Talking of having things given to you at football, at Derby once in the cup- the game where the seats got ripped up, outside the ground before the game, we witnessed an off licence get turned over. One fella walked out carrying an armfull of booty- then handed me a bottle of creme de menthe- horrible looking green stuff, looks like out of carry on screaming.

Anyway, I stuck it behind a dustbin, picked it up after the game, and necked it on the special home. It wouldn't have been my tipple of choice but some afternoons you can't be too choosy. 31 years on, thanks for that bottle whoever you are

Anyway, I stuck it behind a dustbin, picked it up after the game, and necked it on the special home. 

 

Bet if that had been in Liverpool, it would have disappeared by the time you went back!

Quite true LL. ps I pretty sure I spewed it up on the train coming back. Talking of which, here's a thought for you. Lets say you were in the shed upper, and harboured a grudge against the away fans below. Obviously, if you carried out the old Manc trick of emptying a cup of lovely urine onto the away fans you'd get carted off. If however, you'd deliberately swallowed something that would interfere with your stomach, then quite by accident- honest steward I couldn't help it- puked it down on the enemy below- I reckon if you played it cool you'd get away with it. Quite a sophisticated form of revenge that. What twisted minds us Chelsea fans have

Quite true LL. ps I pretty sure I spewed it up on the train coming back. Talking of which, here's a thought for you. Lets say you were in the shed upper, and harboured a grudge against the away fans below. Obviously, if you carried out the old Manc trick of emptying a cup of lovely urine onto the away fans you'd get carted off. If however, you'd deliberately swallowed something that would interfere with your stomach, then quite by accident- honest steward I couldn't help it- puked it down on the enemy below- I reckon if you played it cool you'd get away with it. Quite a sophisticated form of revenge that. What twisted minds us Chelsea fans have

 

If it was a game against a Northern team, then to make them feel at home, i'd either eat a couple of Black Puddings, or a plate of Tripe & Onions!. At least when the 'chunder' rained onto their heads, they would recognise the odour!

Smelly northerner (whilst picking tripe from his barnet)- officer, I demand that you arrest that Chelsea fan. He deliberately spewed tripe all over us

Copper- think yourself lucky your not West Ham. It was jellied eels last week

 I was in the cold blow  in 77  .. a lot of my friends are  millwall . but trust me very few of them admit to chelsea ever being in the cbl...they never admit getting done.... i also witnessed the y*ds chasing them around the bricklayers arms area on boxing day , i was on my way back from arsenal if my memory is correct .

Years ago at Leicester away 150+ of us plotted up in one of their boozers, some CFC fella i got talking to ended up giving me & my lot iffy £20 notes, got smashed & it didnt cost us a penny.

 

(edit if any plod are reading this i just made that up as ive never been to Leicester, dont drink & dont talk to strangers)

 I was in the cold blow  in 77  .. a lot of my friends are  millwall . but trust me very few of them admit to chelsea ever being in the cbl...they never admit getting done.... i also witnessed the y*ds chasing them around the bricklayers arms area on boxing day , i was on my way back from arsenal if my memory is correct .

Yeah it was Arsenal away morning kick off one of the few occasions a cunning plan worked and we managed to take the North Bank getting in the ground early only coz the pubs were not open.

We was definitely in the CBL in September 1976 held our own for most of the game   

I also went to that milwall game in the late 70's. was 17 and remember it was early in the season and still warmish. met a load at fulham broadway and tubed it don. got off at surrey queys and walked very quietly for what seemed like miles.

Got to ground early on and paid to get into cbl end. once we were allí in it all went off bigger than i have ever experienced upto and since. it was madness.

i like many others eventualy got kicked onto pitch and walked round past the seats intro the other end where it all kicked off again. i kept me head down till the end of the game although there were rucks going on all over the place. i tend to think what stopped me getting a pasting that day was my young age and the facti was on my own by then.

There were one or two people i recognised from pimlico but we did not even speak to each other .

Lots of people said after that day that they were there. they might have bien or not but for sure everything changed after that day for us. it has bien said we grew up as a firm(s) that day and i tend to agree. We found at which level we had to "perform" and we were more than up to the challenge.

Live in spain now but still long for those exciting times like, i imagine many of us do on here.

,yep true that sparky i, was there but only about 15 at the time .. i was rucking on the stairs at the back with my millwall mate  gary roberts from the squire 

,yep true that sparky i, was there but only about 15 at the time .. i was rucking on the stairs at the back with my millwall mate  gary roberts from the squire 

Remember old Gary Roberts and his brother Roly (West Ham) he was also in the Panorama program with Billy Plummer  

Remember old Gary Roberts and his brother Roly (West Ham) he was also in the Panorama program with Billy Plummer

sort of "Gary Roberts is our friend...."

Funnily enough Ive only had to leg it at football twice and both times it was watching Palace with my mates who support them.

 

 

I can only remember being confronted twice, both as a kid - once was at an away ground somewhere and I was approached rather aggressively by a Chelsea fan who, once I had reluctantly confirmed I was Chelsea, proceded to lecture me that I should never deny or hesitate to confirm that I was a Chelsea fan and if you were with the Chelsea you were alright.

