A ‘Holic Remembers – Semi-Final Triumph, Highbury 1988
Oct 12th, 2010 by 'holic
What seems like it has been the longest, and most tedious, of international breaks has been made a lot easier for me by my inbox, filled with kind comments and a couple of wonderful recollections. Last week Clive shared his experience of Wembley 1971, and today I am chuffed that Chippy has taken the time to prepare an evocative account of events some seventeen years later. I’ll turn the piece over to him.
A little background on me before the match report. I was luckily born into an Arsenal mad family on both sides so any other team wasn’t an option. I was taken along as a regular by my dad or Granddad from about the age of 6 which not so happily coincided with the early to mid eighties. As many will testify we were pretty shit, so my early years were spent watching idols such as Woodcock, Talbot, and ‘Champagne’ Charlie Nicholas. If I’m honest we were not that good a side and success seemed a long way away, but that all changed with the appointment of ‘Stroller’ who seemed to breath life into the club. It wouldn’t be long before the Monday mornings at school turned full circle and the bragging rights would be mine.
As many my age will know the school playgrounds were full of young Liverpool fans, as they were as dominant as United are now, and after years of abuse it was my turn to have some fun! The date, Feb 24 1988. Semi-final Littlewoods Cup, second-leg. A freezing cold night as you would expect for that time of year, but a few well chosen words from the old man outside the Plimsoll Arms soon warmed me up no end.
“If we get through tonight you’ll be at Wembley.”
Well if I wasn’t excited enough about that night’s game those words tipped me over the edge. I was a gibbering wreck and it was still a couple of hours until kick off! There was a sense of excitement that had been building for a few seasons, especially after winning that Cup the previous year. You could almost smell the anticipation as we were a side on the up. A new breed of Arsenal youngsters were breaking through and making their mark. The likes of Adams, Thomas and the incomparable David Rocastle, r.i.p.. A team I could relate to, local lads playing for a team they loved. Basically these lads were living my dream and seemed to love every minute of it. I can imagine it felt the same for the older generation when the likes of George and Storey strutted their stuff.
Like many that night I felt George was building something special and I was lucky enough to hitch a ride. This particular night was quite peculiar. The buzz was like something I hadn’t really experienced over The Arsenal. Not only were we improving, but we had also won the away leg by a single Perry Groves goal so were firm favourites. There was also some menace in the air and to this day I don’t know if Everton had taken some liberties at their place and cuffed a few Gooners, but being a scouser that night in and around Highbury couldn’t have been a nice experience.
The crowd was meant to be around 51,000 but I’m sure many more crammed in, and that the turnstile operators made themselves a few quid on extras. They had to close the gates as the crowd had become overwhelming and I’d hate to guess how many were locked out, A big semi-final under lights always seem to set the players and crowd alight!
Anyway we made our way to the ground and my Dad decided a spot to the left of Johnny Lukic’s goal would be ideal, so there we stood right at the front behind the little green fence. To this day I’ve never heard an atmosphere like it. The ‘Old Girl’ was absolutely rocking and I mean that in a literal sense. It wasn’t so much a wall of noise, more like the walls, roof, ground floor, and chimney. It was electric and to be honest I think the players picked straight up on it. Arsenal hurtled out of the traps and straight into Everton, who at that time were a decent outfit that had players such as Sharpe, Heath, and Southall to name just a few.
Rocastle proceeded to miss an absolute sitter, but then it came (or so we thought) – penalty to Arsenal – taker Hayes. I’m pretty sure 90% of the crowd knew he was going to miss, and I’m certain he thought the same way as he looked petrified running in to take it. Lo and behold he ballooned it high over the bar, never before or since has a player’s song seemed so apt to me than at that moment. I could have almost belted out “Oopsy Daisy, Martin Hayesy lalalalala”. My heart sank. Maybe it wasn’t to be us gracing Wembley this year. Halftime 0-0.
After a quick halftime read of the programme, and my Dad telling me it would all work out, the second half resumed. Just as before Arsenal swarmed and buzzed all over Everton and then it came, courtesy of St Michael Thomas. The home crowd went absolutely bonkers, we were on our way. “Que sera sera” was belted out at decibels never heard by my ears, and then a second from Rocky, making up for his earlier miss. More bedlam, Smith hit a third. Even Arsenal cannot blow this, I thought as that one hit the net. Heath got a late consolation but the damage was done. Arsenal and Young Chippy were on the way down Wembley Way!
Now before I finish, what happened next will stay with me till my dying day. Whistle goes, Arsenal fans storm the pitch in celebration from the North Bank. As a wide eyed youngster I stand amazed as first tens, and then hundreds, storm on to celebrate. The old man eggs me on to join the party but I’m petrified and stand my ground. Seconds later I’m lifted by my jacket over the barrier and hoardings and onto the pitch. A guy standing beside us had decided it was in my best interests to join in!
