Away days

[Alan]

I've been reflecting on the season just gone and some great away games I got to go to. It's only this season that I've started to go to away games regularly, so both my best and worse experiences have come this season.

Best Away game has to be Valencia. Atmosphere was brilliant, hardly stopped all game and we outsung 50,000 'hostile' Valencia fans. Everybody went absolutely mental when Essien scored, the remainder of the game was a blur. Then when we were kept in for around 30 mins after the game, started singing songs, 'In your Liverpool slums', 'Are you watching Arsenal', Carefree etc. etc. Got home around 4am, my feet were killing me and I could hardly speak but I didnt give a f***. A day I'll never forget.

Wembley and Cardiff were of course great experiences but they werent proper away games, as they were played on neutral ground.

Then there's my worst away experience, the Liverpool CL Semi. The feeling of losing on penalties was just unbearable and the 5 hour coach journey home was a nightmare. Thankfully AC Milan destroyed Man United which cheered me up, and all the Man U fans in college were strangely quiet when I went back in on Thursday.

Another bad away game was Charlton on boxing day 2003, although I was sitting in the Charlton end. So it was not an away experience per se.

So what are your best and worst away games/experiences?

[Lofty]

Worst away games? Losing 7-1 at Wolves, 6-0 at Rotherham, 1-0 at Crewe. Being crushed in at Swansea. Losing the relegation battle at was was then the future 3 point lane. Oh and Liverpool - don't start me on that poxy f*cking dive.

Best away games. Norwich and Ipswich were the places to go on the pull. Winning 3-1 at Highbury in a relegation season was pretty good. I always liked going to Newcastle, but more on that another time, perhaps.

Those were very different times though, and every other away game you went to was, shall we say, an experience.

[BlueBeard]

Either Sheffield club away in the early 70's was a bit naughty, as were a lot of northern clubs.

I remember being in a mob of about 500 Chelsea stuck in the Shoreham Kop and getting pelted with coins, bricks, pieces of concrete, ball-bearings and darts by the home fans, while the police stood by laughing. Similar experiences at Middlesbro and Stoke. We normally came out on top though!

I took a bit of a kicking at Birmingham around that time too, but got my revenge later in the season.

Millwall and West Ham were always an interesting away trip This was probably due to the fact that Chelsea rarely took many fans to Upton Park or The Den (strange how so many blokes suddenly had to work on the Saturday we were due to play there), so the brave few who did go were always a tad nervous

Liverpool and Everton were always dodgy, due to the local fans tendency to attack small groups of away fans with Stanley knives. Very brave of 'em, they never had the bottle to take on the lads, but like the bunch of cowards they were they attacked ordinary fans including old men, women and children.

C*nts, I f*ckin' hate scousers and always have.

Best away games. Norwich and Ipswich were the places to go on the pull.

That is so true

I recall one game at Norwich in the 70's, we took their end (not exactly difficult), and then took our pick of their girls, who were only too willing. That was the only time I've got my end away at a football match! I still laugh when I think of the sight along the back of the terracing - there must have been about 20 or more Chelsea blokes shagging Norwich birds against the wall

I was never quite as lucky at Ipswich, but loads of blokes were, the birds were known for it. I've spoken to fans of other clubs, and they remember the same kind of thing when they went to East Anglia - must be something they put in the water over there!

Southampton away was always a good laugh, as were Brighton, Nottm.Forest, Leicester, Wolves and Villa. So many stories to tell.......

[Lofty]

As you say, so many stories to tell. Funny you should mention Sheffield. The first time I ever went to Hillsborough was an FA Cup game, I think it was in '73. We'd just scored and in front of me was this big old Northern bloke, curly haired git, looked like a miner. He started steaming into Chelsea kids (I was 16 and they were kids to me) in front of him. I was pointing and shouting at this scumbag but the old bill just looked on, doing sweet f.a. So I grabbed this bloke's hair and smacked the back of his head. And then of course the West Yorkshire constabularly were all over me, at least four of them dragging me off and slinging me into the cells, laying the inevitable charge of Threatening Behaviour on me. The good news is I got off with it. And we won.

Oh and Sheffield United? We went up there once on a Friday night, in January I think. Wharever, it was bloody freezing, snow and ice everywhere. Even so there was the usual runing around outside. No real trouble, but a lot of us nearly missed the special. So there was me running towards the station, and I slipped on a patch of ice by some roundabout. On the train, my hand was throbbing and swollen to twice, three times it's normal size. "Don't worry, it's not broken" said the steward. Oh yes it was. We got back at around 3am, and luckily University College Hospital wasn't too far from King's Cross, so I had it X-Rayed and put in plaster.

I also vaguely remember a marathon FA Cup tie with Sheff. Wed, that went to a 2nd or 3rd replay. I think we eventually won that one as well.