Remember the away end that we have now wasn’t its present size until around about the year 2000. Which means in our non-league days and early league days there was not the noise generated from the away end. There is now
You're probably right as I remember standing in that terrace watching Guppy running 3/4 the length of the pitch to score in front of the "home" terrace (seemingly getting smaller as he went) against Runcorn(?).
However didn't Slough occupy the "away" terrace in THAT match?
It's all pretty much of a fog trying to think back to then though ...
No, Slough we’re in the corner in THAT match, and Scotty got injured right in front of me behind the goal of memory serves correct. Couldn’t move at the barrier behind that goal. That was the final year in non league and in the first season I remember we smashed Kettering 5-1 who were top early doors and we had both ends even then. I was young and my dad took me regularly behind that goal, and we often stood with the group of bus drivers in the far corner by where we now have the screen.
First time I personally recall fans in what is now the away end was big FA Cup games - Norwich, West Brom and West Ham. Not to mention Swansea in that semi final. Didn’t some tosser run out of the away end and punch someone in the woodlands terrace and then get nicked?
League wise I think Brentford may have been one of the first and that was in what is now league 1, because I’m sure I recall Terry Evans scored right in front of their fans and they were giving Cousins dogs abuse.
In the early days, yes the away supporters were put in the far end of the Woodlands Terrace separated from the home fans, by a very flimsy wire bit of fencing. I seem to recall some of our friends from a certain place in Essex did their best to pull the fencing down to no doubt more easily, engage us in polite conversation.
Easy solution. Bring back the fine non-league tradition of changing ends at half time (and occasionally the first five minutes of the game if we lost the toss…)
They should study the whispering gallery at St Paul's Cathedral and put that ancient technology to modern use. Imagine one bloke in the 'Whispering Terrace' out-singing the away end!
I started my AP career on the Hillbottom End. Graduated to the Valley for the WBA Cup game and never looked back.
@username123 wasn't the Swansea game where the away fans ran to the centre circle with a big flag and stood there waving it for a few minutes? Rumours at the time were that the guy(s) in the Woodlands the Swansea bloke was fighting were Cardiff fans who had turned up to support us.
@LX1 My memory is that the flag incident was at the Carlisle play-off game a few weeks later, but they slightly blur into one! What certainly happened at the Swansea game is that one bloke threw a punch at a woman standing at the front of the Woodlands on the half-way line, as I was standing next to her. My old man went to get the police who were watching the invasion from the tea bar and didn't fancy finishing their Twix in a rush.
I was standing a few rows back from the Swansea fisticuffs. Those involved were a touch more familiar and closer to home than Cardiff!
Wasn't their fault by the way. That terrace was pretty tightly packed and the Swansea fans came at it throwing punches. What are you supposed to do in that scenario? As a youngish lad who couldn't punch his way out of a paper bag I was pretty grateful to them for standing up to them.
From memory the thing that sparked it off was one of the Swansea fans was trying to kick a football into the Wycombe fans. He completely sliced it and we all took the piss. He took umbrage and piled in and his mates backed him up.
All does indeed blur. My recollection is the fan on the pitch throwing punches into the Woodlands was the Carlisle play off game. It was a guy called Paul Dodd, a Carlisle fan who had some "celebrity" status as England's top football hooligan with some red top coverage of his antics.
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Was nothing wrong with the acoustics in the MK play off match last season, place was rocking !
A winning team playing half decent football will bring the fans and the noise... not a drum, or a new road or a nice shiny new stand
Remember the away end that we have now wasn’t its present size until around about the year 2000. Which means in our non-league days and early league days there was not the noise generated from the away end. There is now
Away fans were in the woodlands at the far end in the non league days
Was that always the case?
You're probably right as I remember standing in that terrace watching Guppy running 3/4 the length of the pitch to score in front of the "home" terrace (seemingly getting smaller as he went) against Runcorn(?).
However didn't Slough occupy the "away" terrace in THAT match?
It's all pretty much of a fog trying to think back to then though ...
No, Slough we’re in the corner in THAT match, and Scotty got injured right in front of me behind the goal of memory serves correct. Couldn’t move at the barrier behind that goal. That was the final year in non league and in the first season I remember we smashed Kettering 5-1 who were top early doors and we had both ends even then. I was young and my dad took me regularly behind that goal, and we often stood with the group of bus drivers in the far corner by where we now have the screen.
First time I personally recall fans in what is now the away end was big FA Cup games - Norwich, West Brom and West Ham. Not to mention Swansea in that semi final. Didn’t some tosser run out of the away end and punch someone in the woodlands terrace and then get nicked?
League wise I think Brentford may have been one of the first and that was in what is now league 1, because I’m sure I recall Terry Evans scored right in front of their fans and they were giving Cousins dogs abuse.
I think the first side to get the Hillbottom end was Peterborough in the FA Cup game in December 1990.
Good shout @stevedore
In the early days, yes the away supporters were put in the far end of the Woodlands Terrace separated from the home fans, by a very flimsy wire bit of fencing. I seem to recall some of our friends from a certain place in Essex did their best to pull the fencing down to no doubt more easily, engage us in polite conversation.
That was the Scott Barrett game
I remember watching a few games in 91/92/93 from the ‘away’ terrace.
The roof was the same shape as the current valley terrace so no advantage in terms of acoustics until the expansion in 2001
Easy solution. Bring back the fine non-league tradition of changing ends at half time (and occasionally the first five minutes of the game if we lost the toss…)
They should study the whispering gallery at St Paul's Cathedral and put that ancient technology to modern use. Imagine one bloke in the 'Whispering Terrace' out-singing the away end!
I started my AP career on the Hillbottom End. Graduated to the Valley for the WBA Cup game and never looked back.
@username123 wasn't the Swansea game where the away fans ran to the centre circle with a big flag and stood there waving it for a few minutes? Rumours at the time were that the guy(s) in the Woodlands the Swansea bloke was fighting were Cardiff fans who had turned up to support us.
@LX1 My memory is that the flag incident was at the Carlisle play-off game a few weeks later, but they slightly blur into one! What certainly happened at the Swansea game is that one bloke threw a punch at a woman standing at the front of the Woodlands on the half-way line, as I was standing next to her. My old man went to get the police who were watching the invasion from the tea bar and didn't fancy finishing their Twix in a rush.
I was standing a few rows back from the Swansea fisticuffs. Those involved were a touch more familiar and closer to home than Cardiff!
Wasn't their fault by the way. That terrace was pretty tightly packed and the Swansea fans came at it throwing punches. What are you supposed to do in that scenario? As a youngish lad who couldn't punch his way out of a paper bag I was pretty grateful to them for standing up to them.
From memory the thing that sparked it off was one of the Swansea fans was trying to kick a football into the Wycombe fans. He completely sliced it and we all took the piss. He took umbrage and piled in and his mates backed him up.
Almost 30 years ago now.....goodness
Police horses on the pitch at the end I seem to recall!
@username123 Sorry. You're confusing it with the 1923 Cup Final.
And also having "large" clubs in League 1 who bring a big following which then highlights the problem even more
Yep. If only clubs brought Accy and Morecambe type followings, our singers would sound mad noisy.
All does indeed blur. My recollection is the fan on the pitch throwing punches into the Woodlands was the Carlisle play off game. It was a guy called Paul Dodd, a Carlisle fan who had some "celebrity" status as England's top football hooligan with some red top coverage of his antics.
They came straight on at the final whistle to stop their pitch invasion, their fans where causing plenty of trouble back in the early 90’s