Walking to an away match.

FishofContemplation said:
I think they’re therapeutic. Whether football or wider, there’s a tendency to get caught up in the Gen Z/ alpha “everything is more sh1t than it has ever been” stuff. A reminder about the Boro of the 1980s or the UK economics of the 1970s is seriously good for grounding your mental health. And for realising that while it might not be helpful to tell the youngsters they’ve never had it so good, it’s still pretty much nearly true.
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You might be correct in a material sense but I certainly wouldn’t swap my youth/adolescence in the 80’s for now.
 
ClashRose said:
You might be correct in a material sense but I certainly wouldn’t swap my youth/adolescence in the 80’s for now.
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Yeah to be fair, I agree with that as well. It was a piece of cake in our day, wasn’t it? I hate the way so many of my generation have pulled the ladder up where they have. Mind, they still never had to watch us in the third division.
 
Archiestephens_elbow said:
Losing 5 1 At home to Blackburn in Nov 82....beating Sheffield wed 2 0 under big jack to stop them getting promotion (that night) April 84 in the arsenal strip..beating Bournemouth in the cup after they knocked out man u..... beating notts county in the cup with Kevin Beatty netting a pen ....losing to Southampton with a Danny Wallace hatrik....beating Sunderland under mcmeny in the snow, failing to beat bishops Stortford, losing to QPR in Extra time after being 2 0 down all happy memories of 82-86
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I vividly remember all those games. I’ll add being 4 nil down at home to Grimsby (Kevin Drinkell hat trick) after twenty minutes, Big Jack coming back unpaid after Allison left and Darlo murdering us nil nil in the first game prior to dumping us out in the replay. All that made 86-88 even more special.
 
Billy Ashcroft coming on as sub and scoring two against Villa to make it 3-3 after we were 1-3 down.
Tony McAndrew getting injured in a game and having to go off after we'd already used our one and only sub. He came back on with 10 mins left then got sent off!
Bosco's brace vs Ipswich which denied them the league championship title!
Drawing 4-4 at home with 4th division Mansfield in the cup.
Mick Baxter scoring away to Sunderland in a 2-0 win relegation 6-pointer.
Blackburn's Noel Brotherston ripping us apart at Ayersome.
Terry Cochrane on the wing.
Beating Shrewsbury with 9 players to stay up.
Darlington at home in the cup, when a massive 10,000 turned up on a wintery January afternoon, we were lucky to get a 0-0. Lost the replay 1-2 at Feethams, after crowd trouble delayed the restart.
Big Mal coming in and living things up.
Signing Paul Sugrue.
Stephen Bell's debut.
David Hodgson coming back on loan, getting sent off in his first game, and never playing for us again.
 
Can't remember the year but I'm sure there was a season we were into he same league as QPR, Fulham and Brentford? I vowed to walk to all of those matches as I lived in Chiswick at the time. Literally only did Fulham, along the river
 
I lived in Mansfield for a couple of years and once saw a group of Notts County fans walking to the game on the main road several miles south of town. Assuming they had walked from Nottingham, that'd be about 18 miles.
 
Definately some desperate & depressing times back then. I can't believe the only home game I missed between 81-86 was a 1-1 home draw with Oldham in October 1982.

As mentioned further up the thread, for some reason those days were great memory yardstick markers which I'll always treasure.
 
