[Archived] Worst Away Day?

[rigger]

My most embarassing away day was at Arsaeal with MGP throwing himself to tthe ground, in front of us, then trying to justify it , to a lot of Arsenal fans in the pub aftertwards

[tomphil]

There are some really good stories here.

I'm not old enough to belong to the era that travelled 30+ years ago, but it reads like a different world. I'm genuinely surprised that there weren't regular deaths.

When I lived at home I rarely went to an away game midweek, I'd never dream of going to one in Arctic weather.

I too easily forget that Google maps and sat nav are recent inventions.

Not that long ago you just got to a town/city and drove around looking for floodlight pylons lol

Not many grounds seem to have them now but they came in handy, apart from when it turned out to be a rugby ground or railway sidings or something

[Baz]

My most embarassing away day was at Arsaeal with MGP throwing himself to tthe ground, in front of us, then trying to justify it , to a lot of Arsenal fans in the pub aftertwards

Seriously? Arsenal fans being upset at diving? I'd have laughed in their faces.

[Baz]

Remember than 5-1 at Barnsley as well, truely dreadful performance from the end of the rubber dinghy brigade. Bloomin freezin on that big open away end too. IIRC Per Frandsen scored a brilliant free kick after about 15 mins to bring it back to 2-1, then proceeded to give himself the rest of the afternoon off.

[wolfie]

Eastville 1981. Salt rubbed in wounds by Swansea fans going to and from Preston. Immortalised in song.

I was on Deepdale that day. There seemed to be more swansea fans than Knobbers. Never heard a peep out of North End fans before, during or after the match.

Leighton James played a blinder on the left, scored a corker too.

[jumpin']

Leeds Road, Huddersfield, mid 80's, stood on the open end facing west into the teeth of a blizzard blowing horizontally off the Pennines. Large icicles were dropping off the floodlight pylons. Rovers fans chanted 'let us in, let us in, let us in' (to the main stand) to no avail!

I was sat in the stand for that game with my dad watching the snowball fight. We set off from Blackburn in bright sunshine but once over the border, snow in thick drifts, cars stuck everywhere, think we won 2-0. Loved going to Leeds Road, proper old ground, tiny end behind their goal & what seemed a massive terrace opposite the main stand.

[MCMC1875]

I was sat in the stand for that game with my dad watching the snowball fight. We set off from Blackburn in bright sunshine but once over the border, snow in thick drifts, cars stuck everywhere, think we won 2-0. Loved going to Leeds Road, proper old ground, tiny end behind their goal & what seemed a massive terrace opposite the main stand.

That massive terrace roof was identical to Burnley's Longside.

[MCMC1875]

Not that long ago you just got to a town/city and drove around looking for floodlight pylons lol

Not many grounds seem to have them now but they came in handy, apart from when it turned out to be a rugby ground or railway sidings or something

Or you did a bit of homework with an AtoZ in a bookshop the week before.

[MCMC1875]

There are some really good stories here.

I'm not old enough to belong to the era that travelled 30+ years ago, but it reads like a different world. I'm genuinely surprised that there weren't regular deaths.

When I lived at home I rarely went to an away game midweek, I'd never dream of going to one in Arctic weather.

I too easily forget that Google maps and sat nav are recent inventions.

The thing is, we never knew any different. It was:- get there at any cost.

[ABBEY]

So true Mcmc .. I remember Plymouth away and we stopped in our car at a services and they played the let's leave abbey game, i.e. Drive off and make you walk to car , a police car moved them on and I got left . They went to the next junction ( no phones then = fecked) & turned round and in the meantime I'd hitched a lift with a car full of ale . Great days .. you can't take our memories cheston !!!

Then on the way home it was foggy and bombfire night and we got lost after motorway was shut and ended up in I think Litchfield ... got home as hit man & her was finishing and I was goalie on Sunday morning .. chucked up in back of nets a few times .

[MCMC1875]

Ahh the 80's.....

Plusses:

Terracing

Pay on the gate

Cheap admission

Loads of pubs

Coaches for every supporters branch (except Ribble Valley for some reason, who organised their own transport to every game)

Ribblesdale coach ad in Telegraph the week before

Less traffic (women weren't all driving)

Floodlight pylons

Minusses:

Worst decade in the history of rail travel

Awful ale

Shiite cars

[tomphil]

Ahh the 80's.....

Plusses:

Terracing

Pay on the gate

Cheap admission

Loads of pubs

Coaches for every supporters branch (except Ribble Valley for some reason, who organised their own transport to every game)

Ribblesdale coach ad in Telegraph the week before

Less traffic (women weren't all driving)

Floodlight pylons

Minusses:

Worst decade in the history of rail travel

No M65

Shiite cars

& Hooligan mobs that make most these days look like a vicars tea party.

