Worst away end you've been in?

[Jon Slinn]

Springfield Park, Wigan

Yes when we went in the 4th Division ( 1st away match ) coach driver took us tho the Rugby Ground.
Remember Kenworthy scored and half a house brick smashed me in the nose..Fooking building site came to mind.
Burger van got turned over as it ran out of food. Thought we were taking a few Hundred, Thousands turned up.

Brilliant day out. except the nose that is.

 

[Jon Slinn]

Belle Vue - Donny Rovers away - was like a prisoner of war camp. Barbed Wire , High Fencing - Like Hillsborough on a good day.

won 3-0 and had a few thousand crammed in, sardines came to mind.. Their chairman, a gallon of petrol with a box of swan vesta's did Doncaster a favour.

 

[Jon Slinn]

God, this could be a list...

Halifax, wall fell on me!

Millmoor, bricked.

Scunthorpe (original ground) BBC confronted by a female top boy. That was funny, but the ground was falling down.

Birmingham (as mentioned elsewhere, first time I properly encountered football violence)

Hull, more precisely Boothferry Park. Dump

Baseball Ground, I got right at the front and saw nowt but legs and boots.

Luton. See Hull

Plymouth. See Luton

Grimsby. Awful place, improved by a Cooperman pitch invasion...or was that York? Another dump.

Aldershot. Poor view and then confronted by squaddies leaving.

Altrincham, pissed it down and the Blades were embarrassingly shite.

Stockport. Fell off a railways sleeper and twisted by ankle quite badly.

I could go on but it's getting a bit depressing!

Wasn't it Cooper man at Grimsby that got the Blades fans singing Losing 3 or 4-0. Got the Away Fans off their arses. had a party. Still got hammered on the pitch.

Made Reg Brealey decide to become our Chairman ( i believe ).

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Wasn't it Cooper man at Grimsby that got the Blades fans singing Losing 3 or 4-0. Got the Away Fans off their arses. had a party. Still got hammered on the pitch.

Made Reg Brealey decide to become our Chairman ( i believe ).

That might've been a different visit to Grimsby. I was at that one, when Kevin started the away end singing, but I also remember him invading the pitch to give Kenworthy a scarf or something, the memory is hazy as I thought it was Grimsby but further thought makes me think York for some reason. His climbing exploits were done at Huddersfield, I think, and you can add Leeds Road to the list of shite away ends as well.

 

[metalblade]

All I remember of Leeds Rd is the cowshed and a huge covered standing only side terrace, Burnley too was standing only down one side. The largest stand only side terrace I have seen was Charlton that was open air capacity 72,000 at the time.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Blackpool away when we won 4-1 about 8/9 years ago (maybe more), it wasn't even an end it was some scaffolding structure with seats on that rocked when we scored, the toilets were portakabins as well from memory.

There are some terrible ones, Chesterfield's with open air toilets being bad, however at least they were actual structures rather than temporary rubbish.

 

[I should coco]

Can I chuck in Oddsall where Bradford played after the fire.

The away 'end' (side) was open and a poor pretend effort at terracing. The 'stadium' was for speedway and there wasn't quite enough room for a footie pitch in the centre so the corners curved up. Absolute Mickey Mouse Toytown with bells on.

 

[Nade]

I hated Stoke. The inside was colder than the outside because it trapped all the wind or something.

 

[I should coco]

Another shout for Saltergate too.

The terrace steps were made of red cinder with brick edges. The cinder had simply been tamped down but of course when it rained (as it always did), puddles formed and you came out with red marks all over the bottom of your jeans. We always used to lose there too.

 

[Nasik Blade]

Manor Ground, Oxford- Got drenched watching us beat them 1-2 away, Dean Saunders scored, probably the coldest coach journey home I've ever had

County Ground, Swindon - verging on hypothermia watching us uncovered again, lose 2-1 Fjortoft's first goal for us.

They'd be my top 2, cold no roof, bloody miles away, more bearable when you've won.

 

[Blade for Sale]

Can I chuck in Oddsall where Bradford played after the fire.

The away 'end' (side) was open and a poor pretend effort at terracing. The 'stadium' was for speedway and there wasn't quite enough room for a footie pitch in the centre so the corners curved up. Absolute Mickey Mouse Toytown with bells on.

A ground so outdated it was depicted as a 1930s Wembley in The King's Speech (as was Elland Rd for which L**ds haven't had nearly as much stick as they deserve!).

