70s or 80s, the best decade for aggro?

I know we're meant to hold each other in contempt but have always admired you lot.

I was at the notorious game in April 75 and when I got in the ground at 2.50pm there were 3 separate rucks on the pitch. When we played you again in 78/9 me and my mate were on the train at seven sisters stn waiting to depart when we hear a roar on the platform from Babs and his cohorts who had got on a stop earlier. We stepped off onto the platform as they run past us and they then go through a train carriage and attack us from behind so my mate's nose is bust. We took a walk up the steps for a breather and when we returned things had calmed down. Didn't witness the brick fight that was meant to have happened outside.

But whereas for us the aggro died down by the 80s you lot were still putting it about making hay at places like Cardiff, Cambridge, Brighton as well as your regular ding dongs with Leeds in that era. 

I know when you played Wolves in the last game of the 76/7 season and took 5,000 up there despite being banned, there was a night game in your first season back in div 1 when some of you went in their end near the conclusion of the game when the gates had opened and battered them. 

Your away support was on a par with ours as we regrouped after we were relegated in 76/7.

Had more or less stopped going by the time we next played you in the FA Cup in 1982 as marriage and other demands took over. Perhaps if I'd supported Chelsea, I may have kept up my support a bit longer.

There a hatred between us but I think I'm right in saying there's also respect, a rivalry as long as ours wouldn't have gone on so long if there wasn't.

When you look back we both picked up massive followings away during the days in Div 2.  Man Utd were the first of the giants to get relegated in '74 and rampaged, we took their place the year after and then Spurs a couple later.

from what i saw and what remains of memory.....1968 ...to.....early 80s

y*d old boy....playing you guys makes football a happier scene

y*d_old_boy said:

I know we're meant to hold each other in contempt but have always admired you lot.

I was at the notorious game in April 75 and when I got in the ground at 2.50pm there were 3 separate rucks on the pitch. 

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Evening 'y*d old boy', How did you manage to get in at 2.50pm, as we were all locked out way before then?. 

Personally i thought the 70's were the best, as this was during my 'era', although the 80's (and 90's to some extent) saw many more teams going 'mob handed' to away games.

Peckham Blue said:

There a hatred between us but I think I'm right in saying there's also respect, a rivalry as long as ours wouldn't have gone on so long if there wasn't.

When you look back we both picked up massive followings away during the days in Div 2.  Man Utd were the first of the giants to get relegated in '74 and rampaged, we took their place the year after and then Spurs a couple later.

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we took the stretford end..?

Mike Carefree said:

we took the stretford end..?

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That's something I've read about  (and sung about years before it happened, "Those were the days my friend, we took the Stretford End.......") in Martin King's book, the first time I was aware of it.  Anyone else there or got anything to add, it must have been a great sight from the Scoreboard End and similar to the Holte End in flight.

yeh sang the song but wasnt aware it had actually happened....happy days for those then

Mike Carefree said:

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Lets get the brain cells working. I've recalled somewhere on one of these topics my re-collection of the 1972 League Cup 2nd leg semi final at WHL. I also remember either that same season or the one before at WHL (i know we lost!) we went in through the Park Lane turnstiles and were sussed and the 'old bill' escorted us along the back through the aisle to the lower Shelf where we made our way to the Paxton end where we were congregated. Before KO we made an attempt to 'wander' back towards the Park Lane end, before being ambushed by a load of nutters surging out of one of the lower shelf entrances/exits. After the game we all grouped up outside their supporters club place on the High Road. Cant remember what happened after that!.

78/79 season, 1st Saturday away game (after Wolves mid-week when a 'firm' said 'hello' to their end before the end), we got off at Northumberland Park and walked 1,000 strong (seemed like that) up the Park Lane. Went past a pub where there was a balcony outside (Olive Branch?) where they lobbed some bottles etc, and another pub 100yds further on. There was a stand-off between there and the ground which saw the 'old bill' make an appearance.

After this game the battle at 'Seven Sisters' underground occured when we were on the tube, and they were on the platform.

