Away Trips Go Bad

[samflitt]

Yeah there's been a few.....

Standard Liege away.......what a shithole, pissing in dirt under the stand, having to go out of the gates outside the ground to get a hotdog, just about to buy one after waiting for ages when old bill come running over and manhandle all of us back inside and lock the gates! A few seconds later, the 'Hellsiders' came steaming round the corner....old bill brought a water cannon up and went into them. We had a decent view of it too! Of course we completely stuffed them and the coach got stoned as we left the area, couple of windows went in. Happy days!!

Sampdoria away......looking forward to a few beers in the city before the match, we'd been given the all clear by old bill to do so according to the club. As we were nearing the city centre, the coaches were pulled over and old bill got on and told the stewards that the police chief had changed his mind and we were being taken to a special area with full facilities for us......a car park with fuck all there!! If that had been the Chavs or someone like that there would have been a riot.....Arsenal fans were as well behaved as ever and just moaned like fuck. Game turned out to be fab though with Spunky's penalty save. I don't know who the geezer next to me was but his glasses came flying off in the mad celebrations and he finally found some pieces of them a few minutes later!! Funny enough I wasn't overly fussed by not getting in to the city as I'd been into Genoa when I went to the World cup in 1990, my mate and I got the ferry from Genoa, an absolute shit hole. It was also after that trip (world cup), that I stopped following England away, too many lunatics, and most of them seemed to be Leeds fans!!

Torino away......Old bill were holding Gooners in a little area right outside the stadium, not allowing anyone to wander. We were getting well pissed off, we were there early and bored shitless. Two carabinieri were guarding us when something kicked off about a hundred metres away outside the Del Alpi stadium....the Gooners took their chance and about 10 of us ran for it! We got a few hundred metres up the road when an old boy in a tiny pizza shop was trying to get all passing Gooners to come in. Cheeky bugger was charging about a fiver for a beer but there were plenty of us dying for a drink so many of us piled in. After quite a few beers, my mate and I were running up a bit of a tab....the place got seriously packed with locals and Gooners and with about 45 mins to kick off, with no room to move in there, someone knocked a load of glasses over in the far corner, the old boy and his assistant went to clear up the glass etc and my mate suddenly said 'Go'......and just dived for the door and did a runner with me in close pursuit, pissing myself laughing. When we got to the stadium we were still laughing and I said 'you bastard'!! If I'd known you were going to do a runner I would have had a pizza as well!!'

Kiev away......
Wow, it's true, Eastern block girls are seriously gorgeous, almost every single woman we passed in the street was stunning. We flew independently with Flight Ops and found ourselves in the centre with about 8 other Gooners. We found our way into a bar, downstairs in the basement and got well and truly ripped off for a small beer. My mate and I wandered off after one and met up with a few other Gooners mooching about. We got interviewed by a local TV crew in the street before we found this bar run by two young birds, one blonde one brunette, both gorgeous. There were about 8 Gooners round this table and I think over the course of 4 hours or so we sang every single Arsenal song at the top of our voices whilst drinking beer and vodka with the two young birds on our side of the bar just sitting watching us in some kind of amazement, and serving us of course! When we left it was pissing down and we got the coach to the stadium. As we got off the bus, the police pulled my mate to one side and detained him, along with about 5 other random people. I tried to protest and the copper put his hand on his gun and physically pushed me away. I ended up watching the game without my mate, who I finally met up with after the match. He said he missed 10 mins or so as they held them outside. Then finally let them go saying they had been told to randomly detain some Gooners for no reason!! We played shit and lost 3-0 if I remember rightly. I lost my voice completely by the time I left the stadium.....I still love that trip!!

