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SAFC Milk Cup Heroes Reunite For 40th Anniversary Celebration


Keith S30S said:
99% certain it wasn't all ticket. After the first leg he wanted to maximumise the crowd as obviously Chelsea were now rank outsiders after the first leg 2-0 defeat.
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No it wasn’t all ticket, that was the problem.
Me and a couple of mates followed a police horse pushing through the crowd and got to the front of the queue on the cash turnstiles were fists flying everywhere.
Incredibly lucky to get in and to witness a great performance from us and some of the most inept football hooliganism from them.
After the match was the scariest moments I have had at football apart from the scum after Gary Rowells hat trick.
Kids don’t believe my stories!
 
Apart from the goal and penna, my only real memory of the game itself was Hodgson hitting a fantastic shot from about 35 yards out, a minute or two into the game, which dipped just over the bar. Proper 'Sliding Doors' moment.

Remember hearing a story that Cowie had barged into the dressing room after the game and started berating Walker, and Gayle chinned him. No idea if there was any truth in it but he didn't play in the next 7 games.

The day itself was absolutely fantastic right up to kick off. Chelsea away was one of the most surreal and terrifying evenings of my life, but seems great looking back on it now. Spurs away was one of my favourite away nights, but also pretty scary afterwards when we seemed to be corralled into a very confined space so the Spurs fans could lob bricks at us. Think it was my only appearance on the BBC football coverage when we were celebrating Turner's penalty save - I still have the video!
 
Keith S30S said:
Agree.

We had a chance to get a draw against Norwich from the spot. We barely had a chance of any note against Swindon. Totally outplayed.

We did very well to get to the final in '85. Drew away against Palace and Notts Forest. Beat Spurs, Watford and Chelsea away.

Pity we didn't turn up at Wembley.
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I was at the away tie at Forest with the restricted view as well as the home tie.
 
bunnyrabbit said:
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Only we could turn a defeat into a victory …the fans were one hell of a force back then.

But we were still pre Sky, pre seated stadia, pre fzmly orientation…: it was a very male, raw , raucous environment.

Almost impossible to generate now, albeit the Germans make a good go of it. I think we have a lot to learn from them.
 
Rob the Ref said:
Disappointing performance not helped by West being left out and Elliott missing (suspended/injured?).
Deflected goal and I think Deehan was offside as per old rule at that time.
Four of us straight back in car after game and took Sheffield turn off M1 junction to get food only to be stopped within 100 yards by police car parked on overbridge and threatened with arrest if we didn’t go straight back on to motorway and back to north east which topped the day off.
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Typical South Yorkshire plod 🙄
 
hank williams said:
My thinking bout the strike but think it was practically owa by the May wasn't it
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Strike ended 3rd March
Semi Final 2nd Leg 4th March
Final 24th March

South Yorkshire Plod stopped acting like the law didn't apply to them many years later.
GTG said:
Apart from the goal and penna, my only real memory of the game itself was Hodgson hitting a fantastic shot from about 35 yards out, a minute or two into the game, which dipped just over the bar. Proper 'Sliding Doors' moment.

Remember hearing a story that Cowie had barged into the dressing room after the game and started berating Walker, and Gayle chinned him. No idea if there was any truth in it but he didn't play in the next 7 games.

The day itself was absolutely fantastic right up to kick off. Chelsea away was one of the most surreal and terrifying evenings of my life, but seems great looking back on it now. Spurs away was one of my favourite away nights, but also pretty scary afterwards when we seemed to be corralled into a very confined space so the Spurs fans could lob bricks at us. Think it was my only appearance on the BBC football coverage when we were celebrating Turner's penalty save - I still have the video!
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Was the Ben (CH) incident the night before?
 
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GTG said:
Apart from the goal and penna, my only real memory of the game itself was Hodgson hitting a fantastic shot from about 35 yards out, a minute or two into the game, which dipped just over the bar. Proper 'Sliding Doors' moment.

Remember hearing a story that Cowie had barged into the dressing room after the game and started berating Walker, and Gayle chinned him. No idea if there was any truth in it but he didn't play in the next 7 games.

The day itself was absolutely fantastic right up to kick off. Chelsea away was one of the most surreal and terrifying evenings of my life, but seems great looking back on it now. Spurs away was one of my favourite away nights, but also pretty scary afterwards when we seemed to be corralled into a very confined space so the Spurs fans could lob bricks at us. Think it was my only appearance on the BBC football coverage when we were celebrating Turner's penalty save - I still have the video!
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Lots has been said about the Chelsea game over the years but personally I thought Tottenham was worse. Police had little control over the hordes of Spurs fans outside after the game and it was basically head down and hope for the best.
 