[rigger]

Ahh the 80's.....

Plusses:

Terracing

Pay on the gate

Cheap admission

Loads of pubs

Coaches for every supporters branch (except Ribble Valley for some reason, who organised their own transport to every game)

Ribblesdale coach ad in Telegraph the week before

Less traffic (women weren't all driving)

Floodlight pylons

Minusses:

Worst decade in the history of rail travel

No M65

Shiite cars

The vagaries of hitch-hiking. This could go in either category.

[speeeeeeedie]

The thing is though, it was probably, as a bloke, the best day out of your life.I think the pub stop was some where in Oxfordshire

No doubt that you are right. It's interesting looking at it now that I'm older.

The thing is, we never knew any different. It was:- get there at any cost.

You are right. There were less options for young lads back then. With only 3 then 4 TV channels, no playstations, or Netflix, satellite TV, internet, cheapo airlines, and no live matches on in the pubs, a football match was something to really get excited about.

So true Mcmc .. I remember Plymouth away and we stopped in our car at a services and they played the let's leave abbey game, i.e. Drive off and make you walk to car , a police car moved them on and I got left . They went to the next junction ( no phones then = fecked) & turned round and in the meantime I'd hitched a lift with a car full of ale . Great days .. you can't take our memories cheston !!!

Then on the way home it was foggy and bombfire night and we got lost after motorway was shut and ended up in I think Litchfield ... got home as hit man & her was finishing and I was goalie on Sunday morning .. chucked up in back of nets a few times .

I had a long chat with a mate of mine about this recently. Phones have become such a part of life today it's hard to see what people would do without them.

My children will have no understanding of "right, we'll start in pub A" then that was it for the night. If you got lost, copped off, or fell away you always managed to find everyone at some point. Even if it was days later.

[Jock]

There are some great photos of Leeds Road on the net. I'm sure one of the snowy/hailstone ones is Rovers in the yellow away kit.

[ABBEY]

No doubt that you are right. It's interesting looking at it now that I'm older.

You are right. There were less options for young lads back then. With only 3 then 4 TV channels, no playstations, or Netflix, satellite TV, internet, cheapo airlines, and no live matches on in the pubs, a football match was something to really get excited about.

I had a long chat with a mate of mine about this recently. Phones have become such a part of life today it's hard to see what people would do without them.

My children will have no understanding of "right, we'll start in pub A" then that was it for the night. If you got lost, copped off, or fell away you always managed to find everyone at some point. Even if it was days later.

so true...once come back from notts county and got chatting to a hudders fan in brewers about footy and I ended up in hudders on the ale there...no hotels then either ,didn't cop off with anyone and kipped on train station , my mate who I was meeting in brewer laughed when I got home sunday afternoon.They thought id been nicked ha.

[windymiller7]

I was sat in the stand for that game with my dad watching the snowball fight. We set off from Blackburn in bright sunshine but once over the border, snow in thick drifts, cars stuck everywhere, think we won 2-0. Loved going to Leeds Road, proper old ground, tiny end behind their goal & what seemed a massive terrace opposite the main stand.

Pretty sure I was at that game too, also in the stands. Just remember thinking my Dad was a genius for making me go in the stand on that particular night. I always wanted to go on the terraces but he wouldn't let me until I was about 12.

Had a similar experience going to Roker Park one night with my Dad & his mate. Got there late due to the weather, already 2-0 down and that's how it finished. Late, beaten & missed both goals! Seem to remember it being stupid o'clock when we got back and my mum flapping cos we were so late. Again, no mobiles so couldn't call to let her know.

But, as has been said, there can only be one contender for Worst Away Day and that is, without a doubt, Selhurst Park, 3rd June 1989!

[ABBEY]

roker park haha ...I once picked birdie up in my cortina and his lad back when I was about 18 they had walked as far as skipton if I remember correctly.

[tomphil]

There are some great photos of Leeds Road on the net. I'm sure one of the snowy/hailstone ones is Rovers in the yellow away kit.

I thought that when i saw it. You couldn't beat away days in Yorkshire they just didn't need any organising unlike these days where everything is such a faff. Someone would just phone at dinner "fancy going" jump in their car and get there, scramble about finding the ground, abandon car on a side street and just go through the turnstile.

Now it's book tickets in advance, trains too expensive unless you plan it 3 weeks previous. Get there to find a souless bowl in a retail park or a retail park has sprung up around the ground all meaning you can't park there. Sidestreets permit holders and car parks a rip off, boozers shut or home fans only and get to the turnstile to find tickets gone up a fiver on the day of there's no pay on the day.

