SOUTHAMPTON AWAY TWENTY YEARS BACk
Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:08 am
Hopeless on dates but must be around twenty years back, we played Southampton away in a cup game, it was a night match and I drove a fifteen seater mini bus up. We actually had seventeen of us and it was a bit cramped, but still luxury compared to the Trannie vans we tended to use around that era.
We parked up near the ground and even met Matt Le Tissier outside the stadium, had some great banter with him and he was a top bloke.
Found a pub and the lads topped up even though most of them were half pissed anyway, because I was driving I was more concerned with getting some grub (suprisingly). Went walking around and came across a nice looking sandwich shop in a back street. Went in and asked for a egg mayo sarnie, and the girl serving me said "do you want salt on it Gwyn" I said "yes please, but not to much" paid the money and started to walk out, then it hit me, how the hell did she know my name?
Went back in and asked the girl, who laughed and said " you daft sod, I'm from Cwmaman" mad as f**k, there I was in a back street cafe in Southampton being served by a girl who was from the same small village that had more lamposts than people.
It turned out she had actually been married to one of my mates, they moved up there for work, but got divorced, he came home, she stayed, hence the story, but a weird little coincidence.
The game was a great laugh, I think we had lost the first leg three nil or so, but it hadn't stopped thousands of us travelling, and what an atmosphere, I used to love the Dell, that section behind the goal that sloped upwards to almost a point so narrow one bloke could stand there, never seen a stand like that anywhere.
It was a bit mad outside afterwards, mostly down to ours in all fairness, but plenty of Southampton up for trouble as well and it was kicking off all over the place, when I got back to the mini bus, there were coppers everywhere. Some of our lads had been involved with a gang of Southampton lads, and of the boys had somehow wound up with a Southampton shirt as a battle souvenier.
It wound up with two lads, Ken Collins (Dwty) mad as a box of, and his mate from Barry getting locked up for the night. We tried to get them out, but no way were the police letting them go, I think that was down to finding out the lad from Barry had just done a jail sentence for robbing a building society with a double barrel shotgun
Anyway, on the positive side I thought, at least everyone had their own seat home, but whilst there we bumped into seven lads from Llantwit Farde who had some mates locked up, but they were the drivers and stuck up there, so instead of a seat for everyone, we wound up with seven extra passengers and me driving a bus who's front wheels were two inches off the road, it was like steering the QE2 rather than a mini bus, but we lived to tell the tale.
We parked up near the ground and even met Matt Le Tissier outside the stadium, had some great banter with him and he was a top bloke.
Found a pub and the lads topped up even though most of them were half pissed anyway, because I was driving I was more concerned with getting some grub (suprisingly). Went walking around and came across a nice looking sandwich shop in a back street. Went in and asked for a egg mayo sarnie, and the girl serving me said "do you want salt on it Gwyn" I said "yes please, but not to much" paid the money and started to walk out, then it hit me, how the hell did she know my name?
Went back in and asked the girl, who laughed and said " you daft sod, I'm from Cwmaman" mad as f**k, there I was in a back street cafe in Southampton being served by a girl who was from the same small village that had more lamposts than people.
It turned out she had actually been married to one of my mates, they moved up there for work, but got divorced, he came home, she stayed, hence the story, but a weird little coincidence.
The game was a great laugh, I think we had lost the first leg three nil or so, but it hadn't stopped thousands of us travelling, and what an atmosphere, I used to love the Dell, that section behind the goal that sloped upwards to almost a point so narrow one bloke could stand there, never seen a stand like that anywhere.
It was a bit mad outside afterwards, mostly down to ours in all fairness, but plenty of Southampton up for trouble as well and it was kicking off all over the place, when I got back to the mini bus, there were coppers everywhere. Some of our lads had been involved with a gang of Southampton lads, and of the boys had somehow wound up with a Southampton shirt as a battle souvenier.
It wound up with two lads, Ken Collins (Dwty) mad as a box of, and his mate from Barry getting locked up for the night. We tried to get them out, but no way were the police letting them go, I think that was down to finding out the lad from Barry had just done a jail sentence for robbing a building society with a double barrel shotgun
Anyway, on the positive side I thought, at least everyone had their own seat home, but whilst there we bumped into seven lads from Llantwit Farde who had some mates locked up, but they were the drivers and stuck up there, so instead of a seat for everyone, we wound up with seven extra passengers and me driving a bus who's front wheels were two inches off the road, it was like steering the QE2 rather than a mini bus, but we lived to tell the tale.
Re: SOUTHAMPTON AWAY TWENTY YEARS BACk
Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:45 pm
hi gwyn read my account of my trip to southampton 76/77 season i think on cardiff away days what a day that was 
Re: SOUTHAMPTON AWAY TWENTY YEARS BACk
Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:25 pm
cardiff 74 wrote:hi gwyn read my account of my trip to southampton 76/77 season i think on cardiff away days what a day that was
was this the one where we were fighting in the cemetry