18th? January 1986 - weather very sunny

We were bottom 3 of the old Division 2 (now Championship) about 4 wins all season - I'd seen us lose at Wimbledon 3-0, Charlton 2-0, Leeds 1-0, Stoke 3-2, Carlisle 1-0, get a fluky win at Sheffield United 1-0 that day was Pompey away. Pompey were doing well that season and Fratton Park was buzzing. It was hard to spot any Boro fans in the away end it just looked an small empty terrace. I drove across from Somerset through Wiltshire and Hampshire, all new roads and new country to me which was interesting. Parked up and didn't fancy the away end after seeing a lot of dubious Pompey fans eyeing up any Boro fans entering the ground. I would have felt like one of those Christians released into a Roman colisieum or a fox on Boxing Day, at the end of the game, so I choose the main stand and kept mum, not pleasant but safe. We battled on the pitch and made it hard for Pompey, but eventually cracked and lost 1-0. I remember how slow our forward play was so created very little. Mogga and Pally had just started playing together and were concentrating on defence. Stephens and Slaven were slow and didn't have Ripley yet. Willie Maddren was sacked 2 weeks later or walked out I can't remember which. After Pompey result I think it was 7 away defeats out of 8 away games for me. However I did come away and was just starting to think I am starting to see some small improvements, certainly from a year earlier. Pears looked decent, I liked Brian Laws and Stephens could head a ball. Beagrie has something about him, although could not get past defenders, because he lacked short pace and a bit of guile, Hammy would fight in the middle and Mogga was starting to look a young leader with the facial features of a 1920s footballer off a cigarette card. I was starting to think we don't deserve to be bottom 3, while in 1985 I thought we did. What I didn't realise was that I was witnessing in those desperate times was the conception of Rioch's double promotion winning side.
 
Bungy - which street off the Goldhawk?

The area is mostly middle class professionals now. Back in 1979 it was used for filming parts of the film Quadrophenia.
 
While at uni I walked to Bramall Lane to see us win 2-0 in 87-88. Ripley and Slaven with the goals. Both in front of the away end. Also a year and a bit later to Hillsborough to see us relegated on the last day only a few weeks after the Hillsborough disaster. I suppose I must have done the same again the season after at Bramall Lane again but I can't remember much. I think we lost 1-0
 
Walked to Roker Park to watch us get thrashed 4-0 in 1977. I was at the Poly there at the time.

Walking to Bedford Terrace for the first time in the early 90's as a Synners fan I enjoyed the experience in the ground and started to go there on a mote regular basis, Town became my local team. Whilst much smaller than Central Avenue I found it more suitable for football.
 
In my time I’ve lived within a mile or two of Maine Road, Elland Road, Highfield Road and Highbury so have regularly walked to see the Boro.
 
JaenBoro said:
While at uni I walked to Bramall Lane to see us win 2-0 in 87-88. Ripley and Slaven with the goals. Both in front of the away end. Also a year and a bit later to Hillsborough to see us relegated on the last day only a few weeks after the Hillsborough disaster. I suppose I must have done the same again the season after at Bramall Lane again but I can't remember much. I think we lost 1-0
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I walked to the Hillsborough relegation game from my mate’s house in Broomhill, he was at the University. We had tickets in the main stand as our allocation was restricted with Leppings Lane being shut following the disaster about a month or so earlier. Boro everywhere, even a group on the Kop.
 
Otto42 said:
I walked to the Hillsborough relegation game from my mate’s house in Broomhill, he was at the University. We had tickets in the main stand as our allocation was restricted with Leppings Lane being shut following the disaster about a month or so earlier. Boro everywhere, even a group on the Kop.
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I was in the main stand. As you said, loads of Boro in there!
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
Walked to Roker Park to watch us get thrashed 4-0 in 1977. I was at the Poly there at the time.

Walking to Bedford Terrace for the first time in the early 90's as a Synners fan I enjoyed the experience in the ground and started to go there on a mote regular basis, Town became my local team. Whilst much smaller than Central Avenue I found it more suitable for football.
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Ah, Sunderland Poly, a most august educational institution. Only the very finest minds were nurtured in the Forster Building.
 
Another reminder of how different it was watching football in the 1970s/1980s to how it is today is that it was 35 years ago today that there was the crush in the South East corner of Ayresome Park at the Boro v Leeds United match. It's just occurred to me that that was allowed to happen after Hillsborough, which is quite shocking really.
 
Can’t believe that was 35 years ago - remember it vividly, I was right next to it in the east stand seats. It looked serious at the time - only time I’ve heard Boro and Leeds fans sing in unison🤣
 
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