80s and 90s Fans Memory Lane

[melrose]

Last game of the season 1983 at filbo, twenty nine thousand watched us gain promotion 0-0 against Burnley. Then it was put on hold because Malcolm McDonald said his Fulham players were booted on the touchline by sheep shaggers waiting to invade the pitch at the baseball ground, so he complained. A bit of a tense few days wait for the result!

[Stig the Lawnmower]

I remember going away to Watford, last game of the season when muzzy scored to get us in the play offs and send watford down. Before the game fans from both sides were hanging around a precint wher the queue for the chippy was about a half hour. city fans were kicking a football about and someone lobbed it right up in the air. a watfford fan with his young son walked out of the chippy with their chips, and the ball landed on the chips spilling them all over the floor. the lad looked devastated, but the best thing was the city fans as one sang "you're going down with your chips, down with your chips, you're........" Brilliant

[leicester ghost]

chelsea.

2 of us went down to humberstone gate in the hope of a lift to chelsea,last time we'd got a lift no problem.that was for a night game and leicester lost 4-1 i think.

this time,the same 2 lads turned up,unbelievabe,we're on our way.for some reason we were late and by the time we are parked up and at the gates to the away end,there locked.

theres about 15 police and they explain to us [no way can they open the gate to the away end,the shed would empty].i can't remember what else they said.

10 minutes later,we 4 have'nt moved,13 police have,they've gone,to be replaced by more and more chelsea who like hyenas are sensing easy pickings.

suddenly one of the police takes pity on us as chelsea numbers are getting silly,they don't make a move on us but all your london intimidation is present.

now to understand this better you need to understand the layout of old stamford bridge.

one road,all entrances to the ground are on this one road.first is the away turnstile,right next to it is a turnstile for the west stand seats,and the shed,and the lower benches.

further down the road is the quadrangle or whatever you call it,access to the then new east stand,and main enterance to the shed.

the police open the gate and usher us through.once through the turnstyle you find yourself in an alley that winds its way past the length of the pitch and arcs round to the right and to terracing split in 3,i think.

we were escorted through the alley and as we reached the bend before arcing right,chelsea started climbing from gardens into the alley.

before any contact the police chased the chelsea off and we joined the few hundred leicester.chelsea score and i really hated them.

for all their intimidation tactics,at filbert street and earlier.then lineker equalises and we go mad.thankyou mr lineker,moments like that make being a leicester fan worth while.

incidently,you can only make intimidation work so many times.iv'e been chelsea about 10 times now,not all with leicester,we ended up getting blase,and went either with a chelsea lad we knew,or just us ,

leicester fans in the shed.i loved going to london who ever leicester played.by the way,thanks to the 2 lads who picked us up at humberstone gate 2 years running .

one was mark,if you ever read this you'll smile.

[Teeno]

I remember going away to Watford, last game of the season when muzzy scored to get us in the play offs and send watford down. Before the game fans from both sides were hanging around a precint wher the queue for the chippy was about a half hour. city fans were kicking a football about and someone lobbed it right up in the air. a watfford fan with his young son walked out of the chippy with their chips, and the ball landed on the chips spilling them all over the floor. the lad looked devastated, but the best thing was the city fans as one sang "you're going down with your chips, down with your chips, you're........" Brilliant

That game was quality, 6000 of us there. Pretty much everyone with portable radio's trying to find out the other scores.

[Head Honcho]

Promotion away at Orient was special and only just makes it into the 80's.

I remember some guy giving me a smack!

He thought I was a hammer because I was wearing a tootal scarf with shades of Claret and Blue in it.

My uncle and his mates kicked the shit out of him and don't know to this day if he was a Leicester or Orient fan

[purpleronnie]

Last game of the season 1983 at filbo, twenty nine thousand watched us gain promotion 0-0 against Burnley. Then it was put on hold because Malcolm McDonald said his Fulham players were booted on the touchline by sheep shaggers waiting to invade the pitch at the baseball ground, so he complained. A bit of a tense few days wait for the result!

I hadn't started going then but I remember that game, derby fans invaded the pitch thinking the game was over but it wasn't, so the fans lined the pitch (like leicester did against newcastle 1992???), and as a fulham player ran down the line a derby fan swung a leg at him. Funny stuff but that fun turned to anger as there was talk of the game being replayed, but it wasnt and we went up.

[leicester ghost]

melrose

i remember the 0-0 against burnley,did'nt macdonald claim the game had ended on 88 minutes.

[purpleronnie]

melrose

i remember the 0-0 against burnley,did'nt macdonald claim the game had ended on 88 minutes.

