Old Trafford, me and a mate drove up, we parked in a side street and walked to the ground. After the game we were all kept in for a good 30 minutes then ushered into the car park where the coaches were. Manchester fans were all around the outer fencing yelling abuse, I approached a copper and explained we were not travelling on the coaches and needed to get to our car, he just replied “good luck”. We skirted over behind the coaches, did our jackets up to hide our Leeds shirts and slowly wandered away in the opposite direction, found an exit and walked away as if we were local. Horrible experience and a few times their fans went running past up and down the streets apparently looking for a group of Leeds fans who had been in a local pub. Took us bloody ages to find where we had parked, this is going back when mobile phones didn’t have fancy apps, just a good old Nokia 3310
Mid to late 70’s there were a few tasty grounds, Ashton Gate kept you on your toes after the match, but Maine Rd was the worst, all streets like Coranation St, some dead ends, nightmare!!
I'm with Wakey the old Roker park and the sloping pitch could be deadly for Leeds fans. The Bob Stokoe era made it worse. Until recently Leeds travelling fans would meet up with Sunderland travelling fans a couple of times each season (Sometimes by mistake)at places like Trowell services or Woolley Edge services. Dont think that one will ever sort itself out
I was saved from a kicking by a linesmans flag at Ayresome park. I was in the boro end, and made the school boy error of leaping to celebrate a Leeds goal... and when a not very happy mob turned to look at who was cheering, I screamed offside as the linesman raised his flag. Only time I’ve ever been happy to see a Leeds goal ruled out. For reasons best known to themselves the police let the Leeds fans out early, which meant as we left the ground, we were subject to an assortment of missiles coming from behind the Leeds coaches, and a mounted police charge. Not saying the ground was intimidating, though Leeds boro games were always a bit feisty... but the experience was sobering. We got stuffed as well.
I managed to get a ticket for the Liverpool v Leeds Cup game a few seasons back, and a similar thing happened. I was sat the Kop obviously surrounded by thousands of scousers. Leeds almost scored in the first minute of the second half, and I rose to my feet thinking the ball had gone it, which in fact it hadn't. To my relief there must have been at least another 500 Leeds fans also in the Kop who had done exactly the same. The marshalls just looked at us and shook their heads
As a 15 yr old, living in the Midlands I had no way of getting to Leeds, so when we played West Brom, I decided to travel up on one of their coaches, when we got to the coach park, we were ushered to the ground, so I ended up in with the Albion fans, it was like the Alamo, inside and outside the ground. I was ****ting it tbh, the age thing didn't help. In the 70's/80's there was no easy place to go, always stayed with the crowd, safety in numbers.
Obviously you never went,the play off semi,the amount of your fans crying because a policeman wouldn't hold their hands for the 100 metres walk from the coach park.
The old Den was an experience as was the little corner of terrace at main road,was fine if you went in the platt lane seats.
You’re exaggerating chesh... implying it was widespread, and you’re insulting the tough guy reputation of our east London brethren. There were probably only about 15 of their fans asking for an escort... roughly 100% of those that made the trip.
Remember standing outside the away fans bit in Lowfields road,was a big circle of Leeds fans around the turnstile about 4 deep,I looked down and I had lonsdale trainers on with a fookin Lion on,moved away right quickly I can tell you before anyone thought I was millwall.
