80s away days

[CosbehFox]

8 hours ago, baker11 said:

Were they not welcomed with open arms?

I’ve looked up the game in Foxes and Fossils. It appears my Dad was talking codswallop as we never played Rangers at Filbo

[Guest Markyblue]

11 hours ago, 49er said:

Scariest away trip - FA Cup replay away at Millwall in the mid eighties. I was a student in London at the time. Travelled by tube/overground train from North London, with my LCFC scarf safely tucked in. I was one of the first City fans into the ground. We should have won the game, but ended up losing 2-0. At the end, there was a sense of relief, thinking that the Millwall fans would be happy with a victory and would forget about a confrontation. Instead, they invaded the pitch and headed towards our end. Fortunately, we had a big fence separating us. In the next round, they played Luton away and totally ravaged the place.

 

 

Went that game and also a couple of years later when i think we led going into injury time and conceded 2 goals to exit the cup. Happy days and memories. 

[Guest Markyblue]

11 hours ago, 49er said:

Was anyone else at the FA Cup tie at the Baseball Ground vs Burton?

 

Game ended in a city victory but was replayed due to Burton keeper being hit by objects.

[Stoopid]

6 minutes ago, Markyblue said:

Game ended in a city victory but was replayed due to Burton keeper being hit by objects.

I was there and remember a bit of trouble between our lot and a load of Derby fans who'd gone there to support Burton & have a go at us.

There was suspicion that the incident with their goalie was exaggerated (by him) but the game was replayed - behind closed doors - anyway.

 

[SpacedX]

11 hours ago, 49er said:

Was anyone else at the FA Cup tie at the Baseball Ground vs Burton?

 

 

10 minutes ago, Markyblue said:

Game ended in a city victory but was replayed due to Burton keeper being hit by objects.

Played behind closed doors at Highfield Road. 

 

What a ridiculous decision - I'm sure I'm right in saying that we hadn't played Derby for a while so of course they were always going to be out in full force. We did encounter them around the same time in The Milk Cup and the fighting which spilled over into Highfields after the game resulted in a full blown riot. 

 

9 hours ago, bss9401 said:

1985 FA Cup tie at the Den. What an experience. The walk to the stadium was something, burnt out cars and vans, eerily quiet and creepy. At the station the cops were so helpful. We asked for directions and the copper pointed the way and said that we should hope that we lose. During the game there were constant attacks on the away fencing. Unbelievably there were plenty of Leicester fans who were up for it and scrapping broke out at regular intervals. 

I was there - evening game. Horrendous. Got held in at the end, then when we got out most of the police had ****ed off while the Millwall fans lay in wait on Cold Blow Lane and at New Cross Gate Station. 

6 hours ago, Jo Smith said:

 

Talking of Spurs, that 1999 League cup atmosphere was a throwback to the 70s and 80s, if you went that day you get the idea).

 

 

Absolutely - I remember saying this at the time outside The Torch. 

 

The incident in the Leicester end happened right in front of me.

[SemperEadem]

21 minutes ago, Stoopid said:

I was there and remember a bit of trouble between our lot and a load of Derby fans who'd gone there to support Burton & have a go at us.

There was suspicion that the incident with their goalie was exaggerated (by him) but the game was replayed - behind closed doors - anyway.

 

Was this before or after Leicester and Derby joined up together?

[Stoopid]

1 hour ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

I’ve looked up the game in Foxes and Fossils. It appears my Dad was talking codswallop as we never played Rangers at Filbo

He wasn't. There was a friendly (the irony) against Rangers. From memory it was about 1967.

Rangers brought maybe a thousand or so fans who stood in the Popular Side at the Kop end, and relentlessly pelted us with coins, bottles and whatever came to hand. Fights everywhere and a level of violence that eclipsed even the frequent battles with Forest that characterised those days.

2 things stick in my mind.

1 - A lot of Rangers fans were wearing silky football scarves which I'd never seen before and

2 - There was a persistent urban myth that a bunch of Rangers fans had gone to Highfields looking for - well, you can guess - where they had disturbed Tyrone Heskey (Emile's dad), who then proceeded to chase them back to town. Unlikely, but knowing Tyrone, well within his compass.

The whole thing made me think - if that's what it's like for a friendly, what's it like when they play Celtic?

[melrose]

11 hours ago, 49er said:

Was anyone else at the FA Cup tie at the Baseball Ground vs Burton?

 

This still rates as one of the best day outs at the football to this day 

 

[CosbehFox]

Just now, Stoopid said:

He wasn't. There was a friendly (the irony) against Rangers. From memory it was about 1967.

Rangers brought maybe a thousand or so fans who stood in the Popular Side at the Kop end, and relentlessly pelted us with coins, bottles and whatever came to hand. Fights everywhere and a level of violence that eclipsed even the frequent battles with Forest that characterised those days.

2 things stick in my mind.

1 - A lot of Rangers fans were wearing silky football scarves which I'd never seen before and

2 - There was a persistent urban myth that a bunch of Rangers fans had gone to Highfields looking for - well, you can guess - where they had disturbed Tyrone Heskey (Emile's dad), who then proceeded to chase them back to town. Unlikely, but knowing Tyrone, well within his compass.

The whole thing made me think - if that's what it's like for a friendly, what's it like when they play Celtic?

My bad. I was looking at friendlies in 70s and 80s. 67 would make more sense as my Dad would have been a teenager. Majority of his 20s and 30s he was playing football on Saturday afternoons. 

[Mayofox1]

30 minutes ago, Stoopid said:

I was there and remember a bit of trouble between our lot and a load of Derby fans who'd gone there to support Burton & have a go at us.

There was suspicion that the incident with their goalie was exaggerated (by him) but the game was replayed - behind closed doors - anyway.

