A trip to Spurs a day like no other, What Joy it was to young and there that day

**david44** · 20-09-2021, 05:49 AM

On a wintry March 18 many moon's ago nursing a spotty teenager's Paddy's hangover , nobbling me dads hooch me and the lads have a meet at Liverpool St Station a grim smokey shed with barely a panini or nail bar to distarct us from the johnnys in the basement barber or birds in micro Nana like mini skirts of the era.

Most my mates were Spurs fans in the era of the Spurs double , they were the Man Ure of the day with fans in every nook shotten alley of Albion, me and Woody Chelsea , my minder Nick QPR and Pete (Hammers) who tho Irish was related to the Kitcheners and Redknapps (tho wsn't everyone with whiff of the Old Jago?)

The filthy old slam door trains were dangerously crammed like sardines full of steaming bodies , 3rd class and ladies carriages de rigeur I recall.

Once thru the turnstiles there were 2 Ends at spurs Park Drive and Woddbines oh yes smoking was legal almost compulsary and many players had a fag at half time.Most fans smoked continuosly between swigs of beer and snacks .
People didn't waste bananas on the players but toms cabbages were tossed and all and spirts quaffed, no cameras or searches then.

Cold Blo or Hot Blo, while Chelsea were hated for being posh n flash, Spurs derbies with any of London teams QPR Charlton even were violent with of course a special edge to near neighbours and rvals the Gunners who despite glorious history were in the shade of an unbeatable Spurs era 1960s

You could barely see the game for burly adults, tossed stremers , cigarette smoke and waving arms/fists.
But there were the Spurs heroes Dave McKay Alan Glzean Pat Jennings Clff Jones for Spurs

For visitors Chesea the regular line Peter "the cat Bonetti" in goal ruthless Chooper Harris and Eddie McCreadie at tee back , Osgood(maybe) Hollins the magical Charlie Cooke and on that one day barely 16 years old Ian CHICO Hamilton

It was Chicos debut and these teams were very good and met shortly after in the cup final.

I can find no footage but suffice to say the lad scored not just a goal but a screamer against probably after Lev Yashin the fnest keeper in the world Pat Jennings,
I loved Shilton,Bonetti Banks Zoff Seaman and many others as a keeper myself but Pat was something else a legend who regularly scored a few goals with his massive punts.N Ireland were very lucky to have him and Georgie in the same team.

I can fnd no footage of the game, very few were recorded or televised in the black and white era. If you wanted to watch you went to the match.
The clip here shows mature Chico who played so well at Villa later.

Half time mad stampede to the urinals, A cup of Bovril seemed compulsary , you either bought one or 30m later had the same wet warm glow as the bloke behind relieved himself on the specatots ahead.Somehow you'd find way to same unreserved bit of concrete.

For our colonial cousins Bovril is a beef tea like Vegimite for grown Ups, I later learned it is made from parts unsaleable in polite society.

Foul mothed but friendly Cops tossed people in and out of turnstiles queues for fun and were happy to chin, trip anyone with no recourse.Get back you buggers and I'll kick your arses were their sole weapons as unlike US thugs he had no gun just personality and a whistle,

I later realize like the St Johns Ambulance the cops got to see the match free and work out any domestic issues on the public for free.

Any gifted player was an Iron,
"Go on Hutchison hit him wth your handbag"
was encouragement form HIS OWN fans etc
Were not many foreign players at that time, but any Welsh Irishman or Jock on opposing side would get stick.

Chanting swearing, gobbng, tossed toilet rolls were the norm the atmosphere a mix of the Roman Coliseum, a riot and a carnival, considering the swaying unfenced crowd sthe frequent punch ups, thrown pennies that there were so few casualities. The banter and profanity, wiit and shit made TD look like Neverna's ladies knitting circle

I played once at a treianing session on the muddy valley (Charlton's old huge pitch) as a non pro at the wintry smoggy days were almost as bad as the Black and White, you could barely see the ball, pulled off at half time and half an orange what's not to like.

