Memory Lane FA Cup Memories

[AndyT]

Just looked up my game and it was 22nd November 1968, so the Blackpool game is closest for me.

 

[Ex-Member1]

Swindon away 2-0 all day long. Fabulous day.

 

[B.B.The Legend Lives On.]

Nothing to do with the FA Cup, but it's the 50th anniversary of the first match I ever attended, later this month. It was a league game against Bradford City, sandwiched between the famous 1st and 2nd Round cup matches that season.

Great memories

Hi Andy, details of your 1st ever match at the Hall. 22nd. Nov. 1968, Southend United 2, Bradford City 0. Goalscorers were Eddie Clayton and Phil Chisnall. with one of those rare special attendances:- 11,111.

 

[AndyT]

Many thanks 'BB'.

I remember entering the ground at the very top of the South Bank and looking across at the floodlit pitch and thinking how great it all was. That image I can see now as I'm typing this. I've still got the programme. Dark Blue cover and the usual Kurssal advert on the back IIRC.

Those cup games either side were stuff of legends. Excellent report in your post earlier on the matches.

Great days.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

That equaliser at Chelsea I think has to be my fav FA Cup moment - I was still going mad when Mildy did that wonderful save and we all just carried on bouncing to the final whistle and beyond.

When Clarkie finally hangs up his boots my aim for a SUEPA event is to recreate that equaliser by getting Johnny Herd, Adam and Clarkie alonng - should make a decent bit of HT entertainment. Yes I know Adam got beat to the flick on by a Chelsea defender but lets pretend he didn't

 

[Zeuss]

did any team that we played go on and win the trophy?

Yes,famously -Man C 1955-56. The all-time hero Bernt Trautmann said their most difficult match was at Roots Hall.I ‘ll never forget his keeping that afternoon.

 

[AndyT]

That equaliser at Chelsea I think has to be my fav FA Cup moment - I was still going mad when Mildy did that wonderful save and we all just carried on bouncing to the final whistle and beyond.

I guess when people ask why you spend so much watching football for so little return, it's moments like that is the answer you give.

I'm not sure there's any other sport that can give you that adrenaline rush.

 

[AndyT]

Yes,famously -Man C 1955-56. The all-time hero Bernt Trautmann said their most difficult match was at Roots Hall.I ‘ll never forget his keeping that afternoon.

Good spot.

I was right about Chelsea earlier, as well.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Swindon away 2-0 all day long. Fabulous day.

That was an incredible day out and a fantastic result. (Spent the morning walking around the stones at Stonehenge.......you could still do it then!) I don't believe anyone gave us a hope in hell of winning. Think they were undefeated at home in the old Third division and had a great side. The following year they went on to beat favourites Arsenal, in the League Cup Final at Wembley. Soon after leaving the ground I was able to purchace a pink local evening paper which already had a report on the game.............don't know how they did it so quickly! I've still got the paper, somewhere in my junk!

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Has to be all the games in 68/9.Bournmouth and Wolves away in the league cup.

Brentwood,Kings Lynn at home in the FA Cup plus Swindon and Mansfield away.

That game at Mansfield was heart breaking. Remember just being in the stand alongside the tunnel. You could smell the linament on the players when the teams came out. (I still had a sense of smell then!)

 

[Shrimper Neil]

Woking away for me. Proper cup game... cold, wet and mental celebrations when Nathan Jones free kick went in

Was pretty much our only highlight that season

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

I guess when people ask why you spend so much watching football for so little return, it's moments like that is the answer you give.

I'm not sure there's any other sport that can give you that adrenaline rush.

Exactly Andy, who knows when the next such moment will come, but come it will ....... one day

 

[B.B.The Legend Lives On.]

That was an incredible day out and a fantastic result. (Spent the morning walking around the stones at Stonehenge.......you could still do it then!) I don't believe anyone gave us a hope in hell of winning. Think they were undefeated at home in the old Third division and had a great side. The following year they went on to beat favourites Arsenal, in the League Cup Final at Wembley. Soon after leaving the ground I was able to purchace a pink local evening paper which already had a report on the game.............don't know how they did it so quickly! I've still got the paper, somewhere in my junk!

