Most embarrasing turn out

[bluegraham]

I cant remember who scored to be honest mate, the game was a must win as we were still in the title race, i didnt mean to come across as digging you out, i meant fans grassing in general its even worse when its fellow Chelsea fans grassing up our own fans, something that happens more often than not now days sadly.

I get you. I would never grass on my worst enemy. At the juve game a chap behind was up sing and kept getting told to sit down by fellow fans it pissed me off. The steward gave him a warning I said to the steward how come the juve fans can jump around when they score and a chelsea fan in the chelsea end can't try get a song going. If I'm honest I'm really gone off going to the bridge prefer away games but like most of us I'm addicted and need my fix walking down the Fulham road.

 

[Carefree94]

I was already after having an argument with a juve fan in a pub in Gloucester rd. Dirty Italian kept staring at my little niece.

Napoli fans are the worst of the lot I think. Confronted a couple of them in west upper last year during the CL run. They were shouting all sorts of sh*te at my little brother who's only 10 at the time

 

[Carefree94]

Regards away fans in home areas, most of us football fans are hypocrites when it comes to things like that, ive been in many home ends when following Chelsea away & its given me some of the best buzzes & laughs(i started a thread on the actual subject on here)

but ive also had it with a few WHU in the west lower when they beat us 1.0 in 98? there was no way i was going to let any away fan especially WHU celebrate in our end.

The problem with modern day football & this country in general is, when we play Italian/Romanian/Turkish clubs for example, they'll have 100s poss 1,000s of ex pats living in London & the South East so will always turn up in numbers, Galatasary in 99 had about 4/500 in one whole block of the west lower, an area CFC had left unavailable to us CFC fans knowing London turks would be in our ends so rather than chance it going off allocated them an extra area after the official away end had sold out.

While i dont like away fans in our ends, i also dont like our fans or any fans for that matter to grass fellow football fans up, we're all made of the same cloth just in different colours, stick the nut on em by all means but dont go running to stewards like snivelling little school kids, if you dont want to stick the nut on em then at least have a go at em verbally, we're Chelsea ffs.

(No offence meant to anyone on here but its something i feel strongly about) 

I went up to the blokes and told them what i thought about them being there. Theres no chance that Im going to start a proper fight though right where CCTV can see me. 

 

[Mike Carefree]

Long as we still have passionate folk as above, the f**kers that take the piss at the Bridge BETTER WATCH OUT

 

[Carshalton Blue]

I went up to the blokes and told them what i thought about them being there. Theres no chance that Im going to start a proper fight though right where CCTV can see me. 

Fair play mate

 

[bluegraham]

Napoli fans are the worst of the lot I think. Confronted a couple of them in west upper last year during the CL run. They were shouting all sorts of sh*te at my little brother who's only 10 at the time

 Not pleasant at all. I confronted the juve fans in the pub they didn't have go into their shell. Couldn't confront them in the ground because my girlfriend was stuck on me like glue. That's what worries me about moving to a bigger crowd it means you could have thousands of away fans in the home end.

 

[Carefree94]

Not pleasant at all. I confronted the juve fans in the pub they didn't have go into their shell. Couldn't confront them in the ground because my girlfriend was stuck on me like glue. That's what worries me about moving to a bigger crowd it means you could have thousands of away fans in the home end.

What do you mean by a bigger crowd?

 

[downthefront]

Yet on the rare occasion, got it together when not expected. I posted elsewhere on here, back in 1971 at the game at Upton Park, when standing in the South Bank, i watched the good mob from Stockwell ( ?) steam into the North Bank for several minutes. Had'nt expected that!. Ironically numbers wise, our firm in the North bank numbered more than we had mustered at the time in the South Bank!.

wasn't at that game, but heard all about it, my bruv. went to Stockwell Manor and knew the Stockwell boys well, it was them allright

 

[bluegraham]

What do you mean by a bigger crowd?

Sorry for the late reply ground not crowd

 

[supa luca vialli]

I could also put this under scariest ground. The game against Millwall at the Den when the Chelsea youth player got stabbed. It was anight game and I went on my jack(now I know why), caught a tube from Hammersmith. Ax we got neare the ground the tube became more and more intimidating with Milwall tatoos on necksand arms. Got out of the tube and it was like the wild west. Anyone walking towards the ground were dealt with by small groups of Milwall coming the other way. A few wacks as you went past until you were on the floor, then they walked off to the next victim. 

When we got to the turnstile entrance there were high walls either side and bottles were raining down on us. Was very relieved to get into the ground because Chelsea had such a good away following...... Not that night, came out and there were a few fans scattered across the terrace.

I vowed then and there if I ever got out alive I would never go ther again. And I never have.

Was frightened for my life coming out so spent the whole game talking to other fans. Eventually found someone who came by car and offered me a lift. Went the opposite way out of the ground to all the fans using the tube. The lad gave me a lift back to Hammersmith.