Post match in era where no fans dressed as players but sported bobble hats like Where's Wally ,scarves ,rattles, rosettes it was the choice of disgusting piece of salami called an "OT Dog or a slice old dog neat rom Westlers can called a Burger" Of course the smell of geasy onions had us queuing then a wagon wheel a couple cans and spalsh on the brut on the tonic to go on the pull, to be young cashed up and at large in the West End was to be "In ones element" we were all Michael Caine for a moment until that alarm on Monday mornng.

For those as yet unborn I should add all the world smelt of tobacco , deodorants were on ration in UK and most football stadia had a unique aroma of piss Bovril, tobacco and sweat on and off the terraces. Chesea tried runnig dogs around to keep the players fresh.
I've seen better games in the slums of Loftus Rd Marsh at his peak,Stan Bolwes , Geoff Astle , Shilts at Stoke , greater goals from Keegan and Shearer but that afternoon a lad of our age did the biz for our side, ecstasy , the rapture , few other thrills have such sweet memories, the sun shone and all was well with the world as we strode like giants back through Northumberland Park Station.Rinse with a pope on a rope soap, and hope for a grope at the Disco.

**helge** · 20-09-2021, 01:14 PM

A fine tale

Originally Posted by david44

all the world smelt of tobacco

Some 40+ years ago I was on my first trip to London.

Ferry from Esbjerg to Harwich and train from there to ..Liverpool St.

The smell was....very unfamiliar to me. Coal ? Couldn't be soap dodging; it was way to heavy for that and all over the place.

Nice place London

Then

**david44** · 20-09-2021, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by helge

A fine tale

Some 40+ years ago I was on my first trip to London.

Ferry from Esbjerg to Harwich and train from there to ..Liverpool St.

The smell was....very unfamiliar to me. Coal ? Couldn't be soap dodging; it was way to heavy for that and all over the place.

Nice place London

Then

Not sure after the killer smogs of 1950s there ws a clean air act. limiting cal usage, , tho I recall coal fires in Stoke and Wales well into the 1970s.But you are right that aroma has gone.

My neighbour and football coach I have to admit was a great Dane Jensen but it wasnt him, I think behind the smoke smog, Brut ( only cheap cologne used by soccer fans,I think it was recycled tolet cleaner,) and train was the subtle aroma of Britain that has lured young Danes astray since Viking times, a bewitching combo of cheeky chaps up for it and flexible ladies who become increasingly attractive teh more one drinks. London was indeed the place to be then.

The strrets were littered with chip wrappers and as a Sunday treat , Saturday nght sbroken glass and vomit.

To be fair its cleaner, better food more multicultural less homphobic today but somehow the Mojo has gone.

The buzz is in Antwerp, Barcelona,Amsterdam, Sydney , Prague even Copenhagen cities confident of a great future where I feel London knows its greatness is in the past.Like an old lady whose given up dieting and sits in the comfy chair enjoying watching her descendants at play but no intention of dancing again.

In that era we'd go to the sole Danish restaurant in Herne Hill or the Danish Food Centre to buy rygbrod and Akaavit such things are much easier to find and food is incomaparbly more edible tho unless spending silly money still inferior to here or daegli Danmark.

1960s London

Sex n Drugs and rock and roll were freely available and acres of flesh clad in hotpants young men didnt know there were women with straight teeth or long washed blonde hair gagging for a Celt until arriving In Denmark.

A trip to Spurs a day like no other, What Joy it was to young and there that day-kjh-jpg

A trip to Spurs a day like no other, What Joy it was to young and there that day-kjh-jpg

**Switch** · 20-09-2021, 06:30 PM

Wonderfully evocative and erudite memories David.

Thanks for sharing.
If only Jimmy had scored the winner on that day. Sigh.

**hallelujah** · 21-09-2021, 04:52 PM

81 was a decent innings, especially after some of his health problems in later years; the finest finisher that ever lived, some have said.

I always had you down as a Manc though, david. Didn't know you were a Chelsea chap.

