80s away days

[Paninistickers]

Just replied on another thread something about the pleat era.

 

Got me wistfully thinking of what away days used to be like. Appalling facilities, minuscule followings (no grandmas with teddy's and flasks/to swell the ranka like today) fences, barbed wire, police dogs, random.ejections, football specials & minibuses of trouble makers....all in  Cities prior to thier regeneration with menacing locals offering the very real risk of beating you up.

 

Partly marvellous to reminiscence about and partly staggering how much football and the UK has changed for the better

[PAULCFC]

Anyone else remember the pig pen when you got off the train in Nottingham?Then they took you all the way round,over the Trent behind County past a windmill and finally to where you could have been in 10 minutes instead of half an hour.

[Paninistickers]

For clarification to the young UN's, police dogs were not some cute sniffer dog looking for flares or bombs.

 

These were snarling, razor toothed Alsatians barking loudly and pulling at the leash, egged on by both the coppers - and usually your fellow fans - to savage you

[Izzy]

Started going away regularly around 88/89 in the old 2 old division.

 

Away fans really were treated like dirt back then and the whole 'customer experience' thing didn't exist. 

 

We really were poor back then and away wins were very rare. But, even though the football was crap, the days out were still great. 

 

Always standing, always singing, even if we were penned in behind fences and could hardly see fvck all 

[PAULCFC]

18 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

For clarification to the young UN's, police dogs were not some cute sniffer dog looking for flares or bombs.

 

These were snarling, razor toothed Alsatians barking loudly and pulling at the leash, egged on by both the coppers - and usually your fellow fans - to savage you

To be honest i've allways been more interested in the football,but i don't really look back at those years with any pleasure.Just glad i can take my kid's to games safely.If it was like the 80's now,then my kid's would have to find another sport to watch, which would be a shame.

[st albans fox]

Sadly my memory just isn’t what it once was - I know I went to some venues but cannot recall what happened at the game or what the ground was like

 

is it Norwich or Cambridge away where you have to walk across a large grassy area with electricity pylons to reach the ground?

 

 

 

[dayday]

In them days we had a saying be on your toes all the time and be very wary of the ambush.

 

I found Man City , Middlesbrough( did anybody go there when we beat them and stopped them going up)?, Millwall and Leeds as very dodgy places, there was others but it’s remembering them.

 

In the ground having coins fizzed at you, not pleasant at all.

[Paninistickers]

13 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

To be honest i've allways been more interested in the football,but i don't really look back at those years with any pleasure.Just glad i can take my kid's to games safely.If it was like the 80's now,then my kid's would have to find another sport to watch, which would be a shame.

It's the social change that interests me as much as anything.

 

Going to, say, Newcastle or Liverpool nowadays is an absolute joy. University city, fantastic waterside, cosmopolitan nightlife and thirtysomething fans who work.in call centres, IT or creative industries etc

 

In the 80s, men in their thirties were unemployed dockers and miners (some.employed, others not) and had been brought up in a tough working class  drab terraced (they werent done up in them.days) or council flats. Just a different time

 

 

[PAULCFC]

10 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

It's the social change that interests me as much as anything.

 

Going to, say, Newcastle or Liverpool nowadays is an absolute joy. University city, fantastic waterside, cosmopolitan nightlife and thirtysomething fans who work.in call centres, IT or creative industries etc

 

In the 80s, men in their thirties were unemployed dockers and miners (some.employed, others not) and had been brought up in a tough working class  drab terraced (they werent done up in them.days) or council flats. Just a different time

 

 

Yes,definatly social change.My mum and dad let me go then,if thing's were still the same would i let my kid's go,probably not.But i wouldn't have missed it.........strange one

[Costock_Fox]

1 hour ago, PAULCFC said:

Anyone else remember the pig pen when you got off the train in Nottingham?Then they took you all the way round,over the Trent behind County past a windmill and finally to where you could have been in 10 minutes instead of half an hour.