 

The other time was after having watched a Palace game with some mates - we were just walking home and were outnumbered by Burnley fans - I think my mates had their scarves taken but that was about it. i remember having a laugh at the time that it was more dangerous watching Palace than Chelsea!

 

I credit my lack of confrontational experiences not to nimble feet but by simply not going to places where you are going to get aggro! just go to the game and watch the football!

Met a mate for a beer the other day. Hadn't seen him a while he's a QPR fan well everyone's got there cross to bare. So obviously talking about the old days and he reminded me when him and a couple of other QPR mates came into our then local about the hard time they had at Oxford. They got off the train at Oxford and got run from the station to the ground. So of course we were asking how many of you got run?. They looked at us quizzically and said just the three of us. 

 

So next question was did you get there late and were you the only obvious QPR fans about. No we got there well before three they said. So we said (and of course remembering what our away support was like) a train left from London to Oxford and you were the only Rangers fans on board!!!!. Even now i still can't get my head around that. Other fans can slag the sort of crowds we used to get (this was 1987 i think) but our away support was second to none. 

I've been run at a few places watching Chelsea, but the first time was at Wembley Arena ( The Empire Pool ) as it was watching the Daily Express 5- asides. It was mostly school kids that watched this annual event- I was there with the school circa 78- and we got run out of our seats by Tottenham, who were a fair bit older than us.

We had a good go back later mind. Next day at school there were a couple of shiners on display, including one on our sports teacher who got caught up in melee.

I've been run at a few places watching Chelsea, but the first time was at Wembley Arena ( The Empire Pool ) as it was watching the Daily Express 5- asides. It was mostly school kids that watched this annual event- I was there with the school circa 78- and we got run out of our seats by Tottenham, who were a fair bit older than us.

We had a good go back later mind. Next day at school there were a couple of shiners on display, including one on our sports teacher who got caught up in melee.

Not 100% sure about this but QPR won that five a side comp one year and it was used on there honours list in the programme for years.

I've searched the net for a list of tournament winners over the years- know we won it once late 70s- cant find a thing. It was big news in its day.

Like a lot of kids we caught the Harlem Globetrotters there too. Curly Neal was a big hero. Seems funny now there's rakes of bald heads around, but back then there were old 3 bald headed blokes in the world- youngish blokes not your grandad types- Telly Savalas, Curly Neal and Yul Brynner

As i said i wasn't 100% sure that QPR put it in there honours list. But if they did this makes it even worse cos they were runners up ha ha. I found this though a good story from Stan Bowles. I never read footballers autobiography's but i can recommend his it's very funny especially when he went on Superstars.

 

"But the only time I done it [thrown a match] was a five-a-side. Do you remember the national five-a-side tournament? I was playing for QPR and we reached the final against Leyton Orient. I had a good mate who was an Orient supporter - Jewish Dennis he was called, he's dead now - and he'd backed them to win the thing, £1,000 at 8-1. He said to me, 'If you go boss-eyed in the final, you've got a grand'. Well, I only stood to get £200 if we won the final, so I said, 'Certainly'. I scored a goal but we lost 6-1, and our manager, Gerry Francis, said to me afterwards, 'You looked a bit tired in the second half'. Bowles' laughter rings around the pub. 'But it was only five-a-side, it didn't matter".

Swansea away at the Vetch, intimidating place.

 

Please bear in mind, I'm a Bristol lad and this was my days going with the Rovers firm (GHS). This was my first away day with the boys, I was only fourteen. 

 

It was November 6th in 2004.. We had three transits leave Filton in Bristol and the rest travelled by train. We touched down in Swansea early doors around 11am. We met in this boozer called The Cricketers and after a couple of hours we left to find the Jacks. Unfortunately our mob of 140+ got picked up by old bill, we were rounded up and escorted to the Vetch. We lost 1-0 to a last minute penalty so all the boys decided to leave the stadium early.. we tried getting on the pitch, then outside we tried our utmost to break free from old bill. This is where it gets exciting 'cause it's pretty much a non event up 'til now. The train station is one way and our three transits are two miles in the opposite direction. Most of our mob get an escort to the train station, we lose the presence of the old bill, it's dark and we're walking along the promenade in the other direction. This day we had our top boys out, some meat heads. Anyways, about 10 minutes along along the promenade, Swansea come from every direction, some of ours stand and take a good kick-in whilst some of the young uns like myself got on our toes. It's going off everywhere, I see some of ours cuffed and covered in claret. I don't know to this day if those Swansea boys were tooled up or just lumps but they were game. We carry on along the promenade and bump in to a Welsh chap who politely tells us "we've slashed the tyres on your vans, you're in Swansea for the night boys and you're gonna get murdered". We re-group, no more than ten of us.. across the road we see a group of lads, no more than 10 or so.. they're stood there..  We make a mistake of waiting, no longer than a minute has passed and we're outnumbered 2 to 1, 10+ lads just appeared from the street behind 'em.  There's no old bill in sight, they start crossing the road, one of our boys says "don't run this is what we've come here for".. they get closer, I ain't gonna lie, I was sh*tting myself. I was the first to get on my toes, the rest of the boys are gone too. We all head in opposite directions, I thought one of ours was going to swim back to Avonmouth as he hopped the wall and was being chased along the beach. Luckily I was in the presence of one of our drivers, we had a transit still breathing.. it took us at least an hour and a half to find the rest of our boys, pick 'em up and make it safely out of Swansea. I've never been so relieved to get home. That was the only time I was really intimidated away, and I know it has nothing to do with Chelsea, I'm just sharing my experience. 

