Raynes Park Blue

How silly of me to forget this is A HUMOUR FREE ZONE. Leave your jokes at the doorstep before entering. How you lot can enjoy this is beyond me. In terms of friction it makes Eastenders look like Songs of Praise. If I want an arguement ill stay offline and have one with the wife.

I firmly believe there's a sinister witch hunt to derail ouragnificent club. I'm also sure that man never landed on the moon, Elvis is alive and well living in Newport Pagnell, and masturbation makes you go blind

It doesn't do us any favours when it comes to PR, having a manager who can come across as a bit of a knob. I like Jose, think he's a terrific manager, but hand on heart how many of us can say that if he wasn't our manager we wouldn't be wincing at some of his childish/petulant behaviour. That, combined with the perception of CFC being a bit of a ritch mans train set for a slightly dodgy Russian, makes us an easy target for sections of the gutter press

It's like having your teeth pulled out reading some of these comments. It reminds me of Harry Enfields Kevin the Teenager. ITS SO UNFAIR! WHY, WHY, WHY.

Was fairly low down under the whitewall when they arrived- had a broken collar bone at time and was trying to keep out the way of people running away from or to the action- could have sworn they ended up at the bottom by the fences? West Ham mate who was watching from the North Stand told me at the time from there it looked like they'd come unstuck. Who knows as they say

It's all just media tittle tattle. Personally I've got no time for any interviewed comments by any manager- normally there's an agenda behind the scenes, or an interview with any serving player. Boring......Almost any football related story you read in the papers, other than the match report itself, is either speculation, fabrication, or sensasionalised- complete with an angry photo taken months ago of Jose, Wenger etc to emphasise there non existant fury at something that did or didn't happen. It might be interesting if your 12 years old- Bores the bollox of most adults I know

Talking of infiltrating away ends- We did in the North Stand, West Ham were very adept at doing so in the South Bank, Arsenal weren't adverse to giving it in the Clock End, even Palace used to muster up a few in the Whitehorse End- remember them having a go at Sheffield Utd in a night game once, late 70s. My point is, did Spurs used to get in amongst the opposition in the Park Lane? I think they have Brighton a slap there in Div 2, but don't remember hearing of much else?

The last 50,000 plus crowds we had were in 76- Palace in the cup and Fulham on Boxing Day. Didn't go to either. It was 78 onwards I was allowed to go with me mates, previously I went whenever I could persuade my old man to take me. We're Palace given all the North Stand and CFC gatecrashed or was it divided up? Similarly did Fulham have many in the 55,003 gate?

Might be being a trifle tough on Spurs- they definately returned tickets though. Youtube shows they filled the end but it wasn't ram jammed. Considering they had big old suport back then, and probably took 20,000 plus up the M1 for the semi, so some cause to coat them off. Leeds used to bring good numbers down. Circa 82 remember seeing all there boys at Kings X and virtually all of them had moustaches. The Freddy Mercury firm. Thank Christ they never caught on down here

Having just seen the aerial photo of the Bridge, and Peckhams very correct comments of the meagre turnout in the North Stand, what's the best and worse away turnouts you've witnessed at the Bridge? This can be based on pure numbers, noise generated, the general impression they made. I can't remember too many teams being given all of the North Stand and packing it. Then again we only had half a dozen or so full houses full houses from the mid 70s to the mid 80s. It was pretty rare to hear away fans from the shed, due to the distance between the two and the North Stand being open. Everyone goes on about Newcastles away support in the Div 2 days, but I can't remember them bringing down more than 3 to 4 thousand. Pompey filled in but didn't pack it 84. Ditto Spurs in the cup in 82. That could well in its own way be a candidate for the most pathetic show up, considering it was the QF of the cup, a London Derby, and they couldn't sell their allocation. Liverpool when they won the double in 85 had a good few down; fun and games on the Edgware Rd after. I'm going West Ham in 84/85. They made lots of noise, turned up everywhere, although the ones who appeared late on in the shed got a fearful spanking. Most pathetic- Not sure. There were many times, when you could count them. Ie Shrewsbury, Hereford. I'm plumping for Spurs in 82 for the reason already mentioned. Ps During the inflatable craze, didn't Grimsby once turn up with a dingy?