Sounds like a similar journey to Bruges but add about an hour into the journey.

[Vlad the Fox]

26 minutes ago, dayday said:

In them days we had a saying be on your toes all the time and be very wary of the ambush.

 

I found Man City , Middlesbrough( did anybody go there when we beat them and stopped them going up)?, Millwall and Leeds as very dodgy places, there was others but it’s remembering them.

 

In the ground having coins fizzed at you, not pleasant at all.

I was speaking to someone about Middlesbrough the other night, said we were kept in for over an hour and all the borough fans were coming out the back gardens and alleys to get at the city fans. 

[Stoopid]

10 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

It's the social change that interests me as much as anything.

 

Going to, say, Newcastle or Liverpool nowadays is an absolute joy. University city, fantastic waterside, cosmopolitan nightlife and thirtysomething fans who work.in call centres, IT or creative industries etc

 

In the 80s, men in their thirties were unemployed dockers and miners (some.employed, others not) and had been brought up in a tough working class  drab terraced (they werent done up in them.days) or council flats. Just a different time

 

 

Maybe it's an age thing, but I find your premise (to say nothing about your take on modern day football) slightly odd.

Football is - or certainly was - a working-class game. And it reflected working-class culture. 

But that certainly doesn't mean it was the relentlessly drab, violent poverty-stricken activity you seem to suggest. There could be problems sure, but it also had a vitality, urgency and authenticity that seem so sadly lacking these days.

And as someone brought up in a 'drab' council estate I'd take my culture over some div who works in IT or a call centre any day of the week.

As Sue Townsend (another council house kid) was fond of saying: The only culture worth having is created by the working class.

[Vlad the Fox]

I remember getting off the supporter coach at Blackburn in a pub car park and the coppers basically told us to go in for a drink. I was too young and an anorak so went to the ground to read the programme and sample the atmosphere of an empty Ewood park  

[HighPeakFox]

53 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

 

is it Norwich or Cambridge away where you have to walk across a large grassy area with electricity pylons to reach the ground?

It's not Norwich, but I've never been to Cambridge... 

[Guest Markyblue]

49 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Sadly my memory just isn’t what it once was - I know I went to some venues but cannot recall what happened at the game or what the ground was like

 

is it Norwich or Cambridge away where you have to walk across a large grassy area with electricity pylons to reach the ground?

 

 

 

It was Cambridge. 

[Paninistickers]

8 minutes ago, Stoopid said:

Maybe it's an age thing, but I find your premise (to say nothing about your take on modern day football) slightly odd.

Football is - or certainly was - a working-class game. And it reflected working-class culture. 

But that certainly doesn't mean it was the relentlessly drab, violent poverty-stricken activity you seem to suggest. There could be problems sure, but it also had a vitality, urgency and authenticity that seem so sadly lacking these days.

And as someone brought up in a 'drab' council estate I'd take my culture over some div who works in IT or a call centre any day of the week.

As Sue Townsend (another council house kid) was fond of saying: The only culture worth having is created by the working class.

I think we are on the same page. You just worded it better than I.

 

My point was - loosely - working class kids now work.in call centres and comfortable offices and drink.cocktails and prosseco  on a night out...they don't have the edginess that a 30 year old had in the eighties, more likely having to do tougher physical work in a male dominated environment (or, if unemployed, learning to.duck n dive)

 

Not saying one is better than the other. Just a change.

 

Btw, drab council estates of the 60s 70s 80s inspired far more music and art thanh Nowadays - today we are reliant on educated middle classes tomprsuce our music, as a general rule.of thumb

[LinekersApples]

You can never appreciate what you've got and place a true value on the air that you breath..... until you've been crushed against a wall by a  massive police horse.

 

My valuable lesson came as a teenage goshite in the late 80s.  Oh how i laughed.

[Stoopid]

19 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I think we are on the same page. You just worded it better than I.

