www.altyfans.co.uk

I took an interest immediately cos he had the same first name as me (this matters when you are 4 and at your first football match). Now I don't recall whether he was a good or bad goal keeper. However, on this occasion at home to Runcorn he had a howler of a game, very bad.

to be honest i had moved away by then so i didnt see him play that often. good enought to play a-team and occasional reserves at united but not good enough to make it. wasnt really big enough as he isnt over 6ft which is small for a keeper. he carried on playing (for a while for hayes i think) when he moved to london for his job.
i always remember him saying that training with alty was a culture shock after united, that he would catch a high ball, brace himself and close his eyes because sometime in the next couple of seconds jeff johnon would barge into him....

it brings up all sorts of memories this
walking away from white hart lane with a lad from school and seeing people get whacked all around us, he's trying to put on a london accent but its coming out australian. we turned off the main road trying to look like we we lived round there more times than you can count, and at one point even went through someones gardenas if we were home because we were being followed. finally got to the station, just need to get accross the road and we're safe but get spotted by a mates dad who frantically waves at us shouting 'great result jimmy' at the top of his voice. i nearly hit him.
best bit of the night for me was arriving. everyone went on the train (was there petrol shortages?) and i went in with my brother. as we went up the stairs onto this floodlit patch of terracing to see a big crowd, and we were the first in. i cant really describe it but we walked out onto this pristine concrete and it was like the whole crowd stopped talking and stared at us for about 5 seconds then suddenly there was a flood of alty behind us.
anyone remember the chelsea fans in our end who took care of the tottenham who were trying to start.
when jeff scored that was my first experience of blackout. it went in and several seconds later i had travelled from the back to the front over crash barriers etc and no recollection of doing it.
also you couldnt look local, this really was before the blandification of britain and people from alty/manchester didnt dress like people from london/yorkshire/liverpool etc

runcorn in retrospect i'm almost amazed we went. we knew they would be after us after what happened at our place. that was mayhem all afternoon. we saved ourselves by engaging the lads who were about to jump us, in conversation about all the places they had been following liverpool and fights they had been in. (newcastle was worst apparently). in the end the lad i was with said to them are you going to beat us up? and they looked a bit sheepish and said if we see you outside we will.
it was always worth trying to do the opposite of what was expected and seeing if you could confuse the neanderthals

when did the floodlights arrive? i remember being pretty young and sitting with my dad watching a flloodlit match
i still love night matches more than afternoon ones

george dewsnip?  had come back from playing in the states and scored a cracker for them? or am i  having a senior moment?

agree with you sw, i think life was much more violent then
one of the main reasons i left to come to london was i got sick of being punched in the street by random headcases because i looked different to them or they thought i was gay or something. it happened a lot.

p.s. i have hated tottenham from that day to this for that night

the reality was that you were fair game for home supporters. many places had no lads, as indeed did we, and there was no trouble. the problem was that from place to place, from week to week, you had no idea whether it would happen or not,and so the threat was always there.
it wasnt like you were involved in full scale pitched battles every week, more that we used to take pretty much the same numbers away that we do now. take out the women, kids, old men, infirm etc that leaves YOU who is going to be hit.
you had a choice. fight it out (happened once or twice), run away (happened several times) hide (many times) or just take a few punches and wait for the coppers.
it was in these days you acquired a nose for trouble, you could feel it coming and get out of the way (sometimes)

funny thing was i went to vics for years and years without any trouble

gazelle - i cant believe that after all those years, all those crappy away games and scary moments, you missed the 2 triumphant days