Mate of mine played against Micky Droy when at the very end of his career he turned out for Kingstonian. Apparantly he had bandages on both knees, could hardly run, yet scored two goals from set pieces. He was so big and strong, if the ball was delivered accurately you couldn't stop him at that level. Always reminded me a bit of Bluto from Popeye. Ps Peter Osgood put one on him once according to his book

Mate of mine played against Micky Droy when at the very end of his career he turned out for Kingstonian. Apparantly he had bandages on both knees, could hardly run, yet scored two goals from set pieces. He was so big and strong, if the ball was delivered accurately you couldn't stop him at that level. Always reminded me a bit of Bluto from Popeye. Ps Peter Osgood put one on him once according to his book

Didn't we have, a lovely time, the day we went to Wrexham A lovely day, a fight on the way, and all the Taffies run away And on the way back, we had an attack, from Manchester United Singing a few of our favourite songs, as the wheels went round

Never played them in 75. Theyres been a few factually incorrect songs whee the lyrics have been bended to make it ryme. Six foot two, eyes of blue, Mickey Droy is after you.... Never mind the fact he was 6 4 and a half with brown eyes.

I know the tune but can't relate it to an original song. It's a bit of a sea shanty type tune

Against Watford late 70s. Ross Jenkins, and Luther Blissett too. And he's a monkey in a zoo, in a zoo. How times have changed

Forgot to mention, it was Sir Tom Finneys 90th Birthday year

Oddly enough three years ago it was Tom Finney- the Preston Plumbers Birthday year, whilst up the road in Bolton it coincided with the 60th anniversary of the game where Nat Lofthouse earnt his mantle of the lion of Vienna. With that in mind, I contacted Bolton, Preston and the beeb about making a programme about celebrating their lives and recreating old football ie getting the old kits, boots and balls made to 50s specification, having there academy players train in it, sprint time comparisons with old and new clobber, ball comparison etc...under the tutelage of Tommy Doc who played alongside Finney and Don Howe who did likewise to Nat Lofthouse. Leading up to a game between the two sides, using the formations and tactics of old....gate receipts to Sport relief.... Got in contact with Bolton and Preston who were both up for it. The Beeb showed interest, sat on it for ages, eventually declined for budgetary reasons- tried to hawk it out to production companies but too late by them. Shame. Apart from anything else it would have been a great laugh seeing some young prima Donna with a diamond stud in his ear winging like sh.it because he's got to run around with heavy boots wearing shorts with enough cloth to use as the main sail for the Cutty Sark. Apologies for hogging the forum

By mind games I mean a manager, through press comments affecting the performances of other teams. I'm not suggesting for a moment that management mind games with your own players doesn't work- that's just obvious. As far as influencing the performances of 22 players performing in someone's else's game- utter sh.ite in my humble opinion. I can just imagine players reading so called mind games comments in the papers, laughing their nuts off an throwing it in the bin. There's numerous anecdotes where in the dressing room they've held up a headline and used it as motivation to ram it down the throat of the fella who said it. There's not a shred of evidence that Joses mind games have been an important facet in his management. Brilliant at motivating his own players, fantastic tactician, installs confidence in everyone, but In the long run I simply don't believe him verbally applying pressure to opponents has made a jot of difference. It's just part of his public persona. When he wins a big game, according to the press it's all down his machallaevian mind games, and it's all over the papers. When we come unstuck there's no mention of it in the papers. No mention of his wondrous, sage like mind games when City won the title last year, or when Barcelona tore Real Madrid up for Khazi paper when he was in charge. That's my opinion anyway

I love to see an experiment with the footballs of the fifties- how far could modern players kick it, how heavy were they- heard they were that weighty they were taken to the centre spot for kick off in a wheelbarrow.- A neurological assessment of the danger of heading one of them when wet. It must have been like heading Eric Pickles in a Volkswagon Beetle!

Another one the media love is the supposed manager mind games- especially now were getting towards the business end of the season. Footballers win games not what the manager said in a press conference. No forward ever missed a match winning chance because of what an opposing manager said the week before. It's just a load of tosh to fill newspapers

What tires me is this cult of the football manager that's been foisted on the public by the media in recent years. I've noticed match of the day now have a hologram of managers in the studio- for example buffalo head Sam Allardice pointing his arm out and looking angry. What the f...s that all about? Teams are now routinely referred to as Brendan Rogers Liverpool, or Alan Pardews Palace. This doesn't happen in other sports. No one ever says Graham Fords Surrey cricket club, or Graham Fords Harlequins. Nor do I know of anyone that goes to games to look at the managers standing cross armed and chewing gum in the technical area. It's all a bit purile if you ask me

I'm told you get 5000 to 1 for a Bradford win after we went 2-0 up.