Football Back In The Day?

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

Im young so don't have any memories of a packed out open end and eastend

So can anyone shed a light on what football was like in the days of Cheesley Ateyo and Merrick?

How much it cost for a ticket?

Advertising?

Media Coverage?

Player Coverage?

Atmosphere?

Standard of football?

[WTFiGO!?!]

Well mine was probably much like yours only less sanitised. I used to sit in the Dolman B block as that was the loudest part of the ground at that point.

Um, football wasn't round-the-clock coverage then, so things like the green'un were much valued. There was no Internet an in my house no satellite TV.

First away game was being stood in a packed end at Brentford, that one made a good imprint, we made a racket and I was loving it!

But the more mainstream football has become, the more of a commodity it feels.

Hope these ramblings are of some way of interest to you.

[WTFiGO!?!]

In terms of footballing standard, they pansy about a lot more now although the game has got quicker.

[Lack of Action Man]

Leather footballs mind, fine in the dry... But in the wet?

Mind yer 'ead son!

[Aizoon]

Im young so don't have any memories of a packed out open end and eastend

So can anyone shed a light on what football was like in the days of Cheesley Ateyo and Merrick?

How much it cost for a ticket?

Advertising?

Media Coverage?

Player Coverage?

Atmosphere?

Standard of football?

3/6d (about 2 pints of beer)

A couple of boards above the goals and around the perimeter (anyone remember the Woodbine sign above the East End?)

Almost no live media coverage and very few highlights outside top division.

None of the superstar rowlocks. The age of "well, I swung a boot at it and it went in"

Atmosphere was electric. Nothing even vaguely compares with it now. Cauldron of noise and swept of your feet when we scored. Unless it was 3000 at Accrington on a Tuesday night

Football was harder and faster with less dainty skills and far fewer cheating South Americans and Italians.

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

3/6d (about 2 pints of beer)

A couple of boards above the goals and around the perimeter (anyone remember the Woodbine sign above the East End?)

Almost no live media coverage and very few highlights outside top division.

None of the superstar rowlocks. The age of "well, I swung a boot at it and it went in"

Atmosphere was electric. Nothing even vaguely compares with it now. Cauldron of noise and swept of your feet when we scored. Unless it was 3000 at Accrington on a Tuesday night

Football was harder and faster with less dainty skills and far fewer cheating South Americans and Italians.

Shame if it wasn't for greed we would still have our working class game, I just love the fact that when I watch old videos of Ateyo scoring I have to turn the sound down because of the noise and to see so many people in one stadium,

But the football violence kind of ruined the wonderful game back then I guess, and put it in a bad light. I would love to of been in the crowd to witness our promotion to Old Div 1

[BS4 on Tour...]

Great great times!

Players who gave their all every game, Gerry Gow terrorising the opposition

Woodbine, Embassy, Castella and Golden Virginia ads all around the ground

38,000 at The Gate vs Liverpool

Absolute mayhem in The East End when we scored, fighting to stay on your feet and ending up miles away from where you were stood

Electric atmospheres and old school chants

It was even claimed your could hear the roar of the crowd in the zoo in the top div days

It was just football as it should be in my opinion, great great days....

[BS4 on Tour...]

Great great times!

Players who gave their all every game, Gerry Gow terrorising the opposition

Woodbine, Embassy, Castella and Golden Virginia ads all around the ground

38,000 at The Gate vs Liverpool

Absolute mayhem in The East End when we scored, fighting to stay on your feet and ending up miles away from where you were stood

Electric atmospheres and old school chants

It was even claimed your could hear the roar of the crowd in the zoo in the top div days

It was just football as it should be in my opinion, great great days....

[BS4 on Tour...]

Great great times!

Players who gave their all every game, Gerry Gow terrorising the opposition

Woodbine, Embassy, Castella and Golden Virginia ads all around the ground

38,000 at The Gate vs Liverpool

Absolute mayhem in The East End when we scored, fighting to stay on your feet and ending up miles away from where you were stood

Electric atmospheres and old school chants

It was even claimed your could hear the roar of the crowd in the zoo in the top div days

It was just football as it should be in my opinion, great great days....

[Roadrunner]

What about the half time score boards. Two black boards, one at each end of the ground. A bloke use to come around at half time,and put numbers up on hooks, next to the letters A-M I think. We use to get excited waiting to see how our rivals were getting on. This was pre Sky, transistor radio days.

[Toblerone]

Im young so don't have any memories of a packed out open end and eastend

So can anyone shed a light on what football was like in the days of Cheesley Ateyo and Merrick?

How much it cost for a ticket?

Advertising?

Media Coverage?

Player Coverage?

Atmosphere?

Standard of football?

If memory serves it was 75p to stand in the EE during the promotion season and it was the only part of the ground where juveniles did not stand for half price. I think it went up to 90p in the first year in Div 1, or maybe it was 90p in the promotion season.

So long ago.

[redroger]

Remember the millwall game played midweek due to power cuts in the afternoon, we scored and the ball burst so goal did not count anyone remember?

[Brizzy]

Remember 11 players who actually cared about playing for the shirt? Those were the days.

[Bazooka Joe]

I seem to remember teams only had one sub - No 12.

Teams didn't warm up on the pitch before the game like they do now. They came out about 5 minutes or so before kick off, did a few stretches, passes, shots on goal, ball juggling... and then just got on with the game. I remember Barry Bridges (when he played for Birmingham) showing off his ball juggling skills and exchanging banter with fans in the Open End.

