It’s About Time

[ancientblade]

Not old fashioned enough..in my teens we used to share the home teams Kop.And iremember very well getting into ground to find The Kop full of oppo fans..

only happened with 2 clubs though man utd who always brought 20k plus to both sheffield grounds and leeds in 74 where they were on the shoreham 2 hours before kick 10k of them but there was some fierce battles on the kop early 70s with only a line of police seperating the 2 factions

 

[Digs blade]

So what went through your head when you realised they were on the kop.

I’d have loved it

 

[Digs blade]

I remember the Leeds fans taking over the back of the kop sometime around 73/74. I ended up standing in front of them (where I normally did) with some friends and I was hit by a can thrown by a Leeds fan.

I know everyone wore scarfs in those days. Is that how you realised there was loads of them or were they singing Leeds songs. I’m genuinely fascinated.

What did you do when the can was thrown? Did you just have to accept it due to their numbers

 

[Grey Blade]

I know everyone wore scarfs in those days. Is that how you realised there was loads of them or were they singing Leeds songs. I’m genuinely fascinated.

What did you do when the can was thrown? Did you just have to accept it due to their numbers

As I recall they were singing leeds songs and I was with my student friends who included United, Everton and Spurs fans. I think we just thought it was a bit of a laugh
Anyone could get in the ground back then

 

[Digs blade]

Brilliant .

I must ask my dad about some of these games. He’s never really told me about some of his experiences

 

[originaltrueblade]

I’m always fascinated to hear this. It wasnt really a thing when I started going in 78.

I’ve heard they would go in early in order to take over.

What was it like walking up the steps on the kop looking to secure your usual spot only to find it was full of away fans. My adrenaline would have been absolutely pumping

Trust me it was particularly home to Manure and Newcastle 1972 fighting all the match

 

[originaltrueblade]

only happened with 2 clubs though man utd who always brought 20k plus to both sheffield grounds and leeds in 74 where they were on the shoreham 2 hours before kick 10k of them but there was some fierce battles on the kop early 70s with only a line of police seperating the 2 factions

Yep Newcastle and manure

 

[Silent Blade]

I’m always fascinated to hear this. It wasnt really a thing when I started going in 78.

I’ve heard they would go in early in order to take over.

What was it like walking up the steps on the kop looking to secure your usual spot only to find it was full of away fans. My adrenaline would have been absolutely pumping

Strict segregation didnt start until the 1980s. I usually sat in the BLUT from 1970 to 1977, the only trouble I saw from the BLUT was when the police got into the BLLT to sort out the fighting also there was a lot of fighting in the Kop when I watched (from the John Street East Terraces) the pre season Anglo Scottish Cup match against Newcastle in 1976. I watched some of our home games from the Kop during the 1977-78 season but I dont remember seeing any of the away fans there that season.

 

[Silent Blade]

Many elder Blades have said that this match saw the worst fighting they have attended.

Post in thread '1966-67 match reports and photos'

Apr 1, 2022

1/4/1967

Blades 1 (Jones) Man City 0

I love hearing recollection of matches from older Blades. A good mate of mine, Frank Wood (1951-2000) told me in the 1990s that he remembers the above match very well. He said "I was stood in the John Street terraces, just before half time against Man City at the Lane, Mick Jones headed in a Woody corner to put us into the lead.....




..... after the cheering had died down, I looked towards the Kop and I could see in different areas there were punches being thrown, some fans ran for their safety and then there was more fighting, it was...

• Silent Blade

• 

 

[Digs blade]

Trust me it was particularly home to Manure and Newcastle 1972 fighting all the match

Was it just a free for all mass punch up or was there plenty of bravado without backing it up. Where were the police in all of this. Did they make arrests or just think sod it may as well let them get on with it.

Nothing like what you encountered but I have vague recollections of a handful of Motherwell fans going on the kop in an Anglo Scottish match. Not big numbers, more like about a dozen. They ended up at the front on the right hand side just in front of where the junior pen used to be.

I want to say some Blades attacked them but I don’t know if my mind is playing tricks with me

Sorry for taking this off topic.

 

[1889]

I remember in the 70’s you would occasionally see large groups of United fans walking round the ground, passed the Cricket pavilion from Shoreham to the away end and then there’d be people all over the place in the BLLT and the Police trying to sort it out, to a chorus of ‘Shoreham aggro, Shoreham aggro, hello, hello’ (repeat) I recall there being a major kick off in the BLLT once against Birmingham that went on for ages, I think everyone was watching that rather than the match.
I was in my usual spot on the Shoreham railings for a night match v Man Utd, there was something ridiculous like 40,000 in the ground and Man Utd fans were on the Kop, kids were getting passed over heads as the crowd swayed about. After the game, when we left and eventually got out of the ground onto Shoreham St near Cherry St corner, I looked to my left and there were Man Utd supporters running towards us, I was only about nine, I set off running and didn’t stop ‘til I got to Queens Road. I could have had ‘em but I had school next day

 

[blade_ben]

Would any home fans wanna sit in the BL lower tier? I doubt it

 

[originaltrueblade]

Was it just a free for all mass punch up or was there plenty of bravado without backing it up. Where were the police in all of this. Did they make arrests or just think sod it may as well let them get on with it.

Nothing like what you encountered but I have vague recollections of a handful of Motherwell fans going on the kop in an Anglo Scottish match. Not big numbers, more like about a dozen. They ended up at the front on the right hand side just in front of where the junior pen used to be.

I want to say some Blades attacked them but I don’t know if my mind is playing tricks with me

Sorry for taking this off topic.