Mate if you are out there I felt I owed you my life that night.

For me there is no contest Milwall is/was the place.

 

[Tony Hateley]

White Hart Lane in the early seventies used to be on top, where the Paxton were always ready to have a go.

 

[MelbourneBlue]

I could also put this under scariest ground. The game against Millwall at the Den when the Chelsea youth player got stabbed. It was anight game and I went on my jack(now I know why), caught a tube from Hammersmith. Ax we got neare the ground the tube became more and more intimidating with Milwall tatoos on necksand arms. Got out of the tube and it was like the wild west. Anyone walking towards the ground were dealt with by small groups of Milwall coming the other way. A few wacks as you went past until you were on the floor, then they walked off to the next victim. 

When we got to the turnstile entrance there were high walls either side and bottles were raining down on us. Was very relieved to get into the ground because Chelsea had such a good away following...... Not that night, came out and there were a few fans scattered across the terrace.

I vowed then and there if I ever got out alive I would never go ther again. And I never have.

Was frightened for my life coming out so spent the whole game talking to other fans. Eventually found someone who came by car and offered me a lift. Went the opposite way out of the ground to all the fans using the tube. The lad gave me a lift back to Hammersmith.

Mate if you are out there I felt I owed you my life that night.

For me there is no contest Milwall is/was the place.

Have to say my recollection of the night Isaac got stabbed is very different to that.  Got there late because of working late.  No trouble walking from New X, thought our following was fairly good for a night league cup game (3,000?) all the faces, don't remember bottles being flung at us.  Think the OB walked us back to South Bermondsey and there was no incidents.  The next time I went was our first year back up late in season 89/90 a hot day in April/May, and we walked around their manor with ease. A big mob of Chelsea walked down from the Elephant, and Millwalls attempts to attack this firm were poor to say the least.  

 

[Mike Carefree]

All the above prob happened..People seeing things in differing perspectives from differing parts

 

[supa luca vialli]

Have to say my recollection of the night Isaac got stabbed is very different to that.  Got there late because of working late.  No trouble walking from New X, thought our following was fairly good for a night league cup game (3,000?) all the faces, don't remember bottles being flung at us.  Think the OB walked us back to South Bermondsey and there was no incidents.  The next time I went was our first year back up late in season 89/90 a hot day in April/May, and we walked around their manor with ease. A big mob of Chelsea walked down from the Elephant, and Millwalls attempts to attack this firm were poor to say the least.  

Think it must have been you turning up late. I think I arrived about an hour before kick off and as the Issac loyalty test shows there was small gangs jumping us all the way down the road. As for the bottles it was outside the turnstiles and there was plenty coming over the wall.

I have been following Chelsea for over 40 years and have been in a few dodgy situations including Spurs away the season we were relegated, but in my experience this was the worst. Think they were trying to prove a point as we had the big reputation and they wanted to make their mark.

Not saying you are calling me a lier but that is  what happened and it sounds like it was very different once their mob were inside the ground.

 

[Simon Maskell]

I could also put this under scariest ground. The game against Millwall at the Den when the Chelsea youth player got stabbed. It was anight game and I went on my jack(now I know why), caught a tube from Hammersmith. Ax we got neare the ground the tube became more and more intimidating with Milwall tatoos on necksand arms. Got out of the tube and it was like the wild west. Anyone walking towards the ground were dealt with by small groups of Milwall coming the other way. A few wacks as you went past until you were on the floor, then they walked off to the next victim. 

When we got to the turnstile entrance there were high walls either side and bottles were raining down on us. Was very relieved to get into the ground because Chelsea had such a good away following...... Not that night, came out and there were a few fans scattered across the terrace.

I vowed then and there if I ever got out alive I would never go ther again. And I never have.

Was frightened for my life coming out so spent the whole game talking to other fans. Eventually found someone who came by car and offered me a lift. Went the opposite way out of the ground to all the fans using the tube. The lad gave me a lift back to Hammersmith.

Mate if you are out there I felt I owed you my life that night.

For me there is no contest Milwall is/was the place.

You say that but Chelsea had one of its best ever firms that night. Got the train from Victoria round to queens rd peckham and walked to the ground with very little off millwall cos the firm was so big said to be 500 to 600. Loads of Chelsea who came out new cross tubes got picked off. It was said Chelsea had 1,500 roughly at millwall which was poor considering Chelsea had 20,000 at arsenal a few weeks earlier.

 

[Simon Maskell]

Highbury away 29th April 1986 was a pretty poor turnout considering the numbers we had there a couple of years earlier. That was a few days after the first Operation Own Goals arrests and yet another defeat. I never saw us win there.

Chelsea had a big turnout that night id say at least 8,000 to 9.000 for what was really a nothing game. The gate was 24,025 and Chelsea had loads on the clock end and 900 in the seats on the side. Arsenal had only got 14,843 the previous sat v west brom at home. Chelsea lost 2 0 Nicholas scored a wonder goal from 40 yards if i remember. That night a huge arsenal mob ran across highbury fields towards a far far smaller chelsea mob who im sorry to say came 2nd. AArsenal bod i knew at the time a couple of days later said i coulndnt believe how many Chelsea were there for a nothing game. Guts me more and more that i never took a camera to these games.