Plus side the coaches are nicer if you go on them and almost zero chance of bother but all that comes at a price.

[jumpin']

It haunts me that Palace day, I cried all the way home. This Emnes song what we have taken to singing just brings back that hurt, I'll never sing it. When we played Bradford away I think the season after, we won 1-0 but Courtney was the ref, my next door neighbour who I went with lost his voice for the obscenities he shouted that day.

I hate Palace more than Burnley because I feel we got cheated, tackling off encroaching fans, dodgy ref, at least with that lot (Bunly) it's pretty fair. I cannot wait til they implode.

[Crimpshrine]

I remember going to Aston Villa for a cup replay in 1990 I think. We lost 3 -1 and Andy Kennedy scored a cracker and I think we missed a penalty.

Anyway, we were a bit late arriving and looking for a parking spot when a friendly policeman guided us to a space just off a slip road to the motorway or dual carriage way. He assured us it would be safe - great.

After the match the car was nowhere to be seen. About 5 cars out of the 25 or so parked on that road had been towed away. No sign of the policeman.

By 'coincidence' there were a number of taxis ready to take us to the garage where the car had been taken. It turned out all the cars that were towed had non-Birmingham reg plates. ie all Rovers fans.

Police, taxis and garage all in on the scam.

£10.00 for the taxi, £75.00 to recover the car and a defeat! Pretty bad away day

[AggyBlue]

I remember going to Aston Villa for a cup replay in 1990 I think. We lost 3 -1 and Andy Kennedy scored a cracker and I think we missed a penalty.

Anyway, we were a bit late arriving and looking for a parking spot when a friendly policeman guided us to a space just off a slip road to the motorway or dual carriage way. He assured us it would be safe - great.

After the match the car was nowhere to be seen. About 5 cars out of the 25 or so parked on that road had been towed away. No sign of the policeman.

By 'coincidence' there were a number of taxis ready to take us to the garage where the car had been taken. It turned out all the cars that were towed had non-Birmingham reg plates. ie all Rovers fans.

Police, taxis and garage all in on the scam.

£10.00 for the taxi, £75.00 to recover the car and a defeat! Pretty bad away day

Similar happened to me once at Tranmere. Directed to park down a road by the Police and after the match all the Rovers fans had tickets on their windscreens.

Two of my worst away days.

Leyton Orient, 3rd round FA cup mid seventies. Left Chorley on an Owens coach with my customary bottle of Bacardi. Lashed before we reached Birmingham. Absolutely freezing and we got stuffed 3 1. Got rugby tackled outside after the game by a copper which put holes in both knees of my brand new baggies. Coach broke down on the way home and forty or so of us marched down the hard shoulder of the M6 to Watford Gap sevices, where we spent the night waiting for a replacement coach to be sent down. Walked in mt house just after 8am Sunday morning.

Preston mid seventies, no idea what the score was. Got hit on the inside of my thigh with a coppers truncheon after the game. Had to be virtually carried back to the railway station for the train back to Chorley. Same again from Chorley station to home. On Sunday my whole leg from knee to hip was black, thought I was going to loose it.

[matt83]

Palace away was atrocious. Bloody George Courtney.

One of my worst away days of recent memory was beating Man Utd at old Trafford on new yrs eve. I knew Kean would get us relegated given long enough but I had convinced myself beyond all doubt that if we lost away to Utd he was a goner. Well we won and I knew at that point he was now unsackable and our relegation was sealed. I walked away that day feeling we'd been relegated. Odd emotion to have winning at old Trafford but there we go.

[MCMC1875]

It haunts me that Palace day, I cried all the way home. This Emnes song what we have taken to singing just brings back that hurt, I'll never sing it. When we played Bradford away I think the season after, we won 1-0 but Courtney was the ref, my next door neighbour who I went with lost his voice for the obscenities he shouted that day.

I hate Palace more than Burnley because I feel we got cheated, tackling off encroaching fans, dodgy ref, at least with that lot (Bunly) it's pretty fair. I cannot wait til they implode.

I was at that Bradford game. Courtney got so much abuse, he couldn't wait to get off. I couldn't believe it when he got the play-off final at Wembley in '92 - his last match!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Palace away was atrocious. Bloody George Courtney.

One of my worst away days of recent memory was beating Man Utd at old Trafford on new yrs eve. I knew Kean would get us relegated given long enough but I had convinced myself beyond all doubt that if we lost away to Utd he was a goner. Well we won and I knew at that point he was now unsackable and our relegation was sealed. I walked away that day feeling we'd been relegated. Odd emotion to have winning at old Trafford but there we go.

That's how I felt. It was a great result but it was pretty obvious that it was going to be a flash in the pan and we would get relegated anyway.