scum v city 82

We took plenty there back in those days. We'd get around 8000 in the Scoreboard End, running around the side a bit, and some seats too. And their end would have plenty of City in too.
 
Throughout the 80s we were often given 8-10,000. We got 10,000 for the 1986 derby.

It was only from 1989 onwards that they started restricting us. Hillsborough in 1989 led to capacity reductions and that was the first attempt to seriously cut the numbers. City should have done a tit-for-tat style reduction but we were too slow and allowed them more tickets for Maine Road than we were getting for OT. It caused a lot of anger in the period 1989 to... I was going to say 1996 but it still annoys!
 
I remember, Gary. They started giving us 6000 standing at the Scoreboard End, then maybe even less. We were still giving them 7000 in the Platt Lane and 6000 in the Kippax.

When it went all seated wasn't there a derby in the 90s when we got no tickets, when OT was being constructed? Or is my memory playing up?

As an aside, I rememer going to Anfield in the 90s when the Kop was being rebuilt and we were given about 300 tickets. In the event, they opened the Kop that night.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
I remember, Gary. They started giving us 6000 standing at the Scoreboard End, then maybe even less. We were still giving them 7000 in the Platt Lane and 6000 in the Kippax.

When it went all seated wasn't there a derby in the 90s when we got no tickets, when OT was being constructed? Or is my memory playing up?

As an aside, I rememer going to Anfield in the 90s when the Kop was being rebuilt and we were given about 300 tickets. In the event, they opened the Kop that night.
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You're spot on with all of this. The thing was that the capacity of OT even with the building work was still bigger than most grounds and so we should have had at least a couple of thousand tickets.

The City of the late 80s/early 90s wanted to fill the ground no matter what and so they were very happy to let 13k utd in if it meant it was full. It used to really annoy me. In my mind if the two grounds were similar in size (OK Ot was a bigger capacity) then they should give the same allocation, but they always claimed there'd be issues with segregation. Yet, City had to sort out segregation.

I remember how disappointed we felt when it was decided in the mid 80s the old Platt Lane would be given to away fans because of orders from the council/police. Whether this was true or not I don't know, but that suddenly meant a 9,000 seater stand was only for away fans, plus we decided we wanted to give all opponents the option of terracing in the Kippax corner. Often teams like Wimbledon would arrive at Maine Road with a couple of hundred sat in the Platt Lane. It was crazy, but we had to do it.

United possibly had a better relationship with their council/police, but it just seemed wrong and City could have sorted it back then but chose to take the guaranteed away fans' money instead. Why didn't the Club look at splitting the Platt Lane (difficult but not impossible) or only give them the Platt Lane and no terracing or vice-versa?
 
To be fair to City, when the Platt Lane went for away fans, we had a pretty big hooligan problem at the time. Although quite what a difference sticking them in there made, I don't know. This was also the era when football as a whole was suffering from awful attendances. We rarely, if ever filled Maine Road then. Apart from derbies, of course.

What years was the Platt Lane away fans? the new Platt Lane was 1993 so my guess would be 1987 until 93.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
To be fair to City, when the Platt Lane went for away fans, we had a pretty big hooligan problem at the time. Although quite what a difference sticking them in there made, I don't know. This was also the era when football as a whole was suffering from awful attendances. We rarely, if ever filled Maine Road then. Apart from derbies, of course.

What years was the Platt Lane away fans? the new Platt Lane was 1993 so my guess would be 1987 until 93.
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It was made away fans only following promotion in 1985 until the old stand was demolished in 1992. The new Platt Lane opened at the infamous Spurs quarter final in March 1993.

The promotion game V Charlton was the last match to see City fans on all 4 sides (until of course 1993).

The hooligan problem that existed behind the Platt Lane (the pink passage) was eradicated I guess by the away fans moving into Platt Lane, but this inconvenienced City fans as they also started blocking off the passage at times. Prior to 1985 the City Cool Cats and others used to use the passage for ambushes etc.
 
I had my season ticket in the Platt Lane from 1980/1 up until it went all seater in 1985 and was very pissed off with the fact. I understand fully that we're talking about the days when hooliganism was still rife, and the previous arrangements were difficult for the Police to administer: the away fans used to have a standing area in the Kippax at the Platt Lane Corner and seats in the North Stand/Main Stand corner, which obviously wasn't ideal. But to remove City fans from a whole stand which had at that time, IIRC, a capacity of 8,000 was a joke. The club should have divided the end if the away fans had to have seats in there (and it would have been possible), but obviously couldn't be bothered.

A couple of things happened as a result of that decision. Firstly, I think we lost some fans. Certainly, if the reaction around me was anything to go by, many ST holders towards the end of the previous season were swearing blind that they'd stop going rather than be forced to move from their regular spot. And secondly, it affected the atmosphere at the ground badly. Only United, Liverpool and Everton tended to bring enough fans to get close to filling that stand. Even when away teams had a couple of thousand in there, it looked pretty empty. And most teams in those days (post-Heysel and Bradford) brought puny numbers of fans, making it like playing in a three-sided ground. Look at footage from the famous 3-3 draw against Bournemouth for an example of a ground pretty full on three sides, with virtually no one behind that goal.

As for derby tickets - well, as noted, United prized allocating tickets to their own fans first and foremost, while Swales and his mates were happy to cram as many United fans in as possible to take the revenue from a bigger gate. Simple.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
I remember, Gary. They started giving us 6000 standing at the Scoreboard End, then maybe even less. We were still giving them 7000 in the Platt Lane and 6000 in the Kippax.

When it went all seated wasn't there a derby in the 90s when we got no tickets, when OT was being constructed? Or is my memory playing up?

As an aside, I rememer going to Anfield in the 90s when the Kop was being rebuilt and we were given about 300 tickets. In the event, they opened the Kop that night.
Click to expand...

7000 odd in the Platt Lane I can get my head around but did the end of the Kippax / Open Platt Lane corner hold as many as 6000?. I remember these games but didn't realise that the end third of the Kippax plus the old open corner terracing held quite that many?
 
Gary James said:
Throughout the 80s we were often given 8-10,000. We got 10,000 for the 1986 derby.

It was only from 1989 onwards that they started restricting us. Hillsborough in 1989 led to capacity reductions and that was the first attempt to seriously cut the numbers. City should have done a tit-for-tat style reduction but we were too slow and allowed them more tickets for Maine Road than we were getting for OT. It caused a lot of anger in the period 1989 to... I was going to say 1996 but it still annoys!
Click to expand...

If we had 10,000 for the 1986 derby Gary what sort of estimate would you put on the number we had for the FA Cup game in Jan 1987?
 
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