I think he also claimed that when eventually the ref blew his whistle and the derby fans ran on the pitch one of the fulham fans was assaulted.

[leicester ghost]

headhoncho.

iv'e a similar story to go with yours.

cov away,before the game,we come out the car park next to the trainline.not thinking, i'd put on a shirt with a sky blue collar,we're approached by some older lads who looked like they'd just been in a scrap.

they saw my collar and were gonna do us but gave me a chance by asking where i was from.luckyly i lived near them.

[jonno24]

The best ever experience i had at a leicester match was the 3-3 v Arsenal that was class i dont think i have screamed so much before or since.

[melrose]

I hadn't started going then but I remember that game, derby fans invaded the pitch thinking the game was over but it wasn't, so the fans lined the pitch (like leicester did against newcastle 1992???), and as a fulham player ran down the line a derby fan swung a leg at him. Funny stuff but that fun turned to anger as there was talk of the game being replayed, but it wasnt and we went up.

Yes I think that's right ronnie, because the lad who swung the leg lives in our town and still works in the same butchers shop as he did 25 years ago.

[leicester ghost]

a is for arsenal.....athletico madrid.......and anyone else beginning with an a.

arsenal...only been the once,in a midweek cup game.mini bus for this one

pre match drink in the sherlock holmes if i remember right,plenty of leicester lads there.we went for a pint up the road,when we returned the pub had been shut down.

front window had been put through,police everywhere,don't know to this day what had gone on.

talk about big brother watching...a few of us lit fags up on the tube....the tube stopped soon after,with a stern warning to put them out'

the match was a dissapointment,leicester losing 2 - o i think.

arsenal were the first fans to cause trouble at leicester when i began to go.

2 seasons on the trot they came in pen 4.gap opens and about 7 aside slug it out.there used to be a leicester fan in pen 4 with lots of other teams scarves,wonder how he aquired them.

i'm not a big fan of arsenal,but as a right footer i copied liam brady for hours using my left foot,served me well.

another thing to come out of arsenal is kevin campbell,leicester fans, should applaud him every time we meet,and they do.

arsenal loaned him to us for a few months when we were having a terrible season,he gave everything for us,including goals.

i can't recall any details,someone will have to help me out on this one.

[purpleronnie]

a is for arsenal.....athletico madrid.......and anyone else beginning with an a.

arsenal...only been the once,in a midweek cup game.mini bus for this one

pre match drink in the sherlock holmes if i remember right,plenty of leicester lads there.we went for a pint up the road,when we returned the pub had been shut down.

front window had been put through,police everywhere,don't know to this day what had gone on.

talk about big brother watching...a few of us lit fags up on the tube....the tube stopped soon after,with a stern warning to put them out'

the match was a dissapointment,leicester losing 2 - o i think.

arsenal were the first fans to cause trouble at leicester when i began to go.

2 seasons on the trot they came in pen 4.gap opens and about 7 aside slug it out.there used to be a leicester fan in pen 4 with lots of other teams scarves,wonder how he aquired them.

i'm not a big fan of arsenal,but as a right footer i copied liam brady for hours using my left foot,served me well.

another thing to come out of arsenal is kevin campbell,leicester fans, should applaud him every time we meet,and they do.

arsenal loaned him to us for a few months when we were having a terrible season,he gave everything for us,including goals.

i can't recall any details,someone will have to help me out on this one.

I remember Arsenal having a pretty tastey firm but that was way back in the day, I think by the 80's they weren't up too much.

[leicester ghost]

denton[rip] ex leader of the gooners died not so long back.

seem to remember someone saying after one game,[dentons been flattenned,and arsenal ran]on the park behind filbert street.the whole country was after him because of his fame,or infamaty

he was too famous for his own good.

[leicester ghost]

athletico madrid.

it was every leicester fans dream to see the team at wembley. now, we'd been there a few times for play-off finals and beaten a boro side who'd enjoyed a cracking season in the cup.

we'd completely sussed the london tube system,and were experts on londons pubs.

now we were on the big stage,the football fans of europe would be noticing us,

we drew athletico madrid,right,first get all the information on madrid you can,

my circle of mates wer'nt going but i was fortunate to get a lift off a group of lads,1 of who i knew.

they'd all previously drove abroad so we made good time,we were through france during the night and passed bordeux early morning rush hour.

we entered the pyrenees mountains,soon after and suffered our first hold-up.

an articulated lorry had hit a car on a mountain bend,resulting in the lorry going down the mountain and crushing the cab.

