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Games without City.


1960maaan

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So Christmas this year we are up in Essex, and the Brother in Law mentioned about going to the "big local Derby", Chelmsford Vs Braintree. Started me thinking about the games I've seen , that didn't involve City. Now I'm no ground hopper, so there aren't that many, I've done a fair few grounds, 90% with the City, but for various reasons I happened to watch others on a few occasions. I'll start with the only League ground I've been too without City at all.

Arsenal Vs Newcastle, Highbury. First game I saw there was when Andy Cole went back for his return with Newcastle, Arsenal winning 2:1 it appears, always thought it wasn't as close as that.. Seems a few went up that day,  there were 5 of us and I was massively impressed with the North bank. As a couple of mates were Arsenal fans, we started going up when City were away. Saw Man U, Man C, Sunderland and Blackburn and of all those games the highlight was Geno Washington playing under the North bank pre match against ManU. 

Watford Vs Wolves , FA Cup 1993  1:4. We were supposed to be watching City at Luton , the game was called off as we were leaving the pub. As was the rearranged game shortly after. Anyway, nothing else to do we ended up in the away end at Watford watching Wolves rip them apart.

Exeter Vs Birmingham League Cup R1 0:0 . I was working in Sidford with a mate, nothing to do and Exeter were home. Not worth the effort.

Cheltenham Vs Kidderminster . Not sure about the score in this big local Derby, I do remember Kidderminster won. At a loose end and a mates , work mate was a season ticket holder at Cheltenham. 

Leicester Vs Chelsea Div2 2:0 . Went with some Chelsea lads.  Chelsea, I seem to remember were on a twenty odd game unbeaten run ( checked Wiki 27) and I think they could have  clinched promotion that day . Interesting day all round, tickets from touts (whatever happened to them?) trouble in the top tier behind the goal, then hearing about Hillsborough when we got back. 

West Ham Vs Man C Prem 3:0 . A mate was a manager for Avco Trust and offered me free beer all day in his box in the Bobby Moore stand. Great experience, though Cottee completing his hat trick cost me £40 on my bet.

Cardiff Vs Chelsea League Cup 2:1 . The first wife's (she who must not be spoken of :devil: ) family friend Nicky Platnauer ( ?? ) got us tickets and access to the players bar, bit of a shit hole I seem to remember Not as interesting a day as I'd expected.

So my next NEW ground could be another game without City, if we can sneak off on Boxing Day , not always easy with the family there. I'd be interested to hear of the 'other' games you lot have seen when not watching City, specially the accidental ones.

Over to you lot.

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I used to go to quite a few random games, mainly Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay and Yeovil though. One that does spring to mind was Arsenal v Forest in the cup (I think Forest won 2-0 with Paul Wilkinson getting both). City had played at Southend on the Friday night and four of us kipped in the car at South Mimms services before going to Highbury on the Saturday!

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I've been to a lot in my time when for some reason I couldn't travel to watch City or they didn't have a game. In my time living in Kensington, London (75-78 & 80-84) I would walk to QPR, Fulham or especially Chelsea captained by the 18 year old Butch Wilkins. Memorably I saw Oldham put 5 past Chelsea. Also memorably, when City's game at Old Trafford was snowed off, me and a mate went to Millwall (the old Den) where Forest tore them apart scoring 5. Standing on the terraces near halfway was frightening and, while we weren't wearing colours we kept our traps shut leaving the ground. 

When I lived in Plymouth (84-88) and later Norton, nr Stockton-on-Tees (89-97), I favoured non league football. Saltash in the South and Bishop Auckland up north. Most notable watching Bishop were trips to Crewe (FA Cup), Lancaster City at the Giant Axe, Leek Town and Whitley Bay.

Other notable games were Arnold Town v Guiseley in a FA Cup match when City's game at Mansfield was postponed. Lots of snow flurries and never been so cold, or drunk more Bovril at a game in my life and plenty of grounds watching Melksham Town. 

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So it's 1983, you go up to Cov to visit your mate at the poly and watch a UK Subs gig and get pissed. Then you notice Coventry have got West Brom at home and who is West Brom's star fullback? None other than your old hero Clive Whitehead!

Some confusion ensued in the home end at Highfield Road that day about the young spikey haired drunk lad in an Echo and the Bunnymen coat, shouting "GO ON CLIVE, SKIN 'IM!" but not in a West Bromwich accent, and otherwise taking little interest in the game.

I can now reveal that lad was me. Sorry about that. 

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1993 FA Vase final between Bridlington and Tiverton, received corporate tickets to both finals at Wembley that weekend the FA Vase final was on the Saturday then on the Sunday Wycombe beat Runcorn in the FA Trophy final. 

