Reply With QuoteNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!Originally Posted by Tuerto
I think I'd rather take a kicking than have a brand new pair of Gazelles ruined. They weren't that easy to come by back in 1990.
| + Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
We always took a good amount up to them, night games were always the best fun
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
I think I'd rather take a kicking than have a brand new pair of Gazelles ruined. They weren't that easy to come by back in 1990.
Best shoeing I had was on the way back to London after Cardiff against Southampton For a League Cup Midweek Night Match at the Dell 95 or 96.
On my own on the train...probably somewhere in Surrey, four or five lads got onto the carriage I was on, sussed me for what I was wearing and my pin badge then gave me a bit of a going over.
Still no idea who they followed, a calling card would have been nice at least!
I remember coming out of that game. The stadium was built on the city outskirts in a park/forest area. It was eerie, the whole place was poorly lit, with narrow walkways leading off to goodness knows where!
I did see large groups of Germans stood around and the customary "There they are" and "Stick together" noises coming from our lot. However, I personally didn't witness any fighting, thankfully.
The policing seemed very low-key after the game, that, along with the darkness and wooded area, had the potential for something unsavoury to happen.
Belgium away where we lost 2-0.
Got thrown out of the ground at half time by a particularly big gendarme who whacked me for my trouble, managed to get back in waving a Welsh FA pass from an under 21 game which happened to be in my pocket, is the main ground reception. I helped myself to a vol au vent from some buffet and watched the second half with the Belgian band who played the anthems, who were great. After the match managed to get back into the Welsh end and bumped into the same gendarme
Immediately outside, a mate got into a row with a few Belgian fans/locals and we got legged into a raised garden area surrounded by a dozen so of them. We looking pretty ****ed, then out of nowhere the gendarmerie turned up being led by a kid in a Man City away top (purple with those vertical stripes) and from Swansea. I’d been talking to him earlier in the day.
I was a very happy laddie.
I know, classic Electric Blue, had to go over to Bristol for them.
Dennis, how about this as a thread: how many scrapes have you managed to avoid?
The reason for my suggestion is that like most people I suspect, I must have been to probably thousands of games now, and despite witnessing some pretty depressing acts of violence and aggression (this is off the pitch btw!), I have managed to avoid being even vaguely caught up in any of them. :-0
Plenty! I wasn't a big lad and didn't fancy my chances! I only got into 'combat'Dennis, how about this as a thread: how many scrapes have you managed to avoid?
The reason for my suggestion is that like most people I suspect, I must have been to probably thousands of games now, and despite witnessing some pretty depressing acts of violence and aggression (this is off the pitch btw!), I have managed to avoid being even vaguely caught up in any of them. :-0on two occasions. One was on Newport train station and the other was in a car park in Blackpool, early nineties-that was quiet nasty as there wasn't anywhere to run, i was fighting with this fat lad with black curly hair (and doing alright, even if i say so myself!) We didn't start it though. Anyway, Transpires that the four blokes who we were fighting were City fans and not Blackpool fans
As for avoidance, done that a few tomes, i had eyes like a shit house rat and could see a situation arising!
Swansea away mid 80s the game we were 2 up and lost 3 -2. A few of house had gone down on a normal service bus.
In the bus station when we were waiting for the bus to our left a mob of City appeared to our right a mob of Jacks. The City fans ran at the Jacks and they legged it.
We got on the bus then the Jacks come back. Theres 4 of us aged 14 to 16 and foolishly put a City scarf on the back seat. They try to get in through the back door but the bus goes off. Foolishly we make mistake number 2 and give them the finger and loads of abuse. Unfortunately the bus has to stop in traffic outside the station. The Jacks then proceed to brick the bus. Feckin hell the bus was packed and apart from us the rest of the passengers were just on a day out.
The next thing the daft tw@t of a driver gets out of his seat and shouts if we dont get off hes getting the police.
From under a seat i shout get the feckin police then.
Luckily the Jacks dispersed.
Some quick memories.
1. My dad taking my brother and I to Oxford United in 1969 (what a trek from the station to the Manor Ground!), no trouble at all at the match, but then the City fans wrecked the carriage next to ours on the train coming home. We then had John Reynolds (?), the guy who still cycles to games from his Western Avenue house, telling us all about the rucks he'd been in that day as we waited for the bus home and the night ended with my Dad telling us he would not be taking us to any more away games.
