downthefront

cheers Tommy , I take on board all you say, I suppose not hearing anything about Rangers since the seventies until I joined this forum, I associated it with my memories from the pastIt looks like a much healthier connection these days, as I said my relatives had a great time up there, I might even go if there's a next time ! BTW, Tommy Doc was the manager when I first went to the Bridge, and remains one of my favourites . Take care mate, and thanks for your comments again

Stallone's best film ?.....is that praise ??

As a matter of interest, Arsenal have played Rangers around 26 !! times....And Rangers have held historical shares in Arsenal that were given as a gift in the 1930's and only just recently sold. Puts our special relationship into perspective really.

The radio five live commentators even gave it a mention, it looks so good doesn't it ?

brilliant mate. And those scarves are no match for our plastic flags,,,,fact

thanks for your reply Tommy doc. Yes, I have to accept what you and others tell me, perhaps I am making too much of the connection. In fact I had relatives who went to the last friendly in Glasgow, and were treated well. Although I have to say they thought it was wise to keep their Irish/Catholic roots quite and joined in the f**k the pope songs !! But anyone who denies the combat 18 connection is simply in denial, but I have to say that the fans on here are in no way involved in that nonsense. Thanks for your polite and informative reply mate, its well appreciated

I really can't understand why its such a touchy subject. All I said is that in the forty plus years I've been going to Chelsea, the only people who showed any interest in Rangers were the old right wing bigots...l still say its a non event, after games you might wanna know how Arsenal, City etc got on, but I have never, in all those years heard anyone ask me what the Rangers score was.Its just my observations on it mate, its not really important if you have a favourite second team, its just not what I always thought Chelsea was about. And I thought these forums were a two way thing, where you could air views and debate them, it seems people don't want a discussion on this so called Rangers connection...

I'm not really opposed to johnny come lately glory hunters, seeing as our owner is the biggest one around !!

He's supposed to be having a medical at Cobham, according to talk sport.

I've yet to meet any proper Chelsea who support Rangers apart from the old combat 18 morons. I've been going since the sixties, its a non event, as witnessed by the piss poor attendances when we played em at the Bridge.

Blanchflower was a gentleman, and was a fantastic,intelligent footballer as well as a great writer for one of the papers. He was hopeless as our manager, but it was hard to dislike him. The Tottenham thing wasn't an issue, as it wasn't with Hoddle and the many ex Spurs players we've signed over the years, such as Hazard, Roberts etc etc......

The rebuilding at stadiums after Hillsborough would have knocked back attendance's at all clubs for a while. But its fair to say that if we couldn't average above 30,000 for years and years, and went as low as 12,000 for a season average, then we must have a lot of glory hunters and day trippers at the bridge..just sit in the west upper if you don't believe me ! Definitely our pre war and post war crowds pushed us up into the top five, the 55 league win average was over 48,000, But most clubs would have had poor crowds if the team was as poor as ours, and as CB says, violence put loads of people off. But I have to say, walking up and paying on the day after deciding at the last minute to go still has a certain attraction.

great post mate. I was at that Tottenham game, I think a lot of Chelsea went over there early and stormed into the admin. offices at the ground and wrecked it The game was held up at one stage because of the fighting, Mackey was taking a corner and stopped in disbelief at what was happening behind the goal. Do you remember a guy called Jesus, mate?.he was at the spurs cup final with a megaphone, but just seemed to suddenly disappear off the scene...love to hear of those old times.

why, did you used to kick her up in the air ?..lol

nice one mate!

Pleased for Torres today, good finish.

That's sad, so young

Last ten minutes were very good, if we continue second half like that we'll be fine.

There is a website somewhere that lists historical attendance's, but can't find it, and I've just noticed I'm missing the game !

Just found an Arsenal v QPR attendance of 17,000 plus, from the 80's. !!

that's a good idea Cobham.

yes mate, I recall our season tickets being around 3,000 in the sixties, but there was no need to get one, as you say it was turn up and pay. Agreed, our fan base must be bigger these days I would have thought, but those years I quoted make sobering reading, it wasn't just us though, a lot of clubs attendances fell during that period.Our average per war and post war probably bumps up our overall average. In fact, I always thought we would do well to fill a 42,000 stadium every week, but now its too small for us these days. that's true mate. I wasn't dissing our attendance record because all teams have had lows as well. There's a johnny come lately season ticket in work he won't believe me when I tell him our ground wasn't full for every game in the past !.

yes, and the Orient chairman said we brought tools into the ground to cause this to happen !!

yes mate, I recall our season tickets being around 3,000 in the sixties, but there was no need to get one, as you say it was turn up and pay. Agreed, our fan base must be bigger these days I would have thought, but those years I quoted make sobering reading, it wasn't just us though, a lot of clubs attendances fell during that period.Our average per war and post war probably bumps up our overall average. In fact, I always thought we would do well to fill a 42,000 stadium every week, but now its too small for us these days.