Oh well sod it, I thought, I’m on now and instead of aiming for the centre circle where many had started the celebrations I hung back and decided to live a dream. I placed an imaginary ball on the penalty spot run up and hit an unstoppable effort into the top right corner showing Mr Hayes exactly how it should be done in front of the North Bank! I then went to join the hundreds of others, but just as I was getting to them some unreasonable sods on horses, and others with dogs, had decided to clear the pitch. Cue me running back to my dad like a scalded cat whilst he looked on in hysterics!
The Final is a different story for another day! If that was you that lifted me onto the pitch I thank you immensely, and to all the other ‘holics I hope I haven’t bored you silly!
Up The Arse.
Chippy, you certainly didn’t bore me silly. That brought back so many memories of the night, and if you search Youtube for ‘Arsenal Littlewoods Cup 1988’ you will find evidence of the pitch invasion!
Thanks again, Chippy.
83 Responses to “A ‘Holic Remembers – Semi-Final Triumph, Highbury 1988”
Wooow!
Brilliant chippy sir and well worth the wait!
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An excellent tale Chippy. I was a bit older for that game (in sixth form at school). We got to THOF late and the gates in Gillespie Road were shut. My mate said lets go to the away end, and they let us in! Surrounded by grumpy Scousers, it was tense, especially at the end, when they filed out and us, and many more Gooners, in their section of the Clock End, stayed behind. A round of nostalgia on me.
Thanks for the memories Chippy! I was at that game and my west ham mate came with me. He couldn’t believe the atmosphere! Happy days. Thanks also to ‘holic for these posts, would like to post one about paris 06 if i could get my thoughts together. I know we lost but what a trip.
Drinks all round.
Cheers
WWG
I remember this day well and the memories of getting on the pitch at the end were fantastic. I remember jumping on Alan Smith and it was pure bedlam. We lost one of our mates who followed us from the east lower into the schoolboys on to the pitch but due to being inebriated he slipped and was last seen being wheeled around the pitch by the St Johns Ambulance. He later joined us for a beer or 3 in the Devonshire of Holloway Road despite having cracked a couple of ribs.
Great days and the atmosphere which we are unlikely to experience again……………
Great write Chip, the penalty kick, well even Rosicky and Arshavin can learn a thing or two from you :)!
Thankyou!
Great piece Chip and well put together, I was there that night also. You are right though, there was this palpable sense of progress under GG that took a bit of getting used to, it was amazing to watch so many young players turning into a great team right in front of us.
For all the amazing players and success we’ve had (up until) recently, I still find that the George Graham era was more ours with all the home grown local lads, even Nutty and Lee became gooners as soon as the shirt was first worn. Highbury was rammed that night, and the expectation was hanging in the air. Good times…and thanks for bringing them back.
Nice one Chippy!!
Two of whatever he’s having please squire.
Fantastic read Chippy, thanks for sharing that in our cosy, little bar.
Pre-Stroller, I too went to many matches with my old man (R.I.P.) to watch, Woodcock, Rix, Super Mac, Champagne Charlie et al. Not to mention the semi-golden “Irish” years when your namesake was “The King of Highbury”.
The fact that we were typically “win one, lose one , draw one” didn’t really seem to matter like it does today. Expectations were lower, satisfaction easier to achieve…. ah…. happy days! 🙂
Barman, whatever Chippy wants, something warming for me (I feel chills, they’re mutiplyin’) amd more Kleenex for nostalgiac eyes.
Tum te tum.
Damn – “and” & “nostalgic”
I’m such a pedant.
i was banned from football and banged up for 10 days durring that game, i was put in blackstock rd nick but sent to west end centrel because they wanted the cells for the game. the old bill at west end let me whatch the game out side of my cell as my sentance was 10 days and halfed to 5 but my cell mates were up for murder and such like as they were all going through a tunnel to the old baily for thier cases but i was serving mine, for running on to the field during the moan u game , they had scored, i ran on, took the ball off lukich, ran down the other end and booted it into thier net. i got nicked and banned from football for a year. i was well pleased we had won but one of the cops reminded me that i would not be going, due to my ban. i was at the game and every other game for that matter. oh to be young
Read WWGs post made me think of the Parc du Prince in the summer of ’95.
Were any of you fine chaps/chapesses there for the 1994–95 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in Paris?
It was the post-match horror show from the animals in CRS that sticks most vividly in my mind. I saw a mother (young child standing with her) sprayed in the face with some form of anti-riot concoction. Never seen anything like it.
Not a happy day! Bah, humbug!
just looked it up and the game that i was nicked at was an fa cup game against moan u at home.
was the game in paris, the one against PSG when it all kicked off outside the under groung station, the battle went on for about half hour but seemd like hours, we stood our ground and old bill just watched. at half time they played go west and one nil to the arsenal ,was born
Thanks for the kind words all and the drinks 😉
Indeed they were happy days and I’m glad the post brought back some happy memories!
