| Forum Reply | The dreaded third album - were you there in 1986? Your help needed at 16:56 21 May 2014
The happy memories were all about beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the replay and Micky Robinson's goal from the half way line. We were under the cosh a bit as Chelsea strove for an equaliser, and then suddenly out of the blue we were 2-0 up. I remember it as being a quite damp evening and the pitch looking as if it could have doubled as a setting for ' All Quiet on The Western Front'. The Liverpool home leg was a fairly tight game, decided by a Terry Fenwick free kick from the edge of the box , almost dead centre , in front of The Loft.That was a speciality of Terry's and he scored quite a few like that from dead balls. Most of the fans including me didn't think that would be enough.Only watched the return leg on tv, ( live recording on I think ITV ) and every time it looked like Liverpool were going to run away with the game they gave us an own goal equaliser. We hardly created much but after the 2nd equaliser Liverpool seemed to realise that it wasn't going to be their night. It seemed that our name was on the cup. The final was truly awful. Nothing good about the day at all. We were all very confident and justfiably were the favourites., but the vibe just wasn't right. The Yanks had just bombed Colonel Gaddafi's tented home and some of our less enlightened younger fans were singing " What shall we do with the dirty Libyans?, What shall we do with the dirty Libyans?........... , Bomb Bomb Bomb those bastards etc. Meanwhile the team were having trouble keeping the ball or even managing 2 consecutive passes. After about 30 mins of this the Oxford fans started to sing about scoring in a minute and shortly before half time they did. One hoped that Jim Smith would ensure we upped our game 2nd half , but if possible it was even worse, with the final killer blow being Jeremy Charles ( who had struggled to be anymore than a super sub whilst playing for us earlier in the season ) scoring a deserved 3rd for Oxford. It was a hot day and the trek home really was a trek. My day was complete when that evening I had to go and visit dour Scottish relatives in order to introduce my son of 2 years old to his Great Aunt Mary. She was singularly unimpressed with him to the extent that at the following Christmas he received his only ever present from her ' A Book of Manners for Children ' As i said a truly awful awful day . But getting there was fun. ps He is now a passionate Qpr fan who's treating his old man to a day at Wembley. |
| Forum Reply | 1982 FA Cup final and replay - were you there? Help needed at 20:23 20 May 2014
I remember that by the time we had beaten Middlesborough in the 3rd round replay , due to weather postponements, we already knew that after Blackpool we had Grimsby at home and would be then 1 game away from the semis. Felt confident that with our team , our manager and our artificial pitch we were on our way to Wembley. Teams found our pitch " difficult " but with Tony Currie in our side we had the one player who could hit a long ball and make the ball stand up rather than run out of play after one bounce . Having disposed of both Grimsby and Crystal Palace in tense scrappy games on our pitch we rolled onto our Highbury semifinal.The boys were singing about turning The North Bank into a lavatory and indeed it was so crammed that I suspect that there were a few warm wet legs that afternoon Took my mrs to the game and saw a very happy David Bedford ( the athlete ) sinking a pint or 2. When Clive scored my mrs disappeared down the terraces. I don't recall there being any other females on The North Bank that day , it certainly wasn't a venue designed for women. The crush was so great you could lift your feet off the ground and just go with the sway.Having rescued my mrs from exuberant fans delighted to celebrate the goal with the only female to hand we sang and chanted the names of our team to the final whistle. We were back at Wembley !!! The drive back to West London and The Crown and Sceptre was a cavalcade of cars honking and Fans hanging out of them chanting along the Marylebone Rd. For the final I had arranged to meet a mate from my Sunday football team at some pub whose name I can't recall at the northern end of the Ealing Rd. He was a Spuds supporter and the venue was chosen as it probably was a non partisan venue where we could have a quiet pint before going our separate ways. I had pushed the boat for wearing my colours that day right down to a knitted bobble hat bought when pissed from the club shop.The pub had one huge cavernous bar and when I walked in it was shoulder to shoulder with Spuds. My mate who ( at a later date ) admitted he was there, hid in the gents when he saw me. I couldn't walk out without looking like a prick ( although my clobber sure pointed to that ) so ordered a pint of Pride and tried to drink it as nonchalantly, but swiftly as possible whilst the whole pub sang " who the f..., who the f..., who the f..., are you ?" The match itself was a fairly dull affair, ruined by the bad injury to our predatory striker after what only seemed seconds. Our equaliser was a much used training ground affair . Long throw from Simon Stainrod onto Bobby Hazell's head , flicked onto the far post where Terry Fenwick was waiting. All hell broke loose as The Spuds had been already singing victory songs. The ones below us at the old scoreboard end were showered with abuse and detritus.Happy Days . The replay was a much better game apart from Tony Currie 's ( acting captain that day )mistimed tackle. We were the better side, playing great football. Gary Micklewhite had a goal ruled out just before half time. ( I 'm still not sure why .) and John Gregory had a volley onto the bar just in front of us. Iwas celebrating a goal as it came off the bar. Simon Stainrod had chances that he would normally have buried but the gods weren't with us that day. As we trod home I wasn't too disheartened because I knew we had a good young improving team led by the best young coach/ manager in The Football League. Things could only get better. Which it did. Promotion as league winners and then qualification for the Uefa Cup. C'mon U Rs!!! ps sorry about previous attempts . I'm an idiot and a luddite. |