40 minutes later we were off and soon passed burgos and headed down towards madrid.

it was around 4pm when we left the hotel to search out one of madrids squares.

i can't remember the name but it was obvious everyone around was a real m supporter.

there was plenty of leicester fans in the area,and i was surprised at the madrid police attitude.

they were calm,chatty and all real madrid fans.

we spoke to a few spaniards and enjoyed a bit of banter with the binmen.

next up was the tube trip to the area of the ground,on board we spoke to a young athletico fan,we told him he ought to get his scarf out his bag as we wer'nt going to hurt him.

he said he would'nt wear his scarf until one tube stop from the ground,then he'd be out of reals territory,he said lots of atletico fans get attacked.

off the train and in the pub,2 pubs together and leicester have 1 and a half of them if i remember right.

we enjoy the build up,then head off,the ground is only round the corner.first up is the leicester away end,we walk passed and round to the opposite side.

the ground looks impressive from outside.its great to mingle on the european stage,and we join the few spaniards up the same stairs.

they don't seem to arrive till late,whereas theres a healthy leicester following already.

we are in a section not unlike the double decker at filbert street,difference being,we're in the main stand nearly behind the dugouts.

we use the same toilets as the locals,but nothings said to us,only when they are in their seats do they give us the throat slitting gestures.

theres probably 300 in our section,we stand at the front of the seating area behind the flags,the away end looks impressive,3200 according to the local press.

we sing nearly non stop,when marshal scores we go mad,this is what its all about. how many leicester fans kept glancing at the score board on our sections left .

we're now even louder and the local police,who looked more like soldiers suggested we sit down as we'd been in the ground over an hour.

fair play to the police,they had to remind us to sit quite a lot,they only bodily sat me down once and there was no dramas like some english fans have endured.

the rest of my memories are hazy,there was a few dodgy decisions by the ref,and madrid scored 2,the leicester players were absolute heroes,every one.

3 more observations,the spaniards were seriously loud with their singing,atletico madrids chairman was eventually jailed for something dodgy a few years later.

and i made my mind up,i was knackered,next time leicester were in europe i was gonna go for longer.

[He's not bald]

he's not bald.

the memories come flying back.watford away,and that long walk round the allotments.

i went there about 6 times,the last time i went was a night game.i can only remember 2 things about that night.we went in the pub behind their end and discussed going in their end because of that awful walk.

we ended up going through with the walk and missed 1 or 2 goals,we saw ali mauchlins screamer,but as we were on the service traIN WE HAD to leave early.i think the score was 2-2 and we'd seen 1 goal.

cambridge.we never had a drink there for some reason.been 3 times i think,including the play off semi final 1-1,then we stuffed them 5-0 at filbert st.

the old den. millwall.

i personally loved going to millwall,i thought early 80s chelsea was far more intimidating,but i know what you mean.we only went for a few pints near the ground on the third time of going there.

i was on the special train for the fa cup match that you mention.the game was supposed to be played on the saturday.snow,frost i think had caused the game to be cancelled.

we travelled down on the special and still took a good crowd.it was my first trip to the den.what an eyeopener.

after leaving the station,first main road,theres spotters for the millwallbushwacker hooligans.

standing at busstops,it was so obvious,i'm sure lads were giving these spotters stick,bloody hell the walk was then one ambush after another.

leicester never took a backward step if my memories correct.

see if our recollections are the same.after the incident with the spotters we turned a corner on to another main road.

we reached a pub on the right,it emptied and they come out throwing glasses but did'nt do much else.one interesting observation was these chaps were your older millwall growlers.

they could have walked straight off the 1976 panorama documentry.around the same time there was an attack by millwall on the other side of the road.

i did'nt really see what was happenning there as i was the same side as the growlers.

then soon after, we had the proper bushwackers come for us.that was about 150 yards up the road so it was crap if it was an ambush.

the police had us boxed in for about 5 or 10 minutes,so we watched millwall going at the police.there was no problems after that.

i can't remember much else,i think fashanu scored for them,at the final whistle millwall invaded the pitch and marched towards us in the corner.

leicester fans sang[your just a bunch of w######] and that was that,all good experience for later when we'd travel independently to london,sometimes the night before.

incidently,did'nt millwall riot at luton in the next round.

You brought it all back,I remember the glasses being thrown from the pub on the left and a couple of times during the route march to the ground the Millwall fans tried to join the end of the queue!

