42 years ago, a NEVER to be forgotten day...over to you Sir Gary....



Funny how we all recall events a bit differently.
I was there, and at Bath Lane the mags took a pounding, and mag mates of mine have always said as much.
My memories of the walk back down to Central Station after the game is one of thousands of jubliant Sunderland fans taking the piss.
One or two hot spots where mags were congregated but fairly well policed. As you came out of Pink Lane facing the station, looking up the hill to the right, there was mags penned in as far as the eye could see. Riot vans stretched across the road in front of them.
 
Lo Ursem said:
From what I remember the ground seemed full and the capacity around 36000.
The previous season when Blyth played there in the cup 42 to 43000 were in with the gates shut. This was before the Leazes was reduced in size.
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Nah mate, if you look at the front half of the Gallowgate, for example, on the YT clip you can see that SJP was nowhere near full to capacity that day in 1979. There was actually 4,000 more there (38,784) for the derby there the following season (NYD 80) when nufc were top of the second division at the time.

SJP capacity wouldn't have dropped from around 40k to just under 37k until the benches were put in the lower tier of what was then the new stand circa summer 1980.

Official capacity (theoretically at least) would still have been up nearer to 50k at the time of the Blyth game with the old Leazes End. IIRC there was chaos that night and the police had the turnstiles closed and as both of us know these things weren't an exact science back in those days!

Erm, I should also make it clear that (despite what the above might suggest) I really don't have any great interest in the capacity of SJP at various times...
 
Cochise 2 said:
Funny how we all recall events a bit differently.
I was there, and at Bath Lane the mags took a pounding, and mag mates of mine have always said as much.
My memories of the walk back down to Central Station after the game is one of thousands of jubliant Sunderland fans taking the piss.
One or two hot spots where mags were congregated but fairly well policed. As you came out of Pink Lane facing the station, looking up the hill to the right, there was mags penned in as far as the eye could see. Riot vans stretched across the road in front of them.
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I'm not going to argue with you or anyone else about my experience in the shittest police escort of all time AFTER the match.

I have no idea about the events before the game as we came through early via regular bus. No one waiting at Worswick street at midday.

After the game, those in the Leazes End who were going back by train were told to wait behind whilst the police got the escort ready and cleared any jawdees from the car park immediately behind the LE. Those who had come by car or bus wandered out and away, as no doubt did the lads who could handle themselves. But the fact remains, when the escort set off from the ground at least 25 minutes after the end of the game, there were at least 1500 in it. The two sections of Safc in the adjoining paddock seemed to melt away before the end of the match , no doubt keeping their heads down as they mingled in with the extremely disgruntled mags and headed for home.

I would quite like to tell you that the walk down to Central station was a piece of piss and that attacking mags were put on their arses and sent packing but, in the escort that set off from the ground at 5.30 ish, we were harried and attacked from the Corporation Road petrol station, down Bath Lane and part of Westgate Road.

I'm sure a good few mags who attacked the escort got more than they bargained for, but in the section we were in, it was mayhem and a good few Safc took kicks and punches.

All I can say is that after the game, you must have been in an escort that set off before the one I was in because I saw nothing of what you say.
 
Logan 5 said:
Nah mate, if you look at the front half of the Gallowgate, for example, on the YT clip you can see that SJP was nowhere near full to capacity that day in 1979. There was actually 4,000 more there (38,784) for the derby there the following season (NYD 80) when nufc were top of the second division at the time.

SJP capacity wouldn't have dropped from around 40k to just under 37k until the benches were put in the lower tier of what was then the new stand circa summer 1980.

Official capacity (theoretically at least) would still have been up nearer to 50k at the time of the Blyth game with the old Leazes End. IIRC there was chaos that night and the police had the turnstiles closed and as both of us know these things weren't an exact science back in those days!

Erm, I should also make it clear that (despite what the above might suggest) I really don't have any great interest in the capacity of SJP at various times...
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Good post.
I am sure around that time the Football League temporarily reduced the capacities of the larger grounds until they did safety work.
I know that Roker was temporarily reduced over 78 79 season before going back up to 47000 for the 79 80 season.
Your point about not buying tickets is valid.
Fans would be reluctant to buy them for League games. We failed to sell over 5000 tickets for the Derby on Easter Monday the season promotion was won.
 
Luna17 said:
I'm not going to argue with you or anyone else about my experience in the shittest police escort of all time AFTER the match.

I have no idea about the events before the game as we came through early via regular bus. No one waiting at Worswick street at midday.

After the game, those in the Leazes End who were going back by train were told to wait behind whilst the police got the escort ready and cleared any jawdees from the car park immediately behind the LE. Those who had come by car or bus wandered out and away, as no doubt did the lads who could handle themselves. But the fact remains, when the escort set off from the ground at least 25 minutes after the end of the game, there were at least 1500 in it. The two sections of Safc in the adjoining paddock seemed to melt away before the end of the match , no doubt keeping their heads down as they mingled in with the extremely disgruntled mags and headed for home.

I would quite like to tell you that the walk down to Central station was a piece of piss and that attacking mags were put on their arses and sent packing but, in the escort that set off from the ground at 5.30 ish, we were harried and attacked from the Corporation Road petrol station, down Bath Lane and part of Westgate Road.

I'm sure a good few mags who attacked the escort got more than they bargained for, but in the section we were in, it was mayhem and a good few Safc took kicks and punches.

