Build A Bonfire

[Julio]

I have my own special momento of the times. A scar down my left shin caused by smashing it against the North West terrace wall at the Darlington home game. Bellotti appeared a few mins into the game, 50 or so leapt from the North stand and ran across the pitch to chase him out of town, it was my eagerness to get to him which led to my injury! That game was a real turning point, turned nasty outside the West afterwards and Case resigned. If memory serves me right, the crowd was only around 3,000 or so - it was in the next few months that momentum really grew and the crowds began to return.

Other than that am proud to say that I was there for all the major events and protests - to this day the effort remains the blueprint of how to save your club. Those moaning about their premiership lot today should hang their heads in shame. No Red Knights to save the Albion - just fans willing to do whatever it takes.

Football united...

 

[CHAPPERS]

The Mansfield boycott and getting into the east stand at half time, wakling into the away end to shake hands with the Mansfield fans before trooping across the pitch into the directors box for the second half was a strange time. I remember nearly crying when giving over my season ticket to someone who couldn't be talked out of going in to watch the game (better that he didn't pay any money to get in).

Half time pitch invasion with Liam Brady coming out to persuade us back into the stand (got a big picture of me in FourFourTwo for that one).

The walk out and blocking the Old Shoreham Road...

The atmosphere at the Orient game was the most charged I've ever experienced.

And of course, the end of it all, Hereford. Amazing emotions at the end.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

No Red Knights to save the Albion - just fans willing to do whatever it takes.

Football united...

But we did have a grey haired one who was fairly involved at the time.....

 

[house your seagull]

I remember nearly crying when giving over my season ticket to someone who couldn't be talked out of going in to watch the game

that's interesting ... how many people didn't get involved?

how many fans buried their heads in the sand?

looking back it does seem like a North Strand Rebellion in true rebellion style, the working class revolt!

 

[cjd]

But we did have a grey haired one who was fairly involved at the time.....

There were so many times where the campaigning and "fighting" got the adrenalin going.

I think overall, the York game was hard to beat..........not just football "yobs" on the pitch, but women , children families etc etc.....fantastic day..!

Took years after "winning" to get used to just "watching" the Albion. It was hard to get that adrenalin "rush" again...LOL..!

As a matter of interest, was Dick Knight much involved in the protests before his consortium was given media coverage by Liam Brady...?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Is there a video of the whole lot? Difficult to keep track with the youtube videos. It would be nice to have something produced if there is not in the timeline of events with various interviews of people. A factual documentary of BaB.

 

[CHAPPERS]

that's interesting ... how many people didn't get involved?

how many fans buried their heads in the sand?

looking back it does seem like a North Strand Rebellion in true rebellion style, the working class revolt!

I think the crowd was still over a thousand for that game, mainly of the older fans who just wanted to watch the game. Some still didn't understand the severity of the situation at the time.

Plus Mansfield brought a couple of hundred, some of which joined the boycott.

 

[The Large One]

I think overall, the York game was hard to beat..........not just football "yobs" on the pitch, but women , children families etc etc.....fantastic day..!

'A different kind of riot'. Excellent way of putting it.

As a matter of interest, was Dick Knight much involved in the protests before his consortium was given media coverage by Liam Brady...?

Liam was clearly on the fans' side, even when he was manager. It's possibly one of the things that hastened his departure. I've said it on here before cos it's a wonderful snippet, but Steve North said (I'm paraphrasing) that in his interview with Liam, they got about two hours of recording material out of him. By the time the lawyers had been through it, there were about three lines that they could use!

As I understand it, and I'm sure someone will correct this, Liam got the consortium together. The first we saw of Dick Knight was at a public meeting at Hove Town Hall in September or October 1996.

As for the protests, I don't recall Dick ever getting involved in them at all.

 

[Billy the Fish]

The Mansfield boycott and getting into the east stand at half time, wakling into the away end to shake hands with the Mansfield fans before trooping across the pitch into the directors box for the second half was a strange time.

Looking back now, the strangest thing for me is how normal it felt and the causal manner that everyone was just strolling around the pitch at half time.

They were bad times, but I'm glad I've experienced the feeling of being part of it all rather than just a spectator or a customer, the feeling of being in a ground and it's the supporters who are in control. I can't safely say that we'll never be able to walk accross the pitch and climb a wall into the directors box again.

 

[house your seagull]

i didn't like the york game protest.

the goalposts being snapped is very symbolic, in a negative way i think. did albion fans actually snap the goalposts? was it somebody on here?

if i saw somebody vandalising falmer, or withdean to an extent, i would go mad at them, the goldstone was an extension of all of us (even those who never went, it is an inherant and permananet part of our culture as albion fans) and defacing it was wrong, i'm sure you'd all do the same.

perhaps it was a means to achieve the ultimate ends, but there was a lot of non-albion fans there that day, and not in a good way like Fans United, which i believe was the most beautiful and impressive achievement.

pitch invasions with yobs can happen anytime, fans united will not happen like that again. that chant "fans. united. will never be defeated" was so powerful. even the actual last game had a far different atmosphere than the york game, the york game was possessed with external negativity, a fools riot, very different from the focussed and calculated operations that ousted A & B in the long term.

