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Nostalgia, friendlies & fog


um pahars
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Reading the Vanvcouver Whitecaps/Jimmy Greaves thread got me thinking.

 

what was the friendly that got fogged off one evening in the 80s????

 

It wasn't long after that barmaid got killed behind the Tom & Tackle as remember walking back to the bus station in this fog & shutting ourselves that Jack The Ripper was on the loose.

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I recall a game from the 80’s against Watford (Christ knows how I remember the opponents) which was really foggy, but I'm not sure it got abandoned. I was in the Milton and I couldn't see the goal at the archers end at one point. If I remember correctly, there were early goals and we won 3-1.

 

I'll check my programmes.

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Is that the technical expression for closing ones sphincter as tightly as possible to prevent ****ting oneself?

 

Ipad spell checker is to blame.

 

Normally have ITN to hand which I'm sure will have some sort of record of this fogged off game. Definitely a friendly on a weekday evening.

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Reading the Vanvcouver Whitecaps/Jimmy Greaves thread got me thinking.

 

what was the friendly that got fogged off one evening in the 80s????

 

It wasn't long after that barmaid got killed behind the Tom & Tackle as remember walking back to the bus station in this fog & shutting ourselves that Jack The Ripper was on the loose.

 

Luton. Friday night game 25 Jan 1980. Weekend of the 4th rd of the FA Cup and we had lost to Brum in the 3rd.

 

I went (for the first time) in the bench seats under the east stand with, former poster of this parish, Rich Ember. He had broken his ankle playing footy a couple of weeks before. The game was called off after about 20 mins and we went on the pitch and took penalties, ie. throwing one of his crutches into the Milton Rd goal. We were less than popular with the groundsman.

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Thinking back to the days when the "old" Dell floodlights were still in use, even a slight mist could mean you couldn't see both goalmouths - unless you were on the halfway line.

 

However, unless you're going to start another " all-weather " thread.....we could talk about the "big freeze" of 1963 ...yes, 50 years ago....when the FA Cup Rd. 3 game v.York at The Dell (scheduled Jan. 3rd) was postponed THIRTEEN times in between snowstorms, then a thaw, and ice, more snow, then thaw again...and finally a waterlogged pitch.

That game was eventually played in Mid.Feb ..it was worth waiting for as we won 5-0....BUT, the occasion that really comes to mind isn't about fog either, but rain.

 

Sometime (forgotten exactly....in the 1970's) ...we had a fixture v. Leicester at Filbert Street. It had rained heavily all week in the Midlands, and though it wasn't raining at kick-off it became apparent that the game was going nowhere. The pitch was so waterlogged that water stood to the height of the short-clipped grass, and every time anyone attempted to pass the ball... it travelled about 3 feet....Players were literally treading water and whenever anyone was tackled, or lost their balance they fell to the ground and really made a big splash. Play was confined to the midfield.. as no-one could kick it any distance at all, and on the rare occasions someone kicked the ball into the air..it landed and sank into the pitch and stayed ...like glue .

 

The comedy of this " very short match" (the ref.abandoned the game before the half-hour).....was captured on the day by BBC TV cameras, and appeared - with suitable watery music - on a Saints MOTD video that I purchased ..some years later. Seldom has one football match given me so many laughs :lol:.

Edited by david in sweden
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I was at that friendly with Luton, i was sat in the upper West and i kept saying to my ol man 'i cant see anything' Apparently, we scored a goal but i didn't see it, it was abandoned in the end. There was a cheer when the goal went in but how the hell they saw it i'll never know! The attendance that night was only about 4.000 if my memory serves me correct.

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Sometime (forgotten exactly....in the 1970's) ...we had a fixture v. Leicester at Filbert Street. It had rained heavily all week in the Midlands, and though it wasn't raining at kick-off it became apparent that the game was going nowhere. The pitch was so waterlogged that water stood to the height of the short-clipped grass, and every time anyone attempted to pass the ball... it travelled about 3 feet....Players were literally treading water and whenever anyone was tackled, or lost their balance they fell to the ground and really made a big splash. Play was confined to the midfield.. as no-one could kick it any distance at all, and on the rare occasions someone kicked the ball into the air..it landed and sank into the pitch and stayed ...like glue .

 

The comedy of this " very short match" (the ref.abandoned the game before the half-hour).....was captured on the day by BBC TV cameras, and appeared - with suitable watery music - on a Saints MOTD video that I purchased ..some years later. Seldom has one football match given me so many laughs :lol:.

 

September 83. I went and the only reason we started was because it was on MOTD. It was absolutely farcical and should have been called off after 5 mins, rather than 20.

 

When it was replayed we lost. Could have done with those 3 points at the end of the season.

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Seeing this thread immediately reminded me of this friendly ...

1361212731767.jpg

Pretty sure this was the one I went to on Foleys coach.. Ended in the SUN newspaper after a local in a village held the coach up with a shotgun after a garage was raided by a some exuberant lads on the coach.

Headline read. : WELLS FARGO HOLDS UP COACH :-)

I think Bobby Evans threatened to shove the gun up his 'Arris

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Re the Forest game (post 10) I was there and at the rearranged game. The thing I remember about the abandoned game was the steaming tea urn going round the pitch at half time. I swear it looked like a fog making machine!

Forest were hopeless in the first game and if they had lost the 2 points dropped would have caused them to miss out on promotion. That would have meant no 1st Division championship for Forest in 77/78 or successive European Cups in the following 2 years, and it was all down to that tea urn.

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Luton. Friday night game 25 Jan 1980. Weekend of the 4th rd of the FA Cup and we had lost to Brum in the 3rd.

 

I went (for the first time) in the bench seats under the east stand with, former poster of this parish, Rich Ember. He had broken his ankle playing footy a couple of weeks before. The game was called off after about 20 mins and we went on the pitch and took penalties, ie. throwing one of his crutches into the Milton Rd goal. We were less than popular with the groundsman.

 

Thats the game!!!!

 

And just cross referenced with the Tom & Tackle murder and it happened the month before and the killer was still on the loose (in fact the real killer was always on the loose as he died before he could be found guilty).

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Sometime (forgotten exactly....in the 1970's) ...we had a fixture v. Leicester at Filbert Street. It had rained heavily all week in the Midlands, and though it wasn't raining at kick-off it became apparent that the game was going nowhere. The pitch was so waterlogged that water stood to the height of the short-clipped grass, and every time anyone attempted to pass the ball... it travelled about 3 feet....Players were literally treading water and whenever anyone was tackled, or lost their balance they fell to the ground and really made a big splash. Play was confined to the midfield.. as no-one could kick it any distance at all, and on the rare occasions someone kicked the ball into the air..it landed and sank into the pitch and stayed ...like glue .

 

The comedy of this " very short match" (the ref.abandoned the game before the half-hour).....was captured on the day by BBC TV cameras, and appeared - with suitable watery music - on a Saints MOTD video that I purchased ..some years later. Seldom has one football match given me so many laughs :lol:.

 

Also went to the Leicester game and can remember being behind Mark Wallington's goal and you could see his jockstrap through his soaking, white, flimsy shorts.

 

Pretty sure it was early 80s, unless there was another game and remember being given a voucher for the rearranged midweek game (I never went!!!)

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September 83. I went and the only reason we started was because it was on MOTD. It was absolutely farcical and should have been called off after 5 mins, rather than 20. When it was replayed we lost. Could have done with those 3 points at the end of the season.

 

....thanks for the update Lets B Avenue....I totally lost track of the date...but then again, in my generation... you count the decades first ......

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