YOUR Arsenal stories

[Anonymous]

Just recently ive been caught up in all the memories as watching old games on tapes and it got me thinking back to the good old days when football was an enjoyable sport to go to as a lad and have a laugh. I know some others here have been going to arsenal a while so i made this thread for everyone to share their experiences of going to watch arsenal.
The whole old days of meeting mates, getting into a packed out boozer, having a laugh, walking to the ground singing, get into the terrace, cram up nice and tight and begin the atmosphere were great.
The away days were amazing, travelling the country on service trains, meeting people, staying in all towns, the new pubs, birds and booze.
One of the many stories i have was from a long time ago, i was actually amazed to find someone had written about it in The End book. But i remember a group of lads had a score to settle with the away fans, they tryed their hardest to get in the clock end away section before the game, but after being turned away they came up with an ingenious plan....
This group of gooners got into the NB and started singing opposition songs, and pretending to be away fans. So the old bill thinkin they had spotted some invaders quickly ran into the north bank and grabbed this group of "away fans" and dragged them out the stand, down the side of the pitch and into the clockend away section. As the police were walking away proud of their achievement they were shocked to see these "away fans" laying into other away fans, it was then that the police realised that they had just escorted 20 odd gooners around the pitch and thrown them straight into the away end always said the police were idiots.

Im off to the pub to celebrate a mates return from overseas this afternoon, so i might come back jolly enough to share some more stories.

regards
EIE

 

[Anonymous]

Has noone got any stories? Sol? 1886? anyone else whos been about abit?

 

[torgrim]

Here's one: after Anfield 89, I entered my school (I was 11 yrs) wearing the old JVC jersey and got beaten up by two Liverpool supporters.

Class!

 

[RocktheCasbah]

I got smacked round the head by someone holding a replica gun whilst wearing my Arsenal away shirt in Leeds- opening weekend of 2003 season.

 

[slapz]

I found some old videos the other day so decided to have a watch to see what was on them. Found one from 1991 on ITV's the Match when we played Liverpool at Highbury and i remember thinking to myself, we were actually good for a boring side

Another one I found was when we played crystal palace in the semi final of the league cup at Selhurst Park. What a lovely yellow kit we had that year but after our two goals in the first 20 mins, i turned off cos I got bored

 

[1886]

class topic. just dont know where to start from! i'll take it from the top. my first ever game back in 83/84 season v luton away back in the old division one days! (pretty ceratain that was the year as the luton away fans banning order came soon after.) i was only a young nipper back then so you can imagine all the excitement running through me when my uncle turned up unexpectedly on the day of the game and announced we'd be taking a drive down to luton (ironically enough the town in which ive now lived in for coming on 13 odd years!) to follow his side the Arsenal in what was to be my first ever game. ok, confession time! back in those days its fair to say it was the scousers who ruled the roost back then and alot of kids round my way (cricklewood) followed them, chelsea or the local club QPR. i must admit to having a soft spot for the scousers back then ops: (naive, vulnerable and impressionable infant that i was!)

i remember queing at the turnstiles to the away section, the whole area around me was awash with red n white, i felt abit left out as i was one of the few kids without colours on (some 20 years on not much has changed in that dept!) but nevertheless just couldnt wait to get in the ground. once we'd gotten in my uncle thought it best to get me as close to the front of the stand as possible and as a kid all i wanted to do was get as close to the playing surface and players as possible. it pissed down on us for all of 90 mins and there was no roof for cover so the parka came into good use. i remember when our players took to the pitch for kick off, the luton in the section besides us started to sing "we r luton, we r luton, who the fackin ell are you?" what came next from us is a memory i will grow grey with, the response we gave back to them was unreal and my first taste of how it felt to be part of an away day unit, when the minority were all stood, penned into a corner and were making a rackett. cant remember what the song was as i knew none at the time apart from the "we love you......" that in itself was a buzz and to this very day is a buzz i still crave.