1994 FA Trophy Final again corporate tickets for Woking Vs Runcorn. Was originally sat next to Martin Tyler but went to the loo just before kick off when I came back to my seat my mate moved along one. Sky spent the afternoon doing close ups of Tyler and my mate in my seat

Bury vs Chesterfield 1995 play off final. Drunken chat about agreeing to go to the game ended up going on a minibus with Bury supporters 

2006 pre season friendly between Spurs and Inter Milan went with a friend from London on a Sunday where literally nothing else to do that day 

Everton Vs West Ham last season a West Ham supporting mate fell ill last minute so another mate had no one available to go so stepped in last minute 

I really struggle to get interested in anything not involving City though 

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Coventry v Tottenham - Rumbelows Cup, late 80s - Highfield Road (although been to Ricoh, so does that count?).

Liverpool v many teams - Anfield

Man Utd v Fulham - Old Trafford (and Liverpool v Chelsea FA Cup semi)

Arsenal v Galatasary - Emirates (Emirates cup - first match I took Joe too)

Torquay v York - Plainmoor (last but one game of a season when it looked like Torquay would go out of the league, but won 3-2 at Barnet on final day)

South West v Barbarians - The Mem ?

3 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

Taunton Town v Diss Town in the FA Vase final - we wuz robbed!

Plymouth v Darlo in the play off final. 1-0 to Darlo with Matt Appleby getting the winner.

I was there too, bloody 7 minutes of injury time!

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Too many Play-off finals to mention - although the last one was Blackpool-Yeovil in 2007. 

Highlights include:

Sheffield Wednesday v Arsenal in FA Cup 2nd replay at Filbert Street, Leicester in about 1975 (before I’d ever seen Bristol City). Fantastic 70s atmosphere among the Owls fans.

Liverpool 0 Spurs 1 in about 1986: the first time Spurs had won at Anfield since the Titanic sank.

Wimbledon v Grimsby at Plough Lane in the FA Cup. Inflatable Harry Haddocks everywhere.

Coventry v Everton when the M6 meant we gave up on getting to Bury to see City and headed for the nearest game. I never did get to Gigg Lane.

Manchester Utd v Arsenal FA Cup replay at Villa Park (1999?). Giggs’ winner and shirt-twirling.

Oxford 3 Rovers 0 a few years ago when City had no game. Went to “collect” the ground rather than to watch BRFC. Sat with the Oxford fans but had to come back to Bristol in a car with the two Gas fans I’d taken. I enjoyed the journey more than they did.

Sunderland v Northampton after York 0 City 1 (1987?). Not sure if this should count as it affected City’s playoff chances.

Am looking forward to the next one. For reasons of general hopelessness we didn’t realise that 4th January was FA Cup 3rd round day and booked train tickets for a day out in Exeter with a Gas friend, planning to watch ECFC v Crewe. Thought we’d be without a game when Crewe got through to R3, but ECFC have scheduled their EFL Trophy game with Ipswich that day. I may be strange, but I quite like the idea of standing as a neutral in a tiny away crowd for a completely unimportant match. Not too fussed about missing the City game.

 

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Stoke vs southend utd - My first ever game at the old victoria. Ricky Otto scored the winner for Southend, 1993(ish) I was wearing a Jurassic park jumper....

Liverpool vs West Ham - again 93 I think, free tickets from a friends dad. The kop was still a terrace... Can remember it being quite impressive.

Not sure it counts but I went to a preseason game at Crewe against Liverpool. Fairly local to where I grew up and big news that Liverpool were in town with new British record signing Stan Collymore.

Manchester City - Quite a few games starting at Maine road and then on to the emirates. Used to get cheap tickets as a student. I still go every now and then for champs league games, some people tick off grounds they have visited, I keep track of players I've seen. Will be able to tell my kid I saw the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Xavi etc  . Probably the ground Ive attended most after Ashton Gate.

Spurs vs Leicester - Day before the JPT final so thought I'd pop along. Good game 4-3 to spurs and I believe Harry Kane' first ever professional hat trick. 

Spurs v Everton - Free tickets via work in a box. Boring 0-0 game but met Ossie Ardiles after as he was in the box next to us.

Arsenal Vs Burnley - FA cup game, again free tickets in a box via work. Met Ozil after the game and the only time I've ever met anyone who at the time is a current world champion. 

Arsenal Vs West brom - day after we played crawley.. I think... Someone down south anyway and last game of the season. Mate offered me a ticket that was going spare so thought why not. Dead rubber as neither teams could change league positions.

