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

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ArdwickBlue_M12

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For those on here who went or knew people that followed City in Europe back in the 60's and 70's, what was it like? I am 23 and follow city regularly in Europe. I would have loved to be a supporter back in the day
 
Sixties and seventies, must have been hard to even get to a European away game. I'd love to hear some tales though, I wager only ex-pats and fucking lunatics were making the journeys.
 
You were only allowed to take £50 out of the country pp in the late 70s
 
I managed to get to the ECWC semi-final vs Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 1971.
In the back of my school mate's Dads Bedford van.
Down the M6/M1.Park up at Watford tube station.
Get off at Fulham Broadway tube station.
Avoid the Neanderthal Chelsea skinheads outside the ground.
Then make the same journey in reverse and arrive back home in Middleton in the early hours.
And we got beat by the Cockney twats as well.
 
Went to 2 aways, one in 69/70 to Coimbra, and one in 70/71 to Copenhagen for the replay against Gornik Zabrze (no away goals in those days).
Drew the first 0-0 and won the second 3-1.
Pissed both times (excess of duty free whisky).

Edit: 3 aways - 70/71 Chelsea in the Semi Final, first leg!
I'll never forget that day. It was my 21st birthday.
Surprisingly sober.
 
My old man maintained the he was at Shalke in 1970, and whilst hooliganism hadn't quite made it to Germany at that point he still mangaged to end up having a scrap after "offending" some of the locals post match.

He admits this one Shalke fan got the better of him after a few of his pals ran in. Unfortunatly for this group of shalke fans, they bumped into my Dad and his mates two weeks later on Kippax Street. The rest was history.
 
Very few travelled back then. I only managed one European away match, the CWC Final against Gornik in 1970, that is unless you count Stamford Bridge a year later also in the CWC. I few of my friends made it to the Athletic Bilbao match in September 1969 and really enjoyed the trip.

Most companies were really stingy with holidays. I had enough problems getting time off work for domestic midweek matches before thinking about continental trips away. The costs of travel were quite high compared to wage levels then.

Mind you since then the only away European match I have been to was at Celtic and then I had to sit in the home end.
 
manclad said:
I managed to get to the ECWC semi-final vs Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 1971.
In the back of my school mate's Dads Bedford van.
Down the M6/M1.Park up at Watford tube station.
Get off at Fulham Broadway tube station.
Avoid the Neanderthal Chelsea skinheads outside the ground.
Then make the same journey in reverse and arrive back home in Middleton in the early hours.
And we got beat by the Cockney twats as well.
Click to expand...
Did we take a decent following down for that fixture?
 
blue_paul said:
Did we take a decent following down for that fixture?
Click to expand...
I went with my mum and dad. Got off school somehow.We had a lot at the back in the stand with the shed to its right, think that was the season ticket allocation , have feeling we had a section standing too but someone might confirm. Unfortunately Colin Bell was injured and I think a young lad called Jeff Johnson replaced him. Think it kicked off badly at MR in the return game.
 
Norman kneejerk said:
I went with my mum and dad. Got off school somehow.We had a lot at the back in the stand with the shed to its right, think that was the season ticket allocation , have feeling we had a section standing too but someone might confirm. Unfortunately Colin Bell was injured and I think a young lad called Jeff Johnson replaced him. Think it kicked off badly at MR in the return game.
Click to expand...

We were in the open end opposite the Shed. No segregation. My mate punched a huge skinhead in the bollocks and we legged it deeper into the crowd. Other than that, no bother at all.

As I recall, tickets went on open sale due to lack of demand. I'm not sure if the 2nd leg was a sell out either.

It was a crap match and there was loads of trouble at our place from Chelsea fans in the North Stand trying to get to the Kippax. Kicked off in the Kippax car park, small scraps all over the shop.

Half the reserve side got a game due to big names getting injured. We never looked like beating them.
 
blue_paul said:
Did we take a decent following down for that fixture?
Click to expand...
I far as I can remember,yes we had a few thousand in the opposite end to The Shed.
It was mid-week, but travel via motorway and also football special trains was quick and relatively cheap ( before the 1973 Arab - Israeli war) ,so plenty of Blues made the trip down South to London.
 
Lavinda Past said:
We were in the open end opposite the Shed. No segregation. My mate punched a huge skinhead in the bollocks and we legged it deeper into the crowd. Other than that, no bother at all.

As I recall, tickets went on open sale due to lack of demand. I'm not sure if the 2nd leg was a sell out either.

It was a crap match and there was loads of trouble at our place from Chelsea fans in the North Stand trying to get to the Kippax. Kicked off in the Kippax car park, small scraps all over the shop.

Half the reserve side got a game due to big names getting injured. We never looked like beating them.
Click to expand...
Exactly young lads just got picked as unknowns straight from the reserves, no getting them up to speed somewhere first.
 
manclad said:
I managed to get to the ECWC semi-final vs Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 1971.
In the back of my school mate's Dads Bedford van.
Down the M6/M1.Park up at Watford tube station.
Get off at Fulham Broadway tube station.
Avoid the Neanderthal Chelsea skinheads outside the ground.
Then make the same journey in reverse and arrive back home in Middleton in the early hours.
And we got beat by the Cockney twats as well.
Click to expand...
Same for me but via a Finglands coach.Bumped into Peter Purves at Newport Pagnell services on the way down.
Loads of skinheads about and not exclusively Chelsea fans.Very tasty/scary after the final whistle.
 
Norman kneejerk said:
I went with my mum and dad. Got off school somehow.We had a lot at the back in the stand with the shed to its right, think that was the season ticket allocation , have feeling we had a section standing too but someone might confirm. Unfortunately Colin Bell was injured and I think a young lad called Jeff Johnson replaced him. Think it kicked off badly at MR in the return game.
Click to expand...
I thought that the two matches against Chelsea were the most boring games I have ever seen.

They essentially flooded the midfield and blocked anything and everything. City were depleted and the team that won so much between 1966 and 1970 didn’t appear to have a clue as to what to do. They ended up without a win in the last ten matches of the season.
 
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