 

[The Large One]

i didn't like the york game protest.

the goalposts being snapped is very symbolic, in a negative way i think. did albion fans actually snap the goalposts? was it somebody on here?

if i saw somebody vandalising falmer, or withdean to an extent, i would go mad at them, the goldstone was an extension of all of us (even those who never went, it is an inherant and permananet part of our culture as albion fans) and defacing it was wrong, i'm sure you'd all do the same.

perhaps it was a means to achieve the ultimate ends, but there was a lot of non-albion fans there that day, and not in a good way like Fans United, which i believe was the most beautiful and impressive achievement.

pitch invasions with yobs can happen anytime, fans united will not happen like that again. that chant "fans. united. will never be defeated" was so powerful. even the actual last game had a far different atmosphere than the york game, the york game was possessed with external negativity, a fools riot, very different from the focussed and calculated operations that ousted A & B in the long term.

I think you're missing the central point.

That being that fans were desperate for something to happen. We were being shafted, and no-one was listening. Something 'negative' - as you call it - had to happen in order for people to realise just how shit the entire situation was. Don't forget, as Liam Brady said, this whole saga was about more than 90 minutes, it was about right and wrong.

Grizzling about broken goalposts - OUR goalposts - means little when the future of the club is at stake.

Fans United was, of course, fantastic in its own way, but there's a case to be made that it wouldn't have happened without the York City 'riot'.

 

[Brovion]

I think you're missing the central point.

That being that fans were desperate for something to happen. We were being shafted, and no-one was listening. Something 'negative' - as you call it - had to happen in order for people to realise just how shit the entire situation was. Don't forget, as Liam Brady said, this whole saga was about more than 90 minutes, it was about right and wrong.

Grizzling about broken goalposts - OUR goalposts - means little when the future of the club is at stake.

Fans United was, of course, fantastic in its own way, but there's a case to be made that it wouldn't have happened without the York City 'riot'.

Absolutely spot on. Being involved in the York City protest and helping to get the game abandoned is one of the things of which I'm most proud and how anybody can say it was a 'negative' protest is beyond me. 'Desperate', yes, but 'negative'? No way. Shame on you 'house your seagull'. I appreciate that you're probably too young to have been a part of the protest movement but we had to use every avenue that was open to us, even the unpleasant ones.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

I remember going to every game and thinking that you wouldnt know what was going to happen that week. Something always seemed to happen; pitch invasions, blokes handcuffing themeselves to the goalposts etc.

Ive got loads of memories of the time. A few are; how cold it was after the Darlington game protesting outside the west stand and actually having a conversation on the way home about who wed support if the club went under, the march in London before the Fulham game, the stewards at Leyton Orient taking the Archer Out posters off people so as not to ruin Shiltons big day, being genuinely astounded by how good fans united was, the surreal atmosphere of the York reply on a thursday morning or whatever it was, and turning around at the traffic lights at the hove park and having one last look at the ground in the rain after the Doncaster game before walking up Nevill Road and going home.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Yeah, the atmosphere at that York game was WEIRD.

My maths teacher at the time, the wonderful Dai Warbis at Stringer, knew how much I wanted to go to that game and DROVE me to that game, explained to my teacher for the lesson I was going to miss where I was (I also missed a lesson of hers) and said not to report me and came and picked me up, along with a mate of mine at the end of the match. Absolute f***ing STAR she was. Big ups to her, she knew what was more imprtant at the time. Funny seeing so many kids bunking school to get there.

 

[Southy]

This is absolutely true about Liam Brady, a QC literally crossed out everything he'd said and we were left with just 3 lines from his interview. I'm not sure about his managing abilities but he was a top man and hugely angry about what had happened to us. Bob Pinnock also did the same with his own interview when he read back what he'd said about Archer and Bellotti.

Re the actual book, myself and Paul are currently working out exactly what to do with it, but there will definitely be an updated cheaper paperback version to be published in time for the first game at Falmer. Seems like the perfect end to that story... Almost brings a tear just thinking about the reality of that from where we were then to now. Unbelievable.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

They were wild and exciting times, weren't they? You never knew what was going to happen only that something definitely would. It's amazing when you think about the things we did, how in the modern sanitized game they'd be unthinkable yet how 'normal' (or natural?) it felt. Boycotting games and then storming the east stand. Chasing people out of the directors box and taking their place. Pitch invasions. Walk outs. The marches. Fans United. The graffitti-ing of the pitch and stadium. The effigies.

My personal highlight was being in the first 6-8 to scale the wall seperating the terrace and the seats. Got my picture in the News of the World the next day under the heading HOOLIGANS. Awful misrepresentation of the situation but it was the only time I managed to get into the news/papers...

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

My maths teacher at the time, the wonderful Dai Warbis at Stringer, knew how much I wanted to go to that game and DROVE me to that game, explained to my teacher for the lesson I was going to miss where I was (I also missed a lesson of hers) and said not to report me and came and picked me up, along with a mate of mine at the end of the match. Absolute f***ing STAR she was. Big ups to her, she knew what was more imprtant at the time. Funny seeing so many kids bunking school to get there.

What a great, great teacher.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I would say i was about 5th over the wall in the west stand at the Carlisle game chasing Bellotti's arse out of the directors box.

i was about 12th

 

[Seagullible]

The York game was very odd for me as I live in Maidenhead so travelled a fair way to each game and I was due to stay in Brighton that night. I remember walking behind the west stand after the game was postponed waiting to meet up with the friend I was staying with. Went out in Brighton that night with a few of the players as my friend worked for the club and was odd listening to their comments - all very pro what the supporters where doing. Added bonus was having my drinks for the night being bought by Ian Chapman and Kevin McGarrigle

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Went out in Brighton that night with a few of the players as my friend worked for the club and was odd listening to their comments - all very pro what the supporters where doing. Added bonus was having my drinks for the night being bought by Ian Chapman and Kevin McGarrigle

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