 

I was just to the right of the goal, and saw what hit their goalie on the head. Don't think it was a coin, seemed a bit too big. He held his head, went down, possibly made a meal of it. Score may well have influenced it, plus advice from medic/trainer. 

 

[Guest Markyblue]

11 minutes ago, baker11 said:

Was this before or after Leicester and Derby joined up together?

After

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

15 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

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

Not forgetting the football “special” train service as a young man then even our own fans were intimidating 

[Stoopid]

10 minutes ago, baker11 said:

Was this before or after Leicester and Derby joined up together?

Also remember the minivan (Paull's from the saff - of course) me & my mates were in got ambushed in a pub car-park in Alvaston (Alvaston, oh Alvaston!) and an unholy tear-up ensued. 

So despite winning 6-1 we lost the victory (tho we won the replay at Cov) AND I lost my bleeding deposit on the van!

Painful.

[HybridFox]

16 hours 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.

Millwall still have one!

[Guest bss9401]

13 hours ago, 49er said:

Was anyone else at the FA Cup tie at the Baseball Ground vs Burton?

 

I was there. Classic big away game of the eighties. There's no doubt that the goalie exaggerated as it didn't hit him as he had claimed but it was immaterial in the end. It must have been so scary for him as heavy, old wooden chairs and coins were thrown around him. These days we would've been banned. What a day out, though. 

[SpacedX]

14 hours ago, 49er said:

Was anyone else at the FA Cup tie at the Baseball Ground vs Burton?

 

Ha! - "Alan Towers" reporting...Midlands Today. Completely forgotten about him. His ITV counterpart was Trevor East. 

[Gerard]

17 hours 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 there.

 

Getting back to the minibus parked a mile away was like the film The Warriors. 

[Vince Vega]

17 hours 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.

A day not to forget.  We parked about four or five backstreets away.  All was fine and dandy pre-match - drinking outside the pub with the locals on a lovely sunny day.  Then two City goals later and WWIII broke out.  Kept in for ages - just so everyone knew who the Leicester fans were - chased all round the back streets, drove the wrong way down a one way street and made the main road, where a kind policeman let us slip in between the away coaches.  Phew!   

[Gerard]

15 hours ago, smudger63 said:

I was there, kept us in for ages after the game, while the Boro fans decided to show the local coppers how pissed off they were!!

 

Quirky fact, that's Anna Soubry right at the end of that. 

 

Edit: Should have read the next post. 

Edited 9 April 2019 by Gerard

[SpacedX]

4 minutes ago, Vince Vega said:

A day not to forget.  We parked about four or five backstreets away.  All was fine and dandy pre-match - drinking outside the pub with the locals on a lovely sunny day.  Then two City goals later and WWIII broke out.  Kept in for ages - just so everyone knew who the Leicester fans were - chased all round the back streets, drove the wrong way down a one way street and made the main road, where a kind policeman let us slip in between the away coaches.  Phew!   

Fearsome Park. 

[Vince Vega]

3 minutes ago, Line-X said:

Fearsome Park. 

Just watched the goals above and remembered after the Gary Mac goal, we were singing "we're gonna get our fecking heads kicked in!" 

[dayday]

1 minute ago, Vince Vega said:

A day not to forget.  We parked about four or five backstreets away.  All was fine and dandy pre-match - drinking outside the pub with the locals on a lovely sunny day.  Then two City goals later and WWIII broke out.  Kept in for ages - just so everyone knew who the Leicester fans were - chased all round the back streets, drove the wrong way down a one way street and made the main road, where a kind policeman let us slip in between the away coaches.  Phew!   

Funny enough in 1990, we had gone up to boro on a supporters coach from Rugby.

 

We lost the game 6-0, left at full time and headed back to our bus, there was roughly about 8 of us who walked through this park.

 

we took the left path way only to be confronted by 40-50 boro lads, we legged as fast as we could,luckily saw a load of coppers or we would have got battered.

 

 

 

[SpacedX]

Anyone at this? Still have a relative living in the same house on The Bishops Park Road who has unbelievably never watched a match at the Cottage. 

 

Wilson's goal, one of my favourite away celebrations ever and part of our 15 game winning streak under Milne. Saw him the next day in County News in Oadby and shook his hand.

 

All went South for Fulham V Derby on the last day of the season...farcical.... 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/that-1980s-sports-blog/2018/may/03/fulham-promotion-leicester-derby-football-league

[Vince Vega]

51 minutes ago, Line-X said:

Anyone at this? Still have a relative living in the same house on The Bishops Park Road who has unbelievably never watched a match at the Cottage. 

 

Wilson's goal, one of my favourite away celebrations ever and part of our 15 game winning streak under Milne. Saw him the next day in County News in Oadby and shook his hand.

 

All went South for Fulham V Derby on the last day of the season...farcical.... 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/that-1980s-sports-blog/2018/may/03/fulham-promotion-leicester-derby-football-league

Yes.  Didn't miss many games in them days.  I remember we were packed in so tightly, you could lift both feet off the floor and not fall or move anywhere!

 

It seems strange now that in those days you could decide down the pub on a Friday night to go to an away game the next day.  

[Guest Markyblue]

1 hour ago, Line-X said:

Anyone at this? Still have a relative living in the same house on The Bishops Park Road who has unbelievably never watched a match at the Cottage. 

 

Wilson's goal, one of my favourite away celebrations ever and part of our 15 game winning streak under Milne. Saw him the next day in County News in Oadby and shook his hand.

 

All went South for Fulham V Derby on the last day of the season...farcical.... 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/that-1980s-sports-blog/2018/may/03/fulham-promotion-leicester-derby-football-league

I was there with about 5000 others packed in the away end. No tickets neeed turn up at the turnstiles and in you went. Sometimes 2 of you together. ?