Paris - Zaragoza........
Fuck it, I don't even want to think about it. We were by the Eiffel tower, 2000 odd spaniards steamed up to a small bunch of Gooners, the spaniards were giving sieg heil salutes. One of the went right up to a geezer I know and was shouting in his face. Cue one tasty punch in the mush for the spaniard and all hell broke loose! It all culminated in old bill coming in and splitting everyone up but the funniest thing of all was this large spaniard standing there shouting at us as the police ushered others away, as he was shouting abuse at us a car came up, just joe public, and parked on his toes!! We pissed ourselves whilst he was banging on the roof of the car screaming.
We all know what happened in the game. We were behind the goal and when they locked us in at the end I saw a copper run up to the big locked gates, look over the top of them and smash an old boy (must have been at least 60) over the head with his baton, loads of claret. Gooners went mad, I haven't seen anything like it, a large group steamed the gates and broke through, as we ran down they broke out the tear gas......not nice!! We ended up being made to walk two miles back to our car all because they wouldn't let us walk in a certain direction. Bastards. French and Italian police are by far the worst in my experiences.

Paris - PSG
Wow, treated like shit by old bill, I hate the city, belts and money had to be dropped in big tubs before the start, that was them gone!! They held us down the street until a bit before kick off then let us go, everyone steamed up to the gates to find they only had two turnstiles open so loads of us missed the start of the game. Absolutely fantastic atmosphere, 1-0 to the Arsenal was born and we were applauded out of the stadium by the Bois de Boulogne boys. I got home the next day to find I had been on TV right near the end of the match too, on the terraces!!

There's more games to think about but that's enough for now!!

Good stories mate.

[Wazza97]

Yeah there's been a few.....

Standard Liege away.......what a shithole, pissing in dirt under the stand, having to go out of the gates outside the ground to get a hotdog, just about to buy one after waiting for ages when old bill come running over and manhandle all of us back inside and lock the gates! A few seconds later, the 'Hellsiders' came steaming round the corner....old bill brought a water cannon up and went into them. We had a decent view of it too! Of course we completely stuffed them and the coach got stoned as we left the area, couple of windows went in. Happy days!!

Sampdoria away......looking forward to a few beers in the city before the match, we'd been given the all clear by old bill to do so according to the club. As we were nearing the city centre, the coaches were pulled over and old bill got on and told the stewards that the police chief had changed his mind and we were being taken to a special area with full facilities for us......a car park with fuck all there!! If that had been the Chavs or someone like that there would have been a riot.....Arsenal fans were as well behaved as ever and just moaned like fuck. Game turned out to be fab though with Spunky's penalty save. I don't know who the geezer next to me was but his glasses came flying off in the mad celebrations and he finally found some pieces of them a few minutes later!! Funny enough I wasn't overly fussed by not getting in to the city as I'd been into Genoa when I went to the World cup in 1990, my mate and I got the ferry from Genoa, an absolute shit hole. It was also after that trip (world cup), that I stopped following England away, too many lunatics, and most of them seemed to be Leeds fans!!

Torino away......Old bill were holding Gooners in a little area right outside the stadium, not allowing anyone to wander. We were getting well pissed off, we were there early and bored shitless. Two carabinieri were guarding us when something kicked off about a hundred metres away outside the Del Alpi stadium....the Gooners took their chance and about 10 of us ran for it! We got a few hundred metres up the road when an old boy in a tiny pizza shop was trying to get all passing Gooners to come in. Cheeky bugger was charging about a fiver for a beer but there were plenty of us dying for a drink so many of us piled in. After quite a few beers, my mate and I were running up a bit of a tab....the placie got seriously packed with locals and Gooners and with about 45 mins to kick off, with no room to move in there, someone knocked a load of glasses over in the far corner, the old boy and his assistant went to clear up the glass etc and my mate suddenly said 'Go'......and just dived for the door and did a runner with me in close pursuit, pissing myself laughing. When we got to the stadium we were still laughing and I said 'you bastard'!! If I'd known you were going to do a runner I would have had a pizza as well!!'

