Away days 3...Rotherham(a) 2nd Oct 1982

[madras]

Back to bed.......you can't sleep ?, Oh well snuggle down and I'll tell you a story.

 

Well I was still at school, 15 I was and the lad I whose locker I'd hijacked (there weren't enough to go round) at school told me someone in West house who I vaguely knew was going to Rotherham with his Uncle in the car, space in the back, did I want to go ? Yeah I was up for it, I'd been dining on greggs jam doughnuts (2 for 10p out of 50p dinner money) so I was a relatively rich dude. We were set!

 

Saturday morning arrived outsidee Maid Marion store Westerhope, picked up in a Blue Austin Allegro off for a tour of South west denton to pick up the Uncles friend, a slightly smaller, Scottish version of Rory McGrath Dundee (or maybe Dundee Utd) fan comiong along for the day out.

 

The journey there is much of a blur save for the smell of whiskey from the Rory-a-like and his tunes on the cars cassette, Supertramp and Bob Dylan....then a few laps round Rotherham thinhking that the floodlights from the railway were the football ground.

 

Now, there was a bit of pre match controversy about this as they not only ramped up the price for us but also had no concessions and I'd said at the outset "I'm not paying eight quid, I'll go in their end", something that seemed less and less likely the closer we got with Rory-a-like slagging off all the locals from thew car window. We basically pulled the car onto a grass verge /wasteland not too far from Millmoor and away we went. Before far my eyes were opened, what was to seemingly become the SPG were out in force (coppers without ID numbers leathering the shit out of anyone they wanted) and ploughing their horses into crowds to try and get a reaction. Not that they/we were all angels, ther were many walk by slappings of innocennts on either side.

 

I stood by what I said and wouldn't pay the £8 so went in their end, behind the goal and what did I get, 2-0 up right in front of me by HT, it's bloody tough even at that age to keep schtum when you see everyone going mental at the other end. That brought on half time, well that'll be quiet and peaceful, I'll keep my cover easy, well nah!. Culture club had made their debut on top of the pops that Thursday or not far off and they played "do you really want to hurt me" at half time, Group of lads in fron t of me with a big gobbed yorkshire type ring leader "I'd give her one, did you see her on't tele t'other day"". I couldn't hold "It's a fucking bloke"..."d'ya see her / what do you mean like?"....."she is a bloke, BOY GEORGE is a clue" and to be fair once my cover was blown they were great, second half we got another 3 and I think emlyn missed a pen, they even ironically cheered when we got our last. the match had been constantly punctuated by sporadic "geordie aggro" as anything happened in the ground and many nugc seemed to be in their ends,

 

Then exit ground left......managed to find the car, met the other 4, right get out of here,,,,,,,,,,,,,via an offie. My first purchaes of alcohol, a litre bottle of woodpecker cider while everyone else in the little corner offie picked up and just walked out with what they wanted  and a bit more besides. A few minutes out the offie "Rory" and the driver decide to fight some locals who were slagging us off. chased them down an alley and scudded them a bit while we watched from the car, scared to leave our freshly bought/nicked booty................and scared to get involved.

 

Journey home...followed a box luton for a while with the back open with NUFC fans sat on the back ledge (mick will explain), then "Rory" needs to hoy, hard shoulder, very whiskey-ey, as he's barfing a car pulls in behind us and this fella starts talking to the driver "do you want to buy some parts"...what the fuck, this bloke, black slacks, black poloneck sweater (terminology of the time aswell yey!) with blond slicked back hair and perferation dots tattoo across his neck. no no don't need any spares "he looks a mess (rory) i'll take him back for you"...no it's ok, ", "i can leave this car here and come back with yous in case he gets stroppy".....what ?. a year or so later when I wasn't a school kid but an about towner  I saw the bloke in town (friday night type town) and he told me he'd regularly go to aways with friends and just nick a car to come home, this was backed up by his mates.

 

made it back to the local park for a game of football with whoever was out, felt so grown up regale stories of the day, it was really just an eye opener and a starter.

 

 

Shhhh now...............................sleep, mwah.

 

 

[Guest Haris Vuckic]

''while everyone else in the little corner offie picked up and just walked out with what they wanted''

 

Aka ''the usual''.

[TaylorJ_01]

Legend, madras

[Jill]

I love these.

[Tsunami]

Terry Mac's first game back, motd camera's for a 2nd div match, Kevin Todd , KK smashing 4 in, old blokes (and I mean old ) going mental and Emlyn Hughes getting in a strop and jumping up and down like a kid hen the pen was missed.