2. I'm not sure what it says about what he thought of me, but my Dad was still prepared to let me go to away games with friends at the age of 13! So, about six months later, I went to Swansea to watch the Welsh Cup Semi Final replay in which Ronnie Bird missed his only penalty with City, we went by bus that day and there was trouble all the way from the station to the Vetch Field - I knew it already really, but that day was the final convincing I needed that I was in no way a fighter when it came to watching my team.
3. My father relented in 1971 when the family spent the weekend with friends who lived in the Midlands and we went to the game at Birmingham which drew a crowd of over 50,000. I won't go into the details now, but we got to the ground late and there were large queues at the turnstiles, so we missed almost all of the first half an hour and ended up right in the middle of the Birmingham nutters - an interesting experience!
4. Went to Fratton Park for the game when I saw us play in mauve and yellow in 1972 and things could have got very hairy at the station after the game if a small number of coppers hadn't been able to keep the two sets of fans apart, so the Pompey supporters had to make do with singing "back to school on Monday" at us - needless to say, I had the last laugh because it was the summer holidays and I didn't go back until a fortnight later.
5. Was on a week long training course by myself up in London in 1975 and was getting bored stiff in the nights, so I went along to watch a game between Fulham and Millwall which ended in a dismal 0-0 draw. I'd barely ate all day so decided to have a pie and a pint in a pub close to the local tube station after the match and sat at a table by myself, only for half a dozen "lairy" Millwall fans to come in and sit around me. They soon started asking me questions, detected I was Welsh and asked me if I had been at the City v Millwall match a few weeks earlier - for some reason, I said that I had been. I soon thought I shouldn't have said that and their leader stared hard at me for what seemed minutes, before saying "Nah, you're not a challenge are you" and offered me his hand. I soon learnt they were definitely the genuine article so to speak, but I had a great time with them to such an extent that I went along to a chippie with them when the pub closed which explains why, by the time, we'd finished our meals, I ended up down in a tube station at midnight with a bunch of Millwall hooligans.
6. After years of successfully avoiding trouble at away matches, my brother, a friend and I were walking to the game at Eastville in 1983 in which Jeff Hemmerman got the injury which more or less ended his career. There was plenty going on in the streets around the ground, so we decided to get off them and walk along a narrow track I'd used when I'd been to the ground before. There was no one else around until one big bloke came walking towards us - you could only go forwards and backwards along this track, but there were three of us to his one, so we weren't too concerned until we saw he was carrying a yard long piece of metal scaffolding which he started swinging about as he got closer. He asked us where we were from with an accent I couldn't recognise, but when we said Cardiff he said that's okay, can you tell me how I get into the home end please, I want to introduce myself to the Rovers fans. I told him how to get there, but was surprised when he started to walk in that direction and didn't stop. I assume and hope he never managed to get to his destination - for me, after a long time of not really feeling too threatened at away matches, that day all round was a real throwback to more scary times.
The truth is, that I've come closer to being attacked by opposition supporters at home matches, with Chelsea fans twice getting close to catching me and the only time I've ever been punched at football was by the Ely based City supporting school bully who a few of us had the misfortune to come across his gang as we walked back home to Fairwater after a match. .
That was brilliant Bob, enjoyed that read.The Manor ground is miles from the train station and up hill for alot of the trek. The ground used to be in headington who were the original side before Oxford united formed. I was up there for 18 months working. Loved the Eastville story. I was at that game with the old man, i was ten at the time and it wasn't a nice experience for anyone, let alone a kid. City fans that day were on another level, they were even fighting between themselves. I remember one city fan deciding to scale the barbed wire trimmed fencing, he cocked his leg over at the top of the fence and the police on the pitch side pulled on one leg while city fans on the terracing pulled on his other leg, he was screaming in agony as the barbed wire went up his backside and bollocks! I hid behind the floodlights until a kind copper removed me and my dad over to the side terracing that was quite empty. What a day!
I like number 5!
There is a unique bond between football fans which is hard to define at a times.
Number is a good story, why bob told them he was a City fan is beyond me! All worked out well though.
My sister in law lived close to Oxford's ground when she was young and says that a lot of the locals used to put visitors right when they talked about them being from Oxford, by saying they weren't, they were from Headington - we didn't walk from the station, we caught a couple of buses.
Thanks for posting that video, the challenge which, to all intents and purposes, ended Hemmerman's career was pretty innocuous wasn't it. I agree about many of the City fans at that game, they were worse than I was used to seeing, I think many of them were most pissed than normal probably because we were already up.
