Outside Maine Road...6th November 1971....3-3 Derby Day Pictures

Missed this match. Where was I now? Ah yes, just gone off to college down in London. Head over heels with a girl I'd met in my first term. So I had other fish to fry, for once (in a manner of speaking). Football together? I don't think she would have been even able to tell you that a football was round.
 
I'd just finished 3 weeks of a 4 week training course in London, and had rashly made the statement that I'd plait sawdust if we lost, I was that confident. I was sweating a bit until Buzzer equalised.
When I got back to the course, there was a small bag of sawdust on my desk, donated by a colleague from our Newcastle office. She said she'd bought it when she got home "just in case"!
At the end of the course the following week, we were at Arsenal, so I stayed over. I dumped by bag in left luggage at Euston, and waited for the "special" to come in and joined my mates. I managed to get on the special for the return journey as I had a valid ticket.
I had to pay for the extra night myself, but not for the travel, so it worked out OK, especially as we won 2-1.
 
Football was much more fun when you could pay at the gate, before segregation and having to buy tickets months in advance. For a couple of seasons around 1969/1971, three or four of us used to go in the recognised 'home end' at every away game we went to, just for the 'thrill'. The only exceptions were all-ticket games and Upton Park - There was no way we were going in with late 60s West Ham fans!

Very rarely had any serious trouble - Mostly friendly banter and the odd slap off the local yokels. When we were 'thrown out' by the police, we pleaded ignorance of the stadium and were invariably moved into what they advised us the 'away' section of the ground. If they didn't do that (or throw us in a meat wagon), we used to wait until the gates opened 15/20 minutes from the end, and go back in for nowt.

The most intimidating places (other than West Ham) were the Shed at Chelsea, the Shelf at Spurs, and that barrel of laughs that they called the Kop at Leeds - We kept our mouths shut and learned to celebrate internally when City scored. Forest used to be good for running over the bridge to get over the Trent - Proper fun until you got thrown in by the greasers - Hello Billy if you're reading. Billy was thrown in but made the mistake of swimming to the wrong bank and having to cross the bridge again... He made it 2nd time!

Most ejections from a ground..? The Swamp - FA Cup 2nd replay Huddersfield v Stoke. Thrown out three times during the game, walked back in three times through the same door the police were throwing fans out of. Manchester police were'nt employing the brightest buttons in the box at the time when it came to crowd control!

Post-70s fans really have no idea what it was like to go to a football match in the good old days - Segregation and fences just increased the hostility and moved the trouble outside the ground. It was a daft idea.
You are spot on about going in the home sections in those days. It was often much safer to go in those areas before proper away sections were created. I watched all those 70s/early 80s games at Anfield from the right hand side of the Kop and there were plenty of City fans in there keeping their mouths shut. It was deadly in the Anfield Road end. It was the same at Old Trafford and we always went in the Stretford End Paddock. Funnily enough the only time I got any trouble was in the West Ham end in 76.
 
Doc Martins, skinners and Crombie's were the dress if you could afford it. It was dangerous, so no colours, young kids and dads and grandads were ok, but if you were of a certain age you could get targeted, especially hanging about.
Strange day, because most of the City lads were in the North stand and the Rags at the back of the Kippax.
Segregation had to come in, because of the violence on the terrace's, the next Derby at City, had everyone in the Kippax, it was bedlam, a Rope for segregation ?. I think we got segregation in 73/4, someone else might be able to answer that one.
 
Football was much more fun when you could pay at the gate, before segregation and having to buy tickets months in advance. For a couple of seasons around 1969/1971, three or four of us used to go in the recognised 'home end' at every away game we went to, just for the 'thrill'. The only exceptions were all-ticket games and Upton Park - There was no way we were going in with late 60s West Ham fans!

Very rarely had any serious trouble - Mostly friendly banter and the odd slap off the local yokels. When we were 'thrown out' by the police, we pleaded ignorance of the stadium and were invariably moved into what they advised us the 'away' section of the ground. If they didn't do that (or throw us in a meat wagon), we used to wait until the gates opened 15/20 minutes from the end, and go back in for nowt.

The most intimidating places (other than West Ham) were the Shed at Chelsea, the Shelf at Spurs, and that barrel of laughs that they called the Kop at Leeds - We kept our mouths shut and learned to celebrate internally when City scored. Forest used to be good for running over the bridge to get over the Trent - Proper fun until you got thrown in by the greasers - Hello Billy if you're reading. Billy was thrown in but made the mistake of swimming to the wrong bank and having to cross the bridge again... He made it 2nd time!

Most ejections from a ground..? The Swamp - FA Cup 2nd replay Huddersfield v Stoke. Thrown out three times during the game, walked back in three times through the same door the police were throwing fans out of. Manchester police were'nt employing the brightest buttons in the box at the time when it came to crowd control!

Post-70s fans really have no idea what it was like to go to a football match in the good old days - Segregation and fences just increased the hostility and moved the trouble outside the ground. It was a daft idea.

Ha ha. Some great memories there. Yeah, we too used to travel all over the place to watch City. Eventually we got fed up with being herded about like cattle so one of us came up with the idea of ringing up each away ground for seat tickets in with the Home supporters. We were usually able to arrange to collect on matchdays & pay for them on collection. Sounds unbelievable now but it was possible to do that in those days. Had some great banter with home fans without all the police hassle. A classic was at Notts County in the cup, sat in their main stand. I was saying to my mates what donkeys the two Short brothers were. The woman in front of me turned around and said "Do you mind ? They're my sons ! " Had a good laugh about that and in fairness she was really good about it. In fact she said that they were both playing like donkeys that day. Lol.
When other fans sing WWYWYWS I always have a wry smile to myself.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.