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

Mansfield years ago around 88 or so, hiding from the driving sleet behind a chain link fence. It was so cold most people there were various shades of blue, teeth chattering and shivering like crazy. And like an idiot I was wearing my new leather jacket, took a week for it to dry out.

It was early April, though I forget what year. It was the coldest I`ve ever been at a football match.

 

[grafikhaus]

And the winner is...

Belle Vue, Doncaster.

Dec, 11 1988. FA Cup round 2. We won 3-1 in front of 6556. Fucking freezing, jammed in a too-small space with fencing to keep us off the pitch. I took a new girlfriend to this, and she still wanted to see me again. Silly bitch.

To be fair, most grounds/away ends were pretty grim back then - Rotherham, Leeds, Huddersfield, Bolton, Northampton etc. but most have got new stadia. But the worst away end by far still in existence? Leppings fucking Lane. How do the cunts still get away with it?

Edit: I forgot. It has been improved. Chancer has draped the sail off one of his old tuna boats over it.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

All I remember of Leeds Rd is the cowshed and a huge covered standing only side terrace, Burnley too was standing only down one side. The largest stand only side terrace I have seen was Charlton that was open air capacity 72,000 at the time.

Remember going to a third round FA Cup tie at the Valley in the early sixties. Went in their covered end with quite a few Blades. Got very "interesting" when their boys turned up not too happy about it. One of theirs was a docker, about 5ft 4in tall and about 5ft 4in wide. Took about eight of the Met`s finest to control him and chuck him out once things had gone too far. Yet another five hour journey back from London on a football special train.

 

[Grecian2000]

All the really bad ones are from way back when standing and fencing was the order of the day.
Particularly bad at Oxford and Notts County. The thickest, most obtrusive fencing they could possibly find.
Always find it quite amusing when people moan about police and their treatment in the modern era, should have been going away from the mid seventies until Hillsborough. Treated like animals from Carlisle to Plymouth, penned in and herded around like prisoners at Shawshank.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Another vote for Boothferry Park - probably not the worst, but it's up there. Very rickety and corrugated, didn't offer much protection from the elements either.

 

[grafikhaus]

Ah, the Prostate Cancer Stand. Nice that they're promoting a charity but naming an area of the ground after it is a bit much.

Whaddya mean? Crewe:

Reading this thread, makes me laugh about the fuss when a plastic bottle was thrown from the kop in the Norwich game. Back then - 70s, 80s, early nineties - absolutely anything was thrown. Always worse when the 'stand' was split between home and away fans as Bolton's Burnden Park was. Which brings us to two previously unmentioned Lancashire grounds. Blackpool's Bloomfield Road and Burnley's Turf Moor. Fucking everything used to fly over the fence between the rival fans - pool balls and darts nicked from the pub as people left them, half-brick, lumps of angle iron.

You knew Man. City's Maine Road was going to be 'lively'. About 20 coppers used to sit in a corner of the ground, while outside it was a certainty that your car would get broken into. I went on 19th March, 1994. 0-0, fucking boring and I think it was the game where a Blade female got hit by a whisky bottle thrown from their Kippax End. Situated in Moss Side, it made Mosul look like Ringinglow. Any pubs near to the ground (if they hadn't been burned down) didn't just have plastic glasses, they had plastic windows.

In those days, even the old Wembley was a shithole.

 

[TCsLoveChild]

St Andrews when we played Brum in '75. Trouble is about 6000 Unitedites thought it was the away end and it wasn't. Fucking carnage for 90 minutes.

Very true, that was the closest I ever got to have the errr crap kicked out of me. The poor bloke behind me got a proper shoeing. UTB

 

[TCsLoveChild]

Can't remember if it was the away end or the Kop (because in the old 4th Div days we regularly took over the Kop end of grounds), but does anyone remember the "We're Bouncing up and Down" chant at Bury. The stand floor was made of railway sleepers I think and was like a trampoline with 3000 hooligans jumping up and down at the same time. Happy days UTB

 

[SwitchBLADE Smiles]

My vote goes to Burnley. Delapodated, rusty, crumbling shit pile inhabited almost exclusively by backward inbreds with shit accents.

You spend most of the game trying to dodge the onslaught of bird shit coming from the roosting toss pots above, to be then greeted by scenes akin to the Walking Dead after the game is over.

Been 3 times. Each time our coach has been bricked by one of the local smack heads. The only place in the UK I wished the Germans had a better go at.

