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I've met some truly mad Sunderland supporters .....

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Reiver said:
We were on our way back from Millwall iirc and it hadn't been a great day.

It had been a long day with a bit of trouble, we were lost in London, tempers were fraying and we still had hours to get home ......
...... not only that we had lads to drop off in various places so the driver was getting cranky through lack of drink.

We pulled up to ask directions and Pete Crosby, @CrosbyFTM pay attention, jumped out and went into an all night barbers

After 10 minutes, of waiting, I was absolutely f***ing raging and just about to go in and drag him out.

..... he looked like a baldy middle aged man and we all cried with laughing, I thought I was going to choke.

We laughed all the way home and as we dropped him outside his house, at 2am in Beeston, Pete said,
"Wish me luck lads, I told her I'd take her out for a meal when I got back!"

:lol:
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Strangely enough I look like a baldy middle aged twat now Riv!

Reiver said:
....... and struggling to think of the craziest.

Is it Mag Catcher who answered a Friday night plea, on RTG, to collect 2 tickets for the away FA Cup match at Bolton from a stranger, pay for them and deliver them to another complete stranger ...... not only that but he met us, insisted on buying us a pint and wouldn't let us pay him extra for driving to Whitley Bay late on a Friday night.

Or was it a lad we met at Southampton on Wednesday who travelled down with his dad and was staying overnight ....... not only that but he's down for the Bournemouth weekend with some kids who he takes when their dad's can't make it.

Was it the 2 'hippies' from Cumbria who rescued us from a pasting at Bristol City and used to find it hilarious to get us plastered in the Continental knowing we couldn't drive home and would end up sleeping 5 to a car at the back of the Boilermakers.

No, despite their claims, and those of hundreds more over 40 years, there's only one who can truly claim the crown ....... some of them were daft or ridiculously fanatical but this lad was actually clinically insane. He travelled with us for a couple of seasons although there have been many who've come and gone, some totally forgotten and some who only lasted 1 game before being asked to make alternative arrangements.

But this lad never annoyed us enough or failed to cough up the petrol money or swerved his round in the pub ..... in fact he rarely spoke in the car and was picked up near Newark railway station, he never told us anything about himself or allowed us to collect us from his home.

After two seasons, in the 1980s, he vanished and we never saw him again. When we discussed him latet we all thought one of the others knew who he was and had invited him ........ we realised we didn't even know his name!!!!!

We'd only ever called him by the nickname he'd earned, The Scuttler.

That came from his habit of vanishing as soon as we parked up then meeting back up in the ground at some point with bloodied knuckles saying, "Scuttled a few of them Cockney/Scouse/Mag/ etc bastards." :eek:

He never invited us on his escapades, never mentioned them again or expected any praise, comments or recognition

I've no idea what happened to him or why he stopped going. I've asked the other lads, who travelled with us, and they've no idea either ...... just one of those daft lads who pass like ships in the night who've we've all met over the years.

When I was at West Ham & Southampton I bumped into loads of the old faces and it set me thinking, hence this post ........ so haway, cast yer minds back and post some of the characters you've met over the years and, if you don't like the thread or the poster, just pass on by .....
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The Scuttler aka Gary from Hartlepool. Last seen years ago at Derby.
Scotty or Sheff I last saw at Dublin airport. Travelled all over with him. He could sup his ale!
Paddy from Ollerton who looked out for me in the early train travel days.
Ginger Steve from Sunderland but worked in Lincoln. Last seen in The Cambridge on Roker Days
The Hat
The lads from the Wheatsheaf Boldon
Eddie. Les and Dave. Never a dull moment,
Big Dave F who always stood his ground even tho he was vastly outnumbered
And of course yourself Riv, I couldnt begin to tell of the memories 35 years later,
Ive loved every minute still do. STID
 

Pedro said:
Strangely enough I look like a baldy middle aged twat now Riv!



The Scuttler aka Gary from Hartlepool. Last seen years ago at Derby.
Scotty or Sheff I last saw at Dublin airport. Travelled all over with him. He could sup his ale!
Paddy from Ollerton who looked out for me in the early train travel days.
Ginger Steve from Sunderland but worked in Lincoln. Last seen in The Cambridge on Roker Days
The Hat
The lads from the Wheatsheaf Boldon
Eddie. Les and Dave. Never a dull moment,
Big Dave F who always stood his ground even tho he was vastly outnumbered
And of course yourself Riv, I couldnt begin to tell of the memories 35 years later,
Ive loved every minute still do. STID
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"And of course yourself Riv, I couldnt begin to tell of the memories 35 years later."

Only because you're going senile and can't remember :lol:

To be fair you can recall these stories much better than me, I get the details wrong and mix matches up sometimes ......
...... you must read this sometimes and think 'nah Riv's got that bit wrong'.

