Sharing a memory

[lookersstandandy]

Afternoon all.

 

I was perusing twitter t'other day and came across some Ceefax pictures of the Division 1 table in 1991 [see links below]. The date the table related to was for games played on 28th Sept. I looked up the date and found we had just beaten City 2-1 at Maine Road [see video link below]. It was then I remembered I had written a piece for the trust a few years ago under the title 'What are your best away day memories?' about this game, so thought I'd post it on here to provide some light relief from the heavier content currently dominating threads. Happy Friday.

 

What are your best away day memories? I always used to love going to Maine Road. Apart from the 2 x FA Cup S/F replays in '90 and '94, it was a ground we always did well at. Our post war record at Maine Road was as follows;

vs Man City P9 W4 D3 L2 F14 A11

vs Man Utd P3 W0 D1 L2 F5 A9

Total P12 W4 D4 L4 F19 A20

What date, time and venue was it played at? The one particular game that sticks in my memory was played on 28th Sept '91. Man City away in the old [pre-Premier League] 1st division.

What were your 1st impressions of the ground? I always liked the old stadia, they were quirky. Leeds Road Huddersfield, Burden Park Bolton, Ayresome Park Middlesbrough, Roker Park Sunderland, Victoria Ground Stoke, Baseball Ground Derby, Filbert Street Leicester & Maine Road Manchester were all examples of grounds that had character, interesting structures to look at and a mixture of smells such as Bovril, Pies and Pipe smoke. In most cases, you arrived through a series of streets lined with typical working class terraced housing, from where the club's loyal support lived, unlike today's gallactico supporting 'fans' from towns and cities nowhere near the home ground of the team they support.

Maine Road's Kippax stand was large and noisy and what seemed peculiar, had advertising hoardings on the roof. It had a section reserved for away fans and where I stood on a couple of occasions in '93 and the '94 FA Cup S/F replay and enjoyed the banter of singing to/at our opposition. The Main Stand's roof was of corrugated cantilever architecture and thus interesting to look at, I sat in this stand in the '90 FA Cup S/F and Replay. The North Stand was at the time a modern seated stand and I sat here when Gary Kelly saved a penalty in '99.

However the stand I most enjoyed being in was the old Platt Lane stand, reserved before it's redevelopment for away fans only. It had old wooden slat seats not dissimilar to the Lookers Stand and from which you could stand and move around easily to avoid the pillar's holding the roof up like the Chaddy End. The acoustics always appeared to amplify the noise we made and being not far from home, we always took a decent following. I saw us win 2-1 in '87 and 4-1 in '88 both in the old 2nd division from this stand. The former a brace from Tommy Wright and from where we embraced the 'yarddog' tag given to us by our former manager, the late Jimmy Frizzell, then on the staff at Man City, for the way he perceived we beat his new employers. The latter included a Roger Palmer hat-trick the last of which was sheer class, a lob from the edge of 18 yard box. Have a look on youtube if you haven't seen them.

What was the attendance and how many did latics take? The attendance was 31,271 according to the record books. If you look at City's attendances that season, their average was 27,691 and our game was only bettered by Man United [38,180], Liverpool [37,322] and Arsenal [32,325]. In those days I don't recall away following's being recorded, however at a guess I'd say it must've been approaching 4,000, maybe more.

What was the atmosphere like? It was early in the season. We were 2nd division champions, back in the top flight for the first time in 68 years, shorn of our plastic pitch for the first season in 5 years. We hadn't yet won away and had stuttered at home. It was yet unclear how we would fair amongst our more illustrious competitors. We were just happy to be there and so it was a party atmosphere, full of smiling faces, some people dong the conga and lots of singing. It really was electric.

What was the score and scorers? We had signed Graeme Sharp from Everton in the summer for £500k. A player who had won the title twice and had FA Cup and European Medals to his name too. I recall him looking a class act but he hadn't yet found the back of the net. City took the lead in the first half with a goal created by Niall Quinn and finished by David White. We were 2nd best for much of the first 45 mins. After the break, Sir Joe Royle did what he did, which is put into action a formation that included 4 forwards [4-2-4], Ritchie, Marshall, Sharp and Holden ably supported by Milligan and Henry from midfield. We battered them. Graeme Sharp scored 2 inside 10 minutes, one a volley from a Marshall cross and the other a header from a Holden cross. We won 2-1. The noise was incredible. It's rare you attend a game where you come from behind and while still celebrating the first goal find yourself with a second to enjoy.

How did we play? From 45 mins to 90 mins we were unstoppable and I felt certain for the first time that we were good enough to be in and stay in the top flight.