In short, not a fan of the place.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

It was early April, though I forget what year. It was the coldest I`ve ever been at a football match.

Just to add; in that continual horizontal sleet, one Bob Booker played possibly his finest game in a Blades shirt.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Watching the Gillingham v Portsmouth game on Sky reminds me how miserable the Priestfield away end is. Held up by scaffolding, the stand moves when you walk on it, no roof, it always seems to be cold and we always play shit there. Surely the worst away end in the League?!

Yeah Priestfield really is the pits.

Milmoor and The Dell were up there but those clubs have moved on.

 

[TCsLoveChild]

The Swill is genuinely one of the worst I’ve been in. Was there for the Bobby Davidson game and although a brilliant night I was absolutely piss wet through on what is the now condemned triangle. I’ve also sat in the top tier and had my view of the pitch obstructed by two or three posts and that’s not exaggerating.

I’ve been to loads in the early eighties in the lower divisions but I seriously can’t remember an away end as poor.

Maybe the old Carlisle ground (not sure if they still play there) and Bristol Rovers (can’t remember what it was called) give the Swill a run for its money.

But taking into account the supposed status of the stadiums and clubs, the Swill is the the stand out shit hole for me.

Have to agree about the Lepers Lane end. How that entire stand hasn't been condemned or at the very least closed on safety grounds I will never know. Friends in high places I guess UTB

 

[Edinblade]

St Andrews when we played Brum in '75. Trouble is about 6000 Unitedites thought it was the away end and it wasn't. Fucking carnage for 90 minutes.

I was there. If my memory is correct we had to win to get into Europe, but ended 0 0.
The cops were directing us onto that stand (no tickets required in those days). The crush just before kick off was unbelievable.

 

[sitwell]

That might've been a different visit to Grimsby. I was at that one, when Kevin started the away end singing, but I also remember him invading the pitch to give Kenworthy a scarf or something, the memory is hazy as I thought it was Grimsby but further thought makes me think York for some reason. His climbing exploits were done at Huddersfield, I think, and you can add Leeds Road to the list of shite away ends as well.

It was York ,and it wasn't him up the floodlights at Huddersfield I think it was Dinky and Brian Rawlins ,but then again my memory is shite too ,couldn't tell you a thing about the game ,but the walk up and down that hill to Leeds Rd was lively.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Can't remember if it was the away end or the Kop (because in the old 4th Div days we regularly took over the Kop end of grounds), but does anyone remember the "We're Bouncing up and Down" chant at Bury. The stand floor was made of railway sleepers I think and was like a trampoline with 3000 hooligans jumping up and down at the same time. Happy days UTB

Don't tell me we invented...........BOUNCING!

 

[Paulus]

As many have stated above it wasn't difficult to find primitive facilities back in the day but you got used to that; to my mind the most depressing period for being an away fan was the late 80's when the fencing and caging was at it's peak and clubs were gradually facing up to the reality of either improving or re-building their stadia. In particular I remember being incarcerated in a horrible little cage at the Dell where there was absolutely no chance of getting out of the way if needed. Again at St James' Park Newcastle where they had demolished the old Leazes end and left a building site which they put a cage on for us = there was no food, no toilet people were just pissing through the barriers. The worst of all though was a match at Selhurst park against Charlton when they were ground sharing. They were re-building the away end and we were again housed in a building site. Penned in, the local yobbos were lobbing various hall bricks and other rubble at us from the side of the building works whilst the coppers stood behind our cage doing fuck all.

 

[GaryHamsonsLeftBootLace]

Carrow Road in the FA Cup when Dean and Agana ripped a new arsehole for Norwich who were sitting atop the old Division One at the time although we ended up narrowly (and possibly undeservedly losing) 3-2. Fantastic game, great away atmosphere, but the whole game we were pelted with coins, plastic bottles full of piss and spit. But we loved every minute of it... So actually it was the BEST away end ever ;-)

 

[snootyfenooty]

Having read that lot I can't believe our present fans moan incessantly about mustard, flares and limited leg room on the kop. What a bunch of fucking softies.

 

[cahill]

The crumbling terraces at Bradford, about 1980. Both set's of fans cobbing lumps of it at each other all the way through the game. Lot's of injuries.

Bloody hell , aye, remember it well. Billiard balls, sauce bottles ( not sure which variety) bricks, coins , carnage it was.
As for crap ends Barnsleys slag heap takes some beating