Smallest Blades following?

[judge]

Whatever's the smallest , I bet the next trip to wembley will be a bit sparse

 

[Silent Blade]

we had an away game at Southend on a friday night in the late 80s ,lost again I think and there were hardly any of us there. We walked into the board room after the game and told them we were Sheff Utd staff and players and never got challenged.

It was on my birthday, March 1989. Lost 2-1, Booker scored. I stayed over at a friends in Tottenham

 

[DazBlade88]

I've been to a few league games where we've only taken 3-400 (Ipswich, Gillingham, QPR etc) but if I remember correctly, when we played Reading in the League Cup in 05 we didn't take many at all. Can't find the exact figure but I'm sure it was only about 200. I stand to be corrected of course!

 

[lawlessdan]

For a league game for me, it would probably be Gillingham in around 2004. It was the Sunday afternoon game that was on Sky (think we won 3-0...). There was only 3-400 there I think.

Was that the game Emanuel Gabrelli was sent off?

 

[dublin 10 blade]

Mill wall think it was about 1978 1-1 Colin Franks scored about 100-150 Blades I can remember Millwall launching a big piece of timber into the Blades.

5 of us went in the car sat in what we thought was a safe stand wrong! Didnt say a word even when we scored.

Was at that game, or another game with exactly the same piece of wood being tossed back and forth,as a young un with a few mates in tow we thought we were rock, went back next season when we won 4-1 and can confirm every time we scored a barrage of coins came over and they are'nt called bushwackers for nothing but that was on another trip to London.

 

[BladeFisher]

Don't think it'd ever get this bad http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20700529

Love it! Can hear the chant "Where's your bubble car, where's your bubble car!"

It's fans like him that makes you proud that you don't follow ManUre , Citeh, Arsenal et al.

 

[DazBlade88]

Was that the game Emanuel Gabrelli was sent off?

It was his debut I think. We won 3-1 in the end

 

[Revolution]

It was his debut I think. We won 3-1 in the end

It proved to be his only appearance.

 

[Darren]

After best and worst matches, I wondered what was the smallest Blades following you recall at a game?

Now I don't include friendlies here, but of course the ZDS, Associate Members Cup etc are fair game and it is these competitions that bring my entry.

It was Leeds (A) in the Full Members Cup and I recall half a bus load of us made it up to Fellons Road. Amazingly I can't remember the game although it was 1-1 but the size of the crowd and 20 odd Blades!

16th October 1985. Morris scored.

 

[Darren]

Yeah it was! Looked it up in my old SUFC scap book (sad git), I put an asterisk against the games I saw. We must have won on pens or something as we played Citeh in the next round and lost 1-2 at home.

It was a group system that season. Leeds, Man City and United were in one group and all played each other.. City finished top and us second and City progressed

 

[Darren]

You're right. About 350-400. My lad was mascot (with his mate from school, his dad was a Palace fan and wasn't impressed both with his lad, our fans or us, in general)

It states in the Miscellany book that Trace fouled their player outside the area, but as I recall he handled outside, and the ref missed this, only to be snitched on by the lino, which prompted our Brighton-living cockend to sprint up the touchline and spark out said lino as Trace trudged down the tunnel after being carded. Mark Halsey was the ref.

This was ten years to the day after the match above!

And Pompey were still in the shit back then as well!

pommpey

Not quite. 1st feb 88 and 31st Jan 98

 

[Darren]

post: 464999, member: 875"]I think the smallest I can remember being in was about 100 of us for an abysmal 4-2 league cup defeat against Bury in the 94/95 season.

The misery of the night compounded as I went on the train and missed the last one back to Chapeltown as well as the last bus and I had a 3 hour walk back home. It was also the same day OJ Simpson got acquitted.

Actually 95-96 - 3/10/95

 

[Darren]

we had an away game at Southend on a friday night in the late 80s ,lost again I think and there were hardly any of us there. We walked into the board room after the game and told them we were Sheff Utd staff and players and never got challenged.

4th April 1980. We lost 2-1. Matthews put us 1-0 and Southend's winner was in the last minute.

Edit: that would be the early 80's Silent is right, the game was on 31/3/89.

 

[Darren]

Mill wall think it was about 1978 1-1 Colin Franks scored about 100-150 Blades I can remember Millwall launching a big piece of timber into the Blades.

5 of us went in the car sat in what we thought was a safe stand wrong! Didnt say a word even when we scored.