Tim, couldn’t agree more that side and the spell of 5 to 6 that followed will always be my favourite for the reasons you’ve stated but also I believe that it had alot to do with the connection between players and fans alike – sadly today’s breed whether English or Foreign are so far removed from joe public that there really is no common ground.
True Storey,
Indeed mate- Sky have alot to answer for the hyperbole after one defeat is absurd and I myself am guilty of it at times but this is the world the beast has created by treating fanbases as customers and not fans, I shudder to think what would have been written about a young T.A if he was just starting his carear now.He’d never have got past his first season with some of the balls up he made 🙂
Holloway,Andy,West,Dizzy Top stories made me chuckle
Dizzy,
I have vague recollections of that happening what end did you score? May be wrong but did we end up winning 2.1 – but got knocked out by forest the following round?
Fair play, that’s something that they can never take away !!!
As always, a delight. Thank you.
Was a great night. The final was fucking toilet.
I’ve Had a phobia of straw hats ever since !!!!! Fucking thousands of em 🙂
Esso, dizzy, thought you might remember around this time 😉
Great stuff, Chippy. Told you it would be popular. Well written mate. It is from the heart, you can tell.
@ dizzy #15
No mate. It was vs Real Z. We lost 2-1 to a last minute ex-LWC, 40 yd screamer. I wasn’t screaming…. 🙁
Oh, and I’ve still got the red baseball cap that they handed out for the travelling faithful – should have burnt it!
Barman? Consolation beers of any origin other than France tonight all round please if you wouldn’t mind 🙂
@ Chippy # 16
Too true. It was Donkey Adams for a long time before he became Mr. Arsenal.
Will they be saying the same thing about Song and Diaby in a few years time?
i ran on from the north bank , took the ball off luckich, ran down the clock end with it under my arm then droped it and kicked it into thier goal, stuck my 2 fingers up at thier fans and got nicked. very drunk, had 2 bottels of wine in my denim jacket pockets. 5 days for entering trhe field of play and 5 days for alcohol at a sporting event. spoilt sports. i was 26 then
Cheers Holic,
As I said last night fair play, To churn out article after article of quality is something I couldn’t contemplate attempting one go was more than enough 🙂
Dizzy,
Quality as I say ive vague memories of something similar and if it was you I saw I tip my hat 😉 Jesus you’d get a five year ban and untold fine nowadays, Scoring on the hallowed turf whilst pissed is something only you and Charlie Nic accomplished and maybe Merse,TA, And Parlour 😉 Not a bad CV that!!
heh and ha! Great stuff. Chippy, I did you a disservice – you’re way younger than me! A forgotten classic – thanks for reminding me.
Like others have said, the wonder of watching a great team develop in front of your eyes (no big money signings, note) was not only fantastic, but also something I’d never experienced before.
Kids coming through makes it so much sweeter….
A memorable night it was alright. My ten-year run of not missing a single home game ended that night as my presence was required at the birth of my first daughter. It was a difficult choice. After most of the day in labour, the nurse said “It’s going to have to be a Ceasarian”… it was 5.00 already, they seemed to be in no hurry to have to prep her… I knew my run was over. The tears welled up, everyone in the delivery room thought I was overcome with the emotion of the day. Well I was, kind of. By 7.00, I was sitting in a hospital chair with a sleeping baby daughter in my arms, while my wife dozed exhaused in the bed. A thought flashed into my mind… everyone’s asleep… they won’t miss me… I could make the second half!!! Not for the first time, my wife demonstrated her witch-powers. Her eyes snapped open. “You’re not thinking of leaving us are you???” I nearly crapped myself. “No, of course not.” Her eyes closed again. Christ that was spooky. Twenty-two years on, my daughter’s a beautiful young woman. She’s sitting on the sofa watching the England game with her younger sister, the pair of them leering at Joe Hart. I’ve just about forgiven her for breaking my run. Although it does get mentioned now and again.
Catalan,
your as old as you feel mate and at the mo the retirement homes calling me!! Would be nice if young Jack and Kieran are followed by 3-4 more younguns,
HN,
Quality, Although I’d keep your post away from the better half 🙂
Love it, love it, love it!
Keep the stories coming chaps.
And there was never a truer storey than this:
“The fact that we were typically “win one, lose one , draw one” didn’t really seem to matter like it does today. Expectations were lower, satisfaction easier to achieve…. ah…. happy days!”
Oh how needy is the youth of today.
*gulps some stout*
I was there that night and as I recall there was a bit of a crush going on in the North Bank.
At the final whistle we headed to the nearest boozer that was open.
I also passed my driving test on that day. Double celebration
HN, I think I know the feeling!
