I'm not arguing with you, I know what I saw. By all means, keep saying it, it doesn't change anything.
It wasn't a claim, it was a fact. You, are wrong. You. Not me. Learn to ****ing count. Or, have an awareness of your surroundings.
I wish. I don't have 4 or 5. Number 6 I have which is an end of season review. I will wait until the children have got bored of the petty stupid arguing and ****ed off to bed before posting that (it may be some days away) If anyone else has 4 and 5 feel free to put them on here.
When City came out of the old 3rd division after the epic ( by our history's standards) 1965/66 season we were a bit of a novelty to the 'bigger' clubs we were about to play and hadn't played a league game against most of them for several years. Coventry, Sunderland, Leicester, Forest, Derby, the Sheffield clubs, Boro, Wolves, Brum and Villa. All clubs who were arguably bigger then us and with proud traditions behind them of having played at the top level and had decent cup runs. For City this was only the third time we had managed to get out of the old division three since the end of WW2 and in 59/60 we went straight back down again. We were basically a 3rd division club playing in the 2nd division, new kids on the block, and a visit to Hull would have been a first for all of the bigger city clubs we were about to play. Boothferry Park was also a decent ground to visit and Hull was a good day out, especially for Sunderland and Boro, even Leicester who turned up in their thousands. When Man U came in 74 they were recently relegated from the 1st division and still had a huge fanbase, with many of them from Hull, especially OPE, and their following to Hull was not a surprise because they took those numbers to every away ground that season. I believe our support was still relatively young compared to those clubs. We were late starters in Hull with terrace culture, having an organised Kop end, and so on. I'd guess that the average age of our fans on the South Stand in 65/66 was about 15 compared to the fans of all the bigger clubs who came who all appeared to be at least five years older then us. We were mainly schoolkids and they were followed by young working men. Even by 1970 when we were pretty much established in Div 2 our travelling support were still relatively young kids, 17 to 18, we didn't have many older lads to look up to or look after us and show us the ropes. Personally I was working fulltime then and after handing over my board I had less then £4 a week left to myself so travelling away with City any further then Yorkshire was out of the question unless a Football Special was laid on, which was a lot cheaper ( and safer) and therefore more fans went. I believe we are still evolving as a club and we have progressed more over the last 10 years then we did in the previous 100. It's just a pity football has changed so much and it's no longer the number one attraction to the young lads as it was in 1966 when most of us oldies started going. We are certainly still a new kid on the block in the PL and having a sniff of silverware as we were when we came out of the old Div 3 in 1966. It's all about tradition and sadly we didn't have much of it until recently.
Ah, now that's more like it... As someone heavily involved in the original '80s City fanzines, we had to rely on the "old timers" for tales of what is was like watching City in the decades before. Mainly those tales revolved around how packed Boothferry Park got on the big occasions but very rarely about away games (with the exception of either Chelsea in 65/66 or Sheff U in 70/71 which every man and his dog appears to have been at). Hence why this thread was originally a breath of fresh air for those would-be social historians among us.
A lot of fair points in there. Mid 70's and on were my years, and as you say the big boys going to the new little kid on the block must have been an effect, just like we took many more (100's) to places like Mansfield, Chester, Carlisle and Doncaster.
By 1972 the young lads who started going as schoolkids in the mid 60's were now young working men themselves exactly like the visiting hoards from Sunderland, Boro and the Sheffield clubs who started arriving when we got back in Div 2. We'd had six or seven years of it ourselves and had developed our own identity and a bit of a reputation. If you read the history books there was something of a police purge around 72, I claim it was the emergence of Humberside Police from the smaller Hull City police force ( could be wrong) and our numbers were ravaged. Such was the fear of this purge that many lads left Hull altogether, many were jailed/borstal and the remaining ones were spot balled by the police to such extent that following City was made virtually impossible for lads of a certain age if you didn't want to be locked up on some trumped up charge. On the field the club were on the slide and so were the crowds which left a huge hole in our support during the later half of the 70's until the younger lads came of age themselves, which is where this thread began. There is also something in the fact that in those days young lads usually got married when they reached 21. Early marriage was particularly common in working class areas especially in Hull. I cannot speak for other cities but here if you hadn't got hitched or had a kid on the way before you were 21 people thought there was something wrong with you. With that came responsibilities and coupled with the very real threat of having you collar felt for virtually FA you can see why lads of a certain age gave football a miss at that time. I didn't and I was very much in the minority.
Got no. 5, it's a single sheeter from March 79, no logo and now called PSYHOS (sic) magazine. Still the same breezy upbeat style, 3 full coaches got halfway to Bpool before it was called off, 2 double deckers for Chesterfield -again game off. "COME AND JOIN THE PSYCHOS SIGNED CITY PSCHOS COMITTEE"
Yeah, because someone decided that since 'no-one likes them' it was fair enough to persecute and massacre them
Even today, people think there's 'something wrong with me' for not wanting kids. Every time, without exception, that I tell someone they pull the same face and then take great delight in telling me "you'll change your mind". When? I'm 41 for ****'s sake and there hasn't been a single second of my life when I thought having kids was desirable.