1993 Bennett testimonial


I vaguely remember a fan encroaching the pitch and kissing a Rangers scarf and was roundly booed by the Fulwell End. He then produced a Sunderland scarf and kissed that too. As he was led away by the police the whole ground cheered him. Rangers were immense, too quick and powerful for us on the evening and Mark Hateley was almost unplayable, scoring a brace of second half goals and nearly snapping the crossbar with a towering header.
Forgotten about that till you mentioned it.
Walked into the New Derby and it was rammed with pissed up jocks, singing about the pope. Could barely get into the door it was so full. Decided to try the off licence over the road instead. Walked in there and there was literally nothing left to buy, it had been cleared. Rangers fans asleep on pavements as we walked up to the ground.
Was in there. Rammed. Outnumbered by the Gers fans.
 
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Couple o sunlun got slashed in some bar in town ..
Lively occasion .. they brought a mob .
For some reason I thought someone got stabbed in Easington village before the game ?
We met some great lads from Rangers in the Borough swapped shirts -I took my seat at Roker( with rangers top on ) and got dogs abuse of some safc fans for wearing the top -I didn’t know about the stabbing -we were all drinking together and it had been no problem -can understand their anger
 
Anyone in the cage that night remember a young rangers lad coming in with some safc lads. He wasn't too keen on coming in cos the cage was full and a bit boisterous. But he came in so fair play to the lad
 
Anyone go ?


Scenes outside .

Was terrible.
Aye. It was f***ing bedlam. There were thousands and thousands of f***ing mortal jocks. Not just pissed, absolutely fucked next level pissed. I distinctly remember two older birds, looked 50 but were probably only 25 walking down the middle of Fulwell Avenue with a massive bottle of Bells whiskey just about finished. I had no doubt they’d drunk the f***ing lot between them.

Later on it got naughty as a load of Chelsea had decided to pair up with the jocks.
 
For some reason I thought someone got stabbed in Easington village before the game ?
We met some great lads from Rangers in the Borough swapped shirts -I took my seat at Roker( with rangers top on ) and got dogs abuse of some safc fans for wearing the top -I didn’t know about the stabbing -we were all drinking together and it had been no problem -can understand their anger
The lad who got slashed was from Easington mate
 
I was there.
Drinking in the Red Lion before the game, when it suddenly came under siege from Rangers fans (as did other pubs along Roker Avenue).
The windows were smashed and they tried to break down the doors, with us on the inside of the pub, desperately trying to keep the doors shut from the inside.

Roker Avenue, was like a scene from a battleground, with Sunderland & Rangers supporters walking around bleeding, after being attacked.
There was bricks, sticks, and broken glass strewn all over the road & pavement, and windows and doors from pubs & businesses were smashed in.
 
Anyone go ?


Scenes outside .

Was terrible.
Yeah I went. It was just a silly idea giving Rangers the clock stand and Roker End. Hellish atmosphere though, but tonnes of trouble outside the ground, all over the place really, nothing like you see now. Fights breaking out all over, people getting hoofed in the face, quite a few slashings in the town during the day as well.

Not so bad in the ground though. As for the game itself, Rangers were a different class. Hateley was tremendous.
 
At the time I was doing my NVQ in Journalism in south London and managed to get a fortnight’s work experience on the sports desk at the Ronnie Gill.

It had a brilliant two weeks, working mainly in the office with the sports editor at the time – sadly I can’t recall his full name, I think it was Andy, but I recall him being a Liverpool fan from Southport and he was a top fella. But I shadowed Jeff Brown for Durham cricket, who as we know is a MLF and a lovely man.

For football it was Paul Nunn, as he was the Chronicle’s SAFC correspondent. A rather taciturn man, who I think saw me as a bit of a hindrance, and who sadly died at a very young age a few years back.

We spent the day at Roker Park for the Rangers game, and I did a couple of interviews which at the time was exciting and also frightening.

I could tell the atmosphere around the match was rather charged, however, and after the game we were held back from exiting RP as it was kicking off everywhere.

I just recall lots of members of Benno’s family being there, up from Moss Side, who basically stated that the trouble was a tea party compared to what life was like back in Manchester. They were right.
 
I went as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
 
I went as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
I wWent as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
UOTE="Nelson!, post: 38865644, member: 159"]
I went as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
[/QUOTE]
went
I went as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
I went as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
as a nipper and sat in the main stand. Only heard later that the rainjaz lot had caused bother.

Never liked them since and wondered why they were picked.

If I was having my SAFC testimonial I would simply select a decent civilized club to play against. Someone like WBA, Sheff Wed who travel in numbers but want to have a laugh rather than a punch up.
[/QUOTE]

The idea of testimonials was to benefit the player from cash raised less expenses to visitors / police and general costs.If he'd chosen WBA or SWFC he would be lucky to get 100 fans from each club. Rangers brought thousands.
 
I was in the Main Stand seats, a midweek game. Rangers had the Roker End and Clockstand Roker wing.They had massive para military flags and created a good atmosphere. I did not see any real bother. Before the game about 10 Rangers lads were playing the flute in a circle outside the Roker Park Suite and the coppers and Sunderland fans were watching them and there was no trouble.
Our team at the time was poor, they totally outclassed us in the game.
It was reported later that two brothers from Easington Colliery had been slashed in the face downstairs in The Double Maxim pub in High Street West. Chelsea supporters were blamed as they had an association with the Rangers around that time . The Glasgow lads had chased the culprits and looked after the two injured lads who went to hospital.
A few weeks later Rangers Directors invited the two brothers up to Ibrox for an all expenses trip and they had a great time.

I remember too the pre season game in 1967 when Celtic came down and they were in every stand at Roker. It was a packed house, we were in the clock stand and the Celtic blokes were waving bayonets over their heads when singing and families with women and men filling fish bowls with whisky and passing it around for folk to drink.
It was Baxter's first game for Sunderland and they were calling him throughout the match. Even though we had a good team they hammered us 5-0. They were about 3-4 weeks ahead of us in fitness. At 2 pm, two Celtic B teams played an exhibition match before the main game and they had some cracking players.
Lots of them stayed in Sunderland for about 4 days both before and after the match. Well oiled.
 
Was in the Fullwell end with a mate, was only 14 at the time and I honestly can't remember seeing any bother.

That said, we were straight over Tyzacks and back home sharpish.
 

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