So, ‘holic decide he will tell us what happened after the 3rd goal after he dies? does this mean the young ‘holic started stealing things like champagne or mass wine? hmm!
At least you made up for all the boring intelul hope tommorrow you start again with real stuff. I hope for good knews not injury please “Holic’ any early news?
Very nice, Chippy.
Everybody demanding your turn next, BtM 😉
HN!
haha man you guys have such wonderful Arsenal stories!!
hahahahaha .. Excellent!
Good memories Chipo. I was at the game and recall the rocking atmosphere. The North Bank was mobbed and the crowd was way over capacity. People were getting squashed on the way in on Avenell Road.
That evening was when I knew we weren’t far away from a League winning team.
Happy Days. Don’t mention Gus!
Well played Chippy – good read.
Great to read anything ‘Arsenal’ in these bloody Interlulls. I just can’t be bothered to elaborate, but has anyone ever seen a less imaginative England performance than that “effort” tonight.
Jack Wilshere must be thrilled to be left sitting on the bench watching Gareth Barry weave his magic.
Anyone still disappointed that AW wouldn’t raise his bid to the required £18,000,000 for Barry ? If he ever made a bid at all, that is.
FOUR days to go ’til it’s back to The Grove for Brum. Can’t wait to see an Arsenal team playing again.
Referee for the game is Martin Atkinson – he of the ‘arm grabbing’ incident at Sunderland, and the ‘leg breaking’ incident at Citeh.
Now don’t all be so stupid – of course he wasn’t given that match on purpose !
We’ll still win it 4 – 0 !
Come on you rip-roaring . . .
Pete the First @ 37 – call that squashed ? Pfff, don’t know you’re born etc.!
I was at the FA Cup tie against Derby County when the ‘three day week’ and strikes were in full flow. The match was played on a midweek afternoon (Tuesday, as i remember) to save electricity by not using the floodlights etc.
The crowd figure published was 72,500 (again if memory serves me correctly) and I was on the North Bank, right behind, luckily, the crash barrier that collapsed as a stream of kids were passed over people’s heads down to the front of the terrace. Now that was squashed.
Seems completely unimagineable in these days of stewards and health and safety, but it actually did happen – even at Highbury.
Better be a glass of Squash, please ‘Holic.
Chippy, Clive, Holic, you guys just make me wish I would have been born sooner.
Trev at 39.
I was at the Derby game with my Dad.Feb 29,1972.
Never forget it.
I think becase of the 3 day week and the early kickoff as we couldn’t use the floodlights,a lot of people who would normally be working were on a rostered day off,hence the massive crowd which no one was expecting.!!
Down the front standing area, by the dugout.
Arms pinned to your sides jammed in like sardines,could hardly move let alone breathe.,but no goals and a 2nd replay at from memory,Filbert Street,which we won 1 nil.
Were you there Holic.???
But that Derby crowd still didn’t eclipse the game i have mentioned before on Holics blog,which was the Spuds in the 63-64 season,a night game at Highbury,where the crush was so bad inside and outside the stadium,that the kick off was delayed by 30 mins.!!
We littlies ended up sitting on the gravel track around the perimeter of the pitch,something that has never happened before or since.
So if there were 72,000 at the Derby game,then God knows how many were at the Spuds game .
Chippy
great story mate,well done.
It sounds like we were both blessed with great Dads.!!
My Grandad on my Mums side was actually a QPR supporter as he grew up and lived not far from their ground and his dad,my GreatGrndad,took him regularly.
Fortunately for me my Dad worked around the Highbury/Islington area when he was old enough to leave the Orphanage, and his workmates were all Gooners so it was a natural progression for him to go to Highbury.
I was in Hong Kong the week that Everton match was played,couldn’t get any info on the game for love nor money.
I found out the result the next day when i went to the
‘International’ Sporting Club for lunch and i met a fellow Gooner who told me the good news.
Cheers
Clive
Morning Clive,
Indeed we were mate 🙂
Id hazard a guess many others have similar stories to tell with regards Arsenal supporting Fathers or Granddads its a very special football club and once bitten truely hooked,
God knows how 72k + managed to fit into Highbury, I can imagine after the event you and your Dad were quite pleased there were no goals ! Imagine that sort of crowd celebrating 🙂
Morning all,
I missed the Derby game as I wasn’t allowed out of school, but do remember going to Leeds for a midweek afternoon game the following season. The official gate at Highbury that afternoon was 61,000 I believe, but everybody thought at least another 10,000 got in courtesy of the turnstile operators scams.
There were a fair few crushes like that but without doubt the worst for me was at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough when we played Sunderland in the 1973 FA Cup semi-final. It was no surprise to anybody there that day that tragedy finally struck in ’89.
Once again holic thanks for allowing another trip down memory lane. I think that this should become a regular blog category from you and your esteemed guest bloggers.