to be honest much of the game remains a blur as i was so fixated on what was going on around me, seeing big horrible looking lumps congregated together, getting the odd wink and pat on the head from older faces that looked to have been there and done it all before, the singers, the scarves and wooly bobble hats, back then sweatbands were all the rage n'all and then there was the home section in which everyone next to us was more interested in us that the game (lol nothing ever does change, does it!?)! i remember my uncles whole persona changing that day, if ever there was an epitome of good manners then youd look no further than him but that day the amount of foul mouthed expletives pouring from his mouth was like water from a tap. he was going on about it my first ever game and that i could only choose to follow one of the two sides playing cos i was actually there, all along he claims he was confident it was going to be the Arse. we ended up losing the game 3-1 in which bonny Prince Charlie scored from the spot for us. regardless of the result i was made up, there was only one winner that day and it was me. id become a Gooner.

more recently one story that springs to mind would be newcastle away in the cup a few years back. myself and a pal got tickets and had planned to depart on the day of the game as it was a 5.30 ko. anyway he rings me the night before telling me how something had come up (later found out it was his other halfs b'day) and he had to pull out. couldnt find a replacement in time so off i went by myself.

i arrived outside st james with about an hour to spare before ko but bcos of the length and duration of the journey i thought better than to look for proper parking and decided to park the motor on a single yellow rd right next to a very small carpark which had already been filled that was plum opposite the ground. so in i went. the game turned out to be a drab draw in bitter north eastern conditions where we fortunate to hold onto a draw. the only plus point was edu registering his first goal for us i think? remember him whipping off his shirt and heading straight for Dicko! 1-1 and we're taking the barcodes back to Highbury, was it all worth it i thought to myself, seeing as the game was screened on the box, id frozen me nads off, traipsed up on me tod and was bracing myself for the long slog home on my lonsome!

Heres where things start getting messy! by the time im on my way out of the ground snow had begun to start setting (remember this as it will all begin to make sense near the end.....if u get that far!) as im approaching the motor im drawing for my keys......still drawing.....nothing. rummaged through all my pockets and still nothing. get admitted back into stadium by stewards and taken back to seat where i was sat, perhaps theyd dropped out during the game? perhaps not! went back to the car and covered the route id taken to and from the ground all to no avail. the steward thatd assisted me earlier told me to wait another hour or so as thats when all lost property is handed into their lost prop section once the ground has been cleared and cleaning begun. all that was going through my mind was that i couldnt have left the keys in the door as surely some geordie wouldve had the motor away. so they had to turn up in the lost property section didnt they? did they fack! during the hour or so i spent waiting i met shola ameobi, and caught a behind the scenes snap of sir bobby munching on a bit of tea biscuits, though neither of those two scenarios were of any real consolation at the time i just thought id throw them in for added measure! after an hour of agonising i then realised i was well and truly donald ducked when why worst fears bacame reality "sorry mate no keys handed in im afraid" was what the geordie in charge told me.