Lots of fans had their "bobble hats" whipped off their heads by their "mates" or other City fans. These were then thrown onto the pitch or passed from fan to fan until someone took a fancy to it and kept it. Sometimes, it was wise not to ask for your hat back.

At certain games, during half-time, they used to have guys carrying a huge metal container on their shoulders around the perimiter of the pitch to raise money for various good causes. This container had a bulls-eye target painted on it and fans were supposed to throw coins at this. Unfortunately, most fans threw coins at the guys carring the container. No such thing as health and safety in them days.

Opposing fans were allowed to stand toe-to-toe in the same stand. Lots of verbals, pushing and shoving which, more often than not, resulted in a full-scale pitched battle, which only ended when the police waded in.

The nastier coppers used to get their helmets knocked off, stomped on and kicked down the terraces, which p*ss*d them off cos they then had to explain the damage to their superiors. They then spent the next few games obsessed looking for the culprits and meating out their own instant punishment.Sadly, a lot of innocent fans were wrongly identified and punished for things they hadn't done. Rough justice!

In the earlly 70s (?) I remember about 80 or so SAGs sneaking into the East End in small groups, quietly mobbing up at the back, and announcing their presence with a roar. Bad move! Despite their plan to hold together they were set upon, dragged apart, beaten mercilessly and booted all the way down to the front of the East End where they gratefully fell into the waiting arms of the police for their own protection. Most of their lot were Hells Angels types (smelly, scruffy greasers). but we had a guy called Chrissy Saunders, our own greaser and a totally fearless scrapper (anyone else remember him?). I recall him holding two crying SAGs in a headlock under each of his arms. As if this wasn't enough, he was also trying to get another frightened SAG into a foot headlock.

I think it was also at this game that a guy called Heavy Duty, a fat, ginger City skinhead, got truncheoned by a copper from behind for no reason. He went absolutely mental and spent the rest of the game with his mates trying to get hold of the perpetrator, but without success.

[theothergary]

Not forgetting herbie gillam providing reports for radio bristol from a crackling phone.i think they were only allowed 3 short reports each half.no commentary

The green un on a saturday night

The rockin robins cheerleaders

The half time scoreboards at either end lettered a to z with each letter corresponding to a game in the programme.the scores were put up after half time

Goalies not wearing gloves

Muddy pitches

Happy days

[pongo88]

There is often a fair bit of looking at the world through rose tinted glasses when fans look back at the “good old days” Yes, there were some great things, but also some not-so-good things that people tend to forget.

The pitches were awful and often made Blackpool’s current pitch look like Wembley. As a result the standard of football was sometimes a bit dire. Clubs also never cancelled a match if the pitch was frozen which resulted in matches being quite comical as players kept falling over.

When I started to take an interest in football in the early 60s media coverage was virtually non-existent by today’s standards. Local radio takes a lot of stick on the forum, but then the only information you had on a match was the full time results at approx 5 o’clock. No updates during the match and no indication on who scored etc. You had to wait until the Green Un arrived (see an earlier thread about this) to get any information. Of course no internet as people didn’t start to get computers until the 90s.

The atmosphere was fantastic in the good times, but often people often only remember when times were good and hence gates were big. There were also many years when gates were low and atmosphere was nothing special. I can remember when City was in division 4 and gates were approx 5,000. Basically nothing ever changes – get a winning team and times are good – get a loosing team and things are bad.

One often forgotten thing is matches were much shorter then! Today the match usually kicks off a couple of minutes late, there is at least 15 minutes for half time and probably 2-3 minutes added time for each half. So a match that starts at 3.00 pm usually doesn’t finish until nearly 5.00 pm. In the “olden days” matches always kicked of on time, never had more than 10 minutes for half time and had a maximum of 1-2 minutes added time for the whole match. A 3.00 kick of meant a 4.42m finish.

The one really good thing about football prior to the 90s is it was much easier for small teams to reach division one (now the Premier League). The amount of big money floating around has, imo, done nothing to improve the game.

I enjoyed the football in the past, but would I want to go back – NO! The past is a wonderful thing but it is never as good a people make out

[formerly known as ivan]

Earliest memories were of players such as a young teddy sherringham playing for millwall, think we lost 4 1. And another stood at the front of the dolman vs forest and being told to watch out for this young superstar who went by the name of Stan collymore.

That doesn't go back anywhere near the time a lot of people will remember but was still a million miles away from the game today.

As a youngster even though I hated losing I loved the noise the open end made when the away fans scored.

[In the Net]

What about the half time score boards. Two black boards, one at each end of the ground. A bloke use to come around at half time,and put numbers up on hooks, next to the letters A-M I think. We use to get excited waiting to see how our rivals were getting on. This was pre Sky, transistor radio days.

I used to love that, I think the bloke used a wheelbarrow to wheel the metal numbers round to the scoreboard in the corner by the Open End. Sometimes he'd put the wrong score up, and then either a groan or a cheer would go round the ground when he corrected it.

I used to have packet of Oxo flavoured Chipmunk crisps for my half-time snack. Happy days!

[BCAGFC]

When attending most away matches in the 70s, you were litterally taking your life in your hands.

Only a handful of police on duty, hardly any escorts from stations/coaches, you were left to fend for yourself most of the time.

Walking through Home Park or Fratton on a matchday was extremely dodgy.

But I grew to love that side of football (as many still do) but as I have grown older, I realise it was wrong but it was still my best times following BCFC.