Don't Look Back In Anger by Carl Spiers

Author:Carl Spiers [Spiers, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPORTS & RECREATION / Football
ISBN: 1901746836
Publisher: Empire Publications
Published: 2012-11-12T23:00:00+00:00

Earlier on in 1976 Bolton Wanderers drew Newcastle United at home at Burnden Park in the FA Cup 5th round, five of us from Grange school decided we were going to this massive game, and for a chance to see Bolton taken over by the thousands of Geordies. Me, Nicky Dixon, Phil Harper, John Lund and Dave Hibbert got the 400 bus to Bolton that Saturday lunch, we arrived in Bolton at 1pm, already there were thousands of Geordies all over the town centre almost to a man wearing the black and white stripes shirts of their heroes, many of them were pissed up and chanting away, we didn’t see many Bolton fans bar the odd pockets of youths, it seemed most of Bolton’s town centre pubs were full of Geordies both inside and out. It was a carnival atmosphere.

We made our way down Manny road to Burnden park along with thousands of Geordies, it was the first time I had ever felt safe in Bolton, as we arrived at Bolton’s ground around 2pm we witnessed loads of scuffles as Bolton’s thugs clashed with the Geordies, Bolton were in and outside the King Bill pub facing the ground, it was very tense but there were just too many Geordies, the cops could not cope with the extraordinary large numbers, they were lawless, they all seemed like giants and did not give a fuck for the cops,

We tried in vain to pay into the ground but it was sold out with thousands still outside, Im sure the crowd was over 50,000 that day, with over 30,000 Geordies inside and loads still outside, an incredible following, we just soaked the atmosphere up and revelled in the Geordies taking the piss, it was a sea of black and white everywhere.

We could hear the singing in the ground and it was brilliant, we were gutted we were not inside but we all of a sudden had an incredible stroke of luck when one of them old Christians with an orange placard saying “Jesus will save you” asked if we had any tickets, “no” we all said as one, well amazingly he pulled FIVE tickets out and gave them to us, all for the Embankment end where the Geordies were encamped in their thousands, he didn’t want a penny and we offered him good money, he just said you must thank the good lord above, which we did... yippee! God knows how he got hold of these but we were soon making our way into the Railway Embankment end..

What we witnessed and was a part of was one of the greatest games ever, Bolton 3 Newcastle 3, I think Malcolm McDonald got a hat-trick. It was end-to-end stuff and possibly one of the best atmospheres I have ever come across, 50,000 plus roaring their teams on, it was proper hairs on the neck job. An amazing exciting wonderful match, and when the Geordies to a man all sang Blaydon Races in unison well I was gobsmacked.

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