i had about a score on me as id left my cashcard in the glove compartment. the steward kindly offered to take me home with him and his son whilst i thought of a solution, he also said his brother in law was a cabbie but all i thought was how far is a score gonna get me? boro!!. massive dilemma, imagine youve lost ur keys, not a memebr of any recovery service, stuck way up north on your todd, barely any money to get to boro let alone home, no trains back to euston by now (even then id have had to jib,) too far to get anyone to pick you up or run you home and too top it all youre now in a houshold full of geordies where you cant understand a word of whats going on between 3 different generations ( that said they were probably one of the nicest families ive ever met.) im struggling to think of what to do so i start scrolling through my phone memory to see if i can send a mate a distress signal. the closest set of pals i had to newcastle that i could turn to are based in sheffield. i contacted them at about what was about 9ish by now and they were already lashed up. i explained my predicament to them, they sympathised and all they suggested was i somehow get down to sheffield as none of em were in a fit state to drive. in hearing this the steward then kindly volunteered his brother in law would run me down to sheffield providing he got paid at the end of it. £175 to be precise. his brother in law turned up so i said my farewells and gave my thanks to the family i shall stay forever indebted too. and so the long journey to sheffield started, i explained what had happened to the cabbie and he did my confidence no good when he started going on about the area the car was left in not being the most clever in terms of safe n secure parking but offered to look out for it whilst plying his trade. got to sheffield in the early hours and the lads squared him up and from there i somehow ended up in some club till 10 am sunday morning! got dropped back to luton on the monday, contacted the geordie cabbie....car still in one piece, vauxhall then tell me it will take upto 10 working days for me to receive a replacement key, oh at a cost of £90. car drivers think of the expenditure and inconvenience of not having your car for nearly a fortnight! eventually when the repalcement arrived i had to steam back upto newcastle by train...further expense of about £70. caught a cab from the station to the ground even tho its only a 5min walk, if that. and there she was, still in one peice thank fack. i first inspected the motor from the outside, tyres were sweet, bodyworks fine though there is a parking fine attached to windscreen...fair enough itd been there for fack knows how long, least it wasnt pounded! i then see a brown enevelope on the dashboard! get into the motor and it reads something along the lines off "YOU LEFT YOUR KEYS IN THE DOOR. THEY HAVE BEEN RECOVERED COURTESY OFF PC.... THE OFFICER THAT LEFT THE PARKING TICKET ON YOUR VEHICLE. PLEASE COLLECT YOUR KEYS FROM ST JAMES POLICE STATION AFTER THE GAME!"...............know all i gotta say at this point was REMEMBER THE FACKING SNOW BLIZZARD WHEN I LEFT THE GROUND? IT HAD COVERED UP MY FACKIN WINDSCREEN!!!! :evil: :x

that has to be the most expensive game of football ive ever forked out for on English soil at least and must have set me back somewhere in the regions of over £500 on total. trials and tribualtions of following the Arse eh!? thats one ill tell the kids one day.

guv- there are other tales of my past ie-copenhagen 00, cup semi v **** OT 01 as well as a good few others but somehow i dont think theyd go down to well with the admin on this board if u get my drift hence i decided to keep it too the milder variety so as not to upset anyone here. who knows mayve over a cold one some day eh!?

Regards

EIE

 

[KoLo28]

lol, those were the days eh guvnor

hahahaha, top story 1886!!!

straight to the point torgrim, classic!

 

[Anonymous]

Lol 1886, that reminds me of a similar story.

The game after we won the league in 98 was at Anfield. It was one of the best arse games ive been to. We lost 4-0 I think, but that wasnt the point. The atmosphere was brilliant in our end. Cheered every Liverpool goal, singing 'we dont give a ****' after every goal and singing 'all you do is wash and go' to McAteer (who had been in wash and go shampoo ads at the time). Funny as ****, even he pissed himself.

Anyway, before the game took the annual risk of parking the motor on some dodey Liverpool back street. The usual scally comes up to you and says in a sorry excuse for English "mind your car Mr?"
He has no intention of minding it, but I wasnt going to turn him down casue I wanted my car to still be in tact after the game. Gave him a quid and told him be better be there when I get back. So off I went to the game.

So after the game walked out of Anfield Road and headed for a quick pint with a couple of mates.

So after a drink I went to see if the car still had its hub caps and if the scally would still be around.

Anyone who has been to Anfield will know that it is located in a maze of terraced houses that all look the same. I walked to the street that I thought I had parked my car on, and there was no sign.

Being in Liverpool I feared the worse. I didnt really know what to do, and thought am I on the right street. I tried another couple but no sign. No sign of said scally either.

Came across another group of scallies and said had they seen my car (described it) but no.

I now came to the conclusion that some **** had nicked it, so went in search of some old bill. Waved a couple down on bikes and descibed my situation ie ive had my car nicked.

So for some reason, I cant remember what, I ended up in the back of a police van. The guys on the bikes set off to look for it. By now im thinking what the **** am I going to do! So we headed off to the cop shop, with me sat in the back of a van surrounded by a cage.

Anyway, the call comes across the radio - was the car a black mondeo? Yes I shouted, thinking it had been found burnt out in a field. We've found it, its on x street.

That sounded familar I thought. So we drive there, and there is my car sat where I had left it.

