Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

Reminiscences of the following momentous Alty match are required for potential inclusion in a forthcoming article for the Robins Review:

Saturday, 3rd May 1980

APL

Gravesend & Northfleet...0  Altrincham...2


** the final match of the 1979/80 APL season;

** Alty require a victory to be certain of winning the league title;

** first half headed goals from John King and John Rogers clinch the precious two points.


So, were you also one of the 400+ Alty fans who made the pilgrimage down to Kent that afternoon to see Alty become the APL Champions?

Do you recall Gravesend & Northfleet's own  "Cheer, cheer, here come the Fleet!" song that was broadcast as they ran out onto the pitch?

Did you invade the pitch after the final whistle and congregate in front of the Main Stand to acclaim the team?

Were you even fortunate enough to catch one of the shirts thrown into the crowd by the celebrating Alty players?

How many days did your post-match hangover last then....?


As always, all contributions are welcome, no matter how surreal or obscure.


*** Please add your recollections to this thread or email them to: towerofsong@btinternet.com


Many thanks, in anticipation.

[bigedd]

Yes remember all that,also it was a day after my 32 birthday, I also have the match programe, signed by all the Alty Players, its the best Programe in my collection.
O happy days,

[Ballers]

I remember that the blonde girl who presented Choc-A-Bloc was really beautiful and I liked watching Bod.

Sorry Cult, that's as much as I can remember of May 1980..

[Jezza]

Oh what a day.....a long drive, the rather dilapidated stadium gave the occasion a sense of football atmosphere....the last trip into the unknown of the season...I'd have been 13 and was too small to catch any of the shirts that came flying over head at the end.

And yes I remember the fleet overture.....thankfully unprophetic 2nd line of "they are the team that you never will beat" or words to that effect.

I seem to remember the game as being fairly even, we just scored our two goals and did what we had to do.

Regarding the pitch invasion I can't remember seeing any stewards and it seemed the perfectly acceptable and automatic thing to do...can't imagine doing it at an away ground today!!

seem to remember it being quite a sunny day but maybe I'm remembering the day with rose tinted specs?

[PukkaPieman]

It was a sunny day, and it was my birthday, and I got one of the shirts too!

[Kingys Beard]

A few sketchy memories.  I was at college in London at the time and the most coincidental recollection is that, on the Friday night before the game, I was walking up the steps from the Westminster tube station and lo! there was the team coach stuck in traffic right in front of me on Westminster bridge.  I took this as a good omen!

I remember the slightly rickety ground and especially the genteel way in which the home fans applauded their side on to the pitch.  Felt like a holdover from the Amateur days or something.  Tony Sanders - looking very tense - came over to the Alty fans before kickoff and urged us to do our bit.  "We will fight them on the beaches" it wasn't but we made plenty of noise all the same.

After Kingy's goal I don't think the result was ever in doubt - I don't recall any close calls at all.  We just put a stranglehold on the game.  Didn't get a shirt but still have the programme, and remember thinking how surprised my dad was, who - as the archetypal Alty pessimist - had predicted we'd be relegated that season!

[distancetraveller]

A few sketchy memories.  I was at college in London at the time and the most coincidental recollection is that, on the Friday night before the game, I was walking up the steps from the Westminster tube station and lo! there was the team coach stuck in traffic right in front of me on Westminster bridge.  I took this as a good omen!

I remember the slightly rickety ground and especially the genteel way in which the home fans applauded their side on to the pitch.  Felt like a holdover from the Amateur days or something.  Tony Sanders - looking very tense - came over to the Alty fans before kickoff and urged us to do our bit.  "We will fight them on the beaches" it wasn't but we made plenty of noise all the same.

After Kingy's goal I don't think the result was ever in doubt - I don't recall any close calls at all.  We just put a stranglehold on the game.  Didn't get a shirt but still have the programme, and remember thinking how surprised my dad was, who - as the archetypal Alty pessimist - had predicted we'd be relegated that season!

News Flash ---  Kingys Beard is the son of David Birch lol 

[Dougals Dad]

I remember that the blonde girl who presented Choc-A-Bloc was really beautiful and I liked watching Bod.

