City 'took' 6,000 to Anfield in the League Cup on a Tuesday night when we were a 4th div team, and we were 6-1 down from the 1st leg. We also took a similar number to Newcastle mid week in the league cup when we were bottom of the 4th div and they were top of the 1st. Again Villa away, the thriller at the villa, remember ? The reason for those big away followings, which were more then we were getting at home, was because we had been starved of any success what so ever for a long time. M'Boro were the same at Man Utd, Plymouth at Chelsea, Chesterfield at where ever they were in the round before last and so on. After 100 years of waiting to get to Wembley we had queues all night around the stadium for tickets when we finally did make it, same again for the FA Cup Final and the semi, but the season after the novelty was wearing off and there was a ready made excuse not to go......'because of the Allams' Let's be honest, we are a fickle lot. The Allam stay ways will take some persuading to come back because some of them did stop going because we were not in the Prem, which probably is the reason they started supporting us in the first place. But we have put 2,000 on the gate since the take over which at £27 a pop, back end of January/early February isn't to be sniffed at. And I don't know about Sunny Bridlington, but some pubs are closing at 10.00pm on a Friday and Saturday night and not open at all mid week around here.
We took as many to those games as were getting at home. Only took 1,500 to Old Trafford for a league cup semi-final. Boro took 10,500 there for a league cup game back then. O7r support has always been idiosyncratic. Don't go out much nowadays, been to my local once since beginning of September but don't think any are closing that early on a Friday and Saturday night. Some are closing earlier during the week. They are all quieter but the pubs away from the town centre have been for years. Younger folk have a different idea of a night out now. Preloading then to a club. Darts, pool and pub football teams have all dropped right off. Darts and pool were what filled pubs up during the week.
Princess Ave Friday/Saturday night very quiet,no buzz,worrying time for the trade in general. If you want a Lemon,Yam,Mango or Pineapple you'll get one at 2 in the morning on Springbank though?
You'll be able to inhale away in a shisha bar until that time soon. If you want to inhale tobacco enclosed in a white cylinder you will have to step outside though.
I was at that League Cup Semi Final at Old Trafford and our support was dismal for such a huge game. I don't think it was even 1,500. I was also there when we were a 4th div club and we played them in the league cup mid week. We had thousands and thousands turn up, so many that many didn't get in the ground until half an hour after kick off. Again it was because at that time we hadn't had a sniff of any success or big occasion for years. On another note, in Ebenezors on Saturday before City, it was full of Preston fans. One sat near me said. 'Not been funny or out mate but Hull's a bit of a ****hole isn't it ? I asked him how much of Hull he'd actually seen and he said, 'from the train station to here'. So about 250 yards. The one of them ended up buying me and Ric from Glasgow a pint !
He's heard my accent and thought...Better get him and that lad he's sitting with a pint cos that tight Jock twat won't.
You just wonder if Britain's Towns and Cities are ever going to repair themselves,it's a crying shame.
‘Huge Allam’s boycott’ theory finally exposed for what it was then.. At least we’ll have a big banner.. ACUN had a dream...nice.
Steve Bruce would have played down a league cup semi final as a distraction and played the 2nd string. Just look what he did for our once in a lifetime chance at European football.
I was at the semi final Utd game and it was fairly humiliating. What makes it so much more bizzare though is the League cup game at Man City a season or two before in the quarter final (I think) we had a pretty healthy following. The FA cup semi final was embarrassing, the final was embarrassing and the Sheff Wednesday final was embarrassing. Yeah, we hated the owners, but so did Newcastle until recently and I can guarantee they wouldn't have needed to hide behind flimsy excuses. We've got a smallish core of actual match going City fans. Then a shell of football fans who'll go to City if things are interesting and a shell outside of that who'll go to the odd gem of a game. With regards to the last one however those games are few and far between after a few years in the top flight and the likes of Everton, Villa, Newcastle becoming a lot less exotic and rare.
If truth be told we can all call each other's Town's and Cities ****-holes and it's fairly accurate...Sad but true.
Most of the UK’s cities are , they are decrepit , old and for some reason we’ve not attempted in over 100 years attempted to rid them of cheap poor inner city housing , had we we could have created wider roads and accesses - maybe the crossing on spring back could have had a flyover too!
