November 5th 1969

bnet

bnet

Roofer
was the first time l went West Brom for the league cup replay. Me and about 10 of my mates from school went on the bus from Humbo, we'd be 12 years old and it was all new to us. Got to the ground late and thousands were outside trying to get in, we thought it was a lock out because too many turned up. It turned out the brand new electric turnstiles hadn't worked and no one could get in. We jumped off the bus as it wasn't going anywhere and went in to the nearest entrance, which was the Brummy road end. Leicester were in the Smethwick end and thought we'll be in a bit of trouble if we stayed where we were, so climbed all the fences to get around the other end. It seemed so great to be there and experiencing new stuff. One of the reasons l guess we get hooked.

We lost 2-1, and our bus got back to Leicester way past any local buses to get us home. We were still setting fireworks off on Charles street while figuring out how to get home. In the end, the only one of us who had a phone at home got his dad to pick us in his work van, full of Bitcho, then we had to get up for school. Can't remember if we went school the next day but I'd guess we didn't. I'd already had the slipper for walking out of class to go to Villa away.

54 years later and I'm thinking we're like junkies, trying to relive the first high.
 
Ansteyfox said:
I was there, went of football special to Smethick Rolfe Street, remember singing about Jeff Astle and Dudley Zoo all the way to the ground.
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Love stories like this. Here's a bit on that turnstile failure:

BDP-Nov-6-69.png
 
Remember going to the first match at FS. A really thrilling 0-0 draw, remember the old man saying it was the best 0-0 he’d ever seen. Over 35000 there which is still a record for a home league cup match
 
bnet said:
was the first time l went West Brom for the league cup replay. Me and about 10 of my mates from school went on the bus from Humbo, we'd be 12 years old and it was all new to us. Got to the ground late and thousands were outside trying to get in, we thought it was a lock out because too many turned up. It turned out the brand new electric turnstiles hadn't worked and no one could get in. We jumped off the bus as it wasn't going anywhere and went in to the nearest entrance, which was the Brummy road end. Leicester were in the Smethwick end and thought we'll be in a bit of trouble if we stayed where we were, so climbed all the fences to get around the other end. It seemed so great to be there and experiencing new stuff. One of the reasons l guess we get hooked.

We lost 2-1, and our bus got back to Leicester way past any local buses to get us home. We were still setting fireworks off on Charles street while figuring out how to get home. In the end, the only one of us who had a phone at home got his dad to pick us in his work van, full of Bitcho, then we had to get up for school. Can't remember if we went school the next day but I'd guess we didn't. I'd already had the slipper for walking out of class to go to Villa away.

54 years later and I'm thinking we're like junkies, trying to relive the first high.
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Jumped off a bus because it wasn`t going anywhere.....
We did that on the Aston Expressway the night of the Liverpool FA Cup Semi Final replay.
Started off okay......Piss stop at the Postal Management College ahead of the M6. Daffodils were aplenty. Many picked and placed in beer cans.
M6 Northbound gridlocked as we passed flowers to some rather nice female City fans in an Austin Countryman in the next lane. As stated, off the bus we jumped , worried about the impending kick off time. Rather gingerly negotiated the drop to the ground from the elevated roadway. Later learned of a City fan breaking his leg doing similar. Not a great result, but what a night that was in the Holte End.
Finding our transport home afterwards was a nightmare....park over there somewhere was our last instruction to our driver.
Still a junkie , so many highs, and lows......
 
FirenzeFox said:
Rather gingerly negotiated the drop to the ground from the elevated roadway. Later learned of a City fan breaking his leg doing similar.
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Wow - that is a fantastic story. It's also a plot line from a great novel - Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 - climbing down from the Tokyo expressway to escape a traffic jam.

Speaking of which, I've been interviewing Jon Holmes this week about his early years as a City fan. I live in Japan and so were also having a chat about Lineker's time with Nagoya Grampus 8 - owned by Toyota. He told the story of how he, Gary and a top guy from Toyota were in a taxi and stuck in the worst traffic jam ever. Then the guy from Toyota realises what had caused the hold up and he burst our laughing. When asked why he said 'A Nissan has broken down!' (Toyota's big rivals, of course).
 
1974 was an amazing night despite the result. They gave us the Holte End instead of the Scallies. The current slang " Limbs" is the only word to describe the scenes when Lenny equalised.
 
ElmetFox said:
1974 was an amazing night despite the result. They gave us the Holte End instead of the Scallies. The current slang " Limbs" is the only word to describe the scenes when Lenny equalised.
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One thing that lots of people saw was the hot dog salesmen getting squirted with tomato sauce at half time, no big deal, but it was funny and everyone seemed to have witnessed it. Perhaps squeezy bottles were a new thing or something !
 
Every year our booze-up day was the away game to West Brom during the sixties from Anstey Working Mens Club 9 pm start get to Brum have a tour round Cape Hill Brewery
They treated us to beers and great food then off to match didn't much care about the result though but the day out with mates was great.
 
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