was also one of the worst for the journey back from the ground to the railway station. It was a bit like the film The Warriors! Pompey is always horrible. It always rains, we generally get beaten heavily and getting back to the train station can be eventful. And we had a game on a Tuesday night at Millwall a few years ago, where they held us back for ages until they could give us a police escort back to the station. I asked one of the coppers if it was necessary (there were only a couple of dozen or so of us, mainly the London Tykes and nearly as many coppers) and he said 'were you here last match'. I replied I wasn't and he said that if I had been I'd know it was necessary. A few months later they had a Panorama on footy violence and the Millwall game the copper spoke about was featured heavily, as an away fan was seen to be kicked unconscious after breaking the police line to go to his car down the road. When we got to the station a middle aged Millwall fan came and made coversation with us. He seemed okay but the copper with the video camera was in his face and then other coppers turned up and moved him out of the station. Again, we asked a copper if that was necessary as he seemed okay. The copper replied that he most certainly isn't okay and that if they hadn't been there we would have probably found that out the hard way. Horrible place.
Re: Hartlepool in the 1970's Port Vale Nottingham Forest - i hate the atmosphere from our fans, just sit down and watch the game.......
Chester away in the cup many years ago. The cops wouldn't let me on the footy special cos it was jsoon to leave the station so I hitched up with a team of lads from Athersley with a minibus (I think one of em was Bub). To say they were very naughty boys is a bit of an understatement - quite an eye opener for a small town boy from Wombwell who didn't come down stairs until he was 16. Oh and it was absolutely freezing, chuckin down with sleet, and we lost.
Wimbledon mid 70s Friday night also got tickets for league cup final at wembley the next day,went with a coach from hoyland got as far a Leicester Friday tea time the coach broke down on m1 there was about a foot of snow on the ground f...ing freezing night it was, after about an hour a bloke went on a scouting mission across some fields came back and said there was a pub about half a mile away,so told the driver the name of the pub and to pick us up when the bus was fixed. He got to the pub about nine o clock so we turned back to Barnsley . Managed to sell the cup final tickets in the boozer really gutted to have missed the reds match and what would have been my first visit to wembley