Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: Herbert Anchovy on September 07, 2025, 08:39:04 pm
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I've been doing some reflecting recently on some of my favourite non Rovers footballing memories from over the years. Here's some of mine that you might find mildly interesting but it'd be great to hear others too.
Back in the 80's and early 90's I was fortunate to attend many of the FA Cup finals from that period. In all honesty, the event was often better than the games that were usually turgid affairs. Back then it was fairly easy to get tickets if you knew where to go and who to look for and usually cost about £5 for a terrace ticket as I recall!
The worst cup final was the 1982 game between Tottenham and QPR. Calling it dull doesn't do it justice.
The '83 cup final between Man U and Brighton was great in comparison. This was the famous 'And Smith must Score' cup final where Brighton had a gilt edge chance to score a winner in the final minute but screwed it up. We were actually stood in the Brighton end and their fans were celebrating the winning goal already such was the certainty that Smith would score. I did feel for them after that.
The '85 cup final between Man U and Everton was memorable for the fact that it was one of the few times I've been badly crushed at a football match. I'm convinced that there were more than the official 100,000 fans in the ground. I saw people climbing the walls outside to get in and even people on the roof of the stadium.
I also attended the Spurs v Forest cup final in 1991 where Gaza when completely crazy and almost split two Forest players in half in the first 10 mins. He injured himself badly in the process and didn't play again for about a year.
Working on the building sites I struck up friendships with fans from all the London clubs and the banter was great. One odd story was when I worked with 2 lads who were great mates, their families used to go out together and their kids were school friends. One of the lads was a Spurs fan and the other a West Ham fan and after the two teams played a game one year they both came into work sporting shiners and cuts & bruisers. Turns out they'd bumped into each other in a pub after the game with their mates and had a massive ruck, beating the hell out of each other! On Monday morning they were mates again laughing about the episode. Strange.
One year I went to the Arsenal v Chelsea game at Highbury. It was the first game of the season and Chelsea had just been promoted the season before. This was where I saw the largest number of Away fans at game. I reckoned at the time that Chelsea took at least 15000 fans that day, they were all over Highbury. The game is on You Tube to see for yourself.
My favourite London club to watch though was West Ham. As now they were very hit and miss but the atmosphere at Upton Park was always great, no matter who they were playing. Also I used to really enjoy watching Trevor Brooking play. That bloke never had a bad game and on his day was sublime. Upton Park was a very tough place to go then and the supporters and players were a hand full, but Brooking stood out as a calm and collected, skilful player in a cauldron of intensity and aggression.
International games at Wembley were also a big thing for me for quite a time. I was at Wembley when England played Holland in 1993ish when Dennis Bergkamp played. He was quite young then but he already stood out as a really special player. It was an honour to watch him play.
It was at an international game too where I had my scariest experience. England v Scotland in 1983. A mate of mine had managed to get hold of two tickets and invited me along. I was really in 2 minds about going but I decided to risk it and wished I'd not bothered. Unusually for those games at the time, this was a night match and the Scotland fans were in London from early morning drinking the west end dry. By game time there were absolutely thousands of them who could barely stand up. They took over Wembley that night and I'd estimate that there were no more than 5000 England fans out of the 100,000 in the stadium. It was ridiculous. TO make matters worse, we were two of the few England fans behind the goal so had to tread very carefully. The Scots fans were bringing in crates of beer, bottles of whiskey and fighting between themselves on the terraces. Me and my mate were absolutely terrified and when England scored the aggression was out of this world. It was impossible to move as we were shoulder to shoulder and I remember praying that nobody would speak to us and identify us as English! After the game, the Scottish fans were looking for blood so we shuffled out and walked all the way into central London rather than risk the tubes or buses!
I also went to the 1982 World Cup in Spain on a coach made up of fans of Barnsley, Man City and Newcastle. How that coach made it onto the M1 never mind to Spain is beyond me. That was one of my all time favourite times of my life. We were in the top tier behind the goal for the England v France game proudly displaying our 'Doncaster' Union Jack. After we beat France I honestly though that we'd win the cup that year but in the end we were eliminated without losing a game!
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Some good stories there HA..
I echo your sentiments about Upton Park. When I lived in London in the late 80s, I would occasionally pick a random game to go to. Towards the end of the 1989/90 season, three teams were leading the old division 2 promotion race - Leeds, Sheff Utd and West Ham.
I checked the evening fixtures one Tuesday and the Hammers were at home to the Blades. I lived as far out west as West Ham was east, but I went along anyway. In those days it was difficult to get into an away end, but then again I wouldn’t cheer for the Blades, so I ended up in the home end North Bank.
The atmosphere and passion from the home fans was something else, and I joined in. West Ham won 5-0 so that helped.
I might have thought twice had it been Leeds.!
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I've been doing some reflecting recently on some of my favourite non Rovers footballing memories from over the years. Here's some of mine that you might find mildly interesting but it'd be great to hear others too.
Back in the 80's and early 90's I was fortunate to attend many of the FA Cup finals from that period. In all honesty, the event was often better than the games that were usually turgid affairs. Back then it was fairly easy to get tickets if you knew where to go and who to look for and usually cost about £5 for a terrace ticket as I recall!
The worst cup final was the 1982 game between Tottenham and QPR. Calling it dull doesn't do it justice.
The '83 cup final between Man U and Brighton was great in comparison. This was the famous 'And Smith must Score' cup final where Brighton had a gilt edge chance to score a winner in the final minute but screwed it up. We were actually stood in the Brighton end and their fans were celebrating the winning goal already such was the certainty that Smith would score. I did feel for them after that.
