38 Years Ago - Our Previous Division 1 Debut

[Tony Towner's Toe]

was fifteen years old in worthing and going to game with my dad but the car broke down on A27 so we never made it. wish we could have another go this week but he's left the building and i am on the other side of the planet.

 

[T soprano]

Me in 1979 was 11
kit and bag ready for the new season

 

[Beach Hut]

Was in the North Stand, Gooners were everywhere and boy was I deflated when the game ended

 

[Al Bion]

I was 14 and stood behind the goal in the South Stand. I can remember being disappointed at the result and worrying if we'd be embarrassed every week but I can't remember there being anything like the build up there's been to this season and I certainly didn't feel as excited as I do now today, counting down the days until Saturday (even though I should now be old enough to know better). I guess the gulf between Division One and Division Two didn't seem so huge back then as it does now between the Premier League and Championship, there wasn't the huge amounts of money available and of course the only real media available for Albion news was the Argus. Not sure if it's just because so much has gone on since then that the memories have faded but it was just so different way back then.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

My recollection is that the game wasn't all ticket and that everyone was advised to get there very early in order to be sure of getting in. This might have discouraged some people from attending. I went in the NE corner with the Arsenal fans, as I was mates with one and he was staying at ours. Many had come down the night before. We started very brightly and could easily have taken the lead, but once Arsenal settled down they took full control.

 

[Gwylan]

I guess the gulf between Division One and Division Two didn't seem so huge back then as it does now between the Premier League and Championship

Remember, just a couple of years before, Forest had been promoted from the 2nd Division and won the League (and Derby had won the League just a few years after promotion less than a decade before) - there was certainly a feeling that anything was possible.

Before the match, I was thinking we could do a Forest - there certainly wasn't the feeling that fourth from bottom would do.

 

[origigull]

Due to some shocking planning on my part I was on holiday and I missed it. No internet in those days (I was in the south of France) and one of the guys I was with (who wasn't even a football fan) rang home and found out the score. Yeah, 0-4, sure. Bloody wind-up merchant.

I remember being in Spain one week into a two-week holiday and had to find a pub at 6pm that did the BBC final score. It was a bit of a shock that we lost 0-4. We as a group expected a closer game.

 

[LamieRobertson]

We lost 2-0 to Manchester United away and drew 0-0 at home. It may be the FA Cup match of January 1981 you remember.

I was coming home from a wet week in Weston Super Mare, aged 10, for the Arsenal match. We got in a taxi at Brighton station and asked if he knew the score. "They're 2-0 down already" he replied with dismissive jollity.

My first match was the 3-1 victory at home to Bolton Wanderers three matches later. Our first win in the top flight.

If I remember correctly Gary Stevens made his debut around the time of the Bolton game

 

[LamieRobertson]

I remember being slightly disappointed with the Crowd.. 28,000 or so I think, but not as big as some Div 2 games, but just remember I expected so much but 3-0 down in no time it seemed. Alan Sunderland's perm was significant, but not out of place.. I was 10 years old, had followed the Albion for 5 years and just wasn't used to seeing us lose, let alone get thumped!

I was in the South stand for this one ..El Pres said recently that our capacity had been cut to 28k under health n safety rules

 

[LamieRobertson]

View attachment 87979
Me in 1979 was 11
kit and bag ready for the new season

Blimey ..posh part of Shoreham has gone down hill

 

[sod1]

And 38 years ago this week I woke up on our campsite early on a Saturday morning, left the Isle of Wight behind in the middle of a fortnights holiday and my Dad and I made our way back to Hove. Train. Ferry. Train.
I do remember having a battered old radio and listened to Paul Gambaccini on R1 on the way over. Donna Summer was #1 with Bad Girls in the US chart run down. We walked up to the Goldstone and it began.
I can't really remember much about the match at all but do remember it was a bleak and long journey all the way back that same evening. Very bleak.
Still have this of course in a box next to my bed.
So what do you remember ? And What will have changed on Saturday ? (the programme will be £5 not 50p on Saturday for starters, Paul Gambaccini is still on the radio (R2) on Saturday lunchtimes and i'll be there with my Dad again but this time with 2 of my sons in tow. No Isle of Wight trek this time thank god) .

