in the 60's never even thought about the cost of entry. And as kids in the fifties usually paid for entry myself did not need to ask parents for the money my paper round money paid for it and 4 Dominoes 10 times over.
Depends what people consider undeveloped. I find skyscrapers and Brutalist architecture ugly as sin. Lots of cities in Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia etc. don’t have a Maccies on every street corner or bustling high streets but they’re nicer to look at. And yes, I know Brutalism was popular in the Eastern Bloc, but they still have cities that don’t look like grey dystopias.
And now if an under 14 has the money and fancies going to a match they can't, Paper round money paid train fare from Brid, entry and cigs. You need a full time job to fund those 3 things now. Dominos was just before having my first cig at age 11. Think Gold Leaf had just come out. We would smoke anything, a local shop sold singles. Moved on to Nelson and Players Weights then Kensitas for years, interspersed with Players and Senior service when flush. Favourite was Fribourg and Treyer later on. Now I have stopped if I could have one day of my life again it would be when I had my first cigarette and turn it down.
Chelsea away 1966, no official figures in those days and I don't think the game was all ticket. I missed that one because London might as well have been on the other side of the moon for me at that age. There was no way I could afford to go. I've seen many photographs of the City crowd that day and I'd guess at maybe 5,000 ? We didn't play the Sheffield clubs in 1966. The biggest City following at Sheffield, before the famous night at Hillsboro, was the Battle of Bramall Lane, March 1971, three days after we lost 3-2 to Stoke in FA Cup quarter final. The crowd was a record at that time for Sheffield United at over 40,000 and it was said up to 8,000 City fans were there, me included. It was a pay on the day game too with no segregation so it's impossible to know exactly how many were there.
True. I think of the way they rebuilt a flattened Bremen centre after the war. I went there in 1963, only 18 years after, and it was redone. Similar in Munich and Nuremberg. Other cities just knocked everything down and started again and ended up rather soulless but able to cope with increasing traffic. We fell between 2 stools, rebuilding what was still there there as our cities weren't as badly damaged. In Rotterdam they just flattened the rest of the centre. Went there in 1964 and it looked great but soulless compared to Amsterdam which was undamaged. Used to go to our Rotterdam office in the early 1970s and everyone said they would rather live in Amsterdam. Down the years Rotterdam has developed its own character and is now a good place to spend time in.
I seem to recall it being said there were 8,000 at Chelsea. Don't know if it is correct though. Sheffield United's crowd that night was about 12,000 up on their previous game. Don't know how many of those were City. It was their biggest crowd of the season but not a record for them. Their record crowd is over 68,000. Looking at when we were there a lot of those must have been in the cricket part as you wouldn't get all those in the 3 sides we were in. They would have needed binoculars.
I actaully got a large Pomegranate bout that time on saturday just gone, i hadn't seen any in tradition fruit n veg shops since bout Hull Fair time, bought from the Turkish shop half way down.
I was working in the Sports Dept at the Hull Daily Mail at the time of the Battle of Bramall Lane and Brian Taylor was told there were about 8,000 City fans there, which was exceptional because our away followings in those days was often below 200. The Chelsea one is more difficult to second guess, 8,000 travelling to London seems a lot. I remember seeing in the HDM the City fans in the lower section of The Shed, and remember the HDM mentioning that every time our fans chanted 'Tigers' they replied with 'Pussycats' Chelsea didn't bring that many to the replay, maybe a couple of hundred in The Well but I don't recall many in the rest of the ground. Certainly none on Bunkers.
There was a great photograph in the Mirror of City fans celebrating City's first goal at Stamford Bridge and bang in the middle was my cousin. Yes, our support was not very good away. We were doing well that season but ours was the only bus at Sunderland, they brought a right mob here. Leicester brought loads and actually took over middle of Bunkers, there was only our coach and the supporters one at their place. Only an 18 seater of us at QPR. Yet for some reason a special train went to Luton.
Fans? Some of the best we still have....the worse are still missing. They’ll be back... IN ACUN WE TRUST.
Fine if you keep the interesting buildings but you are probably looking at ornate merchants and business buildings and not Victorian / Edwardian back to backs like here Many of Europe’s old cities are as you described ,
It takes time to build a fan base. We were **** for ages and have lost generations of support because of it. Who cares? I was at that league cup semi final too, both legs. The only home game I have attended since the introduction of the membershit scheme.
We started off over there as it was the only part of the ground that wasn't absolutely packed. We started on the steps of the pavilion. It was quiet! We were content till the teams came out. They were really tiny. We couldn't even read the numbers on the shirts. After a while we got fed up of straining to see and made the decision to brave thevend behind the left hand goal as we looked at it. We managed to squeeze in. It was the biggest crowd I had been in for many years afterwards. On the small fence round the pitch were adverts. There was one that always stood out clearly on television. Yorkshire TV went there a lot. The advert was for Sexy Rexy. It turned out to be a barber.
It didn't need any bravery to go in that stand. All the Sheffield idiots were in the other end in their Kop. It was like an away fan going in North Stand at Boothferry.
It wasn't that much of a crush. Have even in far worse. In fact I was surprised at how much room there was in there.
We all have regrets re smoking but it was endemic at the time.Essentially you were encouraged. "Your Dr recommends Camels for your health". In Germany after the war cigarettes were the currency of choice and just like bitcoin they took a lot of energy (yours) to make/get them. The surgeon generals report on smoking came out in 62 and that for me was essentially the end of my smoking days.
Ok got that one wrong and yes of course you are right it was in the front 70's I think Ken Knighton was still playing for United at the time and later transfered to City. Now there was a ball winner made of steel.
I am not up with this discussion so might be off piste. For what it's worth I didn't go to Old Trafford, Anfield, The Emirates or White Hart Lane simply because they are everything that is wrong with football. Stupid maybe but that is the way I feel and I refuse to pay silly money to watch football simply because they/ someone thinks we should be grateful. I have been and will be at Derby tomorrow, Peteborough, Birmingham, Coventry though. I also recall leaving work early and tanking across to watch a defeat at Cambridge ****ing United. 'Big clubs' hype is bollocks.
