Ayresome over Riverside
- Thread starter rob_fmttm
- Start date
Erimus74
Well-known member
Ayresome Park everyday
Slipperutb01
Well-known member
All day long Ayresome still miss the place
Slipperutb01
Well-known member
Never get sick of that vid Erimus
HolgateCorner
Well-known member
I loved Ayresome but we had to move didn’t we? The place was like a museum.
I remember my Dad saying he’d been going since the 1930’s and apart from a bit of seating and roofing it was exactly the same. Looking at the old photographs he wasn’t far wrong.
I remember my Dad saying he’d been going since the 1930’s and apart from a bit of seating and roofing it was exactly the same. Looking at the old photographs he wasn’t far wrong.
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
AP could be pretty bleak too; I'm thinking of the 93/94 season, with gates frequently below 10k, and sometimes below 7k.
Anyone telling you it was bouncing every week wasn't there that often.
Anyone telling you it was bouncing every week wasn't there that often.
Frozen Horse
Well-known member
I think I had 8 seasons at AP and he was doing the job when I started going.
HolgateCorner
Well-known member
I think Ayresome was in a better location for pre match drinking but facilities at the Riverside are on a different planet.
Lemmy_kilmister
Well-known member
Sorry but the Riverside is simply a generic soulless concrete and plastic stadium.
You can't tell a lot of the grounds these days... They all look same.
You can't tell a lot of the grounds these days... They all look same.
Erimus74
Well-known member
Agree there, Notts County at home the lowest ever match attendance for a league game, with games that season not much higher, just the whole package for me makes AP above the Riverside
I know posters have resembled it to been old, battered but that's what I loved about it, the old stands, the different stands, big wooden gates, the old clickerty turnstiles, as opposed to one loud click at the Riverside
IMHO, 70's AP, with a full house would knock spots off a full house Riverside
It certainly did i remember him being annoying there too.
Middlesbrough123
Well-known member
Standing behind the goals would make the world of difference at the riverside .
alanmoodysdog
Well-known member
I can remember sitting on a cold wet midweek evening watching ( I believe) Bournemouth in a cup match - maybe League Cup and the place looked deserted.... maybe LL days?
Blf
Well-known member
I think fading memories might be at play here. I spent over 30 years going to AP. I have some wonderful memories of the place ,some which can bring me to tears when I remember being there with my parents.
As a stadium it was finished , crumbling dirty and the toilets were disgusting. A couple of seasons before the end my mate brought his girlfriend. She needed the toilet. We were in the holgate and the closest womens toilet still working was in the South stand. She came back and said it was full of leaves and the steward had to hold the toilet door up and closed for her as one of the hinges was missing.
The Riverside is far superior.
As a stadium it was finished , crumbling dirty and the toilets were disgusting. A couple of seasons before the end my mate brought his girlfriend. She needed the toilet. We were in the holgate and the closest womens toilet still working was in the South stand. She came back and said it was full of leaves and the steward had to hold the toilet door up and closed for her as one of the hinges was missing.
The Riverside is far superior.
FabioPorkpie
Well-known member
I loved Ayresome because it’s where I saw my first football match and caught the bug. Sitting there with my dad and little brother, and us both giggling because it was the first time we’d heard proper grown up swearing, and my dad trying not to laugh at some of the comments coming out of the mouths of the wags around us. I remember him getting us both a cup of Bovril at half time and thinking ‘what the hell is this??’. The chants and cheers and angry outbursts seemed to take on a different dimension as they bounced off the tin roof above us.
I remember leaving, absolutely hooked, and thinking I can’t wait to go back, even though we lost and didn’t even score (1-0 to QPR, Les Ferdinand I think). There is just something special about old grounds, how can there not be? All those raw emotions of pure joy and excitement and anticipation and despair absorbed by the concrete and metal for decades. So much soul! Even the walk to the ground was magical as a kid, through all those lived in terraced streets, seeing the floodlights poke through gaps between the chimneys as you got closer, the excitement building.
I only got a few years at Ayresome Park before we moved and it’s only when I’ve been to old grounds now as an away fan, (which is very rare) that I remember that indescribable feeling that the old grounds create.
I don’t mind modern stadiums and I’m a fan of all the mod cons and comforts, but it’s a different experience and I do wonder if I’d have become quite so hooked if my dad had taken me to the Riverside for my first match.
I remember leaving, absolutely hooked, and thinking I can’t wait to go back, even though we lost and didn’t even score (1-0 to QPR, Les Ferdinand I think). There is just something special about old grounds, how can there not be? All those raw emotions of pure joy and excitement and anticipation and despair absorbed by the concrete and metal for decades. So much soul! Even the walk to the ground was magical as a kid, through all those lived in terraced streets, seeing the floodlights poke through gaps between the chimneys as you got closer, the excitement building.
I only got a few years at Ayresome Park before we moved and it’s only when I’ve been to old grounds now as an away fan, (which is very rare) that I remember that indescribable feeling that the old grounds create.
I don’t mind modern stadiums and I’m a fan of all the mod cons and comforts, but it’s a different experience and I do wonder if I’d have become quite so hooked if my dad had taken me to the Riverside for my first match.