I was looking on my timeline today and guess what popped up? It is 40 years to the day since that not so memorable night when it ended up West Ham 8 Newcastle 1.
With us fielding three different keeper s and guess who was there as a very impressionable 16 year old?!! Yes, yours truly, muggins here.
As I remember, the game was on a Monday night, but my adventure hadn’t started on the Monday.
On my mum’s side of the family she has two other sisters and a brother. One of the sisters (Auntie Eileen) had married my Uncle Richard ( well he wouldn’t have been my Uncle Richard if they hadn’t got married…but I digress) and they had settled in London with Uncle Richard being a massive Chelsea fan.
So me and mum had travelled down on the Friday on the train for a weekend visit with the view of Uncle Richard taking me to the Chelsea vs Newcastle game on the Saturday.
I must have been on literally hundreds of train journeys travelling to watch us but the thing that made this journey stand out, was that halfway down on the train this bloke opposite us starts hearing a loud ringing noise from his hand luggage. Lo and behold he pulls out this phone that Dom Joly would have been proud of. Certainly not an every day occurrence back in 1986, or yesterday as it’s known in Sunderland.
So into the main stand at Chelsea the next day with Uncle Richard, he points over to the West Stand at Chelsea and says that’s where all the loons go who follow us frequent. Even at that early age I was immersed into the casual culture and watched on in fascination at the mass mob of Chelsea fans goading our lot in the away end.
Next day it’s a family Sunday lunch on the Thames and back home for me and mum…until I happen to mention to mummy dearest that Newcastle have another game in London tomorrow night and since you’re the best mum in the world (she is by the way). Could I stop down and go….and she agrees, happy days.
So the next day I am heading into Central London on my own as a 16 year old. I bump into a few of the young gremlins and we have a mooch around London before heading up to Upton Park around 6pm.
Getting off the tube at West Ham it’s a hostile atmosphere (The Hammers had a chance of winning the league, they ended up third that season) and it’s clear that although we are young, West Ham ain’t a place for the faint hearted away fan. So what do we do? Yep, pay to go into the main stand.
It gets even better as we find ourselves to the right of a big mob of ICF, who obviously suss us out straight away. But actually tolerate us being so young, Newcastle going 5-0 down and through three different goalies.
Well tolerated us until Billy Whitehurst makes it 1-5. So I thought they wouldn’t mind when I jumped up and celebrated. WRONG. With us getting chased out and avoiding a major slap.
The match ended in an 8-1 defeat with us watching the last three goals from the away end thanks to a kindly steward.
Back on the tube into Central London where we managed to bung the driver on the Clipper a tenner each to catch the midnight coach home. And to prove it was 1986, I had a Wimpy burger and chips before we left.