Regarding home games, recall in 1972 waiting for the tube at Tower Hill. When it pulled in it seemed like most of it was full od Spurs, so waited for the next one!. This was the game when before KO they came from under the East Stand mob handed towards the Shed before we reacted and they legged it back. Never really understood that tactic. If you want to have a go at the opposition and in theory you have your 'top boys' leading, then why get half way and then bottle it. Perhaps the 'top boys' on that occasion wer'nt as 'hard' as they thought they were?

1974 Oct. We won 1-0 and after (according to reports) their mob got off at South Kensington and smashed up loads of shops etc (why, fail to see what this achieved).

1982 6th Rd FA Cup. At half time 1-0 up, thought we were going to cause an upset. Was'nt to be and afterwards as they had been allocated the whole of the North Stand, it was inevitable chaos was to ensue, and it did!.

Would like to add that when we played at the Lane towards the end of the 95-96 season (1-1) Ruud was playing and he stood miles ahead of anyone else on the pitch that day. 

I certainly remember walking towards the park lane from the lower shelf and erm, lets say walking back to the paxton..Vivid rememberence of the spuds comming from the NS via back of east stand and shed singing COME ON TOTTENHAM, COME ON TOTTENHAM, then it changing to....YOULL NEVER TAKE THE SHED and spuds going back to the northstand

My first wonderful vision of chelsea at spuds that made me an excited schoolkid was about 67/68...to me it seemed like thousands of chelsea skins walking down tott high rd (when i told this story b4 i mistakenly said seven sisters rd) and smashing up the spud supp club...these fellows then damaging the park lane with very bad behaviour.....i may have had my first erection at this at the age of 12 / 13.....good old chelsea

Circa 1972 / 3 Earls Court the hanging straps and fluorescent lamps had been removed from the district line train and used as weapons when spurs were caught out on the platform and on the continuing journey to Victoria.

Answer to question early 70s till mid 80s.

Mike Carefree said:

My first wonderful vision of chelsea at spuds that made me an excited schoolkid was about 67/68...to me it seemed like thousands of chelsea skins walking down tott high rd (when i told this story b4 i mistakenly said seven sisters rd) and smashing up the spud supp club...these fellows then damaging the park lane with very bad behaviour.....i may have had my first erection at this at the age of 12 / 13.....good old chelsea

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Great times Mike, memories never die. When i listen to the scroats at work (mid 20's) talking about football incidents, i tell them they hav'nt a clue about days gone by. They look at me like i'm an old fool (which is understandable) , but they would'nt have lasted a week in 'the good old days'.

78/79, we must have had two massive mobs up there.  We met at Victoria around midday and a packed trainload got off at Tottenham Hale.  Seemed like we were miles away and walked for ages but as we got close to the ground down the Park Lane it broke into a sprint and I suppose the mobs met although I couldn't see a thing, then we went through the turnstiles and in.  There's the pic of Babs & DH on the vintage pics thread which looks like the aftermath of a row where the Chelsea mob is all facing the wrong way from the ground, the flats are behind them, maybe this is what Leigh Limpet is describing.  We definitely got off at the Victoria Line at Tottenham Hale, not BR Northumberland Park, at least 1000 the train was rammed.

I just managed to get into the relegation game at WHL, actually gate was shut behind me and ended up on the terrace below the shelf.

Person who I was meeting was on the late train with Babs and Co at WHL that was packed with our mob that failed to get into the ground after the gates were locked.

More memories of the 70s

I used to chat to this Chelsea fan on the train up to matches when we were both playing in London. He was a scarfer really, more interested in boring me with facts like Ron Harris was a better left back than Graham Wilkins so why did Shellito keep picking Wilkins? Or Maybank was as good a striker as Steve Finnieston, although he did admit that Hoddle was a better midfielder than Ray Wilkins (and so was Brady and Brooking for that matter). But being a Chelsea reg, fv was an occupational hazard of going to matches, especially away games. He was saying that in your div 1 days, pre 75, he was travelling to Liverpool away, I think by coach, when the Chelsea supporters suddenly brought out red and white scarves as they approached Liverpool while he was stuck with the away Chelsea scarf of green, red and white. So what he did to improvise was to stick that in his pocket with only the narrow red and white strips showing. He was in a quartette with Babs when they were set on, and while one of them escaped and he got away with a few punches and kicks, Babs came off pretty badly and he never saw the other bloke at football match again he was so badly battered. A bit later on he bluffed his way out of a dangerous situation with a fake scouse accent making out he lived in Runcorn, only because he remembered the place on the way up.

