Ewell CFC

I've also only met one Watford fan ever. Was Harlesden way mostly Chelsea when you were growing up? I'd hazard a guess it was a mixture of Chelsea, QPR and Arsenal? ps wasn't Ken Bates originally a QPR fan from Willesden way?

Makes sense. He does seem wedded to certain personnel and a rigid style of play. Not much imagination. He probably sticks to the same tried and tested couple of positions when making love to his old lady!

Any chance of a straw poll amongst forum users. Conte to remain or Conte to go? Personally speaking I'd pack his bags for him and drive him Heathrow at breakneck speed.

The Shed were in good voice that day " Ross Jenkins, and Luther Blisset too, And he's a monkey in a zoo, in a zoo" Sounds terrible looking back.

I think I'm right in saying the fat bloke who gave chase to Clive Walker was a solicitor. Went to Parsons Green station after. You couldn't even get near the platform due to hundreds of Chelsea looking to ambush West Ham on the way back from Wimbledon ( payback for 200 ICF getting off at FB before the game) A crazy night all round.

Franz Carr was super rapid. Like a lot of speed merchants he seemed either fantastic or sh*t, with nothing in between.

Do own goals count? Frank Sinclair scored a least one gem.

It's obviously Hull last game 77. Chopper played at left back that day ( right footed left back, Gary Locke was right back). Bonetti was in goal, so John Phillips can't be doing anything else other than joining in a pitch invasion, just for the hell of it! It did occur that maybe he was trying to get away from the hordes, but if he was on the bench all he'd have to do to ecape would be run down the East Stand tunnel?

Big Phil Scolari - there used to be big Jock, Big Mal, Big Laurie, Big Jack, Big Ron, pretty much any manager over 5'11 wore the " big" moniker. All that's left now is the fella with a head like a twenty bob cabbage- Big Sam. Didnt work out well here for Phil but there you go.

What's Ron Harris doing invading the pitch?

Did the book shed any light on the rumour that Eddie Mac resigned over a company car? Conte's on 9 Million a year and poor old Eddie werent even entiitled to a Ford Granada. Amazing how the games changed.

And of course your own in depth, illuminating, sage like contributions ( normally one liners of the tutt tutt variety), are a forum high point which we all really look forward to reading......yawn....

By finishing reading the sentence you mean that by kicking a water bottle that is living proof that the man cares and is not just seeing out his contract? Thanks for that earth shattering observation.

Oh gee. Conte kicked a water bottle. Hold the Front Page!

Regarding Conte's body and vocal language. I've got two seperate points, touchline and interview demeanour. Touchline- not long ago it was common for managers to watch the game from the stands. It gave them a better view, and a clearer picture of what was happening. If they had an instruction for a player or a tactical change to make, he would instruct a runner to go down to the dugout and that information would get relayed. Nowadays it seems fashionable for the coach/ manager to be on the touchline waving his arms around, having a coronary at every decision that goes the other way. A lot of it is all for show IMO. Since the atmosphere in grounds started to become sterile, broadcasters were dying to find some other way of displaying passion in the game. Cue the cameras focusing on touchline antics and general hysteria from coaches which probably has next to no influence on the outcome of the match. It just adds some colour and faux excitement. They probably hate someone like Poch over at Spurs who gets the job done without jumping up and down every two minutes. Infantile, all for show bollox IMO. The demeanour of managers whilst being interviewed- Conte obviously here, is another matter. Has he been told by the powers above that his doom and gloom pronouncements ( he makes the Mona Lisa look like the Laugjing Policeman) and snidely remarks re transfer policy do not reflect well on the club? What ever happened to look on the bright side? Has he told them to stick it up their arse and he'll behave exactly how he wants? Fcuk knows?

I always wished that with attendance figures they'd include the amount of away fans- this would only have been practical for those in the away terrace however, and come 82'ish it became fashionable to go in the seats ( also as stated above, we sometimes flooded grounds so there was no telling I guess) I always thought that late 70s/ early to mid 80s us and Spurs took more up and down the country than Arsenal and West Ham.

Not particularly applicable to this thread, but it's been announced that West Brom's application for a 3,600 safe standing area, consisting of " rail seats", has been rejected by the government. The significance of this is that it has been touted as a test case for other clubs considering the same. A spokesman from the ministry of Sports and Culture confirmed that they have no intention of deviating from current legislation on this issue. Celtic already have a safe seating area. I'm guessing that this was OK'd by devolved Scottish powers that be. Anyway, it doesn't look as though the atmosphere at grounds ( or non atmosphere), is going to alter any time soon.

I was due to go tomorrow with the old man, he's in his 80s, suffering from dementia, had some health problems this week so decided to pass the tickets on to a mate who was desperate for a pair. Since then Butch has tragically passed away, and wish I hadn't moved the tickets because I'd like to observe the minutes silence. My Dads too far gone now to remember Ray, but he's related to Jackies Dad, met him/ and played golf with him several times, and always said he was a real gent. Very sad week all round.

I hear what your saying, and in the long run Conte probably is a great manager ( boy was he breath of fresh air last year, the perfect anicdote to Jose- no bitching, no non stop drama), but in the here and now he's not a great manager. If he was a Red Indian/ Native American he would be called Grey Cloud.

Very low order of probability on that one.

Its amazing looking back how paper rounds could finance going to games- once I got into leaflet distributing as well it gave me enough dough to get to quite a few northern away trips on National Express Coaches too. Got the sack from that one - the owner of this free newspaper eventually tumbled that rather than go to the effort of posting through letterboxes I was slinging them in the river Wandle- it was a good touch while it lasted!

Not a bad film at all. Could have done with some lesbian scenes though.

Very well put. There was a bit of magic about the man.

I see Eric Bristow has passed away- 60 years old, heart attack. He was a Chelsea fan who grey up in North London- should have been an Arsenal or Spurs fan geographically but was attracted by the glamour of Osgood and the rest of that team. RIP Eric

Bet he used to get dogs pissing up those legs! Judging by the East Stand being full and the shiny Adidas kit I'd say that was against Forest in 79?