I look to the positives of the rest of the drivers and their teams supporting the fight against bigotry.
Wow, just had a quick look, and she’s got a real record of her days at the match there eh. I’ll have a good gander at that tomorrow, love all that stuff, a proper record of social history.
But I was walking from the ground to the train station after beating you 5-0 We had a couple of guys with their heads smashed in with bottles thrown from a bridge Football could have that effect in those days
@brb just realised that lady has her own website, blog the lot! Written a few books on Leeds United and she’s still a home and away STH. Wowzers. If we’re looking for the forums most committed fan, then look no further - 50 years of devotion..............to ****ing dirty Leeds
What bridge? From the station to the ground there isn't any bridges. One incident dosen't tar a whole town, in the context that you put it
The only time I was actually scared was at Charlton after we beat them 3-1 The Charlton fans were hunting in packs looking for Watford supporters on their own or in small groups The train we caught was one of the old fashioned ones with a corridor and compartment and my mate and I got into a compartment with a couple and two young kids, they gave us their scarves to wear until the train pulled off The mobs run past us a couple of times The woman said she hated those fans because they gave the club a bad name, god knows what would have happened if we had got in the wrong compartment Happy days
All I can remember is that they were higher than us and bottles were thrown Your right it doesn't reflect the whole town, I have been their since not at a football match and everyone was friendly and I worked with a couple of guys from Gillingham on a rail project and they were good guys I guess it was football that caused the trouble in those days
Back in 1969, the only higher section on that route, would have been the away terracing itself. Bit of history to explain...back in them days it was known as the Town End, albeit the opposite end was strangely always the home end, known as The Rainham End and still is to this day. I don't know the history on how it became the home end. Anyway, the Town End now known as the Brian Moore Stand (BMS) was liked by many Gills fans such as myself, so it was shared with the away fans. From the time you mentioned through to the late 70's or possibly (not sure, memory fades) very early 80's, there was a route that you could walk from one end to the other at half-time. Naturally it got closed during the height of football hooligans, and a new stand was eventually built on what now is a non existent (non traceable) route. The reason I'm telling you this is because the Town End Concrete terracing was elevated, so home fans could overlook where the away coaches came in on the road, that ran parallel, don't tell @Libby but many years a go a Southampton coach got trashed with concrete from the elevated level. But I can't think of anywhere else elevated by a bridge, that would allow you to access people beneath it.
No idea of the geography of the ground but could it possibly be because that end was towards tho town (centre)? EDIT......only asking because our own "Stretford End" is named so because, well, it points toward Stretford
No mate the away end then known as the Town End, was towards the Town Centre. Hence why I never ever understood, why the Rainham End became the home terrace.
Burnley also have a fierce local rivalry with Blackburn... which has a large Asian community ... any right orientated white youf in that part of East Lancs are, not surprisingly, more likely to support Burnley as a result.
Blackburn and Burnley have large Asian populations and have had race problems for years, Blackburn now seems to have settled down mostly and the racists are losing ground. Rawtenstall on the other hand have very few Asians (if any) yet the majority of people there are very racist. Around here we tend to believe that anyone who lives above/beyond (i added beyond because Burnley is way down the hill) Ramsbottom has six fingers on each hand and probably marry their sisters.
The Blackburn / Burnley rivalry has many facets. Accrington sits slap bang between the two - probably not much more than 15/20 mile span between all 3? - when the original Accrington Stanley went under in the 60s, Burnley were prepared to try and bail them out financially if Blackburn would join them 50:50 ... Blackburn declined. Stanley went under and the majority of footie fans in Accrington grew up supporting Burnley and hating Blackburn.
Racist ****s in Blackburn too...can remember once was waiting at Blackburn train station and a group of Burberry wearing ****ers walked past with one getting in my face and saying ‘your dead’ I was like ‘ooooft’...get me on that train That happened to me in Leeds once aswell
15 years plus ago? only asking because i have seen much more cohesion (from my point of view) in Blackburn for a few years now.