Blue Streak said:
Just been watching some YouTube highlights of a Maine Road derby circa 1977 and it's interesting to note that the Kippax/Platt Lane Corner housing the Rags has additional wire fencing put up? Barry Davies makes a comment regarding this being put up specifically for this one game? Was this the norm when we played them back then or was it also implemented for other big games at the time?
I've looked at the Maine Road derbies from both the 76-77 season , and the 77-78 season , and it looks to me like the wire fencing is in place on that corner at
both games , so in my opinion it could have been in place for at least two seasons back then ...... can't see it just being erected for the derby games in particular.
I remember a few incidents to used to take place in that 'Platt Lane' corner of the kippax around that time ... some clubs , like Liverpool , United and Newcastle could bring big followings to Maine Road back then .......Spurs got chased onto the pitch in that corner by City fans , and Leeds fans got chased into that corner once too by City fans , who had 'infiltrated' the visitors side of the kippax ... so that extra fencing could have been erected as a general safeguard.
West Ham got chased out of the kippax on the opposite corner , down near the North stand ....... and United yobs used to gather on that North Stand corner in derbies too , until the late eighties or so , when the tide began to turn and City fans decided not to stand for it .
But in those days most grounds had fencing on one kind or another .... they
had to with all the fuckin' hooligans that were around !