We drew 1-1 at Millwall on 22/10/77 (Hamilton) and 14/10/78 (Calvert)

 

[Darren]

I believe that end is designated for 'neutrals'. The result, of course, is that it fills up with a mixture of home and away fans, and not neutrals at all.

Just checked - the 'Football Ground Guide' site describes it as follows:

"One other item of interest is that Fulham is the only Club that I know of that has a designated area of the ground reserved for 'neutral supporters'. This is located on one side of the Putney End, adjacent to the away fans section. I guess that the original idea was to attract tourists to London to a game. However, for each game there seems to be a good mix, of home, away and neutral fans in this area. Both away fans and neutral supporters use the same entrance and both can access the same facilities at the back of the stand."

In terms of the smallest away following I've been a part of - I remember travelling to Wolves at the height of the "fuel strike" (I'm hopeless with dates, but I think it was around 2000/2001?) I remember it as being about 200 of us there. It felt strange at a time when we had good away followings, and always took a lot to Wolves. We lost, and the atmosphere was pretty dreadful - although I do remember us singing "what a waste of fuel"....

12/9/00. We actually drew 0-0.

 

[Darren]

Wrexham in Sherpa Van trophy 1988 - we actually got all way to Wrexham and game got called off there was 12 of us in minibus, the steward who told us the game was off gave us the pies they were gonna sell that night, we stopped at hotel team were staying in on way home and remember been stood mesmerised as Brian Deane fired about 100 quid in a bandit.

We went to re-arranged match week after and there was about 30 Blades in attendance. We drew 1-1 and Benstead got sent off after match.

You're mixing up the Group game v Wrexham in the SVT (3/12/88 drew 1-1 (Agana) and the first round game (17/1/89 L1-2 (Jones og). It was in the latter that Benstead was sent off. The first game was actually Tracey's debut.

 

[Darren]

Went to Sunderland 1978/9 season, midweek game, a couple of coaches from the Lane, no obvious 'away' section at th ground, we stood on the terrace with Sunderland fans and kept quiet..I doubt there were more than a couple of hundred blades there that day ..got absolutely hammered on the pitch, 6-1 or 6-2. Strange as our away followings were generally very good.

25/4/79 L2-6 (Kenworthy, Sabella)

 

[sitwell]

4th April 1980. We lost 2-1. Matthews put us 1-0 and Southend's winner was in the last minute.

Edit: that would be the early 80's Silent is right, the game was on 31/3/89.

It was ,I did go to both though ,funny enough my favourite away game was at Southend when Arnott scored in the last minute for a 1-0 win.
Why did the always play on Friday nights previous to that one ? Another club used to aswell was it Tranmere ? or Gillingham or Bristol Rovers ?

 

[Darren]

It was ,I did go to both though ,funny enough my favourite away game was at Southend when Arnott scored in the last minute for a 1-0 win.
Why did the always play on Friday nights previous to that one ? Another club used to aswell was it Tranmere ? or Gillingham or Bristol Rovers ?

In the late 70's/early 80's we sometimes played on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday. That happened in 1980

GF 4/4 A Southend L-12
ES 5/4 H Wednesday D1-1
EM 7/4 A Blackburn L0-1

That sequence of results did for our promotion chances.

It also happened in 1978

GF 24/3 A Fulham L0-2
ES 25/3 H Luton W4-1
EM 27/3 A Orient L1-3

 

[South London Blade]

That was the game I revived the chat of "who's your father, who's your father, who's your father referee" You could see that he couldn't help laughing. I don't remember there being a 1000 of us in that tiny end though.

I was just about to post the same thing up Maidenhead, that was a quality moment of a dire evenings 'entertainment'.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Mill wall think it was about 1978 1-1 Colin Franks scored about 100-150 Blades I can remember Millwall launching a big piece of timber into the Blades.

5 of us went in the car sat in what we thought was a safe stand wrong! Didnt say a word even when we scored.

I was at that same match, with my dipstick of an uncle who managed to get us into the wrong part of the ground, just to one side of a right bunch of nutters. One was watching us for most of the match, later we find out this was Ginger Bob, side-kick of Harry the Dog and infamous F Troop. Never seen a Blades goal as uncelebrated as that one

 

[raul]

 

[Revolution]

Why did the always play on Friday nights previous to that one ? Another club used to aswell was it Tranmere ? or Gillingham or Bristol Rovers ?

