20 years on (5 Viewers)

Remember the little tight tunnel as you entered the West Terrace?

Always felt aggy walking through that after a game when I was young, felt like I had to have my word about me even if there was nothing really happening.

Saddlebrains said:

From leaving Highfield Road

Still remember it like yesterday. Grew up round there aswell, can still recall the lights on on a midweek game, the smell of the fags, piss and pitch in the West Terrace, the compact nature of it

Third world slum round there now which is depressing

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same here Saddle! my sensory feelers have just been tickled by your description

FWIW…My memories:

The firm my Dad used to work for had one those godawful pitch-level boxes, so that was my first experience of watching football. The occasional sight of Peter Hormantschuk’s thigh wasn’t too exciting for a 7-year old, but I did get free ginger beer!

When I started to go “properly” with my Dad, we’d park up next to Co-op dairy on Swan Lane and walked to the ground from there - always stopping at the shop to get a Mars Bar for halftime.

About 15/16 I started going on my own, or occasionally with an another-team supporting mate I dragged along. A few years after that I used to park up by the dairy, have one or two in Striker’s and then have a £2 first scorer bet via the Ladbrokes concession in the West Terrace. The woman working there had an unhealthy obsession with Ally Pickering, IIRC.
When I went off to Uni, I used to come to games by train and walk from Cov station. The only real trouble I had was when three Liverpool-supporting-IRA chanting twats chased me a few hundred metres. Proper crapped myself!

Sat/ stood everywhere in the ground, but the West Terrace was the best for me. Used to like the occasional dirty thrill of going in the Main Stand for an early cup-tie (when the tickets were cheap). Used to love that strange little carpeted bar they had in there!

tskezz said:

I grew up in Spring Close then Lansdowne Street from 1989-2010, there was always fly tipping (used to get some great settees for dens), there was always loads of barbers and while i dont know the crime rates i can tell you there was definitely a lot of it.

Calling it a third world slum is describing who's there rather than whats there now.

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Vauxhall Close myself

pusbccfc said:

It was always like that really.

It's probably more overcrowded and public services like good rubbish collections have made it worse.

Most Western countries have a huge litter problem. Blame the big corporations for packaging everything in cheap plastic.

The area has always been deprived.

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How do you know 'it was always like that', did you live or work there ever since the early 20th century or have access to the recollections of people who did?

Captain Dart said:

How do you know 'it was always like that', did you live or work there ever since the early 20th century or have access to the recollections of people who did?

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Lived a couple of miles away. It's an inner city area. No different to the equivalents in Birmingham, Leicester, London and any other city in England.

S

pusbccfc said:

Most fans have grown to love the Ricoh/CBS.

Shame we couldn't have built it on the land where Central Six is.

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Central Six is one hell of a good shout pusbccfc.

I always thought Hearsall Common would have been perfect for a new ground but being a common that was never ever going to happen.

Thought SkyDome IKEA area was a good spot too, it would have been brilliant for that part of the city centre.

pusbccfc said:

Most fans have grown to love the Ricoh/CBS.

Shame we couldn't have built it on the land where Central Six is.

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It would of bought more people into the City that's for sure.

pusbccfc said:

It was always like that really.

It's probably more overcrowded and public services like good rubbish collections have made it worse.

Most Western countries have a huge litter problem. Blame the big corporations for packaging everything in cheap plastic.

The area has always been deprived.

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Me thinks it's people young and old, rich or poor, privileged or marginalised, whatever their race or creed, there are no exceptions in our society imo that are devoid of human decency and respect for our surroundings that are the culprits for the litter problem not big corporations that package everything in cheap plastic as you put it.

pusbccfc said:

Lived a couple of miles away. It's an inner city area. No different to the equivalents in Birmingham, Leicester, London and any other city in England.

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My experience of living in Cheylesmore for 30 odd years was it went from an area where there was hardly any fly tipping or rubbish in gardens to noticably more.

The same being true of other areas where I once had relatives, Whitley, Radford and off Acacia Avenue.

I think a lot of problems have come with the growth of the rented market sector, tenants who don't care for the place and don't have much stake in the community and landlords who are only interested in the money and spend as little as possible on maintenance.

Willenhall, which I was familiar with a bit my childhood, was always pretty bad.

Captain Dart said:

My experience of living in Cheylesmore for 30 odd years was it went from an area where there was hardly any fly tipping or rubbish in gardens to noticably more.

The same being true of other areas where I once had relatives, Whitley, Radford and off Acacia Avenue.

I think a lot of problems have come with the growth of the rented market sector, tenants who don't care for the place and don't have much stake in the community and landlords who are only interested in the money and spend as little as possible on maintenance.

Willenhall, which I was familiar with a bit my childhood, was always pretty bad.

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Same everywhere.

And while I think there is an element of rented market in that, I think far more is that there is more rubbish that the council refuse to take nowadays and you have to take it to the tip yourself.

Also I remember when I was little at least once a year where you could leave practically anything outside (sofa's, fridges, TV's, beds) and they would come and collect it.

Bad Boy said:

S

Central Six is one hell of a good shout pusbccfc.

I always thought Hearsall Common would have been perfect for a new ground but being a common that was never ever going to happen.

Thought SkyDome IKEA area was a good spot too, it would have been brilliant for that part of the city centre.

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Never enough space there. Compare the area the Butts stadium (top left) occupies to the Central 6 site (bottom right).

i remember going to games with my dad in the 70s. we lived in longford, so we'd either buzz it into town and walk up primrose hill, or we would walk along the canal. i remember running battles in hillfields, milk bottles flying over our heads, and mounted police trying to break it up. and if the weather was nice there might be a big fuck off sound system in the little park at the top. happy, happy days.