View attachment 87976

Coincidentally we came back from a weeks holiday on the Isle of Wight that day, my dad and I got off the train at Hove, leaving my mum and sister to take all the luggage back to Haywards Heath , I recall it cost 50 pence to get in the children's section in the East terrace, the result was disappointing but I was happy just to be in the top flight , gutted I can't be there Saturday

 

[Shy Talk]

The thing I remember most clearly from this match was the goal by Charlie George. I don't think I'd ever seen a ball kicked that hard before!

 

[boik]

I was in the North Stand with my mates, including one who was a (well behaved) gooner. I remember the Arsenal fans chorus of "Threegoals, threegoals!" which I must admit I found pretty witty at the time despite the result. And despite the result, we didn't get relegated that season despite the predictions.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

I remember being slightly disappointed with the Crowd.. 28,000 or so I think!

Funny you should say that (and I'm not having a pop at you) but I don't recall us being fixated on the attendence compared to the melt down on here when there are still 14 seats unsold on Saturday morning.

I believe at least two things happened, a lot of people where put off due to a bit of aggro the previous night and/or there was a bit of overreacting by gate staff closing turnstiles early and locking some out. 28000 still had us packed in like sardines.

Not to mention the programme was over 150% dearer than the one previous!

 

[KZNSeagull]

I was 13 and stood in the North West. All I remember was that we played well for the first 20 minutes, the rows and rows of Doc Martins outside the North Stand - the police told people to take them off to stop trouble, but it did not stop the North Stand being invaded 4 times. Also, the lady I stood next to had a large bag of aniseed balls, some she gave to me, the rest she threw at Sammy Nelson!

 

[Codner pharmaceuticals]

In the East Stand for some reason - although Season tickets were in the South? Still have the commemorative first day cover stamp thingy.

 

[T soprano]

Blimey ..posh part of Shoreham has gone down hill

Humble beginnings in southwick, worked my way along the old shoreham to the Posh part of shoreham as the years rolled by
I wasn't born with a silver spoon but had a silver shovel instead

Going back to that Arsenal game, had season ticket in south stand for that 1st season in Div 1 with my dad, great memories of that opening day driving back of our family holiday in Somerset, remember leaving at 5:30am to get back in time, had to leave at that time I suppose as dad was driving a clapped out Hillman Hunter, any later and we'd have missed the kick off, don't recall much of the game, remember our first win more a few weeks later Against Bolton

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Funny you should say that (and I'm not having a pop at you) but I don't recall us being fixated on the attendence compared to the melt down on here when there are still 14 seats unsold on Saturday morning.

I believe at least two things happened, a lot of people where put off due to a bit of aggro the previous night and/or there was a bit of overreacting by gate staff closing turnstiles early and locking some out. 28000 still had us packed in like sardines.

Not to mention the programme was over 150% dearer than the one previous!

Good points. It wasn't a comment on whether it was good or bad, just my memory as a 10 year old feeling disappointed as I had imagined it would be the biggest crowd in the world ever to watch a Brighton match and had been in the ground vs. Spurs, West Ham, Blackpool when the crowd had tipped over 30,000.. Plenty of good reasons why it wasn't..

 

[Eeyore]

I was 13 and stood in the North West. All I remember was that we played well for the first 20 minutes, the rows and rows of Doc Martins outside the North Stand - the police told people to take them off to stop trouble, but it did not stop the North Stand being invaded 4 times. Also, the lady I stood next to had a large bag of aniseed balls, some she gave to me, the rest she threw at Sammy Nelson!

I hope he didn't MOON at her...

 

[Brovion]

Funny you should say that (and I'm not having a pop at you) but I don't recall us being fixated on the attendence compared to the melt down on here when there are still 14 seats unsold on Saturday morning.

I believe at least two things happened, a lot of people where put off due to a bit of aggro the previous night and/or there was a bit of overreacting by gate staff closing turnstiles early and locking some out. 28000 still had us packed in like sardines.

Not to mention the programme was over 150% dearer than the one previous!

I do remember it was remarked on with surprise that it hadn't been a sell-out (or a lock out as was the case in those days when too many people turned up). I think the club had been expecting a sell/lock out, but as you say people were put off attending for a number of reasons - and those reasons increased as the season progressed.