Ava Ava Ava said:
No it wasn’t all ticket, that was the problem.
Me and a couple of mates followed a police horse pushing through the crowd and got to the front of the queue on the cash turnstiles were fists flying everywhere.
Incredibly lucky to get in and to witness a great performance from us and some of the most inept football hooliganism from them.
After the match was the scariest moments I have had at football apart from the scum after Gary Rowells hat trick.
Kids don’t believe my stories!
Click to expand...

It was like a war zone
 
Ah yes, the Milk Cup run of 84-85...

After a couple of low-key 2nd round games with Palace and the 3rd round away at Forest, it felt like the cup run really got started with the Forest replay...

3rd Rnd Replay: Sunderland 1 Forest 0

We’d beaten QPR 3-0 on the Saturday and the game had been shown on The Big Match on the Sunday afternoon. That, coupled with upbeat newspaper headlines talking about the return of the Roker Roar, contributed to the crowd jumping from 16,000 for the QPR game to 23,000 and the Fulwell being louder and livelier than it had been for a good while. Game went to extra time and from my vantage point at the back of the Fulwell, Gayle’s winning goal at the Roker End seemed like a run from about half way to the edge of the box and then lashed a shot that dipped and swerved away from the keeper into the corner.

4th Rnd: Sunderland 0 Tottenham 0

Biggest crowd of the season so far (27,000) turned up and the Fulwell End wall of noise put in an appearance when we had 5 corners in a row in front of the FE but we were lucky to get away with a 0-0.

4th Rnd Replay: Tottenham 1 Sunderland 2

No one gave us a chance in the replay and not many travelled down. Tottenham away mid-week in December was not exactly an exciting prospect considering some of our dodgy visits there in the late 70s-early 80s. Only 2-3 TC coaches and 1-2 SA coaches there and when we parked up there was no escort so most melted away into the night. Apart from a group of about 15-20 of us (some just wearing SAFC shirts) who, despite walking along outside the Shelf singing, made it to the ground with nothing more than a few verbals.

We had just the end section in the corner but it ended up pretty much full so there must have been about 1,000 there - the majority being exiles who lived in the south. I can’t remember a great deal about the game but in the 2nd half Tottenham seemed to have chance after chance with us hanging on to a 2-1 lead. Turner had one of those nights that only come along once in a career including a penalty save. Due to a combination of being in the corner and the fences, roof stanchions etc all I saw was the Tottenham player running up to take the pen and Turner diving to his right and the ball cannoning away. At the time I didn’t know if Turner had saved it or if it had hit the post.

Have to admit that my main memory of the second half was of repeatedly telling my mate that if we win we’ve had it - meaning if we didn’t get an escort back to the bus we wouldn’t make it (my mate being one of the daft sods just wearing a SAFC shirt). We hung on for a famous win but the celebrations at the end were tempered a bit by the thought of making it back to the bus.

Police seemed to let us out surprisingly quickly at the end with masses of Tottenham fans still streaming down the road. Inevitably a few skirmishes with those, although it seemed like the Tottenham lads most interested in us had gathered on the other side of the road but the mass of Tottenham fans still streaming down the road meant they couldn’t get any closer. I suppose that might explain why the police opened the gates so soon (might be giving them more credit than they deserve there though).

We ended up stuck outside the ground. Don’t know if most of our fans were still in the ground, or had gone back into it, or had melted away into the crowd, but it seemed like there was only about 100 of us left outside of the ground with a few police between us and a street full of Tottenham fans. Bottles coming over from the other side of the road smashing against the wall behind us and showering us with glass, while some of the older more sensible fans were shutting up the younger ones who were reacting to the Tottenham fans. The younger ones wouldn’t have experienced our dodgy visits to Tottenham that the veterans of 77-82 had. Things eventually calmed down and we got escorted out of the vicinity. Looking back, we got away with it off the pitch at least as much as we did on it that night.

5th Rnd: Watford 0 Sunderland 1

Another mid-week trek to the other end of the country but now we were starting to believe and a good 5,000 made the journey. We had half of the covered end (2,000+) plus a terrace along the side with another 2-3,000 on it. Constant noise from behind the goal for the entire game. Winning goal at the other end when Walker’s shot deflected in off Pickering’s back. Great celebrations at the end. Highlights were on MWSS and I could clearly see myself when they showed us celebrating at the end. There was a feeling almost of disbelief walking through the allotments afterwards thinking we were in the semis...

TO BE CONTINUED...
 
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