**david44** · 21-09-2021, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by hallelujah

81 was a decent innings, especially after some of his health problems in later years; the finest finisher that ever lived, some have said.

I always had you down as a Manc though, david. Didn't know you were a Chelsea chap.

He was a beaut, sadly most of vids are black white shakey but those who saw knew he was best at teh time.

The pitches , balss and fouls were worse than the modern era , so even harder to be skilful.

I'd reside in Costa del Ancoats long before it became trndy but pure plastic Paddy with traces of other mongerl Kate/Border Basque Iti I was informed . My dear old dad was Chelsea for some odd reason , think he'd lived nearby in WW2 when they were so hopeless

The WW2 gas attack drill was COECDO , Come on England Chelsea down and out !

Cotton waste
Ointemet
Eyeshields
Clothng
Detectors
Ointment

I started watching long after the 1955 one off success , they were second level but I had a chance as trainee keeper, my pal Andy actually got the apprentceship (a lot of boot polishing) but like so many plastic paddies we both ended up in Forex at what is now HSBC, but we met David Coleman, Peter Bonetti and most of teh 60s side as Johnny Holins was a neighbour and Alan Harris , Choppers bro was daring a neighbour (went to massive pissup wedding).

I despise the Chelski money which like Glazers and Balckburn buying teams have ruined the game, young men dont need 100k a week but its all about tv rights and merchadise snce the premiership.As you know every second Mototax jockey has a Man Uts /City or Arsenal shirt from Joburg to Pattaya.

This season will be a stonker sooner than the usual 2 horse race, despite being a Blues fan I think the title will end up not in London Leiceter or Liverpool but Manchester, which side of course we wait and see.

Keep up th egood posts, tell us about the best game you ever saw and why ?

The game I'd have loved to have seen was teh 1959-60 Euro Final in Glasgow the result suggest a stormer

The 1960 European Cup Final was the fifth final in the history of the European Cup, and was contested by Real Madrid of Spain and Eintracht Frankfurt of West Germany. Real won 7–3 in front of a crowd of over 127,000 people at Glasgow's Hampden Park stadium, still the highest attendance for a European Cup final. There were an estimated 70 million television viewers around Europe. Widely regarded as one of the greatest football matches ever played,[it also currently remains the highest-scoring final in the history of the competition

courtesy of four goals by Ferenc Puskás and a hat-trick by Alfredo Di Stéfano. This was Real Madrid's fifth consecutive title, a record that still stands todayMy favourite ever player Alfedo di Stefano you's think scoring a hat trick in a fnal would be man of the match only to be outdone by a plater so talented he'd have been number one in the world at any other time Ferenc Puskas (teh Buda stdium went to is named after him)

He managed to pop in FOUR against a great team

**hallelujah** · 22-09-2021, 04:53 AM

Hmmm. Tough one. The best game I've ever seen from a United point of view would probably be one of the many comebacks (Juventus in Turin, Bayern in Barca, Sheff Weds before we went on to win the league in 93, Liverpool in the cup in 99), but Barcelona in 84 would probably stand out as it was one of my first games and we were 2-0 down after the first leg to a team containing Maradona and Schuster. The atmosphere was unbelievable that night (not like today's stadiums), as was Bryan Robson, and the Stretford End almost sucked the ball into the net for the last 2 goals.

As far as teams I don't follow? Another tough one- there have been so many! The AC Milan team of the late 80s/early 90s and the Barcelona teams of 10 years or so ago were special so any game watching them (apart from when Barca twatted us twice

). Some of the recent international tournament games have been very good, but maybe the Ajax v Spurs one stands out the most along with quite a few Barca v Madrid games. The Liverpool v Newcastle games in the 90s were also excellent in terms of entertainment.

Dare I say it, the Liverpool v Barca 4-0, but I was obviously consumed by jealousy during that one!

**helge** · 23-09-2021, 02:24 AM

**hallelujah** · 24-09-2021, 04:33 PM

Aye. Another cracker. I didn't see that WBA side, but my old man raved about them.

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