Abiding memories of Highfield Rd
Emerging onto the West Terrace with the sprawl of the pitch in front.
Smell of fags drifting across (why did they never smell like that anywhere else).
In later years Oggy taking 3-4 fans out every home game with his warm up.
The ridiculous melee to get out at the end.
Reserve games in the Main Stand

Saddlebrains said:

As i say, I grew up there

Yes it was rough round the edges, but as anyone who grew up there compares it to now, they will all say it's a complete slum nowadays

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Had they rebuilt the stadium and build fancy flats around it, it may have been gentrified.

Sneaked up to games as a teenager and had to race home after, once started working then was always the elastic inn and a walk up.
Queuing for 87 was insane around stadium after the final game between a mate and me, we had only just started working
Always get tagged in each year as photo of the lad holding the highfield road sign has me just behind him, not sure what I had done with my son, I’m just laughing.
good days and plenty of good memories on surviving end of season battles, the best Christmas ever in 92 beating Liverpool and Villa

Bulls head on binley rd then up to the Hastings on clay lane then on to the kop to watch the lads great times

Snaily said:

Similar walk as kid, highlight was walking past the “Private Shop” just hoping the door would open at the right time

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Yep-that’s the one! Not just you squire.

Saddlebrains said:

From leaving Highfield Road

Still remember it like yesterday. Grew up round there aswell, can still recall the lights on on a midweek game, the smell of the fags, piss and pitch in the West Terrace, the compact nature of it

Third world slum round there now which is depressing

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This is absolutely my memory. The smell of fags and piss is something that is so clear from games there back in the 1960s. However, I can't remember what I had for tea last night.

Hearing the crowd celebrating a goal from my back garden on Longfellow Road or the faint sound of LAST.

The walk up from the Rose and Crown and turning right onto Swan Lane on a night game and seeing the ground lit up was always special.

Never standing in our seats but about 7 of us would squeeze into the end of a row in WT5 where there was like a little square where we all just stood.

Always taking in MDV (match day voddy) and getting away with it for years until getting caught and having to go and see the main security guy (who was sound) who basically said stop being twats and gave us our season tickets back.

Last game of the season against Leeds ‘96 when it kicked off, the Pompey game the same, Huckerby v Man U, Charlton in the FA Cup when they came back from 2-0 down to beat us but what an atmosphere, Man City 4-3 the game after it had kicked off at Maine Road, Holdsworth scoring a pearler against Cardiff in the cup when they brought what seemed like every meat head in South Wales, the Geordies and their racist chanting, seeing the likes of Henry, Catona, Zola, Di Canio, Beckham, Klinnsman, Le Tis, Shearer, the first time the Big Mo song was sang, Chelsea in our away kit, Lebouef spitting his dummy, Ian Wright taking shit after what seemed like constantly breaking Oggys nose, Oggys shit kicks, Keane’s debut, Chippo, Hadji, Safari, Mr Sox throwing his season ticket at Strachan, the excitement when Big Ron took over, The Hand and Heart, The Hertford, the Beer Engine, The Gosford, Derby 6-2 (both years!)………….and so much more!!

I definitely look back on it with tinted glasses as I first starting going up consistently from when I was 12 and I was 25 for that final year at Highfield Road so it went hand in hand with those great years you have going from a kid to an adult!!!

I know it was falling to pieces, I know we’ve outgrown it, I know the facilities were shit but it will always be the home of The City for me.

I wasn't much into aggro really, but there was a match against Arsenal probably in the mid to late 70s given who I was there with. We were sat in the end block of the main stand (nearest the West End). The row in front of us turned out to be Arsenal fans (where was the segregation?). The row in front of them were City fans and the Arsenal fan in front of me started on the City fan in front of him. So in the interest of peace keeping I put him in a headlock, at which point he got absolutely battered by the City fan in front. I still feel a bit guilty.

My old man used to park down the bottom of Hillfields and we’d walk up past the Vauxhall to Paynes Lane before stopping next to Ladbrokes to buy almost a 1/2 pound of wine gums from the elderly couple in the shop on the corner by the bookies.
Everyone coming past had either a donkey jacket on from the Saturday morning shift at the factory or the pit , or the younger lot had flares , denim jacket and a silk scarf on the wrist . it was a lot more raw and seemed a lot more real than nowadays. I’d be trying to guage how many fans the other team were bringing based on what I saw as I sat waiting for my Dad outside the shop
We’d turn the corner often see a police horse or the aftermath of its walk up the street , before entering the turnstiles to the West Stand. Up the steps, fought our way through the bar, which stunk of pies fags and beer , before coming up into Block R
First thing I’d do, was run down to the front of the stand to look down into the West End, in the days when it was split, to
“see how many THEY had brought”

GREAT days. HR will always hold a special place.
West Stand Block R , Row F , Seat 13

Another memory is that we used to leave Kenilworth at around 2, park somewhere in the streets by The Hastings, have a couple of pints, and be in our seats in plenty of time for kickoff. We now leave 2 hours before kickoff and sometimes only just get there in time.

Finally (before you all die of boredom), the most frightened I've ever been at a footy match was a night game against Liverpool (also in the 70s) when I was in a massive squeeze trying to get through the turnstiles into the West Stand. My feet were off the ground and I literally could not move. I was truly terrified.

skybluelee said:

can't bring myself to say batch like you lot

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