Stockport and Tranmere both used to play on Fridays on a regular basis, to avoid clashing with the Manchester clubs and Liverpool/Everton respectively.

Another oddity was Port Vale's midweek games being on Mondays.

 

[Coily]

The smallest away following I've ever been in for a competitive game is at Ipswich in the PL in 1994. It was snowing and bitterly cold, and there were only a couple of hundred blades there from memory. There were only about 10,000 there in total.

This is one I remember well!

My girlfriend at the time was really keen on going to a game so as a starter I decided to take to this one. I had a knackered old Austin Maestro that was playing up all the way there but we managed to get there with seconds to spare. She then whines all fucking match that she's cold/hungry/bored and as the noble knight that I am I went to get her a pie and tea, missing Cork scoring which I was naturally fucking delighted with.

I do remember it being really empty but thought we'd taken around 500 which for a freezing midweeker wasn't a bad effort from us. It was also the worst 3-2 game you could imagine, so I was mad keen to warm up and get home.

So we chugg off in the car, which then proceeds to splutter to a halt on Westend Road in Ipswich. Which if you aren't aware, is where the locals kerb crawl. Or if your name is Steve Wright, accost lasses and butcher them. The AA take a fucking age, so as we freeze some more and I yell abuse at the SUFC coach pegging it back to Sheffield, I start getting propositioned by passing ladies for bargain basement priced sexual deals. Which the girlfriend thinks is hilarious, less so when I tell her that only costs a little bit more...

Of course, the old bill then pitch up, think I'm kerbcrawling and the girlfriend is a prostitute which she takes great offense. It was easily explained, me and the copper laugh like twats at the bird who has the proper mardies on still and once the AA finally fixed the car - until it packed up again less than 24 hours later - we finally left Suffolk at about 1am.

 

[Coily]

Mill wall think it was about 1978 1-1 Colin Franks scored about 100-150 Blades I can remember Millwall launching a big piece of timber into the Blades.

5 of us went in the car sat in what we thought was a safe stand wrong! Didnt say a word even when we scored.

The Panorama from 1977 about Millwall is on YouTube and is very interesting viewing. Utter lunatics! I did hear that 'Harry the Dog' had died a few years back an alcoholic, and at least one of the other main characters in the program were later killed.

I've been to Millwall about 8 times and it's still a bit edgy but nothing like it was. The local scum are more bothered having a pop at the police than visiting Northerners. Still wouldn't consider drinking near the ground mind.

 

[Pedro Verde]

Went to Sunderland 1978/9 season, midweek game, a couple of coaches from the Lane, no obvious 'away' section at th ground, we stood on the terrace with Sunderland fans and kept quiet..I doubt there were more than a couple of hundred blades there that day ..got absolutely hammered on the pitch, 6-1 or 6-2. Strange as our away followings were generally very good.

I went to that game took the car stopped off in York for dinner time session, thought we played reasonably well.
Never mind the smallest away following I think IRC we had Paul Garner and Les Tibbott at CB must be the smallest CB pairing ever

 

[Grecian2000]

Of course, the old bill then pitch up, think I'm kerbcrawling and the girlfriend is a prostitute

Well done Coilers, that's a proper anecdote. If only you'd have been on your way to a "tarts and vicars" fancy dress . . . .

 

[Darren]

I went to that game took the car stopped off in York for dinner time session, thought we played reasonably well.
Never mind the smallest away following I think IRC we had Paul Garner and Les Tibbott at CB must be the smallest CB pairing ever

MacPhail was injured for that game and the previous Saturday when we went down 4-0 at Cardiff and his absence was widely thought to have cost us a lot of those 10 goals. If could be wrong, but as Kenwrothy played at Sunderland, I think he was at CB with Tibbott and Garner at LB.

 

[Heathrow Blade]

There must have been less than 50 in the Anglo Italian Cup away at Piacenza in 1994. When we equalised in the 5th minute of injury time though you would have thought there were 3,000. Happy days.

 

[Silent Blade]

Why did the always play on Friday nights previous to that one ?

A friend who was born in Southend before moving to Sheffield when he was a toddler told me years ago that Southend played matches on Fridays because there is a big market near the ground that was quite busy on Saturdays. Not sure if it was the club's decision or the police's. The club now play their matches on Saturdays so I would guess that the market is now further away from the ground or that the market now isnt as busy as it was