But tbf we went to almost every game and the cast of characters was always changing, lads would appear then vanish and you always seemed to come up with more.

I remember that time when the car was surrounded in the Norwich university car park and they were throwing stones.

We flung open the doors and ran them even though there were 3 times as many, I think the sight of a hairy savage, swinging a chain around his head and screaming, might've helped!

But the funniest thing was getting back to the car and Bill, the gay lad who'd appeared that season, was sat calmly in the back reading a women's magazine.

"Alright boys, how did you get on?"

As I recall none of us expected him to join in and we certainly didn't think any less of him ...... I don't know where you'd picked him up ;)

BTW, I was at Southampton this season with Dave Ash ..... he turned up with ham & pease pudding stotties for everyone :lol:

 
Pedro said:
Strangely enough I look like a baldy middle aged twat now Riv!



The Scuttler aka Gary from Hartlepool. Last seen years ago at Derby.
Scotty or Sheff I last saw at Dublin airport. Travelled all over with him. He could sup his ale!
Paddy from Ollerton who looked out for me in the early train travel days.
Ginger Steve from Sunderland but worked in Lincoln. Last seen in The Cambridge on Roker Days
The Hat
The lads from the Wheatsheaf Boldon
Eddie. Les and Dave. Never a dull moment,
Big Dave F who always stood his ground even tho he was vastly outnumbered
And of course yourself Riv, I couldnt begin to tell of the memories 35 years later,
Ive loved every minute still do. STID
Click to expand...
Some good days Pedro.Great hear you are still ganning. Riv has mellowed with age for sure, no sign of gun, blind stick, crutch, wheelchair, chain, matches,ski mask, donkey jacket, Sun glasses or baseball bat now, but one can never guess with him, as you know;)..Our long tall one is still crackers but like us all getting slower, but he did chase a Mag lad in Carlise the other week who bumped his car and thought he,d have a bit of road rage with a bald ,old fker. Young lad was in for a shock went 6 foot 4 ,red faced lunatic got out car with a hatchet and he legged it. The big fella can`t a run these days so just went into post office for his pension.He was on Tyne Tess news not so long ago also for a little incident with another Mag:cool: and The Ginger one has retired to his allotment in Shiney with barrels of home brew, still disn,t buy a round...and I live in a geriatric wonderland , drinking much ale and cider in bars and taking legal medication for the pain of boredom, except match days where I am raised from the dead again... but we must meet with Riv next match and eat peas pudding bait, drink and tell tales of following Sunderland around the camp fire that our grandchildren can expand out of all proportion in bars in Spain, Italy and China when The Lads finally win that Championship league...if you ganning Burnley , will get my lads to get me out of the Shelter, our lass to make pies and see you both there., Catholic club next ground .Eddy is going too? PM me, I think I finally know how that works......
 
Hoond said:
Some good days Pedro.Great hear you are still ganning. Riv has mellowed with age for sure, no sign of gun, blind stick, crutch, wheelchair, chain, matches,ski mask, donkey jacket, Sun glasses or baseball bat now, but one can never guess with him, as you know;)..Our long tall one is still crackers but like us all getting slower, but he did chase a Mag lad in Carlise the other week who bumped his car and thought he,d have a bit of road rage with a bald ,old fker. Young lad was in for a shock went 6 foot 4 ,red faced lunatic got out car with a hatchet and he legged it. The big fella can`t a run these days so just went into post office for his pension.He was on Tyne Tess news not so long ago also for a little incident with another Mag:cool: and The Ginger one has retired to his allotment in Shiney with barrels of home brew, still disn,t buy a round...and I live in a geriatric wonderland , drinking much ale and cider in bars and taking legal medication for the pain of boredom, except match days where I am raised from the dead again... but we must meet with Riv next match and eat peas pudding bait, drink and tell tales of following Sunderland around the camp fire that our grandchildren can expand out of all proportion in bars in Spain, Italy and China when The Lads finally win that Championship league...if you ganning Burnley , will get my lads to get me out of the Shelter, our lass to make pies and see you both there., Catholic club next ground .Eddy is going too? PM me, I think I finally know how that works......
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Grass!!!

Seriously we should all arrange a big meet up for a match this season mate.

As you say some great lads who were all passionate, decent & SAFC mad ..... never looked for trouble but stood up for each other.

None of us are perfect but we all have good hearts and stand by each other through thick or thin ..... becoming rare these days.

The things we did eh, few people would believe it ......
 
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Reiver said:
Grass!!!

Seriously we should all arrange a big meet up for a match this season mate.

As you say some great lads who were all passionate, decent & SAFC mad ..... never looked for trouble but stood up for each other.

None of us are perfect but we all have good hearts and stand by each other through thick or thin ..... becoming rare these days.

