What was it like following City away in Europe in the 60's and 70's

[City & Blue Brazil]

Went to a couple of games in 78/79 at twente enschede and monchengladbach. Both times were trips arranged by city. Twente we stayed in Amsterdam and as a 19 year old kid it was a bit of an eye opener meeting 5 Ipswich players (who had been playing in Holland at same time) in the red light district around 4 in the morning! Went on one of 3 coaches from the social club at midnight to monchengladbach via dover. Lots of British army at the game and it kicked off big time behind the goals. Game we lost 3-1 where, iirc, one of the kids (Tony Henry? ) made his debut and was told to Mark euro player of the year simonsen (?). Had a hotel in eindhoven and went into town around midnight only to forget name of hotel and where it was! Did get back and ended up smashed in ostende waiting for boat. Pretty sure there were coaches from Leicester and Blackpool branches on the ferry. Mate was so drunk had to carry him to duty free! Luckily he had sobered up by time we got back to Manchester as he had to drive us home! Great days.

 

[Bluview]

I was on that ferry from Ostende puked the whole way back it was rough. Stayed in Liege, Amsterdam (anything goes) and Eindhoven too. I remember the public toilets on stilts in Amsterdam for some reason there were blokes stood in there for a very long time I think one took a hiding for this reason.
My memory is shot so it’s vague but remember a few pre season games were In Europe too Bruges I think. We stayed In Hotel with the team and Ray Ransom gave me a football coaching session on the hotel lawn, Joe Corrigan was chasing my cousin who was early twenties then and one of us ended up in a police van accused of stealing a bike (mistaken identity in the end). I think we took our Cityzens blue coach for at least one of these trips loaded with cases of cans.
Halcyon days.

 

[oakiecokie]

Re the 69/70 CWC campaign I went to all the games home and away except for 2 Schalke away and the Final.

The away games involved flights, match tickets, coach transfers and overnight hotel after the game…. I can’t remember the company that did all this but it might have been Finglands as they were connected with City and were a travel company. I assume that I used to pay by cheque !!!

Bilbao was a fantastic trip - somehow we stayed at same hotel as City, spent quite some time in a bar pre-match then we all sobered up as we went 3-0 down. Some of the guys had flags and started to wave them as City fought back to 3-3 but the flags were put away when the Garda arrived with guns!!!! Post match we had to run the gauntlet getting back to the coaches.

Coimbra was exciting - it was snowing at Ringway but we finally took off then it was a long bus ride from Lisbon and they delayed the kick off until we arrived.

Not much happened at Lierse SK as I think we stayed in Brussels.

The best game was Schalke at home - what an atmosphere and what a result.

Apologies if any of the above is incorrect but it was a long time ago !!!!!

Come on City

It wasn`t you and your mates that let me and my mate kip in your room after the game was it ?
By the way did you see the Big Joe Corrigan episode with the older City fan who somehow got a bloody great thick eye which came up like a bloody balloon. ;)

 

[ricardo]

Hired a van with with 7 mates from Langley and drove over to Juventus in 76 on the piss all the way through most of Europe took us4 days to get there great adventure one of the best atmosphere ever stadio communal. Done the same again a year later to lodz Poland another great trip through the iron curtain and no man's land vodka dirt cheap a crate of beer a quid Happy days no fear

 

[Gray]

Went to Lierse in Belgium in November 1969.

We paid top price for seating and that consisted of folding chairs placed at the side of the pitch in front of the home fans. A surreal experience.

Won the game 3-0 and went on to beat Gornik in the final of the CWC in Vienna.