Great Football Matches of My Life (part 1)

It’s a long time since I wrote a piece on here. Many years ago, almost in another life, I used to write quite regularly, mainly about how much I disliked Ivan Gazidis as I recall. But everyone seemed to quite enjoy my articles so I think I’ll come out of retirement and write this one.

I thought about writing something about the new season, but then I realised I don’t really care enough about it to generate an honest opinion. Modern top level football is so thoroughly daft that I don’t understand how people can remain so invested in it. As you get older, I have noticed, you lose the anger and passion that used to fuel the partisanship of football fanaticism as a young man. Now all I have are distant memories and a bad liver.

So instead I thought I would write about great football matches from my past. A lot of people’s lists would no doubt comprise cup finals, trips to the world cup etc. I have been to an enormous number of football matches in my time, but not a lot of really big games. The Champions League semi against United I suppose, which was over after four minutes. But certainly no European Championship finals or anything like that.

So this list isn’t about those kind of games. It’s about games that were either extremely good in their own right, or marked out a memorable event or period in my life, or for the club that I was watching at that time.

31 Jan 1981. Millwall 0-0 Newport County

My first football match. I had to look the date up. People say you always remember your first football match, but I don’t remember much of it except for being extremely cold (the game was at Cold Blow Lane after all). I was taken by our neighbour Anthony and his dad Alan. Alan was an extremely enthusiastic Tottenham supporter. He used to go up to Wembley for the cup finals and not come back for about a week. The original intention had been to attend White Hart Lane because this was Anthony’s birthday treat - but luckily Tottenham weren’t playing at home that day or my life may have headed down an extremely dark path. Instead of a trip to watch Hoddle in his pomp, Anthony’s birthday treat consisted of standing on a half-deserted side terrace at the old Den and watching an extremely dull division 3 scoreless draw. This was in the days of course of F-Troop, people in surgical masks throwing darts at each other, Harry the Dog and so on. But I didn’t notice any of that, or it may have livened up the afternoon considerably. I think John Aldridge the future Liverpool and Oxford striker may have been playing for Newport. But I can’t be bothered to look it up. Perhaps if John is reading this, he can tell us.

20th December 1986 Arsenal 3-0 Luton

Here we go. My first live Arsenal match. My dad, who is very old now, used to run a sign company. ‘Burnham Signs’ of South East London. We made a lot of signs. Some of them were for JVC, who we all know were the Arsenal sponsors of the time (‘JVC and Arsenal, the perfect match’ - and as a mark of gratitude, one of their guys in London used to give us seats, and also some rather snazzy posters. This was in the days before boxes, instead you used to have something called the ‘Executive Suite’ which was in the West Upper at Highbury. Inside, behind the seats was a kind of oak panelled pub area where you could get sliced beef sandwiches and crisps. It was all very low key. Then you went out into the stand where there were various big cheeses of North London smoking cigars in coats with big fur collars. My Dad didn’t really like football so he sat there reading the Daily Telegraph. Every now and then he would look up as David Rocastle bombed past and go ‘That chaps fast isn’t he…’ then stick his head back into the business pages.

I was transfixed by it all. The size, the scale of the place, and the noise. But most of all the North Bank, as the songs started to rise into the air. And the waves of furious anger that you used to get off the East and West Lower every time an opposition player got near, or the linesman made a bad call.

This was George Graham’s first season and he had started to get a tune out of Arsenal. The North Bank kept singing for Charlie Nicholas to come on, but GG didn’t like Charlie. He gave in eventually, and bought him on, and Luton’s resistance broke on about the 70th minute, with Niall Quinn heading home. I think Hayes and Adams scored the others. That was it for me. As we headed out into that familiar smell of horse sh*t burgers and tobacco smoke, I had decided I was coming back, and preferably to stand in the North Bank.