All I can say is that after the game, you must have been in an escort that set off before the one I was in because I saw nothing of what you say.
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Your account of the Bath Lane incident is correct.To people who say it happened before the game suggests you never witnessed it or experienced it.It was mayhem and frightening for anyone in the escort.
The Jarra Wanderer said:
As an 8 year old my abiding memory of the day wasn’t the game itself rather the hideous fear I felt witnessing the ’battle of bath lane’ on the way back to central station.
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I can only imagine the fear at such a young age.
Sons of The Wear said:
The Battle of Bath Lane took place before kick off when fans clashed outside the now demolished Waterloo pub, the fighting continued all the way to the ground across the forecourt of the petrol station (no longer there) on the corner of the Gallowgate and outside the Gallowgate End.
It was lively after the match but the thousands of jubilant SAFC fans more than held their own on the way back to Central Station.
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You weren’t there.
 
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Tin Soldier said:
I think this was the day the skunks realised that they could no longer take the piss with Sunderland and since then have received more than they’ve given at all fixtures home and away. They would never run the gauntlet in Sunderland the way we do in Newcastle ! They have been wrapped in cotton wool since the SOL opened
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They always come through giving it large then scatter when it kicks off.

I saw them getting escorted from sea burn station in the 80s and they got ambushed at the blue bell on the corner .

They were full of it leaving the station , I was with me dad about 150yards behind them.

They got absolutely battered all the way to the ground .
 
Tin Soldier said:
I think this was the day the skunks realised that they could no longer take the piss with Sunderland and since then have received more than they’ve given at all fixtures home and away. They would never run the gauntlet in Sunderland the way we do in Newcastle ! They have been wrapped in cotton wool since the SOL opened
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Absolutely. No nice middle class housing estates to run through as in RP days when they got off at Seaburn station.
From this gene things changed completely home and away.
SOL next to city centre. They’ve never said boo to a goose and through there since 79 canny quiet apart from horse punching and hoying bins about.
 
Eric gates hair said:
They always come through giving it large then scatter when it kicks off.

I saw them getting escorted from sea burn station in the 80s and they got ambushed at the blue bell on the corner .

They were full of it leaving the station , I was with me dad about 150yards behind them.

They got absolutely battered all the way to the ground .
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Aye but for the first time away in 79 was the first time I seen sunlun fans turn albeit I was only 17 at the time but as mentioned on a previous post we were held back but there was was some game lads amongst our lot who knocked a few skunks on their fat arses when they came near ! Majority of us were not looking for bother just enjoying the moment but a few of if not the majority of the bar codes got one enormous shock 😳
 
Tiger Tank said:
Aye but for the first time away in 79 was the first time I seen sunlun fans turn albeit I was only 17 at the time but as mentioned on a previous post we were held back but there was was some game lads amongst our lot who knocked a few skunks on their fat arses when they came near ! Majority of us were not looking for bother just enjoying the moment but a few of if not the majority of the bar codes got one enormous shock 😳
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It’s safe to say that was the turning point .

I used to work with a mag who was about 15 years older than me and clearly was “in with their lot” in his day .

He claimed the Vauxies ripped them apart very late 70s early 80s and they never got back on par.

That’s his account by the way not
Mine.
 
TheWaterMargin said:
Was my first away match aged 11 ... my next door neighbour took me (Long story but thanks Peter Cordner if you're on here) ... Got the train from East Boldon and walked upto the ground where he'd got tickets for the Newcastle paddocks. He must have been bricking it coz I wasn't even his own kid!!! I could hardly see the match coz of the mags being dragged out of the stadium by the boobies! I remember one cop stopping another to say he'd only just chucked the guy he was carrying out himself! I was too scared to celebrate the goals ... don't know how Peter was feeling!!!
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Sorry mate, I know its just a typo - but I couldn't help laughing at the thought of mags being dragged out by their (man) "boobies"... :lol:
I mean, I know some of them were right fat bastards but...
 
We were in what you would presumably call their main stand paddock and it was okay if you kept schtum, quite different to the poisonous atmosphere you would get now. However, if there was a scrap, it was tough.

As for the footy, it was another great day from the caretaker manager Billy Elliott. He took us to the brink of promotion and only Rowell getting injured threw him off kilter. Rowell himself said that Elliott gave him the greatest confidence. He was cruelly overlooked for the job but Ken Knighton kept the side going the following season.
 
roker beach said:
We were in what you would presumably call their main stand paddock and it was okay if you kept schtum, quite different to the poisonous atmosphere you would get now. However, if there was a scrap, it was tough.

As for the footy, it was another great day from the caretaker manager Billy Elliott. He took us to the brink of promotion and only Rowell getting injured threw him off kilter. Rowell himself said that Elliott gave him the greatest confidence. He was cruelly overlooked for the job but Ken Knighton kept the side going the following season.
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Yep, I also had a bit of a soft spot for Billy Elliot and I reckon Rowell's injury made all the difference that season...

IIRC, the club went after Clough, then McMenemy, then Robson after Adamson's departure that season. It seemed like Clough was everyone’s first choice, though. Chants of ‘Brian Clough’s Red’n’White Army’ at Oldham first game after Adamson left and ‘We all want Brian Clough’ (to the tune of ‘We’re going down the pub’) at the Stoke home game the following week.

Looking back, it seems strange that Knighton basically went from being the coach/kit man to the manager in such a short space of time. In 78-79 season I think he was just the bloke in the tracksuit who ran on with the wet sponge. Seemed like the most noticeable things he had done were getting booked during the ‘Battle of Turf Moor’ and geeing up the fans at Wrexham on the last day. Next season he was the manager.

IIRC, the general view was that he only got the job by default after Clough, McMenemy, Robson, Atkinson, Howe etc etc had turned it down. I suppose the club’s thinking at the time was that if it was good enough for Liverpool (promoting from within), then it was good enough for Sunderland...

Certainly enjoyed Knighton's two seasons with "Ken Knighton's Red'n'White Army" though...
 

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