What made it so memorable? How did you get there? I was 14 years old at the time. I lived in Droylsden and went to school in Audenshaw, both in Tameside. As a result, I was the only Latics fan in my class and one of only a handful in my year. I was surrounded by Reds and Blues of Manchester with an odd scouser thrown in. I had won some respect from my school mates during the 'Pinch-Me' season of 89-90, however coverage of our 90-91 2nd division triumph was limited and so people, kids especially, have short memories. We had already lost [1-0] at Old Trafford to a late [they were the luckiest side ever in those days] Brain McClair goal and my City fan mates thought it would be a walk over for them too.

Some of the lads I knew from school were travelling to Maine Road on their own, however my mam wasn't having any of it when I asked her if I could jump on a bus from Droylsden to Moss Side alone, so she dropped me off at Boundary Park and made me travel on the official coaches. I was glad she did, because it made the journey more enjoyable being amongst my own. As we arrived, miraculously I saw 3 boys I went to school with who gestured to me [not in a nice way] as I looked out of the coach window. Battle lines drawn. What makes it even more interesting is that these 3 boys appear on the TV highlights of the game afterwards hurling abuse at Rick Holden just before he put in the cross for Graeme Sharp's winner. You couldn't have scripted it any better.

What did you do pre/post match? Post match I remember arriving back home and immediately going out onto a park with mates trying to emulate Graeme Sharp's volley and looking forward to going to school again on Monday morning!

Link to video:

Link to Ceefax D1 table, top half: https://twitter.com/AK90s/status/802646030000996352

Link to Ceefax D1 table, bottom half: https://twitter.com/AK90s/status/802926198087188480

 

 

[oafcmetty]

One of my favourite away games was the win where GK saved a penalty. Cracking atmosphere and a great battling performance.

[oafcprozac]

'91 was the conga around the way end - first away win I ever saw

'99 I was under the stars the last couple of minutes I wasn't alone scores of us couldn't bare to watch when they got that late consolation. It meant THAT much that day. It was like a labour ward with expectant fathers pacing up and down...

[oafcprozac]

The 3-3 was pretty good two goals behind twice at 0-2 and 1-3 and we still clawed it back and sharp put a sitter of a header wide late on.

[peanuts]

Remember this one well even generated the famous "blue moon city started to croon they thought theyd won at one nil then sharpy gave us athrill" chant that drew a missive cheer from the QPR fans away a few weeks later !

 

was almost worth getting my new stereo nicked by some ittle toerag during the game

Edited December 2, 2016 by peanuts

[stargazer]

They don't get much better than the 4-1 win at Maine Road on August Bank Holiday Monday 1985/6 ish ??? and Roger's hat trick ......mind I think we did them a favour as to how bad their team was.

Changed loads of players and got promoted , don't think we won away from home again for months.

[real]

They don't get much better than the 4-1 win at Maine Road on August Bank Holiday Monday 1985/6 ish ??? and Roger's hat trick ......mind I think we did them a favour as to how bad their team was.

Changed loads of players and got promoted , don't think we won away from home again for months.

88/89 that one I think - my second year supporting Latics and first away at Maine Rd

[JoeP]

One of my favourite away games was the win where GK saved a penalty. Cracking atmosphere and a great battling performance.

 

Fantastic. Couldn't speak for two days afterwards because my voice had gone from all the shouting.

[Stagger Lee]

They don't get much better than the 4-1 win at Maine Road on August Bank Holiday Monday 1985/6 ish ??? and Roger's hat trick ......mind I think we did them a favour as to how bad their team was.

Changed loads of players and got promoted , don't think we won away from home again for months.

One of my favourites too! For a while we could make the genuine claim we were the second best team in Manchester and it was not outrageous to claim we were probably better than Man UTD too!

[TheBigDog]

Southampton League Cup QF 1990. Hundreds locked out , crap view from th away end. 2-1 down with the game almost over and then....Ritchie strikes. One of the great away day moments.

[AndyGortonsMatches]

One of my favourite away games was the win where GK saved a penalty. Cracking atmosphere and a great battling performance.

 

That'd be the Spring 1999 match, Gary Kelly with the save, Paul Reid an Dux with the goals. Orlygsson was like a man possessed.

 

Probably my favourite ever away win, our fans were incredible all match and ripped the Kippax fans to shreds with our chants and put downs. Big Joe copped for some too. To cap it off, there was also a male streaker, must have been a cold day as there was not a lot to see.

 

Other memories being held back after the final whistle for 15 mins but still being charged at by City fans when we left with some 'tics unfortunately floored, Police horses intervened and City fans then started punching the horses... class.

 

I then seemed to be the only Latic on one the Bus Specials back into town full of fuming City fans, recall having to adopt a fake Manc accent to survive the journey but loved every second of their whining.

