Roll call

Brauny

Brauny

The optimistic pessimist
Anyone on here that went to Newcastle away in 84/85 ?
A bleak cold midweek and midwinter night.
They battered us, they must have had about 75-80% possession. We had 5 efforts on goal and won 4-1. Ian Banks scored a 30yard screamer, Lineker and Smith chipped in.
Geordies weren't happy, their fanzine labelled it ' floodlight robbery '
I remember doing a rough check, and I reckon there was about 100 city fans there that night. Anyone from here attended ?
Also, weeks before we battered Sunderland 4-0 at Roker Park, that was a Saturday and there can't of been anymore than about 200 there.
Once again did anyone go ?
 
I was at Sunderland for the 4 nil win. This is my story.

In 1982 my then boss went to work for Sunderland Council. There was a close relationship between the Council and the club because of the proposal to relocate the ground to what eventually became the Stadium of Light (name pinched from Benfica, I think). He invited me to attend the game in the Directors box at Roker, on condition I kept my gob shut. Which I did, although it was hard to do.

I remember nothing else about the game, not even any of the scorers.

Since the SOL was built I have been back three times. The first for the League Cup semi final, I know Cottee scored and I think Frank Sinclair did too, in the oppo goal for once. I then went back for a last game of the season when Sunderland were promoted. Then for the game that marked the completion of the Great Escape.

I would be gobsmacked if there were only 200 City fans there. Even when we were really crap we always had a good number of fans for Saturday games, thousands not hundreds. It was obviously not like now where away tickets are gold dust, but we were well supported.

My Smoggie STH relatives refer to the SOL as "The Stadium of Shite".
 
I went to Roker one Sunday in the early 90’s. We only had the corner not the whole end, there can’t have been more than 250 of us then maybe less.
 
DagenhamFox said:
I went to Roker one Sunday in the early 90’s. We only had the corner not the whole end, there can’t have been more than 250 of us then maybe less.
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Was about 250, was live on ITV . I was at Uni in Newcastle. When I got back to Newcastle I was intercepted by a Geordie who insisted I go to a pub for a pint. I thought my life was over.
Because we'd beaten the "Mackum Bastards" they paid for me to drink with them the rest of the night.
 
DagenhamFox said:
I went to Roker one Sunday in the early 90’s. We only had the corner not the whole end, there can’t have been more than 250 of us then maybe less.
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that Sunday game rings a bell, l didn't bother going but a mate of mine (Sean T) who went, got nicked. We were having a drink and he was on about going all the way there to answer bail. I told him not to bother as they ain't gonna come all this way and arrest him, I'd done it before and nothing happened, so he didn't. He only goes and gets nicked in town for fighting on Paddies Day a few weeks later and the Sunderland police drove down and took him from Charles street all the way up there. He had no money when he got nicked which compounded it, I got the blame😃
 
ElmetFox said:
I was at Sunderland for the 4 nil win.

I would be gobsmacked if there were only 200 City fans there. Even when we were really crap we always had a good number of fans for Saturday games, thousands not hundreds. It was obviously not like now where away tickets are gold dust, but we were well supported.
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I can assure you there wasn't much more, if at all. I used to go everywhere in those days.
In the Midlands and down in the smoke our support was excellent, but I also went to games where people didn't bother.
Ipswich away in midweek springs to mind.
Attendances in those days were going through a bad patch, you take it for granted now that most Premier games are nearly sold out. Back then violence was common place and Leicester had a season in Div 1 ( top flight) where they only averaged about 11k for the season.
Some games only had 7000. It was a different world then
 
Just looked at the 4-0 Sunderland game.

It was a couple of weeks before Christmas and the attendance was only 16441.
 
Went to Roker for a meaningless end of season, think '89, 5 trains there 4 back and a cancellation meant we were stranded in sheep shagging central... without consulting OFAF think it was a draw.
 
I am happy to accept that my failure to recollect much about the Sunderland game extended to ignorance about the level of away support. Must be those Rose tinted spectacles. And yes, it was a different time then, especially with the crowd disorder.
 
ElmetFox said:
I am happy to accept that my failure to recollect much about the Sunderland game extended to ignorance about the level of away support. Must be those Rose tinted spectacles. And yes, it was a different time then, especially with the crowd disorder.
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Those days you could get better ticket allocations than the restricted Premier regulations of today. We always took huge away following to places like Villa and Florist.
 
