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[JackSwindells No 1 Fan]

Just been watchin' Ebbs vs Histon - brought back amazing memories............. winning the league. JK scoring the opener; a true leader!
Gettin' Mr Barrows shirt, helping strip Warby the "trainer" nof his kit in their stand at the end... huge hangover next morning after a night out in posh Chigwell!
Long live Alty, long live the team of 1979/80

Post only if YOU were there!

[george]

I was there. Others, in attendance on our coach Ron & Jackie Gallimore, Noel Shields. Ian Boardman, Dave Thorpe all still watching Alty or working there. Ron led the charge with a bugle borrowed from the Boys' Brigade. Also in attendance Jack Rodgers, Jackie's father who was at Moss Lane on Saturday being presented with a cheque for £3,600 for winning the Yankee. Much deserved all his family are contributors & if everyone was, the club would be a lot better off. End of commercial. COME ON SUPPORT THE CLUB, IT'S ONLY £1 PER WEEK.

[thegazelle]

remarkably i was not there at gravesend. i had an operation the day before. i called mr hall from the hospital at 3.oo pm on the friday said i M FINE WE ARE GOING.(high on whatever sh*t they gave me) book us on the coach. worst bit was derek kennerley not my greatest fan charged me as well

WOKE AT 7.30 THE NEXT DAY WHEN drugs wore off and there was no way i was leaving my bed


the next year fishing in northern ireland the week villa won nthe european cup, spurs qpr cup final or is that a blur of two weeks.


missed 68 as i was only 7 years old . i dont suppose i will ever see alty win the league  as i dont want it to be the unibond blue square north northern counties


on a more positive night how good was the invasion of northwich on the weds we losy but you would never have known it oh kingy kingy kingy why oh why oh why it would have made my life

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

Yes, I was there.
Halcyon days.

Still recall that Gravesend & Northfleet had their own song as they ran out onto the pitch before kick-off.

I think it went as follows:

"Cheer, cheer, here come The Fleet. They are the team you will never defeat."
Novel...but technically incorrect, as we won 2-0.

In a scrapbook located in my archives, there is still a sod of Gravesend's pitch preserved for eternity in a small polythene bag.
How about that for a sentimental Alty souvenir....?!

[Jezza]

I was there too....I wonder how many Alty fans there actually were that day....it felt like thousands in front of Gravesend's ricketty stand trying to catch the shirts thrown by the players?

Strangely I have much more vivid memories of the Northwich match particularly of the ball leaving Kingys boot and sailing way way over the asbestos stand....and they take the micky out of our wooden stand eh?

Did Gazelle not go to Worcester the following year when we drew and only found out on the radio that we'd won the league?...almost an anti climax that was.

[JackSwindells No 1 Fan]

Worcester was agony... we were on the way home on the A449 when we got the news that we'd won.... stopped car in next lay by and did somersaults un and down the central reservation! Mganificent!
No mobile phones etc. How did we manage to stay sane waiting for the odd mention on Sports Report.

[SW]

I went on the coach from The Vine in Sale. I can't remember much if anything about the game, the celebrations at the end were great, I got John Connaughtons green keepers shirt. I wore it at Northwich for the cup final in the week and came close to a kicking from our own fans at the end after some melee erupted when Kingy missed his pen. Fancy wearing green to a Vics game.

The comment about it sailing over the stand, IIRC Kingy's pen struck the post? Perhaps my memory is going.

Worcester was an odd day with not knowing the result from Stafford v Kettering. A bit tense in the ground too with no segregation and a mob of Worcester all around us. I'm sure we found out the title was ours back in Alty, we went in The Grapes, but Redhill Alty thinks we stopped at Knutsford Services and bought a Pink. I dunno, can't recall now.

[Jezza]

I got John Connaughtons green keepers shirt

You b$stard SW...I wanted that.....at the Yeovil match after the Worcester game (the one where kingy backheeled our winner in the 90th minute in the pouring rain) I walked all the way round the ground and asked him if I could have his shirt at the end coz some git nudged me out of the way at Gravesend last year.....he seemed to nod agreememt but at the end of the game I was outmuscled again.

I used to stand behind Charlie's goal every single match and modelled my entire goalkeeping strategy around his style of play....he was my absolute hero and I was gutted when after the Enfield Trophy final I overheard him at the homecoming explaining his business reasons for quitting.

So come on...which bugger grabbed charlie's shirt at the yeovil match elbowing me in the face in the process?

This also begs the question...when did alex stepney stop and Charlie take over? I thought stepney was in goals all that season but now I'm thinkng charlie connaughton came in towards the end?

[jiminlondon]

yes i was there
i also cant remember much about the game besides never having a moments doubt what the outcome would be. imagine having that confidence now
i also have vivid memories of wandering around the pitch at the end doing celebration forward rolls






a couple of lads i knew got a slap at worcester the next year

[SW]

Sorry Jezza! I did have a mini tussle with someone to get that shirt, perhaps it was you?

[thegazelle]

sw the bully jezza is ten years younger than you

[jiminlondon]

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

[SW]

sw the bully jezza is ten years younger than you

Ah, not him then. I didn't wrestle with an 8 year old!

[ManagementGuru]

I was there too!!  It was an amazing day - it felt a bit wierd because before kickoff I simultaneously beleived that the title was in the bag and that there was no chance of Alty actually winning the league (following on from the previous season's second in the NPL).  These two feelings had co-existed through the season what with the losses at Telford, Yeovil and Worcester in the early part of the season and the massively depressing abdications at Nuneaton and Barnet being offset by our amazing home form - confident that we'd win every game and some great away performances at Maidstone, Kettering, Wealdstone, Leamington.

And because it was a brnad new league, you had no idea what any of the opposition would be like - even down to the last day of the season and the match at Gravesend.  Which in the end turned out to be an anticlimax - we won too easily - but the celebrations afterwards were not anticlimatic at all, oh no!

Looking back, I recall a similar dichotomy of feelings at the Wycombe trophy semi-final  -we can win and we can get stuffed simutaneously but having no idea about the opposition - another match that ended up being euphoric and anti-climactic, although with the extra spice of several hundred Wycombe skin heads (I was behind the goal in the away end!)#

Winning the title the following year never meant as much to me as winning the title the first time - probably a bit blase by then!

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

I went on the coach from The Vine in Sale. I can't remember much if anything about the game, the celebrations at the end were great, I got John Connaughtons green keepers shirt. I wore it at Northwich for the cup final in the week and came close to a kicking from our own fans at the end after some melee erupted when Kingy missed his pen. Fancy wearing green to a Vics game.

The comment about it sailing over the stand, IIRC Kingy's pen struck the post? Perhaps my memory is going.

Worcester was an odd day with not knowing the result from Stafford v Kettering. A bit tense in the ground too with no segregation and a mob of Worcester all around us. I'm sure we found out the title was ours back in Alty, we went in The Grapes, but Redhill Alty thinks we stopped at Knutsford Services and bought a Pink. I dunno, can't recall now.

Indeed, Worcester away back in May 1980 was a rather uncomfortable and anticlimactic occasion.
One of those days when you tried to keep relatively quiet and blend in with the locals.

A very dull 0-0 draw unfolded and I seem to recall hearing someone say that Kettering were winning at Stafford, so when the final whistle went we assumed that we still needed to beat Yeovil at Moss Lane on the following Monday to clinch the title.

As we were sitting on the supporters' coach awaiting to leave the ground, I do believe that none other than Noel White himself got on board and informed us that we had actually won the league!