It was on this day in history I made my football terrace debut and I would be lying if I remembered too much about it. 1973 was the year of the 3 day week as the UK suffered almost non stop from union action bringing the country to its knees.
I had just returned to the country from a spell abroad and my earliest memories are of strikes, pickets and workers battling police up and down the country. The 1970s were one violent decade that's for sure!
For some reason we had set up our teepee in deepest Sussex, Uckfield to be precise, and I guess after weeks of pestering my old man finally gave in and took me to my first game at the Goldstone Ground.
Back then Brian Clough was still in charge of Brighton and in fact a month earlier the same stadium had seen the Seagulls famously dumped out of the FA Cup by non league Walton & Hersham. That had been followed up by an 8-2 demolition at home by Bristol Rovers and, on Boxing Day, a 1-0 reverse against Aldershot.
It's fair to say the home support were not in the best of moods for this particular game but they got some respite, winning 1-0 with a goal by Ken Beamish being the first I ever saw...and promptly forgot!
I do remember the match programme took me years to track down. And for years read decades. I don't remember when exactly but it may have been the 1990s when I finally tracked down a copy at a programme fair in Bradford.
As ever the programme is of interest. A nod to those times, the game kicked off at 2 pm perhaps to avoid the need for floodlights given the energy crisis of the time and the programme notes makes mention of the travel restrictions hoping they have not inconvenienced the visitors too much.
The adertisments in the programme also point to another less commercially savvy time. The local bus company for example or a comprehensive list of pubs are prominent but pride of place must go to the Sussex Constabulary who were recruiting men and women and asked interested folks to contact the Chief Constable in Lewes!
1984 Newcastle United v Arsenal
Ah happy days. A long train trip north and a victory. Life doesn't get much better. Except it nearly happened. This was my first visit to St James' Park and I excitedly but nervously booked up with the Travel Club for the 3 hour journey north. Nervously? These were the days of, allegedly, strange northern folk approaching odd looking southern folk, asking them the time then whipping out a stanley if the accent was wrong.
The journey north was a nightmare; a grim fog hugged the line north through places like Peterborough and Doncaster. I think for a while the game was even in doubt for a while and it wasn't until we reached York, or was it Durham, that we could actually see anything out of the windows.
We were disgorged at Manors Station where the only people waiting for us were the local bobbies charged with taking up through the city centre to the stadium. I have no idea why they chose Manors, surely the normal station was closer, perhaps the plod decided we were easier to manage at the quieter station.
We were frogmarched through the centre of Newcastle where crowds of shoppers stared open mouthed at the escorted visitors, welcoming us with traditional ditties like 'fuck off home you Cockney bastards'. Familes of t shirts wearing Geordies made a point of giving us two fingered or one fingered salutes while we shivered in our best winter woolies.
Standing on the exposed terraces we couldn't wait for the warmth of the train home. On the field the players wore long sleeved shirts but none of this woollen gloves and tights nonsense they seem to go for now. Instead it was the era of the casual and players like Chris Waddle and Charlie Nicholas sported the permed hair at the back; a look copied by many of us I'm afraid to say!
Arsenal won 3-1, two goals by Nicholas and one by Brian Talbot, made the long journey worthwhile.
An indicator how of things have changed over the years. The Arsenal XI listed in the match programme were all born in England. And one link between this game and the one 11 years earlier at Brighton? Paul Mariner is listed in both the visiting teams' line ups!
The Match of the Day highlights can be found here
1986 Portsmouth v Shrewsbury Town
The things you do eh? I never bothered with holidays in the sun in the 1980s. Why should I? Frimley gave me everything I needed football and beer wise. Portsmouth wasn't a difficult place to get to, change at Guildford and alight, such an English word, at Fratton for the short walk to Fratton Park.
Always a good atmosphere at Portsmouth in those days as now I understand, this game was comfortable for them and again I don't really remember too much about it. It certainly wasn't as cold as my Newcastle trip two years earlier!