Got put in hospital for 3 days and had surgery after taking a shoeing at ....... Kidderminster in 1988 (the movie never got made as it didn't have the romance of Millwall)
Saw far too much nonsense in 80s and 90s to list them all Swansea, Hereford Bristol Rovers and City, Reading, Portsmouth, Torquay, Plymouth - watching Batman and Robin chasing Scunthorpe fans at the promotion game in 93 was funny.
Saw a police woman get knocked out in the game at Eastville Bristol Rovers in 1983 - it was evil that day but as a teenager I was caught up in it all.
Standard Liege was bloody fantastic fun even though it was a bit hairy at times
What were you doing in Kidderminster in 1988-did we play them in the cup or was it a stop off?
Kidderminster in the 70' was fun Brum turned up my mate got smashed on the head with a house brick not good memories.
Milwall away Old den Clarky played form them then ( few lads stabbed that day )
Pompey away caught behind the stand by coppers and Pompey few ended up on Pompey Infirmary
Leeds Cup game away via train up ouch
Palace away Malcolm Alison game just before Hereford midweek game,he didn't eat his hat
Newport v Ipswich friendly ( a dare by Frankie to attend ??)
Lost 3-1 in Welsh Cup frankie Burrows days - Brian McDermott when he had hair scored direct from a corner for us. Watching city away games in those days was a badge of honour. We were rubbish. I think it was '89 actually as we weren't totally dreadful in '88.
1. We nicknamed him Jim Fryatt due to the long, bushy sideboards, which he still has I think, I’m sure I’ve seen him on his bike in recent years. Didn’t he chip in towards buying a player during our many hard up times or is that an urban myth?
That Bristol Rovers game all those years ago I had resolved to swerve any trouble as I had tired of being twisted up by HM constabulary. Anyone and everyone hoping to indulge in some recreational violence made it to that game as the crush to enter the ground confirmed. I was stood near the back of the open terrace when I heard a familiar voice close behind start a chant. It was someone called Frankie (Humphreys?) who I didn't know to talk to but he must have been the club's most active hooligan as he always seemed to be near or usually at the centre of every dust-up home and away.
We moved much lower down the terracing waiting for the teams to appear when from nowhere a group of half a dozen real handy looking lumps appeared at the bottom of the stand before us screaming anti-Welsh stuff and inviting any of the thousands to fight them. They were ignored initially as everyone else must also have assumed they were pissed-up or drugged-up Cardiff fans as no sane people would invite being stretchered away by St John's Ambulance people. They were Rovers fans though and it was a horrible sight seeing a swarm surround and mercilessly boot them senseless in an ugly feeding frenzy. I was one amongst several who coppers chose at random to bundle out of the ground.
After the game making our way through the streets it was one incident after another, and sure enough it wasn't long before I spotted the remarkably energetic Frankie getting stuck in.
I was at the Swansea game in 1970 as TOBW mentions above in 2). Mayhem.
Also Bristol City away 1980 Boxing Day I think. 0-0 Kevin Mabbutt and Linden Jones got sent off for fighting. Anyway , my mate and I never went in the City end with all the loonies at these games, preferring to keep a low profile and our heads down in a safeish part of the ground but with the home supporters. But before the game we parked up in the side streets and walked to the game, but got cornered as I came out of a toilet near the ground. Some local says "Where are you from?" to which i replied, thinking I was going to get kicked in anyway- "What's it got to do with you?" He countered with the fact i was a Cardiff fan, thinking I was going to get a hiding I admitted the fact. So he asked again "So, where are you from" I said "Pontypridd" and was now expecting the inevitable when he told me he had a friend there in college and did I know him. Lucky escape.
Same again 1982 Welsh Cup Final at Swansea, they were 1st division, we'd just got relegated to Division 3. Out of interest we had two trialists/non contract players in that game Stan MacEwan and Phil Lythgoe, both never to be seen in a City shirt again. Anyway we go in the North Bank. As you know you can never rely on Cardiff City, we kicked off and promptly scored. Cue mayhem from me, and the realised where I was. A few stares was all i got because I think there were loads of Cardiff in there with us.
Also nearly got stabbed at Chelsea 1976.
None of these were my fault, I was a respectable bank employee back then who wouldn't, or couldn't fight my way out of the proverbial wet paper bag. I suppose I just got lucky.
Yes, that Wurzels game was a bit tasty! I'm too much of a scardypants to get involved, but I saw the police alsation took a chunk out of a fair few lads.
Remember it now. Forgot that Kidderminster were allowed in the welsh cup.
Am i imagining this or not? Did a doctor come on the Train back from hereford giving tet**** injections as loads of city fans had been bitten by the police dogs?
Posting Permissions
