I remember that Sheff Utd game. Froze me little toes off it did. Definitely in the “wouldn’t be played these days”Category.
Remember a 5-0 at home to Cambridge round about 1986. They were cut adrift at the bottom and brought about five fans one of whom was particularly enthusiastic and changed shirts every 15 minutes or so.
Remember Freddie putting a window through away at Gillingham.
Those two late pens at Sheffield United in 1981. Bizarre in that the tannoy announced an unlikely result elsewhere which had saved them from the drop. All that did was stop the rioting for five minutes to allow us to get out alive. Once the Sheff United fans knew the truth (they were down) the rioting continued well into the night. Thanks Givens day as Sheffield Wednesday fans called it and the older ones still do.
The streaker against West Ham who got chucked out and then re-appeared. Was that the brilliant Charlie Ntmark own goal match too- a rare two touch effort?
Cardiff Away in 1987. West Tip won the National that day and less than 2,000 people there to see four penalties awarded. Was a very strange day indeed. A very rare no-show (less than 200) from our fans in an empty Ninian Park.
And talking of pens there was a home game against Blackpool on a Tuesday night round about 1988 when the ref just seemed to have a meltdown. Gave three pens I think, nobody knew what two of them were for, sent off at least one of their players and dismissed their manager too (Sam Ellis?). Think Paul Jones lashed Home our pens in a 3-2 win.
Another bizarre incident, when we played Ipswich in the FA cup 1996, i thought that we would do it in style, i booked the EXECUTIVE coach from bescot, we were on the same coach as Whalley and Steve Parks, i booked one of the box’s at Ipswich, and again we were with Steve Parks who was one of our directors at the time, we had a lovely meal lined up with all the trimmings, so we sat there waiting to get stuck into the chilli and rice, when parksy threw up all over the table, it went everywhere, needless to say we didn’t eat, steve was taken away by roy and later on he came back to apologise for steve’s behavior, it turned out that he had been on a strict diet, and had nothing to eat on the day, but took full advantage of the free wine on the coach, drinking 2 bottles, by way of apology he came back into the box and offered us free entry to HIS box at the next home game which was Burnley, but it was called off due to a frozen pitch
At the Stoke game seem to remember they put a commentary on of the Leeds match, we all booed so they switched to the Wolves match commentary and we all chanted ‘we want Leeds’. Won that match 3-0 and Stoke fan outside ground said ‘we were lucky to get nil’
Let me tell you about a bizarre Walsall match I’ve been too.
It was a relatively warm winter’s day in February 2019. Walsall were on a run of something stupid like 1 win in 12, and we faced a Bradford team that were close to us in the relegation dogfight.
On this day, our leading scorer got a straight red on 6 minutes leaving us to play the remainder of the game with 10 men.
I know what you’re thinking, that’s not really bizarre. Wait for it…
I remember a match at fellows park when Brian Caswell had been fouled and the ref didn’t give anything, and played on, with the play going on up the pitch, Brian just rolled onto the player and punched him about 2-3 times around the head, just got up and left him there
Does anyone remember Walsall away at Ipswich in around 1995 I think? They had Ian Marshall up front and we had a Sky kit (Barcelona stripes if memory serves me correctly)…
Anyway, I went up on the train and the game was postponed about 2 hours or so before kick off due to a sudden flurry of snow.
I was amongst a group of supporters who expressed our discontent outside the ground and the Ipswich chairman, David Sheepshanks, came out to apologise!
He then took us to Alan Brazil’s pub in the town centre and got the 20 or so fans who had hung about a free drink!
It ended up being a lock in with all these Ipswich fans buying us free drinks all night for our wasted journey!
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I happened to be at Uni at Norwich at the time. They saw my Walsall top and assumed that I had been on a 3 1/2 hour train journey.
Suffice to say I had a brilliant night though memories of it remain very blurry!
The following week, I went up again for the rearranged game and I think we lost 2-0!with Jamie Snowcroft putting us to the sword.
The game was rubbish but the first game that wasnt was both bizarre and brilliant!
Got me thinking, and not sure if this really happened. Played Chesterfield in around 1977 at Derbys Baseball ground in the F A cup. Sure we won 1 0 and went on to play Man Utd in next round but could all have been a dream.
Went to game st Swindon in mid 70s and we lost 5 1. Bizarre thing was i think the ref gave 5 penaltys. They scored 3 missed 1 our goal came from a penalty as well.
Oh yes, I remember that Cambridge match vividly. We could have scored about 25, let alone 5. We missed at least two open goals. I was so disappointed to see a policeman go and have a word with enthusiastic Cambridge fan.
Any one remember the freight rover trophy mid 80’s at home to derby
Club called for help for snow to be shovelled off the pitch !
Crazy game too , snow piled high behind the goals and mark Rees jumping into it after scoring one of his 3 goals that night .
Game ended 5-3 to us I think
Does anyone remember when the theme music to Crossroads started playing on the sound system in the middle of a match at home? Around 2005 I think - can’t remember the opponents.
Do remember that game mate , Mark Rees was pictured in the back of express & star next day with the matchball… hit the headlines even more because it was the perfect hat-rick ( left foot,right foot and header )
Midweek match at home to Cardiff 6-3 to us I’m sure Steve Elliott got a hat trick .
And if cause FA cup match vs Preston and the wizard willie naughton hit a treble against his old club as we won 7-3!!!
Also not forgetting early in the season with reading winning there first 6 games I think , they came to fellows park and we duly dispatched them 6-0 !!.
The days of walking round to the cow shed when we kicked towards the laundry end we’re great !!
I remember one away game (Preston I think) and Rees was brought on as a sub after a lengthy injury lay off. I started the chanting “Pyscho is back” to which loads joined in with … only for him to go off injured about 5 minutes later!
