How intimidating was Maine Road ??

Bump.
I thought I would re-open this thread from 2 years ago,in view of the match on Monday.
Lets make The Etihad as intimidating as Maine Road was to all things MUFC,whether players or fans.Boo the players every time they get near the ball,and every time the rag fans try to vocally support their team,we blues need to drown them out with a cacophony of City related noise.
 
Hope it doesn,t turn out as one night in 76 or 77,scum had won 2-1,me and two nephews,were twatted by about 20 scum fans,wouldn,t mind but they,d won.
Just walking across the carpark,heard a rumpus turned to see what all the commotion was,caught me a cracker as he ran past rest of the hero,s gave us a kicking.
 
Reading this lot I don't know how I ever dared to go to Maine Road. I must be a lot braver than I imagined, or maybe I looked a lot harder than I am. 'Kin ell, you lot make it sound like the first day of the Somme or something. Don't recall ever being fronted or robbed by anyone, even when I went to night matches on my own as a kid. I must have been born under a lucky star or something.
 
As they say in 300 '' give them nothing take from them everything'' fucking hate united. lets see if the scummy bastards want to run and punch people when they have a small away allocation.
 
Saw two Middlesborough fans get a right kicking near the city social club after one game at Maine Road in the 70's , they were on the floor and only the late intervention of other City fans stopped it .....

on another ocassion during the 70's i witnessed Leeds fans being dragged into alleys near Lloyd Steet and attacked .......

and i recall three Stoke fans being set upon after one game at Maine Road in one of the streets opposite the Main Stand ....

i also saw United fans getting attacked near the Sherwood before a derby game in the late eighties .......
 
No doubt about it Maine Road was a very intimidating place for away supporters in the 70's and 80's. It wasn't too pleasant for some City supporters either, especially Saturday matches in the winter ( dark after final whistle ) and of course mid week matches. The back alleyways were fearsome as were some of the back streets behind the kippax/platt lane. Always refered to the alleyways as 'slip sliding away' due to the rubbish and dog shit.

The crush getting out between the platt lane and kippax was safe enough but when the crowd thinned out in the alleyways you had to have your wits about you. All away fans ran though Leeds, Scousers, Chelsea, Birmingham and West Ham usually had a show. The hub hub and background noise of a crowd always went eerily quiet just before it kicked off.

The grey haired, overweight guys in their early 50's that you see at the Etihad have seen it all before. They've ran the gauntlet at away grounds so often in the past they aren't fazed at all by any ground or any away supporters at todays games. If you want to know what it was like then ask them...they'll tell you with a wry knowing smile on their face.
 
As a young blue who never witnessed this kind of stuff in the 70's, 80's and early 90's, some of the stories coming out on here sound absolutely spine busting! Weird to think how much football's changed! For good and for worse!
 
nearly every away ground was intimidating to go to in those days. minimal police presence,no cctv, and terraces to hide on made them evil places to go to. walking down seven sisters to spurs, in the clock end at highbury, few northern fans ever went west ham, the old den was pure evil, anfield /goodison with the slashings on stanley park, can think of few grounds that were not intimidating in fairness. for city and maine road it was the walk back to piccadilly which got you, and had to run back on many an occasion !!
 
In the later years it was purely the reputation that freaked people out!! I'll give you an example of that.
During the final season at Maine Road Liverpool beat us 3-0 at home with a Micheal Owen hat trick. A bit of trouble around Claremont Road after the game (if people remember?) and I spent a lot of time winding up a dipper mate of mine about the events that occured.

Not long after we played Crewe after in the League Cup Midweek (when Eyal did the slash across the throat to fans in the Platt Lane) and said Dipper mate attended the game with me.

On the walk back to the car after we came out of the Kippax I took him through all the dark alleys to get to the car as quickly as possible? He was absolutely terrified while to be honest I hadn't given it a second thought?

But on a cold winters evening thirty years ago. Fearsome place.
 
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