 

My point was - loosely - working class kids now work.in call centres and comfortable offices and drink.cocktails and prosseco  on a night out...they don't have the edginess that a 30 year old had in the eighties, more likely having to do tougher physical work in a male dominated environment (or, if unemployed, learning to.duck n dive)

 

Not saying one is better than the other. Just a change.

 

Btw, drab council estates of the 60s 70s 80s inspired far more music and art thanh Nowadays - today we are reliant on educated middle classes tomprsuce our music, as a general rule.of thumb

Ok I take your point(s) -though I know plenty of working-class kids who haven't been included in the 21st Century's cultural revolution - indeed, I'm related to some of them!

But in general you are right about modern life. Especially in relation to the (fairly recent) past. 

For most it is more comfortable and easier. Indisputably ( in my mind) it's also blander, more conformist and a whole lot less creative.

Bit of a shame, really.

[HighPeakFox]

Can I just apologise for being middle class and having a bit of culture worth hanging onto? Even Sue Townsend was wrong sometimes, although I understand the point she was making. 

[Stoopid]

4 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Can I just apologise for being middle class and having a bit of culture worth hanging onto? Even Sue Townsend was wrong sometimes, although I understand the point she was making. 

Sure - but as a working-class kid growing up in such a class-obsessed country as this, I feel as though I've had to spend too much of my life having to tacitly apologise for my background at every turn. 

It's hardly surprising that it's left such a chip on my shoulder about it all. A lifetime of being patronised tends to do that.

Incidentally, I like the idea of middle class culture, just not quite sure I've ever encountered any!

(Cheap shot - sorry).

[HighPeakFox]

12 minutes ago, Stoopid said:

Sure - but as a working-class kid growing up in such a class-obsessed country as this, I feel as though I've had to spend too much of my life having to tacitly apologise for my background at every turn. 

I understand. Believe it or not, me too. I worked for 4 years with lads that were ostensibly working class, and I became a pariah. The assumptions made about me were breathtakingly ignorant, so it cuts both ways. 

 

We're derailing this - apologies mods. 

[Guest Markyblue]

Just now, Stoopid said:

Sure - but as a working-class kid growing up in such a class-obsessed country as this, I feel as though I've had to spend too much of my life having to tacitly apologise for my background at every turn. 

It's hardly surprising that it's left such a chip on my shoulder about it all. A lifetime of being patronised tends to do that.

Incidentally, I like the idea of middle class culture, just not quite sure I've ever encountered any!

(Cheap shot - sorry).

As a working class boy who has worked hard to be able to live relatively comfortably.  I can say hand on heart i have never and will never apologise for being working class. Even if the white working class are the only group left for cheap shots to be fired at.

[Bayfox]

I never attended a game until 1989 so missed some of the worst trouble. But I have to say I preferred the edge going to a game in the early 90s had over today.

 

That said, now as a father I'm glad I can take my boy to most grounds without the fear of any trouble or certainly not indiscriminate trouble that's likey to find us caught up in.

 

Certainly in most places there has been a social change and clearly football has changed the demographic it appeals too, although not all for the better IMO.

 

But can see both sides if the coin, well I guess now days you have to have some where as once upon a time you collected them after they had been lobbed at you.

[Burgh foxes 01]

I remember going to Bristol rovers away 3rd round f a cup at east I’ll 86 ,snowed all day stood in open end got beat 3-1,a day to forget .

[Stoopid]

9 minutes ago, Markyblue said:

As a working class boy who has worked hard to be able to live relatively comfortably.  I can say hand on heart i have never and will never apologise for being working class. Even if the white working class are the only group left for cheap shots to be fired at.

Yeah - well I've never apologised for it either. That's why I said 'tacitly'. 

It's more to do with the assumptions others make about you. 

But you're right - the white working-class continue to be fair game. And I find that bloody irritating. As you probably guessed...