The things we did eh, few people would believe it ......
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@magcatcherhutch was looking at arranging a get together of sorts. It would be great to see some of the older faces!!
 
oddjob said:
@magcatcherhutch was looking at arranging a get together of sorts. It would be great to see some of the older faces!!
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I'd be happy to do that mate, I have every respect for magcatcherhutch who helped me with tickets as a total stranger.

There are some great lads who lived through difficult times that modern supporters probably wouldn't believe.

I'm just pleased my sons don't have to go through what we did.
 
Reiver said:
Grass!!!

Seriously we should all arrange a big meet up for a match this season mate.

As you say some great lads who were all passionate, decent & SAFC mad ..... never looked for trouble but stood up for each other.

None of us are perfect but we all have good hearts and stand by each other through thick or thin ..... becoming rare these days.

The things we did eh, few people would believe it ......
Click to expand...
Many don`t believe Riv but we know different and that is what matters I guess...sounds like a plan then? Let's get together one last time before the grim reaper takes His toll or the pension runs out...tell Magcather to bring Mackie along, fancy hitting him with my Zimmer for pissing down my leg all those years ago in The Harbour view:D...Plymouth away or Yeovil would suit me ! Leave the arrangements in your capable hands mate...
 
Reiver said:
I'd be happy to do that mate, I have every respect for magcatcherhutch who helped me with tickets as a total stranger.

There are some great lads who lived through difficult times that modern supporters probably wouldn't believe.

I'm just pleased my sons don't have to go through what we did.
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You could write a book with the amount of your lots stories. Would be a best seller :lol:
 
hank williams said:
I could write a book about a certain East Durham branch I travelled with many moons aga

But nee body would beileve me
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A book about these stories would be a laugh for a lot of people who were there and an eye opener for those who weren't.

It would make a change from the usual 'we won every fight' hooligan bollocks ....we knew when to run :lol:

Dunno bout you Hank but we never once went looking for trouble but, in those days, it was pot luck going away.
 
Reiver said:
A book about these stories would be a laugh for a lot of people who were there and an eye opener for those who weren't.

It would make a change from the usual 'we won every fight' hooligan bollocks ....we knew when to run :lol:

Dunno bout you Hank but we never once went looking for trouble but, in those days, it was pot luck going away.
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Eye opener

They'd be in total shock at some of the antics we used to get upto & me fatha trying to calm it all down :lol:
 
Reiver said:
A book about these stories would be a laugh for a lot of people who were there and an eye opener for those who weren't.

It would make a change from the usual 'we won every fight' hooligan bollocks ....we knew when to run :lol:

Dunno bout you Hank but we never once went looking for trouble but, in those days, it was pot luck going away.
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I think the funniest thing I ever saw was on the way to Brighton (I think.) We left Park lane at Midnight, I was sound asleep on the bus, but was woken up at a service station, with some policeman with a loudhailer trying to persuade some boro fans to come back out of the field they were hiding in after being scattered by the lads off the bus :)
 
Reiver said:
A book about these stories would be a laugh for a lot of people who were there and an eye opener for those who weren't.

It would make a change from the usual 'we won every fight' hooligan bollocks ....we knew when to run :lol:

Dunno bout you Hank but we never once went looking for trouble but, in those days, it was pot luck going away.
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Agree with all both you & Hank say, but there has been certain occasions when it was looked for, not mass gangs or owt, but for eg, FW & brother PW asked me if I fancied a walk during the game when away at Charlton once. I followed them into their covered end & an immediate "let's have em" type of shout from FW. Their lot were firstly shocked (3 taking on their end :) ) & then came flooding into us.
As you say Riv, knowing when to run was a skill, painfully learned ;)
 
The night before the game at Forest in 93 or 94 (2-2) there were loads of us out for a drink in Nottingham. We bumped into two lads who were trying to get evryone to go clubbing. When we pointed out that there was no chance that the bouncers would let us all in, they begged to differ. They pointed out that their digs were close to one of the roughest pubs in Nottingham and they had been in there all day drinking with 'Big Alf' who was apparently the top dog in those parts. They had with them a betting slip which had the following written on the back: 'Dear Bouncer, these are good lads therefore please admit them to your establishment'. Signed 'Big Alf". These two lads were absolutely convinced that Nottingham was their oyster that night. Never saw them again after they headed off into the night.
 
Wayne The Punk said:
I think the funniest thing I ever saw was on the way to Brighton (I think.) We left Park lane at Midnight, I was sound asleep on the bus, but was woken up at a service station, with some policeman with a loudhailer trying to persuade some boro fans to come back out of the field they were hiding in after being scattered by the lads off the bus :)
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It was Brighton - Boto where at Southampton.

Three bus loads of Vauxies were involved with the shenanigans iirc.

That was the game where the police made the Sunderland fans take of their DM boots before entering the ground!
 
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