Portsmouth won 3-0 and about the only other thing I can recall is it cost 6.50 for a seat which I think was quite a bit in those days especially as it was a second division game. Oh and that tattooed geezer with the floppy hat and bell? Don't recall seeing him!
1993 Arsenal v Sheffield United
From the 1990s onwards any time I spent in England was up north so getting to home games was a trek and a half but never enough to put me off. In 1993 I was between careers and countries and travelled down by coach to London for this game, inspired by our four goal Boxing Day rout of Swindon Town.
We were now in the Premier League and Highbury was all seater but we weren't having the best of seasons...for a change. The Wenger era was three years while the rest of the world still hadn't discovered English football and nine of the players in the Arsenal starting line up were English.
How long ago was this? This was so long ago Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United were considered title challengers, that's how long ago it was!
We won 3-0, Ian Wright scoring the third goal can be seen here, but we were not having a good season and George Graham used his programme notes to say he was willing to 'spend big money for the right men' but there was no one available!
Despite having lost just two home games it seems to the fans at Highbury were less than impressed and Lee Dixon touched upon this saying in the programme how the boos hurt the team but they understood the frustration. An unhappy Arsenal home support? Who'd a thought it!
One more interesting piece from the programme that day is about the Arsenal ex Professional and Celebrity XI that did a lot of charity work. Lining up in their most recent game was a certain Brian McDermott, now Reading manager.
1997 Wimbledon v Arsenal
This game doesn't officially exist. It does as far as I am concerned but for everyone else it has been expunged from the record books.
Again I'd travelled down by coach from up north,I'd stopped using the trains because I could never work out what day I wanted to leave, what time I wanted to arrive, when I wanted to return and if the connections screwed up it was my fault. Bollocks to that.
I'd ordered the ticket from Wimbledon by post, sending off my cheque with what we called a Stamped Self Addressed Envelope for the club to return the precious piece of paper.
As a result I was stuck in the main stand at Selhurst Park for this game but we are the Arsenal and filled the stadium as we usually did whether we were playing Palace, Charlton or Wimbledon.
To be fair we weren't playing well and were lucky to go in at half time 0-0. Then when the players came out for the second half the floodlights went out! After about 15 minutes of putting 10 pence coins in the meter the officials decided enough was enough and called the game off which suited me fine. I had to get the late coach back north, if the game was restarted I would have had to kick my heels round Victoria Coach Station all night and I was getting too old for all that shit.
There was no way I could have got to the replayed game; I was leaving the country within the week. So my next Arsenal game was not until April 2012, a gap of nearly 15 years!
2010 Indonesia v Malaysia
How about this for a contrast. Over 90,000 fans filling the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta for the 2nd Leg of the ASEAN Football Federation Cup Final between two bitter rivals. Indonesia had lost the first game 3-0 in Kuala Lumpur, also in front of a similarly massive crowd, effectively winning the cup after 90 minutes.
Indonesia won this game 2-1 but never seriously looked like wrenching the cup from Malaysia's grasp and we were left at the end of the evening with Malaysia being presented with the trophy in a near empty stadium as the home support had long drifted away deciding they did not want to see the enemy celebrate.
Football had become 'trendy' for a few weeks as Indonesia had started the biennial tournament in fine form. They were helped the 'sex' appeal of Irfan Bachdim and his glamourous girlfriend, soon to be wife, who effortlessly rubbed shoulders with the air heads of the soap opera scene, a massive market here.
People who had never been to a football match before rushed to find tickets while camera crews scanned the stands looking for the A/B/C listers they were assured were at the game, rushing up to interview the empty, shallow ones.
It didn't last of course. Indonesia lost and the celebrities deciding football wasn't for them after all drifted back to their favourite restaurants and clubs far from the Dickensian urchins who called football home. For all its woes football at least can be grateful the air heads have moved on!
You can get a feel of the atmosphere here.
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