December 2 1990 Arsenal 3-0 Liverpool

I’ll always remember this game as a perfect afternoon. Arsenal had started to match Liverpool by this stage and had obviously won the league the year before, but it was still unusual for anyone to beat Liverpool as comprehensively as this. It was on the Big Match, Sunday afternoon, and there was a proper buzz about Highbury. By now I was a callow cigarette smoking greasy haired baggy trousered youth, who had graduated to the back of the North Bank, where you could quite easily shift 10meters down the terrace if a goal went in and lose your Nike trainers, which you would have to look for afterwards. I took along my friend Simon who supported Watford, he hadn’t been in the North Bank and was clearly terrified of the overall exuberance of the crowd. Anyway the game was a cracker, Merson looped a header just over the line early on at the clock end to put the Arsenal 1-0 up. Dixon got a penalty after half time and the place went ballistic. But the finale, and a goal that the ITV Match used to show in their opening credits in the coming year or so, was where Merson, who was having the afternoon of his life, backheeled a ball perfectly into Smith’s path and he lashed the ball across the Liverpool keeper and into the far corner. It was 3-0 to the Arsenal and ‘goodbye trainers’.

April 25 1992 Chelsea 1 – 1 Arsenal

I can’t remember if this was my first away match, I don’t think it necessarily was, but it was a game that always sticks in my memory for the sheer anarchy that you used to get in football at the time. Me and my mate went along for a 3pm kick off on a Saturday near the end of the season. Unless you supported Chelsea, in which case you probably liked it, Stamford Bridge was a terrible place. You used to get a vast open end for the away fans with about one toilet, no roof, and with bits of shrubbery growing out it. On your right, separated by a small patch of redundant terrace, you had their old east stand which contained some extremely aggressive gentlemen. Then, before you, stood the old Shed End, which I concede was a highly impressive football terrace of the bygone era. I went in it incognito a few times actually, and never has Ben Kenobi’s quote from Star Wars been more appropriate - ‘You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…’

Anyway, we were down the front of the away end. Next to us were an entire family, mother, father, girls and boys, all a little bit on the large side, and they were all having a cracking afternoon. Climbing up the fence and goading the chaps in the East Stand with various hand gestures. Me and my friend had been smoking a certain type of cigarette that you used to smoke in those days and we were finding everything extremely funny. The Chelsea team at the time was very much modelled on their fans, with good old Dennis Wise and that nice Vinnie Jones turning out for them. Vinnie was a wonderfully theatrical footballer. I saw him play football several times in those days, and he rarely even bothered with the football, he just used to run round shouting at people at the top of his lungs, furious with everything. Dennis scored a goal for them in about the 80th minute, although it was hard to tell as Chelsea used to have huge advertising hoardings that covered up the bottom of the goal from behind - nevertheless we enjoyed that experience all away fans can relate to where the entire ground goes up in wild celebration except your bit, and you can only stand and feel rather small.

But that was a half decent Arsenal side, which was scoring a LOT of goals at the time (92 for 92 as the end of season video was called), and Lee Dixon took it upon himself to equalise with a thunderous looping volley from about 25 yards right in front of the shed. Cue the large family all climbing up the fence and letting the East Stand know what they thought of them.

As it was the end of the season, the Shed End chose to mark it by invading the pitch and steaming towards our end. If you have seen ‘Braveheart’, or the ‘Battle of the Bastards’ in ‘Game of Thrones’ it was very much like that, except instead of armoured legions, the scene comprised Umbro-clad lunatics. 

The family all climbed up the fence again - ‘COME ON THEN’ they shouted, even the junior members. This struck me as an unwise suggestion, as there must have been a good 5000 of the Chelse and they were well past the halfway line by this stage. Thankfully, in another scene very reminiscent of a film, several police horses charged on from the direction of the West Stand and heroically scattered them back to the shed.

You can keep your £90 seats and expected goal stats, that was my kind of afternoon. You just don’t get them any more.

Anyway that’s part 1 I will do further parts if I think people are enjoying this one.