| Forum Reply | 1982 FA Cup final and replay - were you there? Help needed (n/t) at 20:21 20 May 2014
I remember that by the time we had beaten Middlesborough in the 3rd round replay , due to weather postponements, we already knew that after Blackpool we had Grimsby at home and would be then 1 game away from the semis. Felt confident that with our team , our manager and our artificial pitch we were on our way to Wembley. Teams found our pitch " difficult " but with Tony Currie in our side we had the one player who could hit a long ball and make the ball stand up rather than run out of play after one bounce . Having disposed of both Grimsby and Crystal Palace in tense scrappy games on our pitch we rolled onto our Highbury semifinal.The boys were singing about turning The North Bank into a lavatory and indeed it was so crammed that I suspect that there were a few warm wet legs that afternoon Took my mrs to the game and saw a very happy David Bedford ( the athlete ) sinking a pint or 2. When Clive scored my mrs disappeared down the terraces. I don't recall there being any other females on The North Bank that day , it certainly wasn't a venue designed for women. The crush was so great you could lift your feet off the ground and just go with the sway.Having rescued my mrs from exuberant fans delighted to celebrate the goal with the only female to hand we sang and chanted the names of our team to the final whistle. We were back at Wembley !!! The drive back to West London and The Crown and Sceptre was a cavalcade of cars honking and Fans hanging out of them chanting along the Marylebone Rd. For the final I had arranged to meet a mate from my Sunday football team at some pub whose name I can't recall at the northern end of the Ealing Rd. He was a Spuds supporter and the venue was chosen as it probably was a non partisan venue where we could have a quiet pint before going our separate ways. I had pushed the boat for wearing my colours that day right down to a knitted bobble hat bought when pissed from the club shop.The pub had one huge cavernous bar and when I walked in it was shoulder to shoulder with Spuds. My mate who ( at a later date ) admitted he was there, hid in the gents when he saw me. I couldn't walk out without looking like a prick ( although my clobber sure pointed to that ) so ordered a pint of Pride and tried to drink it as nonchalantly, but swiftly as possible whilst the whole pub sang " who the f..., who the f..., who the f..., are you ?" The match itself was a fairly dull affair, ruined by the bad injury to our predatory striker after what only seemed seconds. Our equaliser was a much used training ground affair . Long throw from Simon Stainrod onto Bobby Hazell's head , flicked onto the far post where Terry Fenwick was waiting. All hell broke loose as The Spuds had been already singing victory songs. The ones below us at the old scoreboard end were showered with abuse and detritus.Happy Days . The replay was a much better game apart from Tony Currie 's ( acting captain that day )mistimed tackle. We were the better side, playing great football. Gary Micklewhite had a goal ruled out just before half time. ( I 'm still not sure why .) and John Gregory had a volley onto the bar just in front of us. Iwas celebrating a goal as it came off the bar. Simon Stainrod had chances that he would normally have buried but the gods weren't with us that day. As we trod home I wasn't too disheartened because I knew we had a good young improving team led by the best young coach/ manager in The Football League. Things could only get better. Which it did. Promotion as league winners and then qualification for the Uefa Cup. C'mon U Rs!!! ps sorry about previous attempts . I'm an idiot and a luddite. [Post edited 20 May 2014 20:22]
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| Forum Reply | YOUR HELP NEEDED - QPR at Wembley 1967, were you there? at 14:28 17 May 2014
1. Only saw the the semi finals on a tv highlights programme as it was a school night, but that season with Rodney on fire I never doubted we could win every game , as long as he was fit. 2. My old man used to know a tout from work and he got me 4 tickets for the game at cost price ( I think it was about 5 shillings each or 25p in today's money ). I played football for the school in the morning and after the game finished, me and the other 3 changed and set off for Wembley in an old Standard 8. Parked in the stadium car park ( again only a few shillings) and took our place on the terraces, just above the tunnel and slightly to the left. Most of the ground apart from the far end was Rangers. It was the first time the League Cup was played at Wembley and as the underdogs we took all the neutral support. 3. The atmosphere was fantastic. Electricty in the air. The Rangers drum beat out its rhythm and the whole stadium rang out to Rodnee , Rodnee, Rodnee.. By half time the support was only slightly muted athough we had been outplayed and were 2 goals down to our old boy Clive Clark. We had looked a little bit nervous and tentative in that 1st half but that all changed after half time. The support grew louder and the team suddenly were causing West Brom problems. As soon as Roger Morgan scored with a header there was only going to be one winner. Rodney's goal was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The chants of Rodnee, Rodnee grew even louder. The winner was greeted by a nano second of silence as there was some doubt that Ron Hunt ( what was he doing that far forward ? ) might have fouled their keeper, but the ref signalled and the roar rang out. Don't remember much after that except the victory lap . 4.The 1st half was pretty bad, as Rangers never really got going. Rodney's goal was certainly the best bit of football in the match. All the 5 goals were scored at the tunnel end so had a great view of our winner. Some refs would have disallowed it and in the modern game it would probably have resulted in a West Brom free kick. But Rangers were worthy winners as they tore the 1st division team apart in that 2nd half. 5. Took us a lifetime to find the car in the car park as we were all too excited before the match to make a note of where we had parked. Got To a local pub about 8pm ,shattered but happy, had something to eat and then home and watched the highlights on tv( Match of The DayI think ) |
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