The folllowing season Chelsea lost 3 1 at Arsenal and again had roughly the same numbers from a 32,990 gate. I was at the back under the clock both games and Chelsea were spread out over the clock end but it werent full crn flag to crn flag like aug 84. I got told the day before Arsenal are coming in the chelsea part of the clock end and they did but didnt get very far. MIRRORPIX,, Type Arsenal v Chelsea 1986 and you see photo,s of that day. Type CHELSEA V and you see page after page of Chelsea pics going back years or type Chelsea v west ham Chelsea v liverpool etc you have to spell out the club name in full and dont put fc.

 

[i-like-to-munich]

 It was said Chelsea had 1,500 roughly at millwall which was poor considering Chelsea had 20,000 at arsenal a few weeks earlier.

Thats why that part of SE London always justified being called Deep South. The problem with going away to Millwall has always been based around the same thing, the family aspect of the supporters, of course i dont mean that in a " bring your kids we will paint their face " kind of way. What i mean is the hardcore supporters who live in the area is very concentrated, people have never travelled from far and wide to support Millwall unlike all the other London clubs. So when other Firms were going there they was going up against people who had known each other and lived next door to eachother for years and years. On that scale they are quite unique, although West Ham professed to the same thing but on a much larger scale. I grew up a stones throw away from there and amongst the people i grew up with there was Spurs, Arsenal, dippers and even one or two Mancs back then. I myself never had any issues going to the old Den, but i see some mad sh*t go on around that ground over the years.

 

[Cobham]

I have to say my night was a carbon copy of Super Luca's. His posts could have been written by me. We also got there early and it was sheer mayhem. Basically if you were walking up the OKR towards the away end you were getting battered. It seemed like on every corner of every street, and in the entrance ways in to any of the estates round there, there was a small mob waiting. Most of these groups were 20-50 strong and it looked like they were all mates from the estates. As I said earlier anyone who was walking the wrong direction (towards Ilderton Road) or who just didn't look right was getting done. I saw at least two sets of ours getting battered. In one case there was only three of them and this mob of 30 or so just rushed over from the other side of the OKR totally surrounded them and gave 'em a total kicking. In the carnage one bloke got away and got chased onto a routemaster and done on there instead. At that time of the night there were only small groups of Chelsea trying to get to the ground and we were totally outnumbered and not mobbed up at all.

When we arrived at the OKR we were at a junction and didn't know which way to go (first trip to Millwall, we were just teenagers up from Surrey). It was already out of control by then. I sidled up to this Old Bill who was standing in some kind of forecourt and very quietly asked him which direction the away end was in. He barely acknowledged me and just moved his head and eyes enough for me to see which way he was suggesting as he whispered this classic: "It's that way. Don't stand near me."

There was four of us and we split up, two on each side of the road and twenty feet between the two on the same side. Then we walked up the OKR trying to look like we were out for a stroll and not interested in any match that might be happening in that area, eyes to the ground most of the time. The hatred was unreal that night. Somehow we all made it to Ilderton Road in one piece and we got back together on the same side of the road as we turned the corner. Just as we turned we very luckily came up behind four coppers because at that moment this nasty little mob of about 20-30 came round the corner in the other direction. I walked right up behind the nearest copper. Practically had my chin on his back as we passed through the mob. They were giving it the "you Chelsea c**ts", "f**cking Chelsea w**kers" and all that as they gobbed on us. Anyway, we got through them and I turned round to my mates and said: "f**k me that was close" and as I said it I realised all three of them had blood dripping from noses or split lips. They'd all taken a few punches as the mob passed by.

Once in the ground I would agree with Melbourne. I also thought we were about 3000 strong. Have to say though that this was without doubt the quietest away support I experienced in that era. Barely sang a song all night long. The whole game was watched in near silence. It was eerie and so different to the boisterous, piss taking away mobs we used to have back then.

A further perspective might be given by others who were with our main mob. I heard they marched down all the way from the Elephant, about 600 of them, a very, very good firm and well up for it. But, apparently, by the time they got there Wall were inside. (Anyone confirm that?)

I think there's a lot to be said about what time you got there that night as to what experience you had. I wouldn't have missed it for the world but I'm not sure I'd want to do it again. That walk up to Ilderton Road was about the longest of my life. Great memories though. 

 

[i-like-to-munich]

I sidled up to this Old Bill who was standing in some kind of forecourt and very quietly asked him which direction the away end was in. He barely acknowledged me and just moved his head and eyes enough for me to see which way he was suggesting as he whispered this classic: "It's that way. Don't stand near me."

Pure quality mate.

 

[bluegraham]

thanks for sharing