Worse return journey home from away game after watching City

[Lavinda Past]

One that sticks in my mind, Boundary park, think it was 0-0. No roof, just a tee shirt, pouring down with rain, no money to buy a replacement t shirt, sat on a train all the way back to London very damp.

I remember that one ......

i was stood at the bottom of the open end in about six inches of water ... what a wash-out that was!

I remember after the game passing loads of launderettes with blues down to their grunners whilst the tumble driers were full of jeans, socks, shirts, etc. Class!

I seem to remember Imre Varadi scoring in a monsoon at Oldham in the mid eighties. Ended 1-1 I think. Muddy water flooding down the terrace from the car park, we were two inches deep in it and could hardly see the other end.
Drove all the way back to St Albans in my trolleys. (I was almost dry by Knutsford but it felt kinda right to stay semi-naked)

 

[manimanc]

Blackburn away april 89,got beat 4-0 and the day of hillsborough,i remember being stood on the platform at the station and some guy with a mini radio on had 5live news report on..
A quiet train journey back to victoria station..

 

[Oohvonkyvonky]

My old felle was telling me one the other day - He used to hitchhike from Knutsford for most away games in 70s, he went to Stamford Bridge watched the game, we got beat not sure of the score?

He went to the carpark after the game and flagged a lift off another blue who said he was only going to blackpool... Anyway my old fella was dropped off near Preston and as he was walking down the road in his City hat/scalf he was stopped by the coppers. They asked what he was doing and where he had been.. He told them Chelsea and they arrested him for stealing a car which had been found nearby!!

At the police station they leatherd him with a truncheon, telling him to tell the truth!! It was only by a second copper stopping his colleague that he wasn't beat to a pulp.

Does that count?

 

[Seedy Ron]

Driving back over the Pennines after losing 2-1 to Sheffield United in the FA Cup in 2008. I saw a very bad side of City fans that day, and the drive back was sodding miserable as well.

There was no bigger prick than the clown who thought it would be a good idea to let all of those ballons onto the pitch. They ended up setting up the goal that knocked us out of the cup that year. Couple that with some shite pub in Sheffield selling me a out of date sausage roll (It tasted a bit dodgy but I was pissed) that had me crapping through the eye of a needle for a few days after and I'd say it was a bad un as well.

 

[yeseye]

Leeds United away, early eighties I think, as a ten year old returning home on a coach with missing windows was quite scary to be honest!

 

[Oyster28catcher]

train back from Boro after 8-1 I went to see brother in South, had carriage full of RAGs for 2 hours, wanted to kill them

 

[Blue Streak]

Returning home from Stoke after relegation to the Third Division sticks out. After what happened outside after, the magnitude of what had happened to our great club seemed to get lost as Blues battled away from the Stadium.

Once safely back on the train heading back to Manchester though it all went silent as we all began to digest the situation and frankly it was awful.

 

[Freestyler]

Spurs away in 2009 when we lost 2-1 and gave away a penalty right at the death.

Journey felt about 10 hours, and was just roasting hot and i was shattered.

 

[Anonymous]

Gotta be Southend, Full Member's Cup, 0-0 score on a Tuesday night, with loads of Chelsea fans hovering outside. Their ground's a real schlep to get to.
But after the game, we walked round the front and the caterers were unloading their vans, so one lad who was with us picked up a tray of sarnies & walked up the steps into the hospitality suite. Vic Jobson (their chairman) realised we were city fans & invited us in for a butty & a pint.

This was Jimmy Frizzell's first match in charge (after Billy Mc), and one of our lads saw him outside & said "We're right behind you, Mr Frizzell" & he turned round and said "Hey.........it's Jimmy" in his dour Scottish voice.

Must've got back about 4 in the morning! Happy days...

I was at that Southend game ... i finally got back home about 5am , had an hours sleep , then got up for work !

Other bad ones .... Oxford away , pouring rain , 0-0 draw .... soakin' wet trousers on coach all the way home !

Watford away ....... train caught fire on way home , had only got about 300 yards out of Watford ground 'halt' station too!

Was that Watford game late 80's - I think I was on that train? I was only a 12/13 year old so can't remember the exact game?

Could well have been ...

i'd say it was the eighties , but can't remember the exact year ..... we had left the 'halt' station near the ground , and within minutes the engine had caught fire ..... about three or four hundred of us then got off at Watfords main station and invaded the nearest pubs until they could get another train to us!

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

2 for me.

Notts County in 85. 13000 city in a crowd of 17000. Pitch invasions, fans getting in the dressing rooms. Total overcrowding in the City end. Need to win to go up. 3-0 down at half time and then get 2 back but lose 3-2. Football special back to Manchester wrecked on way home with tables thrown out of the window!

Blackburn Fa Cup game under Pearce. The hatred towards him and the players at the end of that match was awful. Fighting between fans and an all round shit day.

 

[stimo]

never really had a terrible journey home watching city, fulham away this year or last year was horrible though we were on a coach that must have been made in the 1920s and ran out of beer :(

 

[moonchester99]

Worst journey I did was after the 2-2 with Pompey, the week before we got promoted at Blackburn.