Have thoroughly enjoyed this feature, long may it continue.
A drink for the two of you and a drink of choice to encourage a BtM post 🙂
Thanks again!
Yeah, I remember that evening too, I recall it was a mild misty night and the old place was rocking!
Speaking of being crushed I seem to remember the first day of that season, home to the other bunch of scousers. I think the attendance was something like 54,000, I was in the North Bank and when we scored I jumped up and was wedged between two others and didn’t come back down for a few seconds!
Happy days. We lost that game 2-1 but we knew we were on the up and real glory would soon be ours again. A young exciting team of (mainly) Londoners where the nearest we had to a ‘foreigner’ was Lee Dixon!
Talking of 70K+ nights at Highbury, anyone else remember entertaining Juventus in the old CWC in The Spring of 1980? I was in The Boys End, atmos was electric, Juventus were easily as big back then as Farca are today.
I remember looking up at the top “west” corner of the Northbank – you know, where you could only get a 3/4 view of the pitch at best – and it was absolutely heaving. My dad used to tell me that you knew it was a really big gate when that part of the ground was full.
I don’t remember too much about the match, it was a 1-1 draw, can’t remember who scored for us or who scored first but I remember walking away from the ground feeling that it was a decent result. We went on to beat them 1-0 in the away leg. Glorious!
What really sticks in my mind is the announcer over the Tannoy (remember those!) telling us that the gate was 71,000! For an evening game! Fantastic. Can you imagine what the health & safety nazis would make of that these days?
Cheers all. Barman? A post lunch-time livener for all at the bar please, thanks. 🙂
@ Snail #30
Thanks for the acknowledgement fella.
Please join me for a drink when you’re back in the bar and we can moan about the youth of today both secretly wishing that we were at least 10 years younger!
Hope that’s not to “age-ist” for our younger drinkers. Truth be told – I’m just a grumpy old man so don’t take it too seriously now 🙂
True Storey @47
I was at that game mate, in the Clockend at the side where the St Johns Ambulance crew always were. I got there a couple of hours before kick off (remember that guys?) to get a decent (at the time my regular) place.
What I remember was that Juventus scored with a retaken penalty and we equalised through an own goal(?). My recolections of the return leg was listening to the radio commentry almost in tears as the final whistle approached. In the back ground all you could here was the Turin fans celebrating and then all of a sudden complete silence………
The commentater announcing, in almost disbelief, that Paul Vassen had scored.
Cue my younger brother and myself running outside and whooping it up on the street with friends, neighbours and fellow gooners.
Good times!!!
Fantastic H2H! It all comes flooding back now. Yes, a re-taken penalty and an own goal – who was in goal for us – was it Big Pat? High drama on a special night indeed!
BTW, if they want to properly Arsenalise The Ems how about bringing back the brass band at half time (Sats only)? I even remember a sort of cartoon of them on the back page of the programmes with a playlist – heh! My dad used to love them. Somehow, I can’t see Ivan agreeing to the sign-off on that – double heh!
Id rather they gave us our badge back 😉
To be fair to him under his stewardship weve had the return of the clock, Red and White home shirts, and a spruce of red paint and some pictures added around the place hes done a fine job on that front, And he is a vast vast improvement on Edelman for giving a shit about the fans,
Totally agree Chippy, actually I’m quite a fan of Ivan. I think he does a fine job of the role that he’s paid to do. I think he’s a bit of a die-hard Gooner at heart too but maybe I’m being a bit naive in that department 🙂
Do the Mets still have a police band, or have they been banned?
I used to love it at HT when they did their marching bit, they’d all come out to the tune from Laurel and Hardy echoing from the terraces and off they’d go. Off course the highlight would be when the leader would throw his baton (or whatever it was called) and there would be a mighty roar as it was in the air, everyone hoping that he’d drop it. It was all in good fun and they always got a nice ovation when they left.
You also had the “make money with Arsenal” ladies who’d enter the arena to resounding wolf whistles selling their scratch tickets with cash prizes, add to that a cup of Bovril or a pint from the green shed and the cry of “ROOOAASSTED PEAAANUYTS, GET YA PEEEAAANUTS” and that pretty much sums up HT at Highbury for me, back in the day.
All this remonicing is thirsty work, pint or one of those red cans (make sure it’s warm) they served behind the North Bank for me and the lads please ‘Holic.
Cheers.
Chippy, I agree totally on the badge, everything about it had more class.
Great tale Chippy, I remember the match well.
Holic, sorry for the continuing spam, i’ve deleted you from my address book for now 🙁
A late November return but at least the smiles have returned early – Aron Ramsey
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-ramsey-has-a-smile-back-on-his-face-
Absolutely delighted for the guy, lets hope he gets back to who he was as soon as he can, i just cant wait for him to start a pairing with Jack Wilshere in the midfield!
