[Football] How Late Have You Arrived For A Game

[Jeremiah]

Wycombe away - horrendous traffic and snow and I parked a ridiculously long way away from the ground for some strange reason.

Trot , walk , run to enter the ground as the players were coming off for half time with us losing 2-1. We won 2-5 and Murray scored 4 - so I am glad I went.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Scarborough away on a Bank Holiday as if people from Brighton didn't know what a sea side Bank Holiday meant ie dreadful road queues, arrived for second half! Must have been Friday nighter after work.

 

[AZ Gull]

Chester away, mid-nineties. Left the pub with Roy Chuter at 2:15 with a mile and a half drive to the ground. By kick off time we had travelled approximately 400 yards. As half time approached we could see the ground so parked up. Unfortunately, our route to the ground was blocked by a high fence, which I might have been able to get over, but there was no way Roy could. We finally arrived with about 20 mins to go, but were delayed further whilst the stewards debated whether or not to let us in (they did eventually). In hindsight it would have been a quicker to have made that journey backwards on all fours and probably blindfolded.

This is exactly the same experience I had (I assume it is the same match - October 11 1997). I've never known gridlocked traffic like it. When I eventually got to the ground it was deserted (on the outside). I spent five minutes walking around the Deva before I even found someone I could ask about gaining admittance. Finally I saw someone and they opened a gate and let me in, to see about 20 minutes of a 2-0 defeat.

 

[Jack Straw]

14th May, 1977. Last game of the season away to Chesterfield. Old Division 3. 1-1 draw which got us promoted.
The Seagull Special train got us there 15 minutes late. Hundreds of us did a quick sprint to the ground, ransacking a paper shop en route, to get there about 25 minutes late!

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

14th May, 1977. Last game of the season away to Chesterfield. Old Division 3. 1-1 draw which got us promoted.
The Seagull Special train got us there 15 minutes late. Hundreds of us did a quick sprint to the ground, ransacking a paper shop en route, to get there about 25 minutes late!

Missed all the fun before KO then

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Wimbledon at home 1985,arrived just before half time

My brother had won about 8/900 quid at the bookies

He went straight into the travel agents and booked a holiday for the pair of us

It was the Frank Worthington free kick one

 

[Jack Straw]

Missed all the fun before KO then

It seems so, but there was lots of fun as soon as the final whistle went!

 

[ac gull]

away game latest - 2 hours stuck on M6 got to Blackpool away at h/t we were 2-0 down - end result was 2-2
home game - Bournemouth at Withdean got KO time wrong by 30 minutes I think it was just made it on last space at top by roundabout, must have missed first 15 minutes I think

 

[redoubtable seagull]

Worst was Charlton 2015, got delayed leaving home, decided to drive part of the way but made a poor choice of train station and journey resulting arriving during h/time but we won 1 nil.
Reading 2016, game finished 2 all but both teams scored within the first 10 mins. We missed the first two goals.
Missed the first 20 minutes at Watford away one time.
Finally, when living in the SW, I drove on my own to Swansea for an evening game in ‘94. Arrived 15 mins late. We were awful, lost 3 nil. One of those games that was so bad I left with about 10 mins to go.

 

[atfc village]

Late 90s knew a few Stoke fans ,went with them to Oxford arriving before 11 for a few beers . One of the lads bumped into a minibus of Stoke he knew so a Pub crawl was embarked upon with a promise of a lift to the ground.2.45 we leave for the ground ,but the driver takes a wrong turn and we end up on the A34 heading north . We eventually rocked up at the ground 5 mins before half time and paid in to find Stoke 4 1 down . 2 minutes into the 2nd half Oxford made it 5 and we left and were back in a pub in Reading before 5pm. Aldershot at Torquay 2 seasons ago moved for tv 5.30 Ko but had already booked train tickets . Arrived in Newton Abbott at 1015 in the morning at still missed Ko by 20 minutes ,that tbf was down to lack of taxis on an August bank holiday weekend.

 

[NEASTGULL]

Spurs away back in 1981-82. We normally got the train to London away matches, but my mate decided to drive to this match. We broke down somewhere in London, and had to wait for the AA to attend.

We finally arrived just in time for the exits to open and manged to take our places at the back of the home end just in time to see Michael Robinson score the winner for the Albion.

From memory we only saw around 10 or 15 minutes or so.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

I didn’t arrive late but my best travel was after seeing Walking with Dinosaurs at the O2 many years ago on a Saturday lunchtime performance with my wife and daughter, legging it out as soon as it finished (left Mrs SSB in London) and still managed to get to Withdean 1 minute before kick off.

 

[Bodian]

Sometime in the 80s we caught the train to Ipswich. Which broke down just before Manningtree station, and we were in a cutting which was even worse as there was nothing to look at for an hour or so. The guards came along and stopped folk getting out of the train to walk along the tracks. Finally got to Manningtree at about 4.45. We all got off, and caught the first train back to London, which was full of fans who had made it!

British Rail gave us all a voucher as compensation, and actually thanked us for not smashing the train up.

I used my voucher to go to Stoke later that season. Yes - the train arrived late, raced through town to get to Victoria Ground 10-15 minutes after kick-off having missed both goals in a 1-1 draw.

After the match we were again late home, as the friendly rozzers decided to make us take a very circuitous route, meaning we all missed the train we were aiming for.


I drove to the next away game.

 

[Seagulls over Essex]

Chester away, mid-nineties. Left the pub with Roy Chuter at 2:15 with a mile and a half drive to the ground. By kick off time we had travelled approximately 400 yards. As half time approached we could see the ground so parked up. Unfortunately, our route to the ground was blocked by a high fence, which I might have been able to get over, but there was no way Roy could. We finally arrived with about 20 mins to go, but were delayed further whilst the stewards debated whether or not to let us in (they did eventually). In hindsight it would have been a quicker to have made that journey backwards on all fours and probably blindfolded.

Good old Roy. I was in the same class as him at school.

 

[NEASTGULL]

Sometime in the 80s we caught the train to Ipswich. Which broke down just before Manningtree station, and we were in a cutting which was even worse as there was nothing to look at for an hour or so. The guards came along and stopped folk getting out of the train to walk along the tracks. Finally got to Manningtree at about 4.45. We all got off, and caught the first train back to London, which was full of fans who had made it!

I was on that train as well!

 

[BNthree]

While on holiday in France I saw a poster for a local non league side match that Sunday. So went along only to realise I’d translated it wrong and the match had been on the Saturday. So I was 24 hours late for kick off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

1977 Charlton 4 Brighton 3 we arrived about 25 minutes in. The game delayed as the team coach was caught in traffic, the team having to change on the coach. Apparently Mike Yaxley had to run to the ground with the team sheet prior to kick off.

 

[Tokyohands]

I'm still trying to get to our FA cup final.

 

[lasvegan]

They used to open the gates at The Goldstone with 15-20 minutes to go, did that a few times when I was a youngster and had already ran out of pocket money.