City put a train on. There was no booze. It took about 7 hours to get back. I was sat with some right bores too.

that was one tedious journey.

That was easily my worst return. Since then have a real hatred for Pompey and so pleased they got relegated. Lee Badbuy scored and they were loving it.

The train was horrendous and I remember getting stuck in West London for hours.

 

[citymad]

2 for me.

Notts County in 85. 13000 city in a crowd of 17000. Pitch invasions, fans getting in the dressing rooms. Total overcrowding in the City end. Need to win to go up. 3-0 down at half time and then get 2 back but lose 3-2. Football special back to Manchester wrecked on way home with tables thrown out of the window!

Blackburn Fa Cup game under Pearce. The hatred towards him and the players at the end of that match was awful. Fighting between fans and an all round shit day.

Wasn't there but I remember hearing about it. That was a very low point as a City fan and it looked like it got too much for some fans.

 

[BrianW]

Coming home from London one time. The games all merge into one but I think it might have been the time we got relegated at West Ham. Anyway, following our usual custom, my mate and I had summat to eat from a dodgy takeaway in Walthamstow and went on Walthamstow Dogs where we stayed as long as we dared before rushing to get the last train home, which in those days was something like 23.20.

Unfortunately it was packed, and the only seats left were two in the smoking coach right at the front. Neither of us smoked, but heigh ho, we weren't for standing up all the way home. Sadly, one of the passengers insisted on smoking a pipe that by the smell must have been loaded with sweaty socks and cat shit. It was unutterably vile, and none of the windows opened. Then to add to the fun, there was this old guy, probably deaf, who wanted to tell this young girl his entire life story in an incredibly loud voice. You could probably have heard the bloke back in the guards van. Sleep, even a nap, was impossible.

For some reason the train seemed to stop at every signal post, and I'd be surprised if the average speed was above 50 mph. Eventually, we got into Stockport, where we sat for ages. At last we set off, and as we ran onto the viaduct I could hear the roar of a diesel engine, the electric that had brought us from London had obviously come off. WTF?

Anyway, peering through the dark I couldn't make out any landmarks until after what seemed like an age, we went past the old Curzon Ashton football ground. It turned out we'd been diverted to Victoria, where we arrived at something like 3-30 am, still without a wink of sleep. To add to the fun, our cars were parked near Picc, so we had to leg it across Manchester in the middle of the night. On the way I paused to puke in the gutter - I'd only had a couple of pints, but around four hours confined with that stinking pipe had probably done for me.

Got home it was getting on for 4-30. The greyhound was pleased to see me, and insisted on going for a walk. It was getting light by this time, and I eventually fell into bed about 5-15, utterly knackered.

 

[happychappy]

Turin last season, anybody there will know, sub zero, delayed flights, in our case 12 hours overnight trains to Venice, houndreds of stranded passengers sleeping in Verona train station's waiting room. The shame is we were actually on the plane to come home when the snow came down.

 

[mayo31]

For me it was returning from Blackburn(the day of hillsbrough)got battered 4-0 and had to listen to fellow blues laughing and joking about how many scousers had died...very depressing

I did the train home that day and don't remember any blues laughing, just a stunned reaction really not about city's result but the news from hillsborough

 

[happychappy]

For me it was returning from Blackburn(the day of hillsbrough)got battered 4-0 and had to listen to fellow blues laughing and joking about how many scousers had died...very depressing

I did the train home that day and don't remember any blues laughing, just a stunned reaction really not about city's result but the news from hillsborough

Wasn't at the game but can remember loads of jokes about it in the pub the night it happened, think it took 24 hours for the reality to sink in

 

[Tbilisi]

Gotta be Southend, Full Member's Cup, 0-0 score on a Tuesday night, with loads of Chelsea fans hovering outside. Their ground's a real schlep to get to.
But after the game, we walked round the front and the caterers were unloading their vans, so one lad who was with us picked up a tray of sarnies & walked up the steps into the hospitality suite. Vic Jobson (their chairman) realised we were city fans & invited us in for a butty & a pint.

This was Jimmy Frizzell's first match in charge (after Billy Mc), and one of our lads saw him outside & said "We're right behind you, Mr Frizzell" & he turned round and said "Hey.........it's Jimmy" in his dour Scottish voice.

Must've got back about 4 in the morning! Happy days...

I was at that Southend game ... i finally got back home about 5am , had an hours sleep , then got up for work !

Other bad ones .... Oxford away , pouring rain , 0-0 draw .... soakin' wet trousers on coach all the way home !

Watford away ....... train caught fire on way home , had only got about 300 yards out of Watford ground 'halt' station too!

Southend was the League Cup(remember McCarthy offering out a City fan who gave him some verbals) and it was an awful journey back but compared to Brighton in the early 80s when it pissed down all game with no roof and City Fans got locked in so couldnt exit that was a cakewalk.Loads of City fans on the train back down to their underpants trying to dry their clothes out!