Manchester United vs real sociedad - it occurred to me that I had lived in Manchester for 15 years plus and never been to old trafford. Which meant I'd never seen Giggs play, a pretty big omission on my list of players I've seen. Tickets at the time in the group stage of the champs league were easy to come by, so bit the bullet and went for it.

Bolton vs ....er someone else. Friend had a meeting with clients in a box and I went along. The blinds were shut for the duration of the game so we could all get blind drunk out of view of the pitch. Surprisingly, I don't remember a thing about it.

Wigan vs Birmingham city - As a student I used to live with a brummie so went along with the rest my house mates. Probably doesn't count as I was refused entry to the ground for being too drunk. They may have had a point as I got on a train in the wrong direction on the way home and ended up stranded in a small northern village for 2 hours.

Also been to 3 charity shield matches. Man city lost to Arsenal in one, Manchester United beat wigan in another and the other one I honestly cant remember who played.... I think it was Manchester United....All work related so all at the companies expense. 

Few non league games at Altrincham. My ground of choice on non league day.

Always try and attend a game when I'm abroad also. Haven't managed it in a while and I reckon the last one was Roma vs AC milan, only attended so I could see Totti. He didn't start but did come on as a sub in the last 15.

 

 

 

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There are a fair few non-City games I've been to that stand out:

Wimbledon v Man U. Beckham scored from the high-way line. Think it was 3-0 Man U.

Chelsea 1-1 Leicester City. Final day of the amazing 2015-16 season. Foxes had already won the Prem...oddly enough replacing Chelsea as champions.

Arsenal 1-3 Wimbledon. December 1995 at Highbury. Very odd.

Reading 1-1 Ipswich. 2005. Top of Championship game with 2 goals in injury time.

Motherwell 2-0 St Johnstone in Feb 2017. It was very very very cold. And Ricky Foster was 'playing' for SJ.

Wimbledon 2-1 Liverpool. Michael Owen's debut and of course he scored.

Went to a few other Wimbledon ones (Man U again, Newcastle) due to knowing a season ticket holder and they always had spares. The only other one worth mentioning is Wimbledon v Everton which had the lowest ever crowd in a PL match of 3,039 of which I was one of them. That is crazy - even in league 2 most teams get that I expect.

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8 hours ago, City Rocker said:

So it's 1983, you go up to Cov to visit your mate at the poly and watch a UK Subs gig and get pissed. Then you notice Coventry have got West Brom at home and who is West Brom's star fullback? None other than your old hero Clive Whitehead!

Some confusion ensued in the home end at Highfield Road that day about the young spikey haired drunk lad in an Echo and the Bunnymen coat, shouting "GO ON CLIVE, SKIN 'IM!" but not in a West Bromwich accent, and otherwise taking little interest in the game.

I can now reveal that lad was me. Sorry about that. 

Did you watch any gigs in the General Wolf In Coventry? Saw the Review there once.. 

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Man Utd v Brighton FA Cup final. I was right behind the goal (old Wembley) when `Smith must score`. He bloody should have too!

Man Utd v Liverpool at Old Trafford back when you could just rock up and pay on the day. A 1-1 draw (Whiteside for Man Utd, can`t recall the Liverpool scorer) followed by a dash back to Bristol to see The Men They Couldn`t Hang at the Bierkeller.

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When living in Bridgwater used to on the Man U and Liverpool supporters coach from town if there were spare tickets going

 must of done 20 odd games over the years mostly on sundays 

always good going as a neutral fan to watch a game that you didn’t mind who one . This was back in the day when it was a tenner for the coach and same for the ticket 

also went to watch Barry town play in Lithuania in a Euro qualifying game in which they got beat 6.0 after drawing 1.1 in the first leg

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12 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

So Christmas this year we are up in Essex, and the Brother in Law mentioned about going to the "big local Derby", Chelmsford Vs Braintree. Started me thinking about the games I've seen , that didn't involve City. Now I'm no ground hopper, so there aren't that many, I've done a fair few grounds, 90% with the City, but for various reasons I happened to watch others on a few occasions. I'll start with the only League ground I've been too without City at all.

Arsenal Vs Newcastle, Highbury. First game I saw there was when Andy Cole went back for his return with Newcastle, Arsenal winning 2:1 it appears, always thought it wasn't as close as that.. Seems a few went up that day,  there were 5 of us and I was massively impressed with the North bank. As a couple of mates were Arsenal fans, we started going up when City were away. Saw Man U, Man C, Sunderland and Blackburn and of all those games the highlight was Geno Washington playing under the North bank pre match against ManU. 