No sign of the scally though!!

 

[KingReyes]

LOL Sol, good one mate!

 

[Anonymous]

Great times eh lads.
Thinking about it i really do wish we could have some of these days back. Standing in the blitz in some small scummy northern ground for a meaningless coca cola cup game seems rather soothing now. No worries about atmosphere, no annoyance of yuppies, women and small children. Just the few die hard gooners who travelled. Great days.

guv- there are other tales of my past ie-copenhagen 00, cup semi v **** OT 01 as well as a good few others but somehow i dont think theyd go down to well with the admin on this board if u get my drift hence i decided to keep it too the milder variety so as not to upset anyone here. who knows mayve over a cold one some day eh!?

Yeh mate, one day.
You was at copenhagen, good day I got so much to tell but some mods on here are abit into censorship so i better not get into any of it.
Erm, trying to think of some other days, i will get back to this thread when i can think of some.

 

[Soler]

You was at copenhagen, good day I got so much to tell but some mods on here are abit into censorship so i better not get into any of it.

After last time you of all users would know why :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

After last time you of all users would know why

Cant remember really. But you do have to admit some mods are very keen to block users and threads. It has calmed down lately but topics have been blocked in the past just because the mod cant handle being wrong or because they dont agree with something said.

 

[Soler]

I'm sure you remember the threads on why 'yiddo' shouldn't be used to describe Sp**s supporter and so forth. Last thing any of us want is to go through that again.

Only reason I'll lock a thread is if it contains any of this: goal clips, if it's already been posted, if it's completely off topic from the original topic and hasn't gone back on topic after a warning, and a thread like this one if it spirals out of control like last time.

Personally speaking I like reading stories of what you lot got up to yesteryear, but I don't set the rules :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Fair enough fair enough.

On a more modern note (whilst still got memory block :wink: ) anyone here at boro last year? 1886 or SOL? Funniest thing i have seen off the pitch for a while:

About 20 of the lads left the ground and started back to our pub. We then got word that a load of boro had been bullying our scarfers and that another bunch of lads had sorted them out. We quickly turned face and legged it down the hill towards the apparent trouble. What we saw was this black geezer walking along the road stopping all cars. He was going up to a car and telling them to go the other way because "the arsenal are here" :roll: So whilst hes hopping up and down the street stopping traffic like hes about to save the world, mouthing off about how hard he is etc. a big ****ing northerner walks up to him and gives him a neat little clout. This black gooner was unconscious for another 10 minutes On the way home on the train noone would let him forget it. Even back at euston and the pubs on the blackstock, lads were coming up to him and laughing. On all the message boards people from other clubs were posting about this now imfamous "superman" You probably had to be there to understand but it was hilarious, just some big fella laying in the middle of the street :roll:

 

[kanuuu]

I'm sure you remember the threads on why 'yiddo' shouldn't be used to describe Sp**s supporter and so forth. Last thing any of us want is to go through that again.

Wasn't it that "clock end" bloke who got blocked after that thread? Or is Guv the same guy?

 

[Soler]

I'm not saying a thing

 

[Aussie]

I thought 1886 was ClockEnd faithfull.

 

[1886]

just to put your mind at rest Aussie i had a very brief stint here as "WorkingClassGoon" but that grinded to a sudden halt as apparently i wasnt adhering to board rules at the time and consequently as 1886, this time on better behaviour! hope that confession doesnt land me in any strife with any of the admins here


oh and ps-ready for big Freddie mate.....CRICKETS COMING HOME! :mrgreen:

 

[1886]

guv- never did boro in the league last season but was up there for our sh*t cup return leg. unfortunately the entire party (barring myself) that'd planned to make the journey up for this game copped out cos the original fixture date was snowed off. i ended up getting a snore on whlist on one of the TC buses!

where u at OT in 02 for our cup semi against boro when things got a little out of hand in the sam platts beer tent prior to ko?

 

[1886]

i wasnt adhering to board rules at the time and consequently as 1886, this time on better behaviour!

that should read-- and cosequently was banned. i then returned as 1886....