And them running across the pitch at the end,but to be honest I may have been a bit wary at the time but it was all "big girl's blouse" stuff and there was no way they would have got anywhere near us and they had all gone home to their pie and mash by the time we got out of the ground...bleedin depressing journey home as I recall though and a lot of Foxes fans got off at Kettering for some reason

[leicester ghost]

hes not bald

i wish i had a photographic memory,as i'd love to put a book together on travelling around the country watching leicester.

i did have a large collection of photos from games,only 20 or so survived the wife shredder.

there was quite a few boring trips home from matches in the 80s,by the 90s travelling by car and service train was'nt so bad,especially splitting up the journey for a few beers.

iv'e got a clear picture of the millwall growlers i mentioned as i was adjacent to them,and they had the pub door open and a few were out.

they looked as though they'd been in the pub since 7am that morning,and i still find the facial expression of one funny even now,it was as though we had no right to be there,following our team

[leicester ghost]

he's not bald.

been thinking about the slight differences in our recolections on the escort to the ground at millwall in 1985.

i just might have the answer,see what you think.

you mention millwall trying to infiltrate the escort at the back,i never knew that had occured.

you mention millwall throwing glasses on the left,i knew something was happenning on the left across the road,but was'nt sure what.

i take it you must have been near the back of the escort.

i was just forward of the middle of the escort and on the right,

millwalls growlers as i called them definately came out the pub on the right,20-30 yards set back from the pavement.

further on in the march, the escort was stopped for 5-10 minutes,i moved up to the front and watched the bushwackers going mad with the police.

i definately remember the police horse in the thick of things.

i reckon we both experienced different things due to our position in the escort.

anyway,cheers for the views mate.

[Father Ted]

All my dad goes on about is Bob Hazell, getting thrown into the trent at Forest and how his best mate used to piss in the person's in front pocket when it was terracing. Also, David Speedie is a t*at but also a hero.

[Head Honcho]

Humberstone Gate every other saturday morning to catch one of the coaches/minibuses.

Usually got on Croftys. Saw him at Cardiff last season and he still runs them.

[leicester ghost]

father ted.

there was once a rumour bob hazel was involved in a large london distubance involving street gangs and the police.

he served leicester pretty well.

whenever he did anything good on the pitch,leicester fans sang[who throws petrol bombs,bob hazel,bob hazel]

[Father Ted]

father ted.

there was once a rumour bob hazel was involved in a large london distubance involving street gangs and the police.

he served leicester pretty well.

whenever he did anything good on the pitch,leicester fans sang[who throws petrol bombs,bob hazel,bob hazel]

Yeah, my dad goes on about him being in Birmingham and caught on video throwing petrol bombs, or something along the lines. He even still jokingly sings, who throws petrol bombs - Bob Hazell, Bob Hazell.

[leicester ghost]

head honcho.

one of my first away games was derby away.

got on a double decker from humberstone gate.

roger davis scored for leicester,derby then banged in 4.

i remember bricks flying around in the ground while the game was on.

also that bleeding alley.

on the way home during a stop,an older lad came out of a shop carrying a great big jar of sweets on a stand.

he looked at us young uns and said something along the lines of[here you are lads]

[leicester ghost]

yes,it could well have been birmingham where bob hazel was in a riot.

lots of people had their holidays upset when leicester signed david speedie.

i'm convinced he cheated against leicester at wembley,

he had a hard job to be accepted at filbert street.but with his never say die attitude,sticking his head in where it hurts,

and also his goals,he was accepted.

i remember seeing him score a cracker at bolton,later on in the evening at blackpool,i got a dj to play a song for one david speedie,

[purpleronnie]

Anybody travel to Old trafford in the cup 1993?. We got thrashed 5-1.

I went up with a mate who had just passed his test. We got stopped by the police as I had filled the back of the car with balloons.

My mate was a Man U fan but had never been to a game (somethings never change).

I remember walking around trafford with my leicester flag and feeling quite intimidated, loads of teenagers shouting out abuse.

The away section was still terraced back then. We were outplayed, it was the start of the 90's domination by utd.

I remember most of the match some leicester fan near us kept having a go at his own fans for not singing more . He kept shouting 'We beat the scum 1-0 apparantly referring to a previous win against Forest. After a while a bloke near him challenged him to shut or or else, he went quiet and then tried to be all friendly after that.

I also remember one of the Man U players diving in the box and rolling around on the floor, leicester fans gave him loads of grief only to see him jump up and give a rye smile to the leicester fans.

I also remember fans to our right, didn't stop singing all the way through (man u fans that is), which was very impressive as it wasn't a big game, now old trafford is so quiet.

Not the best of away trips but 15 years later I still remember lots about it, including forgetting my camera, and seeing myself on tv in the highlights.

I cant believe it was 15 years ago.