Full Members Cup final

[blue b4 the moon]

Did your guide dog not spot any?
It went off royal in and out of the ground

Honestly we saw nothing apart from a little running around in the distance when waiting to get out of the coach park.

Inside we were sat on the corner above the 'divide' and maybe it was our angle but saw no fighting inside either, no more than at any other game anyway.

From previous threads and this one we must have led a charmed life that day.

 

[OffertonBlue]

I know "the piece is already written" by the OP, but here is a brief summary from my perspective.

I went to derby game on the Saturday with my two younger brothers and one of their girlfriends. Youngest 18 and oldest being me aged 24, and all in one car. It was party mood in the big City following at old trafford and we wondered how many would be travelling to Wembley only 24 hours later. We played reasonably well and finished much the stronger, pushing for a late winner, which we thought would tire the players out even more for the following day. After the game there were quite a few scuffles, especially on sir matt busby way and near lou macari's chippy. They were not the last of scuffles that weekend.

We got back to our car safely and drove immediately from old trafford to London. We were high profile on the motorway drive down south, City scarf out of the car window, all 4 of us in City shirts, and giving plenty of hand gestures to the hordes of reds driving back down south on the M6. What we didn't realise was that plenty of cars decided to tail us on the motorway on the way down. We only realised this when we drove into a motorway service station only to be followed by half a dozen cars each full of baying reds. Consequently we decided not to stop and just drive through to the next motorway service station. Rinse and repeat. We were hungry, thirsty and needing the loo. Eventually we managed to pull into a service station without the following posse, so not too bad. Not brave but probably wise, as we saw very few blues on the way down.

We parked near to Wembley and managed to go into a local pub for refreshments and enjoy what was left of Saturday evening. We all just slept in the car as best we could for what was an uncomfortable nights "sleep". From memory it was March 1986, the very first Full Members Cup Final. Not many know that the competition was set up as a result of English fans being banned from Europe following Heysel in 1985. We had hardly seen any blues on the way down or around Wembley on the Saturday night, Sunday morning. We got to Wembley in plenty of time but it wasn't the wisest choice. We were outnumbered by Chelsea fans, many from memory being the skin head NF type thugs. Time after time we were intimidated, but managed to avoid any fisticuffs, probably because we had a girl with us (Hope that hasn't offended anyone in these enlightened times we now live in!). Nearer kick off time plenty of blues arrived, mainly by coach, and they weren't as lucky as us in avoiding fisticuffs. It was a very intimidating atmosphere. We would have won the game, or at least drew level if we had an extra 5 minutes of injury time as we were on the up and Chelsea spent. This was amazing considering the teams efforts only 24 hours earlier. Wouldn't happen nowadays would it!

After the game, again outnumbered and again the car parks were a war zone. A couple of groups of City were holding there own against Chelsea. Again the skin head NF type thugs, but I remember distinctly getting the impression that they were "Cockneys" rather than "Chelsea". I'm not sure if these City were Beer Monsters, Maine Line Crew, Guvnors or what (they were not the Cool Cats though), but they were all well known faces at aways. If it wasn't for their presence then we would certainly have come to an ugly and painful end.....so thank you to those blues. Returned home very tired and had spent a full 48 hours watching City play twice. Well done the players.

 

[stuart brennan]

Sorry to mislead about the article going out this morning - it’s been delayed. Now published some time in the next week.

 

[Phil1]

Sorry to mislead about the article going out this morning - it’s been delayed. Now published some time in the next week.

Stuart, if reports are true about an outside influence making decisions in the VAR room at Stockly Park, are you aware of any reporters looking into it?
On the face of it we are talking about potentially the biggest scandel in the game in recent times yet there's not much noise bar a brief mention in The Sun.
Seems like it's being ignored by most, is there a reason for that?

 

[Mike Cledford]

I was living in Germany at the time, but the chance to see City at Wembley was too much to miss, so me and my wife decided to make the weekend of it, staying in London with a family friend. We left Friday afternoon for a ferry back to the UK arriving at our friends in the evening, listening to the derby the following day, couldn't get back up for that as well, and wouldn't have got a ticket anyway, as I'd been out of the UK for 3 years at that point, and lived away for more than 5, so my season ticket had obviously lapsed, though I still did as many games as I could.

On match day we got to Wembley early, my wife had never been before, and went in pretty much as soon as the gates opened, excited to see City at Wembley. However I had to be in work on Monday morning (back in Germany), so we had a tight time to catch the ferry after the game. So I'm afraid when it got to 5-1, I thought "fuck this" and we left to get back to Dover before we got blocked in by the traffic, as we were walking back to the car, we heard a couple of cheer's, eand I just assumed we had been utterly battered, but keen to find out the final score we listened to every sports bulletin on the radio on our way back to Dover.

It was ages before it even got mentioned, and I couldn't believe I'd done all that journey, and had missed us score 3 times at Wembley.

I've rarely left a game early ever since.

The missus and l got there late for the kick off and we were only coming few miles from N19. The North Circular was a car park.
When you mentioned going to Dover it half triggered memory of 5 of us crammed into a Golf GTi rushing for the ferry after a match in London the day before. Something smashed the windscreen on the M2. We had to get a temporary windscreen from services. It just about go us to the ferry with minutes to spare.
Coming off the ferry it started pissing down and the windscreen wipers couldn't work as they were needed to hold this plastic windscreen in place. So we drove through the night across three countries peering though billions of raindrops that reflected every light.
We eventually had the sense to stop and finish the journey when the rain stopped. We got into bother when we got back despite the sorry looking car being produced as evidence for the defence.
All that messing about for City and I can't remember who we played.

 

[Karl8]

I went to both. My memory is really focused around the violence at Wembley. Chelsea fans were just awful that day. There was fighting all over the place in our end as numerous Chelsea fans had got tickets for our end. Outside was also dreadful. I was only a young lad and was in a coach watching the line of City coaches getting smashed up as we were queuing to get away after the game. My coach escaped the damage but it was grim sat watching the mob of Chelsea coming down the queue smashing the coaches up as they went through. City fans were fighting back, I watched blues on the coaches that were getting attacked, taking the seating off and defending themselves through the broken windows with them. A rough day that was !

 

[KS55]

We left at 5-1 and got the train back to Mcr. When we got back a random bloke commiserated with us and told us we were unlucky. We thought he was taking the piss. Then we found out it was 5-4! Needless to say we haven’t left a game early ever since and so glad as the Dickov and Aguerooooo goals are two of the highlights of being a fan of this wonderful club which any early leavers would have missed.

First rule of fandom: Never Leave Early.
Mind goes back to that Spurs game. 3-0 down at half time and you know who sent off. Great come back. 4-3.

 

[14cfcm]

5 of us went down 3 from Gateshead and 2 lads from boro stayed at Harrow on the hill on the Saturday night and decided to drink barley wine and cider on the Sunday morning cant remember a thing haven't touched it since.

 

[manchester blue]

Did your guide dog not spot any?
It went off royal in and out of the ground

Exactly. We got chased after leaving a pub and got lost on some waste ground. Got away and had to run the gauntlet again in the grounds of Wembley from Chelsea fans who were hanging around.

Missed the first goal and missed the last three as we were not waiting around for a repeat! Four City goals at Wembley and missed the lot!

 

[bluemc1]

I was 7 and can only remember bits, the train journey, seeing the twin towers and the burger from outside
My old fella dragged us out at 5-1 and I remember hearing cheers from outside

still got the program