The day you played Millwall at home in 76/7, we had Man U (busy day for the old bill) and 4 of us were drinking in Shakespeares pub outside Victoria a few hours before the game, when we realised we were outnumbered by Chelsea. We thought we'd finish our drinks and take our leave so me and a mate went to relieve our bladders and came out realising our other mates had already gone. Soon after a flurry of kicks and punches greeted us as we were chased out of the pub, which was the same treatment our 2 mates had received earlier.

Like you, our reputations were enhanced after our visit to Millwall, which was needed after they scattered us in the Park Lane in a league cup game in 75. There was segregation so we were all in the Ilderton Rd end, none in the cbl like when you played them. A few of ours charged the fence on the halfway line, without success, until the police moved them down behind the goal. It was after it kicked off as they were waiting up the OKR with bricks, stones and the kitchen sink greeting us. The ones at the front were backing off into the residents grdens while those at the back were exhorting us forward and steaming in. My mate, who was with me at seven sistes for the Chelsea game, and at 21 was considered a veteran as well as being 6'4'' and had served time for fv in detention centre, decided discretion was the better part of valour so we turned round and caught the tube at the Elephant % Castle although I heard we put up a vg account. At least we'd shown our faces.

I know a lot of W Ham don't rate us and in the first half of the 70s we didn't show and they took the shelf, but in the 76/7 season when we went down, we played them away (I didn't go) and there was a group of ours in the N Bank, with one of us flashing a bowie knife around, possibly ss. In the return match on New Years Day, some of them wanted to take the Paxton but I saw a few of our faces waiting on the concourse and when WH saw who was awaiting them they clambered back over the turnstiles. It was then 4 years before we played them again in the league cup in Dec 80. I was on my own since tickets were hard to get. I think most of the fighting occurred before the game when I was already inside the ground with the sound of police and ambulance sirens being heard in the distance. After I didn't see any trouble between the ground and the underground but honours even on the day. I did take in a WH game in 78/9 up at Cambridge as I had a mate who lived there. Their mob who steamed the home end would have been id'd for an AA film they were that young. Did their faces just come out for London derbies and Man U?

Finally I was having a debate with this Chelsea fan about who was superior and things were getting a bit heated. He said to me "okay mate, if you're the dogs bollox, how come Man U always take thousands to WHL - which they did and always came off worst - yet never show at ours? He had me stumped on that.

PS As a footnote, my mate who had served time, was first nicked at Norwich in the early 70s with Vic Donkin, our top boy. There was a Norwich fan also charged. Trying to impress after they'd all been let off with a small fine, my mate said to Vic, shall we do him? And Vic replies "leave him be." A couple of weeks later, my mate's drinking in the Corner Pin outside the Park Lane, when across the crowded room who does he see but the former Norwich fan giving him a cheery wave dressed up in Spurs regalia having changed his allegiancies. There's probably a moral to that story.            

met vic donkin who came to some of our matches .....first time was away at sunderland i think...said he was born there or had affiliation with the area.....long black hair..quite charismatic....y*d old boy.....keep the stories coming.......Ive seen both lots of our fans coming out on top over the years...Id have to say, that even with the boredom of the seats and ground as they are nowadays, i probably live my footy on our meetings twice a year....Dont think Donkin would come anywhere near SS

I've just found the link to the 78/79 photo.

http://www.theshedend.com/topic/22509-hickeys-coach/page-2

Can i just reiterate  y*d old boy, that the 75 scene that you spurs fans saw woulda been a lot different had all the chlsea who were locked out, got in...The park lane would have seen some fun....Respect to the chelsea few who did get in and got done on and off the pitch but showed emselves