Top story Chippy, thanks for sharing and making the Interlull less dull!
And of course I join the chorus: can’t wait to read BtM’s story!!
True Storey – I was in the North Bank for the Juve game. I swear I didn’t breathe for about 20 minutes ! Couldn’t get a pizza anywhere in the whole of London that night.
H2H – ah, the Met Police band. Don’t know the name of the baton thrower, but I do remember the operatic vocals of, wait for it, Constable Alex Morgan, and my memory DOES serve me correctly !
‘Holic, I think your idea of “guest bloggers” has been brilliant.
It feels as though everyone on here suddenly knows everybody else that much better, through all the shared reminiscences.
I know you don’t mind this, but I have another nod to tip in the direction of today’s Arseblog, if anyone hasn’t seen it. It also fits well with “favourite goals” topic. At the end of today’s post he has a video which has 8 minutes and 6 seconds of Pure Arsenal Magic, and a final clip which always makes the old throat all lumpy. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy !
Delightful Trev.
You’ve now forced me into tearing apart my sacred drawer of old Arsenal match programmes.
One stood out – Arsenal vs Benfica – Weds 4th August 1971 – Champions Challenge Match (a pre-season friendly?). It’s No.1 for the 71-72 Cup Final Voucher so I’m guessing it was a 1971 equivalent to the Ems Cup, very roughly sort of.
I was 6 years old. I must have been a very good boy to be allowed to stay up that late. My infantile scrawl is on the back page putting the first names of our team in front of their printed surnames. My dad filled in the substitutes – 3 for a European match!
Arsenal team: Wilson, Rice, McNab, Storey, McLintock, Simpson, Armstrong, Graham, Radford, Kennedy, George. Subs: Nelson, Marinello, Barnett. If that lot doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up (Barnett excepted) then you weren’t an Arsenal supporter in the ’70s 🙂
Eusebio was their No.7, everyone wanted to see him play.
Programme of music played by the Metropolitan Police Band conducted by… wait for it… Major W. Williams, MBE, ARCM, Director of Music. I think he was the big stick thrower-uperer too.
In Topics Of The Week section there’s a picture of Jon Sammels with a good luck message to him as he had just moved to Leicester City – heh!
For anyone that’s still awake after that trip down memory lane, I’m buying so Barman please do the honours. How about a barrel of Watney’s Red?
Cheers all!
@ ‘Holic
Glad to see “The Bouncers” are earning their keep tonight 😉
TS, I was at that game against Benfica. If memory serves we won 6-2, which seemed a big thing at the time.
Let’s remember three years prior they were European Cup finalists. We thought we would win the damn thing that year, but by the time Ajax arrived for the quarter-final we were an injury-hiy side in the process of a most premature change.
“The Bouncers” really don’t appreciate little interweb warriors serving up puerile abuse to named individuals. Only two people are barred from the drinks, and they don’t live a million miles apart. Odd.
‘Holic, I remember a good win but couldn’t remember the scoreline without assitance so many thanks for that.
I’ve just spotted something else on the inside back cover of the same programme (yawn). Under the list of apprentice players is one L.Brady, position IF (Inside Forward?), age 15. David Price and Brian Horsby are also in the same list. Classic!!!
I guess age has its benefits after all 😉
It’s such a shame that we need a bit of strong-arming in a super-friendly place like this – what on earth is the point? We’re all Arsenal aren’t we? Honestly, it’s beyond me.
Something calming please barman – a fine double malt maybe? One for yourself of course.
…Maybe some music would help???
Trevor & Clive I’ll have to doff my cap to your Highbury squash experiences. Bit before my time the Derby game.
I reckon there was somewhere in the region of 65,000 at the Everton game. 10,000 above the official figure. I had a friend who worked the turnstiles at the time, and he used to look forward to a big game as there was plenty of opportunity to earn a decent wage from cash payers.
I recall getting jammed against the crush barriers on a number of occasions in the North Bank. Painful business, and any opportunity to duck under to escape had to be taken
PS looking forward to the game on Saturday, a return to real footy. And I’m gasping for a pint of Pride. So….
Not sure how many are following the Liverpool saga but the protracted war between the owners and everyone else is fascinating. Earlier today everyone thought the sale would go through with all the hurdles cleared except which one of the competing bids would win. Not so fast:
“The desperate attempt by Tom Hicks and George Gillett to hold on to Liverpool took another extraordinary twist last night when they managed to halt the sale of the club yet again – securing a temporary restraining order from a Texas court which was served on the club just five minutes before the start of a board meeting expected to ratify the new owner’s succession.
