If you mean that's where I got the wrong impression from, I think you might be (w)right. Can't find the book though.
The Rotherham league game 1948? reportably sold 58,000 tickets but only 50,000 + turned up on the day. Without getting the history books out I believe the game was played over the Christmas holidays, maybe even Christmas Day and there was either a bus strike or no service buses available on the day, hence the slight drop off in the actual attendance. Not many had cars in those days so it was either walk or get the bike out to get to the ground. Remember too this was for a Third Division North league game for a club who had never won a major trophy or played in a Final.
Had this discussion yesterday and I agree with you those who big them selves up club wise are usually the black and white minority, and it's usually 'I support Fc and Leeds Utd/Liverpool/Man Utd/or name any other Premier League football team you wish' me. Adding 'because ****ty City never win anything'
This and the other snaps are superb, shame we can’t recreate these crowds, but as already said before, our lack of success for long periods of time is a good enough excuse to create plastics. Also the wide coverage football gets in all forms of media, probably gives people with low self esteem the ability to mistakenly align themselves with a more successful team, to which they have no real ties.
Was buying tickets in advance even possible back then? And if so did many do it? Can't remember ever buying a ticket in advance back in the 70s and 80s not even for away games.
It was possible. You had to turn up at the ticket office and purchase them in person. The earliest game I remember was City v Everton in the FA Cup Rd 3 Jan 3rd 1963/64 season and my Christmas present was a ticket for the game. The Liverpool cup game in the 80's was all ticket, in fact you had to attend the league game v Shrewsbury to get a voucher to have a chance of getting a Liverpool ticket. I remember a huge queue down North Road to enter the South Stand and a lot of people paid to get in to get a voucher then asked to be let out again straight away. A cup game v Chelsea in the 80's was also all ticket and Newcastle away in the League cup under Hateley was too, and Mansfield away in the league.
You only had to join the long queue for Liverpool tickets if you didn't have a season pass, oh how I laughed.
Me too, remember taking the piss out of all those stood in a queue right down North Road, asking where were they last week? Similar to the all night queue I stood in at the KC for FA Cup Final tickets with people I'd never seen before in my life.
The big games I remember doing, West Ham in the FA Cup, Man Utd when they were 2nd division, Liverpool in the League Cup (midweek afternoon game) but have no recollection of buying a ticket in advance for any of those.
It wasn't really something you had to do years ago . The first game I remember having to buying a ticket for was the Liverpool FA Cup game in 1989. Maybe the 1987 Man Utd league cup game was all ticket can't quite remember
