[Football] Football. In the olden (but not that olden) days

[Mayonaise]

Always tried to get back to the car in time to hear all the other results on the radio and then those dreadful long journeys home when we were cold, wet and we had lost. Wrexham in particular stands out as a horror memory. But there was a great fish and chip shop at Dorking and all seemed well after a stop there.

This. I particularly remember away days at Preston & Notts County as being cold, miserable journey's home from after being beaten - but I was a young lad when we beat Bristol Rovers 4-0 away (poskett hatrick) and was buzzing all the way home so we take the highs and the lows I guess as part of the job.

 

[SeagullinExile]

which year was that?

Think it was the year we went up from the old Div 3 with Sunderland?

Plastic pitch, Curbishley had a goal disallowed - 87/88??

Definitely late 80's

 

[junior]

"The van, the van, the van is on fire". Cheltenham away i believe? Also remember going to Halifax for a night game mid week and it was called of as we all got to the ground due to a waterlogged pitch.

Colchester sticks out because after the game i spotted McGleish in the street and started 'the' song. He came over with his dad and started offering us all out. I then lost my train ticket asked Mickey Adams if i could get a lift back to Brighton on the team coach. He said no but actually went and found a bloke called 'Ferret' who either worked for the club or the Argus i think, and arranged for me to go back to Brighton in his car with him. Can you imagine Pep Guardiola doing that?!

I remember some cracking away days out in those days (not necessarily because of result) to places like Macclesfield, Colchester, Hartlepool, Shrewsbury, Barnet and Brentford.

Cambridge City for an LDV Vans tropy game sticks in my mind because the away section was RAMMED and it was midweek.

Wycomebe for a sit in where i managed to 'borrow' a loud hailer from the stewards for our protest.

Some brilliant memories. And you wouldn't believe how responsible i am now!

 

[Guinness Boy]

This thread - https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?366759-Anyone-Know-Which-Stadium-This-Is - sent me back to the mid-90s and following the Albion away.

I don't know if Sat Navs existed then, but I certainly know I didn't have one. Following the Albion away involved driving towards the town/city we were playing in and then doing one of two things...

1. Looking out for the floodlights
2. Spotting another car with an Albion sticker in the rear window and then following them as "they must know where they are going."

I also remember being the "they must know where they are going" car in front at some games and leading other Albion fans on a wild goose chase through some Northern outpost, trying to find where we were playing.

Those were the days my friend.

Ah yes, memories. I went on the train with a few old hands so we normally knew where we were going but every now and again we'd floodlight spot.

Probably the most bizarre of these was in the late 80s going to Hull with a mate from school, just us two on the train. In those days Hull played at Boothferry Park and the Rugby League teams didn't. We spotted TWO sets of floodlights from our bus and then had to try to work out which one belonged to the football team without alerting the rest of the bus to our southern accents. We must have done a whole circuit of the city by bus getting stared at by more and more inbreds until we got it right. Then we lost 5-2 in the rain and I got blisters from my new trainers. Happy days.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Think it was the year we went up from the old Div 3 with Sunderland?

Plastic pitch, Curbishley had a goal disallowed - 87/88??

Definitely late 80's

Would have been 87/88 yes. The home game was a dreadful 0-0 in October 87 a couple of days after the Michael Fish storm and my school was still trashed. I didn't venture that far north in that season, with the exception of the vital game at Chester (I did the season after) but still nearly got trampled by a police horse at Brentford, eaten by a police alsation at Victoria after Gillingham and chased all round Aldershot by blokes who were probably Brighton looking back on it. Then there was the friendly coin exchange at Chester itself. Think I made about two quid. Quite an eye opening season that one.

 

[BensGrandad]

" Also remember going to Halifax for a night game mid week and it was called of as we all got to the ground due to a waterlogged pitch.

Was that the Tuesday night, I think it was, game that got called off at about 7pm just as we were going into the club car park. We finished up going to a pub having a pint then the local chippie for fish and chips and then driving back home.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Must have driven around chesterfield ten times trying to find the ground. Remember Scunthorpe where they don't play and also one of the best was Bristol city, where this old boy directed us to the rugby ground.

 

[BensGrandad]

IIRC in those days, didnt the previous home program used to give directions to the ground for the next away game.

 

[drew]

"The van, the van, the van is on fire". Cheltenham away i believe? Also remember going to Halifax for a night game mid week and it was called of as we all got to the ground due to a waterlogged pitch.

Colchester sticks out because after the game i spotted McGleish in the street and started 'the' song. He came over with his dad and started offering us all out. I then lost my train ticket asked Mickey Adams if i could get a lift back to Brighton on the team coach. He said no but actually went and found a bloke called 'Ferret' who either worked for the club or the Argus i think, and arranged for me to go back to Brighton in his car with him. Can you imagine Pep Guardiola doing that?!