On a night of extraordinary drama, even by the standards of the past eight days, billionaire businessman John W Henry, owner of New England Sports Ventures arrived at the London board meeting, expecting to be confirmed as the new owner and with plans to pay the £300m required to buy Liverpool today. Henry and his NESV chairman Tom Werner were also both preparing to be at Goodison Park on Sunday for the club’s critical derby match.
But at 8.25pm, five minutes before the meeting was due to start, the Liverpool directors were served with the restraining order and when Hicks and Gillett made contact through a conference call facility minutes later their message was words to the effect of “We’re restraining you.”
Lawyers were scrambling to ascertain the jurisdiction of the Texas District Court in Dallas, which described the imminent sale to New England Sports Ventures as a “swindle of epic proportions.”
There are many more funny details here: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/hicks-and-gillett-block-liverpool-sale-after-defeat-in-high-court-2106006.html
Matt, Liverpudlians should know that the best way to restrain Texas lawyers is with ever bigger and more powerful guns. Let battlestar galactica explode now.
Even african dictators are jealous of Texas “justice”…
Anyway scousers haven’t lost their sense of humour though:
moderator: “Anyone posting death threats, personal information or shite can expect a ban”
what are the chances of this injunction being removed before I go to bed?
So they’re prolonging our misery. Bastards.
Its basically Hicks Vs The United Kingdom almost.
There are so many people I wanna headbutt right now.
…One of them is myself as I have lost the bottle opener.
Am I a bad person for wishing that this happens to the other club in red?
These fuckers better not try charging these lawyers expenses to the club
Broughton apparently ‘tortured’ innocent Texan civilians…
I’m gonna try an be a voice of sanity here.
Liverpool now and [fill in the blank] soon to follow. Will the Wenger critics be satisfied after all our spendthrift rivals have bitten the dust? Of course not, but let’s give him credit for not throwing good money after bad over the years.
Heh! For those that haven’t seen it, here’s the latest audition from an Arsenal Keeper – Vito Mannone this time! Via Arseblog..
http://www.goal4replay.net/VideoWatchF.asp?ID=44230&Ln
Class…
Quote from today’s Cognac paper based upon a report from another paper ‘Republicain Lorraine’
AW says that going to PSG is not impossible, but it would not be as trainer, in response to a rumour circulating in Paris.
AWs counsellor (?wots that) Serge Kotchounian (who he) later said that AW is definite: His present and future are totally aimed towards Arsenal. He has never had any contact with PSG.
So thats all clear then…..
Cesc still out for Birmingham so who is going to take the bit then?
Dear Holic,
I have never written before but am prompted to following your mention of the ’73 Sunderland semi final. I was in the Leppings Lane end as well with 2 mates one of whom fainted from the crush and still remember clearly people mostly kids being passed up from the terrace to the seats behind with people reaching down from the seats to lift them to safety.
There was an awful crush all afternoon and the people in charge of supervising that small area must have been aware of the terrible overcrowding that had occured. Both clubs had a similar allocation of tickets and the decision to keep fans at opposite ends meant the Sunderland fans had the huge terrace at the other end while we were compresed into a space about one third of the size.
Those days though all football fans were treated like some kind of sub species and many older readers will remember the shabby unheated cattle wagons that were called ‘football specials’ that carried us up and down the country following the Arsenal.
I suppose my point is that Hillsborough was a disaster waiting to happen with a gruesome inevitability and on witnessing those events unfold live on television my mind immediately flashed back to our semi final in ’73 and the conditions in the Leppings Lane end that afternoon. The evidence was there for many years and I imagine fans of other teams who stood in that enclosure would have very similar experiences to ours.
In closing it seems to me that the inactivity and lack of concern of those in authortity led directly to the terrible loss of life of those Liverpool fans who in reality could have been supporters of any club at any semi final who stood in that end.
@ BT8BBNN
Nasri and/or Rosicky for me….
Great to see Gibbs, Theo & Bendy back. We’ve got a good squad to pick from on Saturday. I predict a big home scoreline, we’ll be smarting from the last couple of weeks and we owe B’Ham as our title challenge really started to slip away there last season when they got that freak last minute equaliser.
4-0 or higher. Maybe 4-1 is more realistic with the way we tend to leak a goal or two 🙂
Squad prediction just for fun:
Flap
Gibbs, Kos, Squill, Eboue
Jack, Nasri, Rosicky
Arshavin, Chamakh, The-o
Super Sub Selection: Bendy, Chez, JET, Djourou, Denilson, Vela, Clichy.
Thoughts anyone?
Barman? Are we open yet? It’s 5-a-side night tonight so an energy drink for me please, ta!
@Catalan: It’s a shame that Arseblog and the likes don’t put 10% of the effort to find us videos of games when one of our players has a top game. Pretty damn telling if you ask me.