[palmer1]

City 1-2 Latics 98/99

 

 

 

City 3-3 Latics

 

https://youtu.be/yf1nA3IyhkA

 

City 1-4 Latics 88/89

 

 

Latics 1-0 City FA cup

 

[oafc1955]

Southampton League Cup QF 1990. Hundreds locked out , crap view from th away end. 2-1 down with the game almost over and then....Ritchie strikes. One of the great away day moments.

Remember it well...went down on the plane with the team.... Our away following that day was unbelievable!!

[oafcprozac]

 

That'd be the Spring 1999 match, Gary Kelly with the save, Paul Reid an Dux with the goals. Orlygsson was like a man possessed.

 

Probably my favourite ever away win, our fans were incredible all match and ripped the Kippax fans to shreds with our chants and put downs. Big Joe copped for some too. To cap it off, there was also a male streaker, must have been a cold day as there was not a lot to see.

 

Other memories being held back after the final whistle for 15 mins but still being charged at by City fans when we left with some 'tics unfortunately floored, Police horses intervened and City fans then started punching the horses... class.

 

I then seemed to be the only Latic on one the Bus Specials back into town full of fuming City fans, recall having to adopt a fake Manc accent to survive the journey but loved every second of their whining.

 

 

We actually braved (Very quietly) a pub in Moss Side. A City fan unwittingly paid for our beers as I found a score in the tap room. Perfect day....

Edited December 4, 2016 by oafcprozac

[kowenicki]

Remember it well. The atmosphere was awesome in the away end.

[oafcprozac]

Remember the streaker late on - hairy bastard!

[dave_ragg1984]

City 1-2 Latics 98/99

 

 

 

 

 

That penalty save is tremendous. Kelly saved a free kick in stoppage time, which was just as good if not better.

 

That win in '99 was probably the best away game I've ever been to. I was 14 at the time, and went to school in Failsworth. So in my year there were about 5 of us who supported Latics, and the rest were United or City. City had been crap for a good few years, so I could never understand the amazing arrogance that came with being a City fan. So beating them at Maine Road was absolutely brilliant. Couldn't wait to go to school on Monday morning.

 

After the game when they kept everyone back, they actually left one of the doors open. So we left the ground, saw a few City fans waiting outside our end which I found a bit odd, and headed for the bus back into Manchester. On the bus, there were 5 or 6 of us at the front, and the rest were all glum City fans. Looking back, it was a miracle we made it back in one piece, as we did nothing to hide our delight at what we had just watched.

 

Also went to the 2-1 win in the First Division, but I was too young to really appreciate how good that must have been. To me at that time, thats just what we did. We just won loads.

[andy_b_100]

The 3-3 was pretty good two goals behind twice at 0-2 and 1-3 and we still clawed it back and sharp put a sitter of a header wide late on.

I remember that ... the strangest weather I have ever witnessed at a football match

[Downender]

Afternoon all.

 

I was perusing twitter t'other day and came across some Ceefax pictures of the Division 1 table in 1991 [see links below]. The date the table related to was for games played on 28th Sept. I looked up the date and found we had just beaten City 2-1 at Maine Road [see video link below]. It was then I remembered I had written a piece for the trust a few years ago under the title 'What are your best away day memories?' about this game, so thought I'd post it on here to provide some light relief from the heavier content currently dominating threads. Happy Friday.

 

What are your best away day memories? I always used to love going to Maine Road. Apart from the 2 x FA Cup S/F replays in '90 and '94, it was a ground we always did well at. Our post war record at Maine Road was as follows;

vs Man City P9 W4 D3 L2 F14 A11

vs Man Utd P3 W0 D1 L2 F5 A9

Total P12 W4 D4 L4 F19 A20

What date, time and venue was it played at? The one particular game that sticks in my memory was played on 28th Sept '91. Man City away in the old [pre-Premier League] 1st division.

What were your 1st impressions of the ground? I always liked the old stadia, they were quirky. Leeds Road Huddersfield, Burden Park Bolton, Ayresome Park Middlesbrough, Roker Park Sunderland, Victoria Ground Stoke, Baseball Ground Derby, Filbert Street Leicester & Maine Road Manchester were all examples of grounds that had character, interesting structures to look at and a mixture of smells such as Bovril, Pies and Pipe smoke. In most cases, you arrived through a series of streets lined with typical working class terraced housing, from where the club's loyal support lived, unlike today's gallactico supporting 'fans' from towns and cities nowhere near the home ground of the team they support.

