No not for that, this is a family forum. Do you remember your first ever big match you went to? depending on how long ago it was has football improved or got worse since then. for me it was around 1980 when i watched Gillingham take on Blackburn in a league cup match. wen with mum and dad and sat behind the then blackburn manager howard kendal, politely clapping at good play, in contrast to the next game i went to with mates, thinking it was cool to abuse the ref all game. in those days it was terracing, much better for an atmosphere and reaaly before the influx of foreign players and sky tv and the extra money that brought with it. i was soon off to the Dell, what a ground with out all the luxury of st marys. whats changed since your first match and is football in a better state now than then?
MY first game I'm afraid was at Pompey. Pompey versus Preston north end I think. December the 8th 1947. (there is disagreement here my mates say that the Preston game was the one over Christmas period that year.) I am sticking to me guns though. We had sunshine rain and a little snow that day. Pompey won 2-1.....depressing!
The Dell. Saints v Hereford (including a certain Terry Paine). Spend most of the game ony dad's shoulders. I think it was 1975. I then used to take a box or crate to stand on so I could lean on a barrier. It was football then and it's football now.
I used to play football and it was not until I gave up playing that I watched my first professional game. It was at the Dell about forty years ago. I had gone to watch Arsenal the year they won the double and ended up stuck under the East Stand right at the back behind a load of burly Gooners. The one thing I remember is that they kept playing Ride a White Swan by T Rex over the tannoy, a recording which whenever I hear it now I am transported back to that afternoon's game. I just loved the buzz and excitement and have been following the Saints ever since. I don't know whether football has improved. It has certainly got faster and crowds now are more partizan! What I liked about the old First Division days was that every team had some great players and there was no segregation on the terraces so you could find yourself talking to fans of all sorts of clubs. I always liked midweek winter games at the Dell the colours always seemed more vibrant.
Do you remember some of the very muddy pitches - a far cry from the velvet st marys turf. no names on the backs of shirts and players generally seemed to have more hair growth then, lots of hair, sideburns and beards. only one sub allowed. one thing thats improved is the time wasting- i remember when a keeper could pick up a back pass. he would pick it up, roll it out to a defender who would pass it back for him to pick it up and roll it out to another one and back again. not the most entertaining thing to watch.
My first game was 2001 I think. It was Cambridge United v Torquay, which Torquay won 1-0. A certain Dave Kitson was playing for Cambridge that day....
Subs......Subs......If you broke your bloody leg in those days they just strapped you up an put you on the wing...... Even the mighty Bert Troutmann played on with a broken neck in goal in a cup final. There weren't subs in them thar days.........
how times have changed beddy, you only need to breath on someone these days and they are rolloing around in agony clutching there face or knee when the contact was nowhere near either.
yeah, it was when i was 14 and at a house par.... oh, i think it was in 1994 at home against arsenal, think we won 1-0. Wasnt into football then, highlight of the day was getting chips!
How very true..........When I had my first game of club football I was thirteen I think I played in goal. There was a scamble on the goal line when the ball was in the air some eighteen stone thug twice as wide as me Came charging in just as I caught the ball. He caught me square on just under the arm pit and put me and the two full backs into the back of the goal. The ref allowed it saying there was no law saying he couldn't shoulder charge the goalkeeper. The next time he went to do that I had decided to go to the near post as the ball came across. As I grabbed the ball I pushed myself to the ground so that as he charged in he could not stop himself and he tripped over me and hit the post........another dazed left winger. We won 3-1. It's changed now with keepers go near them and it is immediately deemed a foul. One of the funniest dives I have seen was down at the dell Mike summebee was through one on one, out to the right of goal he pushed it too far to the keepers left realised and dived asking for a penalty. It was not given and he was spoken to by the ref. What had actually happened as he pushed the ball wide, the keeper had rushed back to his line away from Summerbee, so that when he dived the keeper was actually about a metre away. It was so obvious to day he would probably have been sent off.
For me it was Saints 4 Man city 0 in the league cup i think it was 81/82 i remember that after watching this game i was well and truly hooked....good times...
I cannot even remember the year l was so small - my Dad used to take me when he could and put me on a little wooden picnic chair so l could see over the wall (with the Milton End on my left, always level with edge of the penalty area) - but could not have been long after Man Utd won the European Cup - they wore blue shirts and white shorts - just watching Bobby Charlton, Brian Kidd and Georgie Best et al. Geroge best was man-marked that night - I think it was by George Byrne - GB lost Byrne twice in that game and he made us pay for it. I think the result was 3-2 or 3-1 to Man Utd; but it was a great game. The above is all a little foggy because I was so young - am sure the statisticans can correct me on the details - it was either an evening game of certainly in the winter because I remember the flood-lights... happy memories!
First game I can remember going to was St Albans v Chelsea in a friendly in 1996. Chelsea won it 2-1 I think.
Romsey, i have seen to some great matches and seen some great players over the last 30 years from Keegan to Dalgleish or lineker to Cantona but to have one of your first memories being of Best, Charlton etc thats not a bad start to your football viewing.