Matt, to be fair to Arseblog all throughout the lull he put up fantastic old videos of our great players’ feats and Mannone’s was about the only one showing anybody having a bad day. Since he introduced that one as the latest Arsenal keeper to give a bad audition I don’t think he was picking on don Vito in particular but in any case those videos are still there to see if you are interested. Now on to bigger kettles of fish like frying the Brummies …
TS, I don’t think our team has looked that great when Rosicky has been in the playmaker role so maybe it’s time to give it to Nasri or Wilshere.
BT8BBNN, TS – I’ll copy my comment from the last post – It was right when Holic posted this so no one really took note of it… But that’s what I think we have when we miss Cesc.
Am I the only one who thinks that without Cesc we don’t have a killer passer in our team that could have passed a killer pass to Chamakh vs. Chelsea.
Nasri is good but not there yet. I don’t see him fulfilling his potential in that area this season. It was the same against Liverpool, we had tons of possession, crossed a whole lot (Sagna and Clichy HAVE to improve on that) but never got our attacking force in on goal against Reina or Cech.
THAT is the reason we rely on Cesc.
BT8BBNN – The 2 times it was a bit hard on Nasri to be in the Cesc role (Anfield, Bridge) cause of stiff defence, we barely got a dangerous shot on goal. On the other hand Rosicky set up Reina’s equalizer and almost Chamakh’s equalizer at the Bridge, even though it was from the flank on both occasions, it was the freedom he got to wander around the pitch.
Nasri disappoints me in regards to his killer passing. We need that when we don’t have Cesc and are up against stiff opposition, meaning we HAVE to get Cesc healthy for City, otherwise it’ll be controlling possession again for nothing.
I have to agree with the post above. Our best passer apart from Cesc is Rosicky and by some distance. I’d love to see him play a lot more this season – especially in the tougher games, having someone who can conjure up a key pass it simply vital. We have to find a way to win some scrappy 1-0 2-1 type games, and it won’t happen by just having Clichy/Sagna chip the ball in.
I’m happy to say this but annoyed at the same time – but we really miss Walcott based on how he was playing.
I’m glad no-one has suggested that Denilson is one of the best passers of the ball 🙂
Neil C, we appear to share a view about Leppings Lane. Thanks for taking the trouble to post.
Those who were there in ’73 know better than most what happened in 89. Thankfully we are probably a million times away from what it was actually like.
R.I.P those who didn’t return home that day.
@Snir: I see things differently. Our problem is that we have organized the team around Cesc 2 years ago when we moved him up the pitch to please him. If you remember well it took him a while to get used to it and that’s also when we started being more porous since he did much less defensively.
So when he is playing, everyone knows what they have to do, he’s the pivot of our attack. Unfortunately this is a very unbalanced situation, because he isn’t contributing much defensively (although he started to do more this season) and that keeps the 2 other midfielders on their toes, often too far from the action to contribute to the offense without jeopardizing the team on a counter-attack which is why we play Song as a pure DM with a box-to-box midfielder along him. And it’s reminiscent of TH’s last season when he was too much a focal point at the detriment of everyone else’s offensive performance. To tell you the truth, even if Cesc is pure joy to watch, I never really liked this formation, it hinders the other midfielders (Rosicki and Nasri in particular) and leaves Cesc exclusively in charge of the offensive animation.
When Cesc is not playing we haven’t found yet a balance and a rythm. We gave a handful of opportunities to other players to slot in while the team keeps the same formation but not enough (and much less than Cesc) to adapt to the role. But more often we revert to a more balanced midfield where all duties are shared. This is also one of the reasons Song has had to learn to be more offensively-minded and as such has been less assured than in the pure DM role he is used to.
If Cesc was to leave or be injured for a while, we could slot Nasri or Wilshere in the same formation and after 10 games in a row they would find their marks the same way Cesc did. I’m actually of the opinion that Nasri would be even more effective than Cesc behind the strikers as he is faster on the ball and more direct and I don’t think Wilshere would be too far behind But Nasri like Wishere get only a few opportunities in between playing either behind Cesc or on the wing and not surprisingly they aren’t performing any better than Cesc at the same stage. Alternatively we could balance the midfield (like we did with Diaby/Denilson/Song a while back) and again with some adaptation we would find fluency in the final third too.
I don’t think we’re that far without Cesc and given his current injury rate we’ll progress nicely this season.
For me the main reason we don’t score enough goals is that we’ve been missing Theo Walcott big time. We play a 433 that requires the 3 strikers to be threatening but when we slot a midfielder on the wing we’re de facto playing 442 with a midfielder out of position. Once he will be back we’ll have more presence forward and will perform much better with or without Cesc. And Sagna will have a license to roam forward and keep working on those crosses.
@Neil and Holic, It’s not been made safe everywhere yet… a friend of mine went to see a game during a business trip to Bolivia and told me he had been thinking of Hillsborough the minute he passed the turntile, the scariest experience of his life with unbelievably strong crowd movements.