Maine Road's Kippax stand was large and noisy and what seemed peculiar, had advertising hoardings on the roof. It had a section reserved for away fans and where I stood on a couple of occasions in '93 and the '94 FA Cup S/F replay and enjoyed the banter of singing to/at our opposition. The Main Stand's roof was of corrugated cantilever architecture and thus interesting to look at, I sat in this stand in the '90 FA Cup S/F and Replay. The North Stand was at the time a modern seated stand and I sat here when Gary Kelly saved a penalty in '99.

However the stand I most enjoyed being in was the old Platt Lane stand, reserved before it's redevelopment for away fans only. It had old wooden slat seats not dissimilar to the Lookers Stand and from which you could stand and move around easily to avoid the pillar's holding the roof up like the Chaddy End. The acoustics always appeared to amplify the noise we made and being not far from home, we always took a decent following. I saw us win 2-1 in '87 and 4-1 in '88 both in the old 2nd division from this stand. The former a brace from Tommy Wright and from where we embraced the 'yarddog' tag given to us by our former manager, the late Jimmy Frizzell, then on the staff at Man City, for the way he perceived we beat his new employers. The latter included a Roger Palmer hat-trick the last of which was sheer class, a lob from the edge of 18 yard box. Have a look on youtube if you haven't seen them.

What was the attendance and how many did latics take? The attendance was 31,271 according to the record books. If you look at City's attendances that season, their average was 27,691 and our game was only bettered by Man United [38,180], Liverpool [37,322] and Arsenal [32,325]. In those days I don't recall away following's being recorded, however at a guess I'd say it must've been approaching 4,000, maybe more.

What was the atmosphere like? It was early in the season. We were 2nd division champions, back in the top flight for the first time in 68 years, shorn of our plastic pitch for the first season in 5 years. We hadn't yet won away and had stuttered at home. It was yet unclear how we would fair amongst our more illustrious competitors. We were just happy to be there and so it was a party atmosphere, full of smiling faces, some people dong the conga and lots of singing. It really was electric.

What was the score and scorers? We had signed Graeme Sharp from Everton in the summer for £500k. A player who had won the title twice and had FA Cup and European Medals to his name too. I recall him looking a class act but he hadn't yet found the back of the net. City took the lead in the first half with a goal created by Niall Quinn and finished by David White. We were 2nd best for much of the first 45 mins. After the break, Sir Joe Royle did what he did, which is put into action a formation that included 4 forwards [4-2-4], Ritchie, Marshall, Sharp and Holden ably supported by Milligan and Henry from midfield. We battered them. Graeme Sharp scored 2 inside 10 minutes, one a volley from a Marshall cross and the other a header from a Holden cross. We won 2-1. The noise was incredible. It's rare you attend a game where you come from behind and while still celebrating the first goal find yourself with a second to enjoy.

How did we play? From 45 mins to 90 mins we were unstoppable and I felt certain for the first time that we were good enough to be in and stay in the top flight.

What made it so memorable? How did you get there? I was 14 years old at the time. I lived in Droylsden and went to school in Audenshaw, both in Tameside. As a result, I was the only Latics fan in my class and one of only a handful in my year. I was surrounded by Reds and Blues of Manchester with an odd scouser thrown in. I had won some respect from my school mates during the 'Pinch-Me' season of 89-90, however coverage of our 90-91 2nd division triumph was limited and so people, kids especially, have short memories. We had already lost [1-0] at Old Trafford to a late [they were the luckiest side ever in those days] Brain McClair goal and my City fan mates thought it would be a walk over for them too.

Some of the lads I knew from school were travelling to Maine Road on their own, however my mam wasn't having any of it when I asked her if I could jump on a bus from Droylsden to Moss Side alone, so she dropped me off at Boundary Park and made me travel on the official coaches. I was glad she did, because it made the journey more enjoyable being amongst my own. As we arrived, miraculously I saw 3 boys I went to school with who gestured to me [not in a nice way] as I looked out of the coach window. Battle lines drawn. What makes it even more interesting is that these 3 boys appear on the TV highlights of the game afterwards hurling abuse at Rick Holden just before he put in the cross for Graeme Sharp's winner. You couldn't have scripted it any better.

What did you do pre/post match? Post match I remember arriving back home and immediately going out onto a park with mates trying to emulate Graeme Sharp's volley and looking forward to going to school again on Monday morning!

Link to video:

Link to Ceefax D1 table, top half: https://twitter.com/AK90s/status/802646030000996352

Link to Ceefax D1 table, bottom half: https://twitter.com/AK90s/status/802926198087188480

 

 

unrelated question....did you go to Audenshaw High?

[lookersstandandy]

unrelated question....did you go to Audenshaw High?

I did pal. One assumes you did too?

[BP1960]

Edited December 4, 2016 by BP1960