Classic times like when I was Bernie Flint and a mate screeched to a halt in the middle of Shilton Hollow stopping traffic and shouting "Are you going down the City?"....."I'm skint mate"......"Ger in yer twat I'll pay".....This was half two on a Saturday afternoon
 
Brauny said:
Anyone on here that went to Newcastle away in 84/85 ?
A bleak cold midweek and midwinter night.
They battered us, they must have had about 75-80% possession. We had 5 efforts on goal and won 4-1. Ian Banks scored a 30yard screamer, Lineker and Smith chipped in.
Geordies weren't happy, their fanzine labelled it ' floodlight robbery '
I remember doing a rough check, and I reckon there was about 100 city fans there that night. Anyone from here attended ?
Also, weeks before we battered Sunderland 4-0 at Roker Park, that was a Saturday and there can't of been anymore than about 200 there.
Once again did anyone go ?
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I was there. I seem to recall the away following that night was 140.
 
Brauny said:
Those days you could get better ticket allocations than the restricted Premier regulations of today. We always took huge away following to places like Villa and Florist.
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Bang on, one of my first away trips was to Birmingham City, 80/81 Frankie was playing for them that day we won 2-1 and young me was astounded at how many we took.
 
SK24U said:
Bang on, one of my first away trips was to Birmingham City, 80/81 Frankie was playing for them that day we won 2-1 and young me was astounded at how many we took.
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That was 1979/80, Champions year. Bobby Smith and Martin Henderson scored, Franks debut
 
Taken from The Roof 4

"with City only losing £15,000 on that disastrous signing. The sighs of relief all over Leicestershire were palpable as Wallace recalled the popular John O’Neill to replace Stevens to help City to a hard-earned victory over Notts C, with Youngy scoring the only goal of the game. An unlucky loss away to Newcastle was then followed up by a run of 13 games with only one loss, a cracking game at home against West Ham which City played well but went down 2-1. December saw a tough run of games with away trips to Brum, Charlton and Chelsea.

The first was Birmingham away, a fearful place to visit at the best of times but that day had an added edge to the proceedings. Frank Worthington had joined Birmingham only a few days earlier and both teams were in the top four and playing well. City won 2-1 with goals from Smith and Henderson and the large City following were in raptures. Some quality chants were aired that day too, Willie Johnston on loan from West Brom was heckled with chants of ‘Junkie, Junkie’ in reference to his banned substance misdemeanors which saw him sent home from the World Cup in 1978 and an hilarious chant of “You can stick your fuckin’ carrot up your arse” when Jasper Carrot took his seat only 50 yards away from the Leicester hordes, fair play to Carrot though, he stood up and bowed and was laughing along with the rest of us. The walk back to the station was going to be tricky but as luck had it we bumped into a fellow Shiltoner who offered us a lift home…phew."
 
mickyhoss said:
That was 1979/80, Champions year. Bobby Smith and Martin Henderson scored, Franks debut
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6th December 1980 - 2- 1 win again, Jim Melrose got both according to wicki. That's the one I was at it was deffo after we'd both gone up the season before.
 
SK24U said:
6th December 1980 - 2- 1 win again, Jim Melrose got both according to wicki. That's the one I was at it was deffo after we'd both gone up the season before.
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Sorry mate, you're correct. Never realised Frank was at Brum that long
 
Brauny said:
Also, weeks before we battered Sunderland 4-0 at Roker Park, that was a Saturday and there can't of been anymore than about 200 there.
Once again did anyone go ?
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I'm sure there were more than 200 there.
It was a Saturday game, and we'd just beaten QPR 4-0 the week before, so we were on a bit of a high. Night matches could have lousy following, but Saturdays were generally decent (even in those days).
I'd been to Sunderland on Boxing Day 78-79, and there definitely were only about 150 there that game (if that).
But that 4-0 win on 8th December 1984 felt brilliant ... as it followed on from a 4-0 win the week before, and Sunderland had been unbeaten at home that season so far. I can remember it feeling a good atmosphere, so I'm pretty sure there were more than 200. I would've guessed 500, but I didn't count them, so I'm not going to argue.
 
There is no way I can prove it, but there really wasn't that many there. When you are winning 4-0 the atmosphere was bound to be good even with a smallish following. I think the passage of time may distort people's recollections.
That Sunderland game had 16000, the Newcastle game had 21000. Attendances were poor by today's standards, and apart from local derbies and games around London, other fixtures were less well attended around that time.
 
Brauny said:
There is no way I can prove it, but there really wasn't that many there. When you are winning 4-0 the atmosphere was bound to be good even with a smallish following. I think the passage of time may distort people's recollections.
That Sunderland game had 16000, the Newcastle game had 21000. Attendances were poor by today's standards, and apart from local derbies and games around London, other fixtures were less well attended around that time.
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Very true, I remember around 7-8000 at Filbert Street for a 1st Division game v QPR at night, pretty sure 86/7.
 
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