When we beat Swindon 2-0 in the F.A.Cup back on the 4th.January 1969 according to the match programme Swindon were fourth in Division 3 and as you say were unbeaten at home in the league(won 8 drawn 1 although they did lose to Burnley(1-2) at home in the League Cup S/F). Just about 70 days later on the 15th.March 1969 they beat Arsenal 3-1 at Wembley with goals from Don Rogers(2) & Roger Smart. Bobby Gould scored for Arsenal

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Well, this thread gets trotted out every year, and then dies after the first round defeat until next season when we reminisce it all over again.

So, having seen a couple of you recall that defeat at Hereford in '81, once again here is an excerpt from the good book RTT92:

"EDGAR STREET, Hereford United 3 Southend United 1, FA Cup Round One, Saturday 21 November 1981

In 2006, BBC 5 Live’s 606 programme invited listeners to submit a brief story ‘about the passion, drama, agony or ecstasy of the beautiful game’. A 1981 trip to Edgar Street was my entry. There was a 300 words limit and my offering was as follows:

‘A Southend fan washed up in Plymouth in 1981, our ball had come out of the hat after Hereford’s. So off I went to Edgar Street, once host to a glorious 70’s FA Cup parka pitch invasion, for a nice relaxing day trip and the start of our annual forlorn assault on Wembley. I left my digs at 6.30 am for the seven mile cycle ride to the train station. One mile in I had a puncture, ran back home to dump the bike, and then hitched a lift to Plymouth centre. Train caught just in time, three changes and five hours later I was in Hereford. We lost 3-1. About turn for the train ride back, but British Rail was in meltdown. Changes this time had to be made at Newport, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St David’s and Newton Abbot, arriving back in Plymouth around 1.00 am. It was peeing down (I mean, really peeing down, Plymouth style), the last bus had gone, no stranger wanted to give a drenched inadequately clothed young adult a lift, and so I walked. An hour or so later, about one mile away from the end, a cop car pulled up and asked where I had been. I told them my story and submitted a soggy programme as Exhibit A. They took the ****, told me that they were on the look-out for a peeping tom but believed my unique alibi and desire just to get home rather than peep at Tom or anyone, declined to give me a lift up the steep hill before me, suggested I support a better team, and sped off laughing. I eventually got back some 20 hours after leaving. Never mind, there’s always next year I thought.’"

 

[AndyT]

As mentioned before, Andrew, we were on that very train with you back to Newport!

I seem to recall when we arrived for the match, there was some sort of steam train day going on in Hereford. Masses of people lined up on the railway bridge.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

As mentioned before, Andrew, we were on that very train with you back to Newport!

I seem to recall when we arrived for the match, there was some sort of steam train day going on in Hereford. Masses of people lined up on the railway bridge.

Yep, though my memory recalls it being on the train going (so many sodding stops that day!) - I also recall one of your group singing songs in an Elvis voice .... and I tagged along with your troop for a few beers before KO

And for a real treat I attach a pic I took that day, just a dull stand pic but it was so rare back then to have a camera at a game let alone be sober enough to take a pic with it

 

[AndyT]

Yep, you're right. It was on the train going. We ended up in some local pub serving the most potent cider I think I've ever had!

Great pic. I remember that home end. Kind of had a curve to the terracing.

 

[Rob Noxious]

Both of my two were games where we scored four. The first was the wonderful game v Northampton in December '86 (4-4) where Richard Cadette scored a great goal to put us 3-2 up, I think, turning two defenders on the edge of the area and slotting home beautifully. The second was more recently with the 4-1 home win v Millwall. We played really well that day on a pretty soggy pitch. Chelsea away was a great backs to the wall performance and the equaliser was hugely unexpected, of course, but those former games were a better spectacle for me.

 

[LCBB72]

did any team that we played go on and win the trophy?

Manchester City

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Blimey. Never realised (and genuinely shocked) how truly dismal your FA Cup record is. When beating Swindon seems to be the highlight of 100-odd years of participation, you can’t have had anything much to shout about.

Ps. #inb4westysaysmaidstone