The '85 cup final between Man U and Everton was memorable for the fact that it was one of the few times I've been badly crushed at a football match. I'm convinced that there were more than the official 100,000 fans in the ground. I saw people climbing the walls outside to get in and even people on the roof of the stadium.
I also attended the Spurs v Forest cup final in 1991 where Gaza when completely crazy and almost split two Forest players in half in the first 10 mins. He injured himself badly in the process and didn't play again for about a year.
Working on the building sites I struck up friendships with fans from all the London clubs and the banter was great. One odd story was when I worked with 2 lads who were great mates, their families used to go out together and their kids were school friends. One of the lads was a Spurs fan and the other a West Ham fan and after the two teams played a game one year they both came into work sporting shiners and cuts & bruisers. Turns out they'd bumped into each other in a pub after the game with their mates and had a massive ruck, beating the hell out of each other! On Monday morning they were mates again laughing about the episode. Strange.
One year I went to the Arsenal v Chelsea game at Highbury. It was the first game of the season and Chelsea had just been promoted the season before. This was where I saw the largest number of Away fans at game. I reckoned at the time that Chelsea took at least 15000 fans that day, they were all over Highbury. The game is on You Tube to see for yourself.
My favourite London club to watch though was West Ham. As now they were very hit and miss but the atmosphere at Upton Park was always great, no matter who they were playing. Also I used to really enjoy watching Trevor Brooking play. That bloke never had a bad game and on his day was sublime. Upton Park was a very tough place to go then and the supporters and fans were a hand full, but Brooking stood out as a calm and collected, sublime player.
International games at Wembley were also a big thing for me for quite a time. I was at Wembley when England played Holland in 1993ish when Dennis Bergkamp played. He was quite young then but he already stood out as a really special player. It was an honour to watch him play.
It was at an international game too where I had my scariest experience. England v Scotland in 1983. A mate of mine had managed to get hold of two tickets and invited me along. I was really in 2 minds about going but I decided to risk it and wished I'd not bothered. Unusually for those games at the time, this was a night match and the Scotland fans were in London from early morning drinking the west end dry. By game time there were absolutely thousands of them who could barely stand up. They took over Wembley that night and I'd estimate that there were no more than 5000 England fans out of the 100,000 in the stadium. It was ridiculous. TO make matters worse, we were two of the few England fans behind the goal so had to treat very carefully. The Scots fans were bringing in crates of beer, bottles of whiskey and fighting between themselves on the terraces. Me and my mate were absolutely terrified and when England scored the aggression was out of this world. It was impossible to move as we were shoulder to shoulder and I remember praying that nobody would speak to us and identify us as English! After the game, the Scottish fans were looking for blood so we shuffled out and walked all the way into central London rather than risk the tubes or buses!
I also went to the 1982 World Cup in Spain on a coach made up of fans of Barnsley, Man City and Newcastle. How that coach made it onto the M1 never mind to Spain is beyond me. That was one of my all time favourite times of my life. We were in the top tier behind the goal for the England v France game proudly displaying our 'Doncaster' Union Jack. After we beat France I honestly though that we'd win the cup that year but in the end we were eliminated without losing a game!
I was at the Man Utd v Everton cup final, gave the gate man a fiver to let me in, was also at the Charity Shield game at the start of the following season, paid a tout £2 for a £5 ticket just before kick off
I was also at the England v Scotland night game, behind the opposite goal to where England scored early on, was involved in a high speed car crash just outside Biggleswade on the A1 on the way back
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Some good stories there HA..
I echo your sentiments about Upton Park. When I lived in London in the late 80s, I would occasionally pick a random game to go to. Towards the end of the 1989/90 season, three teams were leading the old division 2 promotion race - Leeds, Sheff Utd and West Ham.
I checked the evening fixtures one Tuesday and the Hammers were at home to the Blades. I lived as far out west as West Ham was east, but I went along anyway. In those days it was difficult to get into an away end, but then again I wouldn’t cheer for the Blades, so I ended up in the home end North Bank.
The atmosphere and passion from the home fans was something else, and I joined in. West Ham won 5-0 so that helped.
I might have thought twice had it been Leeds.!
Great story! Yes, the North Bank was raucous to say the least. When it was ‘on song’ it’d be as good as having a 12th man.
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I remember being stood on a packed Holt End at Villa Park, gates closed at least half an hour before ko, to watch Villa v Sunderland in Div 2. It was close to the end of the season, 1976 or 77 I think, and both were right up at the top of the table. Sunderland fans were out in huge numbers. It was a good game. Then Brian Little took over. Helluva player he was. Villa won 2-0.
Nothing extraordinary happened, but the Holt End was bloody enormous and I've never forgotten it. Wasn't it the biggest terrace in England?
A game where something did happen, and I hope I never, ever see anything like it again, was Millwall v Ipswich Town on an FA Cup quarter final. 1978. It was a nice day. Millwall had an evil reputation. Ipswich were one of the top teams in England with some belting players. Plenty of internationals in that team.Millwall had tried hard to make it a nice day. Lots of entertainments on, lots of announcements about behaviours. They were right to be worried. Ipswich wiped the floor with Millwall. The inevitable happened. The most scary thing I've ever seen in a football ground. It was f**king dreadful. But the thing that stood out, indeed, still stands out, happened when I was walking back, carefully, to a train station after the match. A cop car came round some street corner. It was immediately assaulted with an absolute hail of bricks and stones. That cop car jammed on its brakes and then pissed off backwards at high speed.
I've never been to Millwall since. And I never shall.
BobG