I remember some cracking away days out in those days (not necessarily because of result) to places like Macclesfield, Colchester, Hartlepool, Shrewsbury, Barnet and Brentford.

Cambridge City for an LDV Vans tropy game sticks in my mind because the away section was RAMMED and it was midweek.

Wycomebe for a sit in where i managed to 'borrow' a loud hailer from the stewards for our protest.

Some brilliant memories. And you wouldn't believe how responsible i am now!

Don't you mean Cambridge Utd?

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Arrived in Rochdale early 70s and asked a local where the football ground is. He assumed I was talking rugby but on realising not he said “tha wants spotland”. He then described the route using pubs and cemetaries. At least we found it.

 

[BensGrandad]

Arrived in Rochdale early 70s and asked a local where the football ground is. He assumed I was talking rugby but on realising not he said “tha wants spotland”. He then described the route using pubs and cemetaries. At least we found it.

Went to a pub just down the road from there and it was like going into somebody's front room.

 

[Stat Brother]

My MO was to get into 'town', stop for petrol and ask for directions.
At Huddersfield, the night Flash Walker scored, we did the usual and received the reply:-

"There"

a the bloke pointed out of the window, to the floodlit ground no more than 100yds away!!

 

[Langley]

Ref 2. My friend and I did exactly that in The 70s. At Chiswick( I lived in Newbury in those days ) followed a car with a QPR sticker in the rear window, my mate said “ I think we are going away from the ground “ eventually the car stopped and the driver got out and ask if we were following him. In short he was not going to the game, but to see his sister. But he did take us to the ground. That was the season we got relegated. And if my aging memory serves me right, Bolton & QPR were our last two games, we narrowly lost both, but did not disgrace ourselves, they were both promoted.

 

[sully]

Mansfield didn’t have a train station. Bus ride from Nottingham I recall.

I’ve not been there.

Not sure about Macclesfield, either. A mate of mine was at uni in Alsager and gave me a lift from Crewe.

 

[sully]

Must have driven around chesterfield ten times trying to find the ground. Remember Scunthorpe where they don't play and also one of the best was Bristol city, where this old boy directed us to the rugby ground.

Chesterfield was where I impressed Mr Blobby by driving straight to the ground despite not having been there before.

I’d spotted the floodlights when passing through on numerous climbing trips to the Peak District, though, so had a reasonable idea where to aim for.

He was also impressed by my wheel change on the M25 when I got a puncture that day!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Going to watch Chester City by train, only to find out when I got to Chester that they were ground sharing with Macclesfield.

 

[Bry Nylon]

"The van, the van, the van is on fire". Cheltenham away i believe?

I was at that game. I recall the chant of "You don't know what you're doing!" going up as the hapless serving folk finally abandonned their attemps to extingush the growing fire and bailed out of the side door of the burger van.

I used to LOVE away days around Div 3 and 4. Great times.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I remember when we first played Cheltenham in the league chasing Dick Knight along the A40 having been held up in bad traffic. He had a Porsche, I had a 1.4 Seat Cordoba with 5 people in it! Managed to keep up fairly well and followed him right up to the ground. We arrived by the ground around 2:57pm and some local pulled out from outside their house nearby which gave us a premium parking space. Legged it into the ground to see we were about to kick off. I reckon they held the kick off for DK to arrive.

Before sat nav, I used to use a manual version. Find the map, write up the route on a series of post it notes and stick them to the sun visor - peeling them off as I went.

 

[Sirnormangall]

Seem to remember Wrexham away on the first day of 79? season as being horrendous. Long tedious drive up there through endless roadworks, parking in a field and running to the ground and then not getting anything to eat. Boiling hot day, boring 0-0 with zero chances either end, and my sister feinting. Everyone fell asleep on the way home. I was driving, missed a junction in the roadworks and added another hour to an already horrendous journey.

I was at that Wrexham match. Friend of mine fell asleep on the toilet at half time - could have been due to the boring match, but more likely the 10 pre match pints. He only woke up an hour after the game had finished. Must have been a spooky feeling seeing the ground empty. I don’t think we realised he wasn’t on our mini bus until we were on the M6.

Other happy memories: Macclesfield away on a Sunday; winning at Hull with 9 men; winning at West Brom in the League Cup; Wardy’s debut at Hereford; conceding a penalty at Shrewsbury and hoping that the penalty taker would be put off by the Albion supporter sitting on the perimeter fence mooning ( sadly he scored); doing the Conga on the terraces at Swindon when the game was abandoned due to snow ( from memory we were losing 4-0 at the time)......there may have been one or two disappointing performances along the way too!

 

[darkwolf666]

Torquay. Carlisle. Colchester. Tranmere. Oldham. Exeter.

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