Plenty of cops for that manure game. Manure got on the kop early and for all the match Blades fighting to get the kop back. Woody scored winner from pen

The Newcastle game had Newcastle in the south side of the kop with Blades to the right with cops down the middle it was intense bottles being thrown. Fighting went on in town throughout the evening. Remember having a drink in Nelson on Satdy evening and all hell broke loose and fighting around fountain.
Happy Days managed to avoid it

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

Crombie,Harrington,Staypress,Ben Sherman,Doc Martins,Brogue's clothes that i wore to games in those days,i did wear a Beret a couple of times.

Here are the Chelsea hardmen.

 

[Oohaah! Bob Bookah!]

Crombie,Harrington,Staypress,Ben Sherman,Doc Martins,Brogue's clothes that i wore to games in those days,i did wear a Beret a couple of times.

Here are the Chelsea hardmen.
View attachment 204649

Has the cat died?
(as my mother used to say)

 

[Northyorksblade]

If we had away fans adjacent to home fans the authorities would insist on an enormous neutral zone in between and probably more stewards than away fans - I base this assumption on our away match at Derby. I was amazed at the number of stewards on each side of the United fans, so I counted them - 120+ - ridiculous

Was the game THAT boring?

 

[Sean Thornton]

Crombie,Harrington,Staypress,Ben Sherman,Doc Martins,Brogue's clothes that i wore to games in those days,i did wear a Beret a couple of times.

Here are the Chelsea hardmen.
View attachment 204649

Eccles! (DH)

 

[Isar]

Put an upper deck on John Street and put the away fans in the left side of that,and we could encourage chabbies in the lower John St to chuck "slush" at em.

An upper deck on the John Street stand would be an awesome view for watching the game.
To good for away fans.

 

[Nesh Blade]

Would any home fans wanna sit in the BL lower tier? I doubt it

I accidentally got us tickets there for the play off game against Forest, it was crap! But maybe mostly down to the result. I also sat there watching England in the semi finals of the women’s euros. Sat on all stands of the ground now except Pukka Pies corner

 

[Grey Blade]

Was the game THAT boring?

I described it as 'underwhelming', but I did my count prior to kick off.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Hire a few screens at Cineworld Meadowhall on a live stream chuck the away fans in there. We can have BDTBL to ourselves and gives any blades fans an excuse to avoid Meadowhell at Xmas with the kids and they have parking, train links and good access to M1.... sorted

 

[Greenwich Blade]

Thread title is extremely misleading. It claims the thread will be about time but it's actually about accommodation of away fans.

 

[LurkerBladeS2]

My only memories of this are as a nipper, being shoved into the middle of a load of blokes to protect me while it kicked off, I probably should have been more scared than I was, but I was never one of those to "avoid trouble" growing up.

 

[vas borbokis]

My thought for the day.

It's unfortunate that this very basic human instinct to attack anything that doesn't resemble us, will likely lead to the destruction of our world.

When we've "drained the swamp" and killed everything off that's not "us", what're we going to fight then?

I don't get the fascination with all this, with battle celebrations, historic victories, with our mighty past, invading and taking over another people's land.

In my experience 95% of the worlds people are compassionate caring folk, yet we let the 5% gain positions of power, and fuck the place up.

Sadly I don't know what the answer is.

 

[Nick Jansky]

My thought for the day.

It's unfortunate that this very basic human instinct to attack anything that doesn't resemble us, will likely lead to the destruction of our world.

When we've "drained the swamp" and killed everything off that's not "us", what're we going to fight then?

I don't get the fascination with all this, with battle celebrations, historic victories, with our mighty past, invading and taking over another people's land.

In my experience 95% of the worlds people are compassionate caring folk, yet we let the 5% gain positions of power, and fuck the place up.

Sadly I don't know what the answer is.

It all comes down to fear in the end, most of which is irrational. All hate stems from fear. It’s about scared little boys.

 

[Yoonited]

It all comes down to fear in the end, most of which is irrational. All hate stems from fear. It’s about scared little boys.

I imagine there are theses written somewhere.
GPT or DeepSeek might be wort exploring
I agree wholeheartedly. It's a question I've pondered deeply.Bonkers.
False Expectation Appearing Real .
Ya bang on Nick.

 

[blade too long]

We created a little corner for away fans thus taking away their support behind the goal.
Create a secure corner between John Street and Lane end
move the family stand to bramall lane lower and let away fans go in that corner , coaches can pick them up 5 -10 minutes after the game

 

[Valley Blade]

I imagine there are theses written somewhere.
GPT or DeepSeek might be wort exploring
I agree wholeheartedly. It's a question I've pondered deeply.Bonkers.
False Expectation Appearing Real .
Ya bang on Nick.

He's not bang on. All hate does not stem from fear. Some hate would seem perfectly understandable, if your family was murdered for instance. Would it not be beyond reason to feel hatred towards the perpetrators? Might not do you any good but that's a different debate.

 

[Snowflake]

only happened with 2 clubs though man utd who always brought 20k plus to both sheffield grounds and leeds in 74 where they were on the shoreham 2 hours before kick 10k of them but there was some fierce battles on the kop early 70s with only a line of police seperating the 2 factions

I took my girlfriend to her first match in 1974/5/6 ? It was against Spurs and we ended up in the middle of a battle on the Kop.
Strangely she didn’t go again for 20 years, but she did marry me !!

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

My thought for the day.

It's unfortunate that this very basic human instinct to attack anything that doesn't resemble us, will likely lead to the destruction of our world.

When we've "drained the swamp" and killed everything off that's not "us", what're we going to fight then?

I don't get the fascination with all this, with battle celebrations, historic victories, with our mighty past, invading and taking over another people's land.

In my experience 95% of the worlds people are compassionate caring folk, yet we let the 5% gain positions of power, and fuck the place up.

Sadly I don't know what the answer is.

With enough propaganda, stoking of nationalist sentiments and fear mongering the other 95% soon jumps on board.