If i remember rightly wasnt there a load of trouble in the Painted Wagon once when Millwall came down in the early eighties. The semi at Highbury in 84 was pretty riotous,although i dont remember too much about it,as i got absolutely slaughtered on the bus on the way up,and in a pub in Highbury that the Saints fans wrecked before the game. I do remember that there were lots of empty seats on the bus on the way home,as about half of our party got nicked.
Interesting thread - I've got good memories of the Bridge because I attended the '76 cup semi-final. However, less than a year later was up there again at the other end (north bank) for a Chelsea - Saints game in the old second division. At the time, chelsea were top of the league and were expected to beat us comfortably. Was 0-0 at HT and then in the second half, Ted MacDougall had the temerity to put Saints ahead Cue for mayhem...as our celebrations died down, a loud rumbling noise could be heard coming from behind us which were the sound of doc martens on concrete. We were being attacked from above like something out of the battle of britain. I watched the thin cop cordon smashed and for a split second experienced something that as a 17-year old, couldn't work out what it was as I hadn't experienced it before, and that I then realised was FEAR Next minute, the whole ground erupted (except us), from the restart chelsea had gone straight up the other end and scored. Saints had obviously woken them up and after that, there was only one team in it chelsea eventually winning the match 3-1. The atmosphere had totally changed and that HAIRY moment had passed - they eventually finished in 2nd place and were promoted, we went up the season after Thankfully, I havn't experienced that exact feeling again and I hope never will - the late 70's were definately the worst...and they were bad !! Fences surrounding the pitch went up mostly for the players safety, only coming down after the Hillsborough disaster Here's hoping we see Saints playing Chelsea at the Bridge again within a few years
