[Albion] Match days when you were young

[Tummy Burger]

Now let me see, soooo many things :

Getting a kebab in "Tummy Burger's" outside Hove station.

Walking to the ground and picking up a Gulls eye from the chaps outside the church.

The fence at the front of the north stand that I used to scale when we scored.

The smell - Weird I know

The terracing

The always totally gloriously turned out playing surface

The old fella who walked around the outside of the pitch shouting "Arguus"

The floodlights that apparently came from Scotland somewhere.

Is that enough boss ?

 

[jevs]

The smell of pipe tobacco

The crowd outside the northstand waiting to get in

Everyone having scarves on their wrists

Half time flask of tea with the old man

Checking the half time scores

Getting back to the car just in time to listen to sports report.

Match of the day if i wasn't asleep

 

[The Birdman]

The very early days the guys selling badges rosettes old programmes and scarves along the road. Also being able to transfer for a shilling around the ground and the numbers along the wall after half time of other teams scores which we could lean over the wall and change. HaHa

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Standing behind one goal in the first half and moving to behind the other goal at half time.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

In the car on the A23. On big match days, would we get to the concrete pillars marking the Brighton boundary before the queue started? Walking through Hove Park. Lovely in Spring and Autumn. Games of tennis going on. People sitting outside the refreshment chalet. Seeing the floodlights and that little frisson of excitement. Walking past the large rock, called the Goldstone. Touching it once for good luck. We won, so I tried to touch it every game thereafter. ( We didn't always win )
Going through the turnstiles on the East terrace. ( The toilets..help! ) That little climb up and then it all opened up in front of you. The same fans on the same bit of terracing or crash barrier, game after game. The wag with the big blue and white hat who we forever named " the hat " ( clever eh ) Being passed to the front for the promotion game of 1965, leaving my Dad about 15 rows back. Hurdling the perimeter fence with my mates, at the final whistle ( Promotion day 1972 ) and being mortified to see ' the hat ' ( he of previously mentioned fame ) go arse over tit onto the cinder track, like the favourite toppling at Bechers Brook, with one of my mates shouting " the hat's down, the hat's down "
The night matches, the floodlight pylons, the shadows from the players and how they always seemed much quicker under lights.
Getting back to the car and hearing that evocative music for Sports Report. Getting back home for Dixon of Dock Green and Dr Who. Working out the league table from the match programme before the Sunday papers.
Happy days. Would I swap them for now. Most definitely not. Would I like to go back for one last look. Most definitely yes.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

The smell of pipe tobacco

The crowd outside the northstand waiting to get in

Everyone having scarves on their wrists

Half time flask of tea with the old man

Checking the half time scores

Getting back to the car just in time to listen to sports report.

Match of the day if i wasn't asleep

This. In fact all if this.

I'd add, traveling slowly along the a259 (my favourite road) all along the seafront from Hove back to Seaford where I lived. The traffic congestion was not annoying to me. I had Nicolas Alexander Gordon and Peter Jones etc to listen to on the way home. I'm sure that a lot of the radio programme was Radio Brighton. We didn't have to put up with 'now let's go to Crawley' (at least it's in Sussex and vaguely near) or even worse Aldershot.

 

[Tory Boy]

North Stand surges as a kid.

The one thing we will never have at the Amex.

TB

 

[rdigs24]

Standing behind one goal in the first half and moving to behind the other goal at half time.

Really How did you manage this.?

 

[rdigs24]

Parking in a side road nearly Aldrington Station then having a quick 5 minute dash to get our sausage and CHIPS from a burger van. 4 pounds later and we are in the North stand. Much as the Amex is a superb stadium the football is alot more sanitised now from the hazy days at the goldstone. Oh and they don't do CHIPS

 

[elbowpatches]

Saturday lunchtime fry up.

Dad and I travelling to Hove to meet up with his work mates.

Walking down the Shoreham Road for what seemed like an eternity.

Standing to the right of the North Stand.

Flask of Bovril.

Back to Hove to see the other scores and a look at the table on Ceefax.

Home for a takeaway and retelling parts of the game.

 

[Hillian1]

Seeing the floodlights.

For some reason my first glance at the floodlights when walking to the Goldstone with my dad would send a surge of excitement through me.

 

[stugbhafc1]

Either get a lift from my old man or he had some friends that lived top of aldrington avenue which i would leave my bike there and walk and meet my school mates in the north, some days scraping £3 together to get in.

 

[Gwylan]

The traffic congestion was not annoying to me. I had Nicolas Alexander Gordon and Peter Jones etc to listen to on the way home.

James Alexander Gordon

Really How did you manage this.?

You went out of the gate, walked through the East terrace and went through the gate at the South Stand. IIRC it cost a few pence to do it, which is why I, being a tight git, only did it a couple of times. I did do it for a 4-0 win (against Barrow, I think) so I saw all the Albion goals.

It's the smell of the ground that I remember; those hamburgers which seem to be made of a strange, alien substance; smoke everywhere - 90% of the adults seemed to have a fag in their gob and the awfulness of the toilets.

Then it was a quick dash for the special buses - in the days when you could catch a football special back to the bus garage.

 

[El Sid]

Finely chopped partially cooked onions on the Westler's boiled burgers. Proper fine dining.

 

[Curious Orange]

The first sight of the drench light pylons as we turned off the Dyke Road. Walking across Hove Park, and hearing the North Stand chanting in the distance. The smell of Deep Heat as we walked past the changing rooms in the West Stand. Going to the little caravan to pick up my ticket. Eating a Wagon Wheel (proper sized one) before kick-off.

 

[JBizzle]

I always remember how dark it was towards the back of the South Stand in the Goldstone and the walk across Hove Park with my mum, dad and brother (both of us with our Junior Seagulls season tickets).

Also we used to take a small box in for my brother to stand on when we started going in the west lower.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

James Alexander Gordon

Oh yeah. Thanks!

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Really How did you manage this.?

Loads of people did it, away fans as well although there weren't many away fans in those days. All perfectly legal, I didn´t have to climb fences or anything, they just opened the gates and we walked through. I'm talking late 50s early 60´s here, so a long time ago, before the word segregation was invented.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

I also remember, in the days before floodlights, any mid week games (usually only Saturday postponements or cup replays, midweek games weren't scheduled then) kicked off at 3:00 on a Wednesday. They would open the gates about 20 or 30 minutes before the end of the game and anybody could get in for free - very handy as that meant I could run all the way after school finished and see the last bit of the game

 

[Jambo Seagull]

Hearing GOSBTS and Tony Millard over the tannoy walking across Hove Park with my Dad.

Wagon Wheels.