In what way was you standing by your fellow supporters when you were holding your own in Sledmere? What was you trying to achieve? I'll tell you what you helped achieve for us. A general public that stereotypes all football supporters as hooligans. Banning orders, especially for petty reasons Police Forces that believe they can treat all football supporters as second class citizens. Loss of civil rights. Bubble matches although you must be gutted that some protesty boycotter types managed to hold the plod to task & get them stopped, for us anyway. Over zealous stewards Section 35s being issued. Not being able to have a pint on a terrace. Sanitised all seater stadiums that many of your generation hate & criticise. Ironic isn't that they're here because you & others like you, were supporting their fellow fans by holding their own on Sledmere or similar. Yeh, we've got a lot to thank you for. I don't need to justify my support, like you do. Ask Castro what his piss poor excuse is for not attending nowadays. I recognise that my not attending & refusing to pass any of my hard earned over to the Allams will mean absolutely **** all to them but I think removing concessions for children, teens & even old ****s, like you, is a step too far, it's wrong morally. I answer to me, my morals, values & principles. It's me that would be affected if I did attend. I'd be letting down those who have been priced out of attending as well as myself. I'm supporting my fellow supporters & in boycotting & other means of protests trying to overturn the owner's stupidity. Imagine how you'd feel right now,looking at yourself in a mirror, if you'd not stood your ground on Sledmere. You should be proud of all the draconian rules & laws that you supporting your fellow fans achieved. Without you we could be turning out for a game, stood on terraces with a pint & enjoying a bit of banter without a heavy police presence videoing our every move & stewards taking whatever chance they can to wade in & throw you out. Thanks for all that.
[ Everyone is entitled to their own opinion (well not on here they aren't ) But what exactly has your stay away protest achieved so far ? Aren't you a bit pissed off that some of those affected by the scrapping of concessions would've managed to scrape the money together to go on Thursday night and watch us beat Utd for the first time in 42 years !! ....and you didn't ?
The attendance suggests they didn't. I know at least 20 United supporters, from Manchester, that bought tickets in the home end. I know because they asked me to get them for them. I told them there was no need & to just ring themselves ' cos there'll be plenty. Apparently there was. What does me staying away achieve? It means I can look at myself in the mirror every morning knowing my principles & self respect are intact. Each to their own.
My estimate is that there was no more than 7-8000 City fans at the match on Thursday. For a Cup semi final. Ehab's legacy, right there in ten foot high letters.
16,000 attendance 4,000 official Man U 4,000 foreign students and neutrals So yes, about 8,000 HCFC. Blame the Allams for a lot of that, but too many people have caved in too easily on non attending. Attend and protest, support the shirt. Your admission fee is microscopic peanuts to the Allams, it makes no impact whatsoever on their finances. The empty seats are only visible to them, if they attend games - which they don't. Refusing to be legged off Sledmere is the same mentality as refusing to be legged out of the KC by the Allams.
Some very good replies there, however football hooliganism was prevalent in the 1920's so it's not all my fault you can't have a beer in your seat. Blame my great great grandad
Is that why 20,000 stayed away from the end of 71 to us leaving Boothferry Park and moving into the KC with only a handful of games which saw our 'support' return in between, like Liverpool at home in the FA Cup mid 80's and Scarboro during the Great Escape ?
I appreciate you didn't achieve it all single handily. If you know the City supporter who passed away, or his family maybe you or they could approach the club. As many bad points as they currently have I'm sure they'd listen &, if possible, organise some fitting tribute in his memory.
I've said many times the football supporting people of Hull are flakey even in the best of times, we are a little club in a big City, and seem to use any excuse not to pay to see games, I bet the pubs were packed on Thursday, Ebeneezers was when we left
"City are ****" was the oft-quoted reason for non attending. Hull beating Whitehaven, Huyton and Bramley provided many of these inadequates with their ego-boost and victory-fix, so important for feeling good about themselves. For the real low self-esteem ****s, latching onto a successful football team in another part of the country provided the fleeting feeling of worth. I still know people in remission, some have come to terms with it and can view it objectively now. The rise of City in the last 15 years has hit them hard, even if they rarely admit it in public.
As you said....each to their own. I too was able to look in the mirror on Friday morning knowing my undying loyalty to Hull City has remained for almost 45 years. I saw us beat Utd in 1974 and was there the other night too. But hey, in the past being half a world away and spending 1000's of pounds on airfares hasn't stopped me traveling to City games, so I am sure a couple of idiotic owners is not going to stop me now. Again....each to their own !!
I thought that, I didn't know him personally but seen him at games, we seem to give minutes applause for any ****er now, it would be good to applaud one of our own
Wouldn't surprise me at all if Manchester United play way better in the Premier League game - **** em.
Read 'And The Sun Shines Again' by Adrian Tempany. Superb,well researched and well written book which kicks all the points you raised above and the effect they had/have on modern day football into touch.
Don't forget what will probably remain as our last 30,000 plus attendance, 32, 000 against West Ham in 1973 a week after 9,000 turned up to watch us play Preston. Always been a lot of people in Hull who turn up for big games.
I don't get the celebration of empty seats. Each to their own, I suppose. I also do not get this glorification of violence. I am no pacifist and certainly not a saint. But really who gives a **** who biffed who 30 years ago.
Maybe it was people & families sick of entering a war zone. If only they realised then thatit was just fellow supporters standing up for fellow fans in order for all to be able to sit in the sanatised conditions we have now they may have stayed with it.
All very commendable but where do we draw the line ? If we applauded the death or illness of every supporter, ex employee, player and so on there would be dozens of requests every home game.
While there is some truth in that. I think it runs deeper in the psyche of hull. We just don't turn up for long. There are so many badly run clubs ****ting on their supporters but fans of other clubs don't give up and walk away. Man Us owners were the worst ever and fans formed a break away club they were that bad. Leeds, where do we start. Yet over thirty thousand now. Sunland in a mess. Forest. On and on. We couldn't sell out an FA Cup QF. In a small ground. We couldn't sell out an FA Cup SF. In a way the only thing keeping us a success on the pitch is the Allams. Imho.
Some good points. Relevant to Hillsborough as well as previous behaviour led to the fences which caused the problems. Previous instances like Hysel for one... One point though, you never could take a pint onto the terraces at football matches. Hardly anywhere sold beer years ago, so few that you remembered them, Burnley, Leicester for example, but where you weren't allowed to leave the area. . You couldn't bring alcohol in either. In fact you were lucky to get a kiosk selling Bovril. Look at the catering facilities at Boothferry Park for 40,000 people. And,,poor as they were, they were a lot better than many other grounds at the time.