Watford Vs Wolves , FA Cup 1993  1:4. We were supposed to be watching City at Luton , the game was called off as we were leaving the pub. As was the rearranged game shortly after. Anyway, nothing else to do we ended up in the away end at Watford watching Wolves rip them apart.

Exeter Vs Birmingham League Cup R1 0:0 . I was working in Sidford with a mate, nothing to do and Exeter were home. Not worth the effort.

Cheltenham Vs Kidderminster . Not sure about the score in this big local Derby, I do remember Kidderminster won. At a loose end and a mates , work mate was a season ticket holder at Cheltenham. 

Leicester Vs Chelsea Div2 2:0 . Went with some Chelsea lads.  Chelsea, I seem to remember were on a twenty odd game unbeaten run ( checked Wiki 27) and I think they could have  clinched promotion that day . Interesting day all round, tickets from touts (whatever happened to them?) trouble in the top tier behind the goal, then hearing about Hillsborough when we got back. 

West Ham Vs Man C Prem 3:0 . A mate was a manager for Avco Trust and offered me free beer all day in his box in the Bobby Moore stand. Great experience, though Cottee completing his hat trick cost me £40 on my bet.

Cardiff Vs Chelsea League Cup 2:1 . The first wife's (she who must not be spoken of :devil: ) family friend Nicky Platnauer ( ?? ) got us tickets and access to the players bar, bit of a shit hole I seem to remember Not as interesting a day as I'd expected.

So my next NEW ground could be another game without City, if we can sneak off on Boxing Day , not always easy with the family there. I'd be interested to hear of the 'other' games you lot have seen when not watching City, specially the accidental ones.

Over to you lot.

Great post 1960 maaan. I especially like the comments of the ex wife. Have a good Christmas with your family.

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26 minutes ago, City oz said:

Great post 1960 maaan. I especially like the comments of the ex wife. Have a good Christmas with your family.

One game i remember which was not City was Rovers v Cardiff in 74. My best mate at school was unfortunately a Rovers supporter and his dad took about 4 of us to the match for my mates birthday. I remember us cramming in the back of a Ford Escort Van. Rovers did win. I also remember the ground at Eastville and it was shared with a GREYHOUND track. I wonder if the dump of a ground is still there now ??

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13 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

So Christmas this year we are up in Essex, and the Brother in Law mentioned about going to the "big local Derby", Chelmsford Vs Braintree. Started me thinking about the games I've seen , that didn't involve City. Now I'm no ground hopper, so there aren't that many, I've done a fair few grounds, 90% with the City, but for various reasons I happened to watch others on a few occasions. I'll start with the only League ground I've been too without City at all.

Arsenal Vs Newcastle, Highbury. First game I saw there was when Andy Cole went back for his return with Newcastle, Arsenal winning 2:1 it appears, always thought it wasn't as close as that.. Seems a few went up that day,  there were 5 of us and I was massively impressed with the North bank. As a couple of mates were Arsenal fans, we started going up when City were away. Saw Man U, Man C, Sunderland and Blackburn and of all those games the highlight was Geno Washington playing under the North bank pre match against ManU. 

Watford Vs Wolves , FA Cup 1993  1:4. We were supposed to be watching City at Luton , the game was called off as we were leaving the pub. As was the rearranged game shortly after. Anyway, nothing else to do we ended up in the away end at Watford watching Wolves rip them apart.

Exeter Vs Birmingham League Cup R1 0:0 . I was working in Sidford with a mate, nothing to do and Exeter were home. Not worth the effort.

Cheltenham Vs Kidderminster . Not sure about the score in this big local Derby, I do remember Kidderminster won. At a loose end and a mates , work mate was a season ticket holder at Cheltenham. 

Leicester Vs Chelsea Div2 2:0 . Went with some Chelsea lads.  Chelsea, I seem to remember were on a twenty odd game unbeaten run ( checked Wiki 27) and I think they could have  clinched promotion that day . Interesting day all round, tickets from touts (whatever happened to them?) trouble in the top tier behind the goal, then hearing about Hillsborough when we got back. 

West Ham Vs Man C Prem 3:0 . A mate was a manager for Avco Trust and offered me free beer all day in his box in the Bobby Moore stand. Great experience, though Cottee completing his hat trick cost me £40 on my bet.

Cardiff Vs Chelsea League Cup 2:1 . The first wife's (she who must not be spoken of :devil: ) family friend Nicky Platnauer ( ?? ) got us tickets and access to the players bar, bit of a shit hole I seem to remember Not as interesting a day as I'd expected.

So my next NEW ground could be another game without City, if we can sneak off on Boxing Day , not always easy with the family there. I'd be interested to hear of the 'other' games you lot have seen when not watching City, specially the accidental ones.

