RP memories

SuperMarcoRowell

SuperMarcoRowell

Central Defender
First game under the lights Sep 24 1985 sitting on the barrier at the Fulwell end with my dad standing behind me. Hooked. SAFC 3-2 Swindon. Smell of bovril, tabs and beer inside the ground. Horse shit from police horses outside the ground. Me dad would clap if the opposition scored a good goal (they usually did) much to my embarrassment..does anybody remember the lap of honour when we beat Stoke 2-0 to stay up that season? Remember Andy Dibble chucking his shirt into the crowd! Me dad didn’t like that, remember him saying “eee this is bloody ridiculous!!! They’ve only just stayed up!!”..happy days..
 


SuperMarcoRowell said:
First game under the lights Sep 24 1985 sitting on the barrier at the Fulwell end with my dad standing behind me. Hooked. SAFC 3-2 Swindon. Smell of bovril, tabs and beer inside the ground. Horse shit from police horses outside the ground. Me dad would clap if the opposition scored a good goal (they usually did) much to my embarrassment..does anybody remember the lap of honour when we beat Stoke 2-0 to stay up that season? Remember Andy Dibble chucking his shirt into the crowd! Me dad didn’t like that, remember him saying “eee this is bloody ridiculous!!! They’ve only just stayed up!!”..happy days..
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Straw gathered up all sides of the pitch from protecting the playing surface from frost. Charlie Hurley wearing baseball boots. Man selling peanuts “tanner a bag” with a throw more accurate than Van Gerwin. The crowd versus Man Utd when the gates came down, kids being passed to the front over the shoulders of grown men.
So many happy memories, too many to recollect. Great stadium, great tradition, great atmosphere. “The Roker Roar!
 
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Standing in the Fulwell end before it was covered watching an evening game against Preston. It was absolutely pissing it down and was totally wet through when Davie Wilson scored the winner so we ended up getting beat 2-1. Utterly pissed off!
 
I once bit into a meat and potato pasty from that kiosk on the corner hidden away at the bottom of the fulwell end. It was warm on the outside and completely frozen solid on the inner. I was only 14 at the time and plucked up the courage to complain to the big lass from prisoner cell block h behind the counter.. class response “it’s freezing cold and the middle of winter what do ya expect?!”
 
Ginger John said:
Permanent marks on your hand in the winter from holding cups of thermonuclear Bovril.
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:lol:
Aye, I remember the bovril and the pies from Roker Park.
Probably why I usually had a cowie snack from Whelans chippie, before I got into the ground ;)

I miss the pre match pubs I used to visit before a game at RP.
The Demi, The Red Lion, The Terminus, The Fort, Howard Arms, The Albion, Sappers, New Derby, The Cliff.
I meet my mates in the Railway Club before the game, and we usually stay in the one place until we walk across to the ground.
The football wasn't usually great at RP but the pre match pubs and the people in them, more than made up for the lack of entertainment on the pitch.
 
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Main stand seats roker wing v wba . A rotund gent from the baggies in the roker end next to us in the big corner was subjected to a barrage of piss taking all game. It was a matter of time before he bit. When he did he was lifted by the polis to a chorus of boos from us. A chant of “we want fatty back, say we want fatty back went up”. About 5 mins later “fatty” returned to a hero’s welcome all round. Great bit crack from both sets of fans!

Happy days
 
Horley Chorley said:
:lol:
Aye, I remember the bovril and the pies from Roker Park.
Probably why I usually had a cowie snack from Whelans chippie, before I got into the ground ;)

I miss the pre match pubs I used to visit before a game at RP.
The Demi, The Red Lion, The Terminus, The Fort, Howard Arms, The Albion, Sappers, New Derby, The Cliff.
I meet my mates in the Railway Club before the game, and we usually stay in the one place until we walk across to the ground.
The football wasn't usually great at RP but the pre match pubs and the people in them, more than made up for the lack of entertainment on the pitch.
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I forgot about the Wheatsheaf ffs man.
:oops:​
 
dangermows said:
Nowt beats walking up the steps and seeing the grass under the flood lights of an evening. Magic.
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Second game I went to was a cup game v man city in midweek. Late seventies. Dad had a bit spare to went in the posh bit. Clock stand seats! Got there quite early and when me Dad was getting a pie and bovril I snuck up the half s dozen steps to look at the pitch under the floodlights. No one around, I stood there open mouthed, goosebumps all ower and hairs standing up on the back of my neck. Can remember it like yesterday. Happy memories indeed.
 
SuperMarcoRowell said:
I remember the pitch on the first day of the season was always pristine .. but them toilets in the Fulwell were rank! I loved it when the Fulwell was packed and we’d go on the attack, the crowd would surge and you’d end up 20 yards away from your mates!
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After a goal was always great, finding yourself next to completely different people and looking for your mates. There is no equivalent experience to that surge and madness in modern grounds sadly.

Not a fan of the modern trend to video everything on phones but it would have been great to see a few of those surges recorded from within the Fulwell End. Doubt there is anything like that in existence...decent phone camera technology was a few years away still when RP closed.
 
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