Swansea away at the Vetch, intimidating place.

 

Please bear in mind, I'm a Bristol lad and this was my days going with the Rovers firm (GHS). This was my first away day with the boys, I was only fourteen. 

 

It was November 6th in 2004.. We had three transits leave Filton in Bristol and the rest travelled by train. We touched down in Swansea early doors around 11am. We met in this boozer called The Cricketers and after a couple of hours we left to find the Jacks. Unfortunately our mob of 140+ got picked up by old bill, we were rounded up and escorted to the Vetch. We lost 1-0 to a last minute penalty so all the boys decided to leave the stadium early.. we tried getting on the pitch, then outside we tried our utmost to break free from old bill. This is where it gets exciting 'cause it's pretty much a non event up 'til now. The train station is one way and our three transits are two miles in the opposite direction. Most of our mob get an escort to the train station, we lose the presence of the old bill, it's dark and we're walking along the promenade in the other direction. This day we had our top boys out, some meat heads. Anyways, about 10 minutes along along the promenade, Swansea come from every direction, some of ours stand and take a good kick-in whilst some of the young uns like myself got on our toes. It's going off everywhere, I see some of ours cuffed and covered in claret. I don't know to this day if those Swansea boys were tooled up or just lumps but they were game. We carry on along the promenade and bump in to a Welsh chap who politely tells us "we've slashed the tyres on your vans, you're in Swansea for the night boys and you're gonna get murdered". We re-group, no more than ten of us.. across the road we see a group of lads, no more than 10 or so.. they're stood there..  We make a mistake of waiting, no longer than a minute has passed and we're outnumbered 2 to 1, 10+ lads just appeared from the street behind 'em.  There's no old bill in sight, they start crossing the road, one of our boys says "don't run this is what we've come here for".. they get closer, I ain't gonna lie, I was sh*tting myself. I was the first to get on my toes, the rest of the boys are gone too. We all head in opposite directions, I thought one of ours was going to swim back to Avonmouth as he hopped the wall and was being chased along the beach. Luckily I was in the presence of one of our drivers, we had a transit still breathing.. it took us at least an hour and a half to find the rest of our boys, pick 'em up and make it safely out of Swansea. I've never been so relieved to get home. That was the only time I was really intimidated away, and I know it has nothing to do with Chelsea, I'm just sharing my experience. 

 

I reckon a few of us 'Blues' on here (living out of London), have 'gone away' with our local team, on several occasions and had hair-raising experiences. I certainly have!.

I've searched the net for a list of tournament winners over the years- know we won it once late 70s- cant find a thing. It was big news in its day.

Like a lot of kids we caught the Harlem Globetrotters there too. Curly Neal was a big hero. Seems funny now there's rakes of bald heads around, but back then there were old 3 bald headed blokes in the world- youngish blokes not your grandad types- Telly Savalas, Curly Neal and Yul Brynner

and our very own Kojak (RIP)

Not true about Arsenal. The skinhead era was before my time but many have told me they were a force to be reckoned with back then. Was around for their renaissance in the 80s- they were better at home than away - a lot of their black support from Finsbury Park/Hackney etc didn't travel much for some reason.

Arsenal did have a very tasty mob in the late 60's.

Another short story of GETTING ON YOUR TOES.is....................Again . In the 70s......went to man city.......walked thru a market place only for us ( just a few) guys to be followed by a large scary bunch of manx.......On our toes we ran into a cinema.....Thought we could hold it but couldnt...The manager had to call old bill to rescue us im ashamed to say.......Then we pulled ( myself and another chap) 2 manx girls...They took us in the Kippax.....Boyfriends somehow appeared.( oh how naieve i was)...Told us what was gonna happen and we both ran down to the pitch...Jumped on the pitch...Produced our silks and accepted our cop escort....for all the positive scenarios at many away (And home) situations i must admit to quite a few TOE ING it scenes...All jolly good fun tho.......When i think of some of the worst fearfull surroundings ive experienced i sometimes wonder if id do it all again if i could turn the clock back........DAMN RIGHT I WOULD

Not true about Arsenal. The skinhead era was before my time but many have told me they were a force to be reckoned with back then. Was around for their renaissance in the 80s- they were better at home than away - a lot of their black support from Finsbury Park/Hackney etc didn't travel much for some reason.

They had a tasty mob in the Sixties, lot older than us.

They had a tasty mob in the Sixties, lot older than us.

 

Same as West Hams 'Mile End' firm, who were still going to the mid 70's.