 

I've got the VHS tape somewhere, I had a school match and couldn't go, my older brother and the his mates went down. Gutted I wasn't there. I think Ronnie Moore scored for them. KK thumped in either his 3rd or 4th goal and the motd camera's pick up an old bloke being picked up and hugged like a scene from the 20's.

[madras]

the game in question is on youtube if anyone is interested. gerry gow looks like einstein.

[Tsunami]

Just watched it, the memory was a bit mixed up. I remember going to Bolton which was KK's first away Saturday game, crammed on the terrace, rivers of piss and Bolton fans lobbing chunks of concrete into our end. We lost, 3-1 if I remember. Some of the amostpheres back then were fantastic, even in smallish crowds, oh for safe standing areas.

[Mick]

I can't go into the detail that Madras can for that day but remember leaving at 7am with 3 4 packs of LCL and getting into Barnsley too early for the pubs to be open and going to an off-licence to get some beer to keep going until 11 when the pubs opened.

 

I don't remember much other than we parked near the train station and the match was class with Keegan and Terry Mac playing above anything else on the pitch.

 

After the game we had to go past the train station to get to the van and Rotherham fans were dropping rocks onto our fans who were queuing up below to get into the station.  The Rotherham fans were on path at the side of a road bridge which went over the railway line at one end of the station.

 

They didn't see us on the other side of the road and shit themselves when we got stuck into them.  We didn't go looking for trouble but we weren't walking past them knowing what they were doing and we've actually stopped our own fans when they were doing similar to Blackburn fans.

 

We went to Wakefield on the way back for the night out and it was like being in town as every pub we went into was full of our lot.  Wakefield was like a 2nd home for us and it was always our preferred night out because it was less than 2 hours to get home.

[Mick]

Just watched it, the memory was a bit mixed up. I remember going to Bolton which was KK's first away Saturday game, crammed on the terrace, rivers of p*ss and Bolton fans lobbing chunks of concrete into our end. We lost, 3-1 if I remember. Some of the amostpheres back then were fantastic, even in smallish crowds, oh for safe standing areas.

 

I was at that Bolton game and saw the concrete being thrown down to our right.

[TheGuv]

Ah i wish I could have gone to matches in the 70's and 80's

 

They sound fucking mint

[madras]

Just watched it, the memory was a bit mixed up. I remember going to Bolton which was KK's first away Saturday game, crammed on the terrace, rivers of p*ss and Bolton fans lobbing chunks of concrete into our end. We lost, 3-1 if I remember. Some of the amostpheres back then were fantastic, even in smallish crowds, oh for safe standing areas.

 

I was at that Bolton game and saw the concrete being thrown down to our right.

I was in the seats above their paddock at Bolton, (right hand side if looking from the pitch). there were blokes in with us jumping into the bolton end in 2's and 3's and fighting their way down to the fence where the coppers would drag them out and dump then into the newcastle standing section. one bloke went on his own and just ended up pinning some bolton lad against the fence while the two of them got kicked and punched for a minute or so till the coppers dragged both out with the bolton fan fighting with the law to get back into their end.

[Scoreboard82]

Ah...memories. West house and Westerhope maid marion shop. Am i right in saying, like me, you went to West Denton school Madras?

As for the game, i wasn't there and it was just before my 1st away game at Carlisle that November. I remember watching MOTD though and the toon fans were magnificent. As there were generally only 2/3 games featured on MOTD those days, it was a big night when NUFC were featured. More so because we weren't in the top flight.

 

[madras]

Ah...memories. West house and Westerhope maid marion shop. Am i right in saying, like me, you went to West Denton school Madras?

As for the game, i wasn't there and it was just before my 1st away game at Carlisle that November. I remember watching MOTD though and the toon fans were magnificent. As there were generally only 2/3 games featured on MOTD those days, it was a big night when NUFC were featured. More so because we weren't in the top flight.

aye 80-83, only got caught in the carols once and lived to tell.

[Scoreboard82]

Ah...memories. West house and Westerhope maid marion shop. Am i right in saying, like me, you went to West Denton school Madras?

As for the game, i wasn't there and it was just before my 1st away game at Carlisle that November. I remember watching MOTD though and the toon fans were magnificent. As there were generally only 2/3 games featured on MOTD those days, it was a big night when NUFC were featured. More so because we weren't in the top flight.

aye 80-83, only got caught in the carols once and lived to tell.

81-84 for me. Happy days. I had a quieter introduction to early away games than yourself I reckon, as most of my games were on the 'magpie' travel coaches. Still exciting in those early days though.  I remember losing 2-0 to Carlisle in that 1st away game and still being happy just because it was my 1st away game.

[madras]

40yrs ago today. I feel owld