I was just trying to explain this to my daughter...

[The Silver Surfer]

Loved that Souvenir shop as a kid though, even though it was tiny it was like Santa's grotto to me.
Even in the 80's they sold me a number 7 that my mum stitched on my SAAB shirt. Felt like a million dollars playing in that.

Great memories.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Coolest time ever to be a blue, away ends used to be rammed everyone with a banana especially the big ones didn't half take up terrace space.

I used to have a yellow dolphin after my nana popped in the sun at Brighton....Bananas Bananas Bananas....

Brilliant times probably reached its height at Stoke away.

The pinnacle was the Fergie knobend! Absolutely classic. Who's got the picture?

 

[The Pink Panther]

I had a blow up ALF who made his debut at Leeds. A couple of lads I worked with borrowed him and took him to Portsmouth and he came back popped :-(

ALF made it onto the front cover of KOTK later that season along with lots of other inflatables under the title "We're going up"

 

[El Gringo]

It had to be a Fyfes tho . Then the embarrassment of the rags inflatable tripods and Grimsbys haddock's killed it.

 

[blue7071]

The bloke who used to stand near me had a blow up Turtlewax turtle and another time he brought a crocodile. Not sure how he got them home.
Stoke had pink panthers and Oldham had yard dogs!

 

[Hart of the Matter]

Great times. I loved that whole era.
As I suggested elsewhere, With Peps watermelon quote regards Gabriel perhaps time for a revival with inflatable watermelons?

 

[desperatedon]

The craze even spread to proper rugby. Wigan were sponsored by Norweb and had inflatable light bulbs.

 

[john@staustell]

Great times. I loved that whole era.

This nostalgia is the trouble with us football fans.

An embarrassing souvenir shop, toilets about half a mile away flooded with pee, beer that made you ill due to stagnating in the pipes, punch-ups and Stanley knives at every turn, absolute joke of a ticket operation (some things never change!), shit crowds due to the 70s/80s factors though we only remember the big atmosphere games..........................

Fuckin great times :-)

 

[Itsaar]

It was all surreal watching Dino v Frankie and to add to the mix a 6' paddling pool made its way across a sea of heads to witness the fight, happy days indeed, in the stands.

 

[Hart of the Matter]

This nostalgia is the trouble with us football fans.

An embarrassing souvenir shop, toilets about half a mile away flooded with pee, beer that made you ill due to stagnating in the pipes, punch-ups and Stanley knives at every turn, absolute joke of a ticket operation (some things never change!), shit crowds due to the 70s/80s factors though we only remember the big atmosphere games..........................

Fuckin great times :-)

It was a great time to be in and around Manchester for my age group at the time.