The Main Stand RIP

[LongsightM13]

I hated the Maine stand. It looked well out dated and cost far too much to sit in and watch a game with a pillar in your way. When I first started going to games with my mates at 16/17 it was £7 to go in the North Stand where you could act all cool with the hard men and singers. That was brilliant but on the odd occasion it was sold out we'd have to sit in J block of the Maine Stand and pay 32 fucking quid to be bored senseless by moaning old bastards sat around me. Now I'm 30 I am the moaning bastard!

FWIW The Mirror journalist was attacked the Saturday after the midweek game v Mansfield in the Auto Windscreen after he published a photo comparing Maine Rd and Old Trafford after we had 3007 fans on a night they were hosting a Champions League game. Happy days!!

That's true. I heard the usual guy who covered our games knew the shit would hit the fan after getting several threatening phone calls to the Mirror sports desk, so the shithouse pulled a sickie and the Mirror sent an unwitting freelancer to cover the game instead, who copped for all the flak.
I think it may have even been a female journo they sent?

 

[jackrussel]

always liked the north stand and thought it should have been contined right round the ground to make fully covered

 

[cityneil51]

I was in the Kippax from the early 70's but sat in the Main Stand now and again courtesy of my mate whos dad had several season tickets in there,and then moved into the Main Stand permanantly early 90's. I sat on row F which was the row directly in front of the away directors. Seat 14 was near the aisle and was a great view.
Had some good banter at times with the away directors but i think from their point of view they might not have felt the same. Like Karen Brady and the Brum directors leaving at half time when they were witnessing a hammering, Stockport County director who was dressed like Toad of Toad hall, he definitely did not take kindly to my comments on his dress sense! Too many to mention on here really, and most of the time i was very polite and did have a good laugh with the majority of them.(honest haha)
Some good characters that still sit near me now.
Some have mentioned the "facilities" down stairs. Not quite Etihad standard but times i wont forget before the match meeting up in windy corner having a pie and a the odd pint. The bloke who stood by the door that led to the dressing room areas watching us like a hawk. You could even smell the liniment the players put on in those days from the bar! And the little old steward with his trilby. It may be a bit late but i apologise for any times you had to have a little word.
Happy times, maybe not always on the pitch i know but as much as i love what we have now its hard not to look back with fondness to those days.

 

[bartinbarca]

reserve games, being told to fucking hurry up be brenan when tryin to get the ball over the fencing... twat.

working in the kitchen of the players as a kitchen porter from a temp agency when we played southampton in the Leauge cup , firstly hearing the story of the day when we won 10-1 the girls had working there for years it made a shite job even better, then something amazing happend I got asked to take out the rubbish mid wya through the 2nd half and told to enjoy the rest of the game as I did a good job, It meant me having to pass the players tunnel and walk past the dug out, no one had a problem as this was the accepted thing to do for this sort of staff, but on my way back I got in the way ogf the view Joe Royle and got told by Wille Donogue to stay where I was...

TOP for the rest of the game I was pratically on the touch line.. with all the staff..

 

[Blue Punter]

Spent many of my younger days in the MS.

1st game Vs Derby County circa 77/78, it was 1-1. Remember being on the bus on Lloyd St and still being able to see the game through a gap in the stand.

We were right at the top near the press boxes for the Charlton promotion game. The Kippax was heaving that day.

As part of my media degree I did an Outside Broadcast from the MS. We played Sheff Wed, 2-0 down at HT, won 3-2. It was around 1994/5. I had to fight my way to the press room. There was plenty of weed going on. I see some of the shite they've wrote about us since and they'd never walk of there alive.

Maybe that's why Everton, Pompey get such a good press. Shit scared of the natives.

 

[Newman Noggs]

[fwiw the corrugated roof panels are in a field in Chelford being used as some form of shelter for animals. come to think of it not such a change :)

This is right. Every time I drive past I get a sense of nostalgia.

Regularly used to sit in H block myself as a kid in the 70s and laughing at the old fogeys of which i'm now one.

 

[ono]

The bit about sitting behind the managers made me laugh. I went to watch a cup game with my old man against Walsall and even though the stand was only 3/4 full, the steward wouldn't let us move from our seats which were directly behind the dugouts, but more obstructively behind Paul Merson's giganticly fat head. My Dad shouted at Merson every single time he stood up. Eventually we were allowed to move. Persistence does pay off.

 

[brooklandsblue2.0]

At the end, no other part of Maine Road had anything like the history or significance of the Main Stand. I stood and sat in all parts of the ground but for the last ten years or so had a season ticket in block H. First H Right, then H Left.

The Main Stand felt like the heart and soul of our club. It was a link with our past, glorious and not so glorious, and I absolutely loved the place. It wasn't the best stand in the world, having pillars and a fairly flat camber. But it more than made up for it in character. It housed the club's inner workings, the dressing rooms, the chairman's office, the manager's den, the boardroom. All those historic events which went on in it's bowels: the board meetings, the backstabbing, the transfers, the sackings, the cataclysmic decisions.

In the various concourses it was a warren. It had scruffy little bars with old signs painted in the blue and claret colours of the early 70s. It had odd little rooms for the ball boys, the tea ladies, the press. It was dark and dank in the concourse and felt like you were inside City's wayward, unfaithful heart. There were even a set of stairs which led to nowhere, like in a haunted house.

In the stand, you had the directors within earshot - and boy, they must have regretted that at times. Remember Swales sinking into his seat as Franny marched in to a hero's welcome? The press and commentators sat behind you in odd little blue boxes at the back. The manager sat in front of you. Some of the longest serving, and bitterest of all fans sat in the Main Stand. When things were going badly, as they usually were in my time, people shouted in the knowledge that their insults were not falling on deaf ears. "Swales, you've killed this club", "Franny, you let us down!", "Clark, you're the worst manager we;ve ever had" (the guy next to me shouted this half a dozen times a game for his entire tenure). The referee and players could be personally abused as they left the field. One ref was injured by a coin and substituted. Big Mal broke his leg jumping down the tunnel. The idiot. A Mirror journalist was beseiged by angry fans once in the press box.

I've got some great memories there too - the bar behind H Left rocking in disbelief at half time in the 5-1. Pitch invasions - who took the chair on? Small crowds -sometimes big ones - at winter youth team games.

You felt you were part of the workings of the club in the Main Stand. It symbolised the City of the 80s and 90s, with padded seats on crumbling concrete.

Have fond memories of going to my first night games in 88 and walking up the stairs and seeing the floodlit kippax on the opposite side, was magical.<br /><br />-- Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:55 am --<br /><br />

[fwiw the corrugated roof panels are in a field in Chelford being used as some form of shelter for animals. come to think of it not such a change :)

This is right. Every time I drive past I get a sense of nostalgia.

Regularly used to sit in H block myself as a kid in the 70s and laughing at the old fogeys of which i'm now one.

As do I!

 

[spam1967]

paul power got some stick in the main stand, it was funny when the zico chants started.

i think everyone knew it was unnecessary.

 

[Bluebee2]

My ticket used to be just in front of the stadium announcer at the back of the stand, used to order our drinks with the excellent bar girls for half time near the press room, not all things have changed for the better.