Sorry Cult, that's as much as I can remember of May 1980..

Carol Leader

[jiminlondon]

As usual I'm completely useless at remembering this stuff, but at least I can remember being there this time.
I only went back there for the first time a couple of years ago and its hard to reconcile the 2 experiences - did we swap ends at H/T? because I seem to think we were in the covered end second half?

what I do remember is I never having a moments doubt, which is strange because I'm a natural pessimist at football games. I suppose it came from a season of watching us win all the time - hard to believe now I suppose. The game was even and tight but somehow you knew we would score in the end and when we did there was no way that team was letting go.

At the end, we (my mates and me) sauntered onto the pitch after the main invasion and made our way to the throng in front of the stand performing our 'victory forward rolls' which we did after momentous victories (if anyone remembered.)
The only other thing I remember was that someone I knew from my schooldays caught one of the shirts and being a bit miffed about it as said lad didnt go to many games whereas I went home and away. The things that bother you at 18 eh?

This whole series has been great and also really interesting for me because I honestly have no recollection of virtuall any of it despite being there at nearly all the games.

[taxi Phil]

Alas, I was (as usual) working, but remember driving around for the rest of the weekend with a silly smug grin on my face 

[SW]

As usual I'm completely useless at remembering this stuff, but at least I can remember being there this time.
I only went back there for the first time a couple of years ago and its hard to reconcile the 2 experiences - did we swap ends at H/T? because I seem to think we were in the covered end second half?

what I do remember is I never having a moments doubt, which is strange because I'm a natural pessimist at football games. I suppose it came from a season of watching us win all the time - hard to believe now I suppose. The game was even and tight but somehow you knew we would score in the end and when we did there was no way that team was letting go.

At the end, we (my mates and me) sauntered onto the pitch after the main invasion and made our way to the throng in front of the stand performing our 'victory forward rolls' which we did after momentous victories (if anyone remembered.)
The only other thing I remember was that someone I knew from my schooldays caught one of the shirts and being a bit miffed about it as said lad didnt go to many games whereas I went home and away. The things that bother you at 18 eh?

This whole series has been great and also really interesting for me because I honestly have no recollection of virtuall any of it despite being there at nearly all the games.

We did change end at HT, first half we were in the open end, then that covered one that was condemned a few years ago. Bizarrely I seem to recall their main stand being on the opposite side but it clearly wasn't. I got John Connaughton's shirt, which being green, cost me a slap at the Drill Field the following week in the League Cup game.

[jiminlondon]

do you know that was one of the reasons I said I found it difficult to join the two experiences up, in my mind we entered the pitch from the covered end and the stand where the celebration was taking place was to your right, but having been there since I know that isn't so.
I was really disappointed we couldnt stand in that covered end just for nostalgias sake.

[SW]

do you know that was one of the reasons I said I found it difficult to join the two experiences up, in my mind we entered the pitch from the covered end and the stand where the celebration was taking place was to your right, but having been there since I know that isn't so.
I was really disappointed we couldnt stand in that covered end just for nostalgias sake.

Exactly my perception Jim, we did go on from the covered end but I still recall heading right to the stand. Did the ground change over 25 years? Never looked like it but the side on the right has a closed section with a big area behind. We need a 'fleet fan on here I reckon.

[Brian Flynn]

do you know that was one of the reasons I said I found it difficult to join the two experiences up, in my mind we entered the pitch from the covered end and the stand where the celebration was taking place was to your right, but having been there since I know that isn't so.
I was really disappointed we couldnt stand in that covered end just for nostalgias sake.

Exactly my perception Jim, we did go on from the covered end but I still recall heading right to the stand. Did the ground change over 25 years? Never looked like it but the side on the right has a closed section with a big area behind. We need a 'fleet fan on here I reckon.

We were attacking the covered end in the second half, so if you were in there, the main stand, where the trophy was presented was to your right.

In my mind it was quite a dull day.......I must dig out the bobbins pictures I took that day to confirm whether that was the case or not.

[jiminlondon]

please do dig out the pictures as they may stop my head exploding. Looking from the covered end the main stand is on your left, perhaps its been built since and the celebrations were conducted in the tiny little stand on the other side....