Over to you lot.

Nicky P sends you his Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year,  do you still live at the same place? He hopes to pop in on Boxing Day for a festive drink and a couple of your cold turkey sandwiches.. Speaks fondly of you and is pleased you enjoyed and remember his hospitality at Cardiff in the mid 80s. By the way did you change your number soon afterwards?.. He tried calling loads of times over the years but never gets through.. Anyway he's so happy to reacquaint himself with an old best mate, so what time will suit you on Thursday?  He cant wait to see you again and go through his photo albums of the good old days .. ?  

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5 minutes ago, City oz said:

One game i remember which was not City was Rovers v Cardiff in 74. My best mate at school was unfortunately a Rovers supporter and his dad took about 4 of us to the match for my mates birthday. I remember us cramming in the back of a Ford Escort Van. Rovers did win. I also remember the ground at Eastville and it was shared with a GREYHOUND track. I wonder if the dump of a ground is still there now ??

Long gone.. Its a Tesco / Ikea nowadays.  (Ikea are still official suppliers of plastic seating chairs for Rovers BTW)

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12 hours ago, phantom said:

1993 FA Vase final between Bridlington and Tiverton, received corporate tickets to both finals at Wembley that weekend the FA Vase final was on the Saturday then on the Sunday Wycombe beat Runcorn in the FA Trophy final. 

1994 FA Trophy Final again corporate tickets for Woking Vs Runcorn. Was originally sat next to Martin Tyler but went to the loo just before kick off when I came back to my seat my mate moved along one. Sky spent the afternoon doing close ups of Tyler and my mate in my seat

Bury vs Chesterfield 1995 play off final. Drunken chat about agreeing to go to the game ended up going on a minibus with Bury supporters 

2006 pre season friendly between Spurs and Inter Milan went with a friend from London on a Sunday where literally nothing else to do that day 

Everton Vs West Ham last season a West Ham supporting mate fell ill last minute so another mate had no one available to go so stepped in last minute 

I really struggle to get interested in anything not involving City though 

I actually watched Bridlington Town the other week in the FA Vase. Although they lost in extra time to Stockton.

Back in the day, a mate of my Dad’s was trying to do the 92 so we used to tag along. Saw such random matches as Hull City v Swansea City (then a 4th tier fixture), Kidderminster v Darlington, Coventry v Birmingham.

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Ha ! Just remembered one , can't believe I forgot this.

A mate, no longer with us, drove up to Reading 89/90 , to see their game with Notts Co. If Reading got a point, we were promoted. Notts County go one up and Reading were shite. Getting late in the game, and NOOOO sign of Reading ever scoring, we decide to go. You know what's coming... Get to the car and we have hardly got away from the ground and it's 1-1, so we missed the goal that promoted us after all that.

 

 

20 minutes ago, WhistleHappy said:

Nicky P sends you his Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year,  do you still live at the same place? He hopes to pop in on Boxing Day for a festive drink and a couple of your cold turkey sandwiches.. Speaks fondly of you and is pleased you enjoyed and remember his hospitality at Cardiff in the mid 80s. By the way did you change your number soon afterwards?.. He tried calling loads of times over the years but never gets through.. Anyway he's so happy to reacquaint himself with an old best mate, so what time will suit you on Thursday?  He cant wait to see you again and go through his photo albums of the good old days .. ?  

TBF , he himself was OK. I didn't like some of his opinions of Football and might have been a bit up himself. Plus he played for gAss and Cardiff soooo :whistle:

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1 minute ago, WhistleHappy said:

The old Friday & Sunday Eastville Markets had more customers in the carpark than Rovers usually got inside of the stadium. 

As kids we got a lot of stuff from that market, got one of my first albums there too, T.Rex - Ride a white swan.

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6 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

As kids we got a lot of stuff from that market, got one of my first albums there too, T.Rex - Ride a white swan.

I do remember the markets and also i think there was one at Ashton gate. Don’t cringe but I think I got the Gary Glitter LP and it was called ‘do you want to be in my gang “

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3 minutes ago, City oz said:

I do remember the markets and also i think there was one at Ashton gate. Don’t cringe but I think I got the Gary Glitter LP and it was called ‘do you want to be in my gang “

Before all that shit came out about him, a few of us (all City lads) used to go to his Gigs, great night out on the piss. 

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3 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Before all that shit came out about him, a few of us (all City lads) used to go to his Gigs, great night out on the piss. 

It was 72 and tracks I can remember were Rock  & Roll, The Wanderer, Ain’t that a shame and Donna. Wow we are old farts 

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