Great thread this, didn't see it when it started, some cracking stories and some I can relate to.
First game for me was the 1968 opener at home against Chelsea, I was ten and my uncle stuck me on a kop barrier and fucked off !
I'm hopeless at remembering match details and all that, but think Tony Hately scored a hat trick and we won 3-1. As expected though I saw fuck all, I was removed from the barrier as soon as the teams come out, and spent the rest of the match getting helped back on it ( never the same barrier twice though !)
What I do remember vividly though was the noise from the kop, it was fuckin incredible, it had to be it held 28,000 then. No matter what noise we make now, there was twice as many people on the kop then, in a smaller, more enclosed space, it was unbelievable.
Next went the game on Keegans debut ( 3-1 again ! ) and was a regular on the kop until it's final day, some fantastic memories, St Etienne probably the best.
Went to tons of away games in the mid 70's to mid 80's, some great laughs, but some very scary times. The worst had to the manc replay at maine rd in 85 ?. Got parts of the kippax terrace hurled at us throughout the whole game, bolts from the barriers in particular suddenly rained down on us clanging of our barriers.
That was the game with ' the fence ' incident afterwards when their was full blown madness going on around the dark, narrow Maine Rd streets until the early hours.
The manc bizzies on horses mostly let it happen, they weren't interested.Another scary night was a midweek game at Boro, we took one coach ! We got legged by loads of what we thought were sound ' older' fans, just as well we were quicker than them.
We drew that game 1-1,I'm sure Terry Mac scored first for us, the cries of ' you're gonna get your fuckin heads kicked in' came from all sides of that little boro shithole.
As often happened in those days, the coach was never in the same place ( or condition ) as when you left it, and when we finally found it,every window was smashed, it was fucking freezing on the way home,and dangerous cos every now and again some loose glass would come flying through the coach.
Another thing that always happened on coach trips was the raid on the motorway services, those places really were robbed soft !
