New City book (costs a tenner)... please log in to view this image Back in May 1983, at the tender age of fourteen, I set out to my first Hull City away game. A Simon Gray special eventually took us to the delights of Spotland, Rochdale. Hardly a glamour tie you might say. But it was enough, I was hooked. City was in my DNA. Unfortunately the next twenty odd years brought many more lows than highs, enough to detract the interest of many. Finally though, following a move to a new stadium, City actually started being quite good. This also happened to coincide with the birth of my son, Thomas, and he too, was soon indoctrinated into the fold, and the cycle of addiction started again. Before we knew it, the unthinkable had happened. City made it to The Premier League (twice!). However, it wasn’t to last long. A sunny afternoon back in May 2015, saw City slump to a 0-1 home defeat against ‘Bloody Burnley’. Relegation loomed. Thomas was crestfallen. In a vain attempt to cheer him up, I uttered the words, “Never mind son, The Championship will be better. We might even win a few games. Tell you what, let’s try and go to every game.” He was up for it. And with that, this book was born. Enclosed herein is the story of our journey of the 2015/16 season, following our team, Hull City AFC. http://www.ypdbooks.com/sport/1533-46-and-counting-a-family-journey-YPD01729.html
The delights of Spotland in May 1983 included me getting stabbed by the worstly weilded knife in hooligan history! ( or possibly it was just very blunt) Nasty scratch though
I attended said fixture, a dead rubber as we'd already got promo at Sealand Road. I ended up in the cop shop after the game after some local toughs had ambushed us - the last side street of the day in the last game of the season. Kid driving our car was detained, as was the son of the local chief constable in the same incident. The desk cop thought it hilarious that his boss's son had been nicked but doubted in would make court (wonder why not?) Said copper also stated that in his opinion the city of Liverpool should have a very high wall built all around it to keep the locals in. Football? Bloody Hell! as SAF once said.
Cheers Kemps I am always genuInelly amazed by what people can remember from old games though. I can remember incidents from the trips, but very rarely many actual game details
I got kicked in my poor plums away at Lincoln, by a little **** (He might have been ten years old), down I went like a sack of ****. I was a fit 20 something at the time but the little guy absolutely floored me. My mates didn't take the piss much
I went to Lincoln in about 1998ish. A row of police blocked the way, stopping Lincoln fans trying to get into the turnstiles at our end. One officer kept identifying the Lincoln imps, saying, "You don't come from Hull. You don't come from Hull." I said, "I do!" and pulled up my jumper to show them my shirt. They let me straight through. It was the only time I've ever had to show my shirt to get in to a game. The match was dire. Rodney Rowe played for us and I think Kevin Francis did as well. We lost 2-0. It was hard to see because the sun was low behind the opposite end and glared into our faces. Most people raised their hands to shield their eyes, making it look like we were giving Lincoln's keeper a military salute in front of us.
was that the one where uncharacteristically we were a bit worse for the consumption of alcohol & decided to go for a wander round their 'shopping centre' the meeting place for many of their 'yoof'... good job we blended in - in those days ...
I'm pretty sure it was Although I do have a horrendous memory (probably all those mushroom omelettes!) Leaving a pub heaving with City to have a wander elsewhere...the impetuousness of yoof!
I think the precursor for that might have been the FA Cup tie at Spotland 18 months earlier. It kicked off in the local pub with pool cues and balls then in the stadium.
I was in that pub - someone started a fire in the bogs in the middle of it all, just to add to the chaos. Unfriendly locals. Tsk.
I dont think they where even footall fans the Rochdale lads. There was about 4 /5 of them big ****ers just playing pool you could tell it was gonna end in a brawl within minutes.
City got in that pub first and slowly more and more Dale-ites arrived. The landlord advised the tardy constabulary that Rochdale had started it.
I was on Pus's (RIP)coach? remember a pub brawl, pockets of city on all 4 sides of the ground and running around on the pitch before kick off, marvelous lower league 80's mayhem.