Kiev away......
Wow, it's true, Eastern block girls are seriously gorgeous, almost every single woman we passed in the street was stunning. We flew independently with Flight Ops and found ourselves in the centre with about 8 other Gooners. We found our way into a bar, downstairs in the basement and got well and truly ripped off for a small beer. My mate and I wandered off after one and met up with a few other Gooners mooching about. We got interviewed by a local TV crew in the street before we found this bar run by two young birds, one blonde one brunette, both gorgeous. There were about 8 Gooners round this table and I think over the course of 4 hours or so we sang every single Arsenal song at the top of our voices whilst drinking beer and vodka with the two young birds on our side of the bar just sitting watching us in some kind of amazement, and serving us of course! When we left it was pissing down and we got the coach to the stadium. As we got off the bus, the police pulled my mate to one side and detained him, along with about 5 other random people. I tried to protest and the copper put his hand on his gun and physically pushed me away. I ended up watching the game without my mate, who I finally met up with after the match. He said he missed 10 mins or so as they held them outside. Then finally let them go saying they had been told to randomly detain some Gooners for no reason!! We played shit and lost 3-0 if I remember rightly. I lost my voice completely by the time I left the stadium.....I still love that trip!!

Paris - Zaragoza........
Fuck it, I don't even want to think about it. We were by the Eiffel tower, 2000 odd spaniards steamed up to a small bunch of Gooners, the spaniards were giving sieg heil salutes. One of the went right up to a geezer I know and was shouting in his face. Cue one tasty punch in the mush for the spaniard and all hell broke loose! It all culminated in old bill coming in and splitting everyone up but the funniest thing of all was this large spaniard standing there shouting at us as the police ushered others away, as he was shouting abuse at us a car came up, just joe public, and parked on his toes!! We pissed ourselves whilst he was banging on the roof of the car screaming.
We all know what happened in the game. We were behind the goal and when they locked us in at the end I saw a copper run up to the big locked gates, look over the top of them and smash an old boy (must have been at least 60) over the head with his baton, loads of claret. Gooners went mad, I haven't seen anything like it, a large group steamed the gates and broke through, as we ran down they broke out the tear gas......not nice!! We ended up being made to walk two miles back to our car all because they wouldn't let us walk in a certain direction. Bastards. French and Italian police are by far the worst in my experiences.

Paris - PSG
Wow, treated like shit by old bill, I hate the city, belts and money had to be dropped in big tubs before the start, that was them gone!! They held us down the street until a bit before kick off then let us go, everyone steamed up to the gates to find they only had two turnstiles open so loads of us missed the start of the game. Absolutely fantastic atmosphere, 1-0 to the Arsenal was born and we were applauded out of the stadium by the Bois de Boulogne boys. I got home the next day to find I had been on TV right near the end of the match too, on the terraces!!

There's more games to think about but that's enough for now!!

Great stories....... Sampdoria and Torino we had pretty much the same experience. PSG I just remember for birth of 'one nil to the Arsenal'. Liege was a travel club affair. We all assumed ferry was to Ostend but it was Calais, still got four beers in. Got on the coach after the game and some bloke had managed to get so pissed he passed out and missed all seven goals.

Zaragoza in Paris, we had a great 3 days and an interesting encounter with a Spurs fan!

Austria Memphis for our first game back in Europe was the worse. Three day coach trip with Travel club stopping only for breakfast. Arrived at ground half hour before kick off and left straight afterwards. The smell on the coach by the time we got back to London was interesting to say the least!

[Wazza97]

Zaragosa in Paris was a great trip despite the result and had a great encounter with a swamp dweller to boot. We headed to Paris the day before the game. We were on the first train to Harwich to get the SeaCat, it was packed with Gooners. We pulled into Ashford for a scheduled stop. A bloke comes down the stairs onto the platform minding his own business. Trouble was he was wearing a Spurs shirt. This, as you can imagine attracted some attention. In fact so many Gooners piled to that side of the train to exchange pleasantries with him I'm surprised it didn't tip over.

At this point his best bet would have been to back up the stairs. Instead he decided his best option would be to step forward and shout loudly 'where the fuck are you all going?' It was priceless, we were in tears!

[StuartL]

Oldham away 1989 - 1990 season.

Cold, windswept terrace.
We lost 3-1, Quinn scored for us.
A first generation plastic pitch!
Waste of money, to see us play on a plastic pitch, where the bounce of the ball was odd and we never got to grips with that.

Was that the one where everyone piled onto the buses at the station going, but we're then marched back by the police afterwards as no one had paid going. Seem to remember it being a midweek game. Don't think I ever saw us win at Oldham!

Friend of mine drove so cannot say about the buses.
I think it was a Monday or Tuesday night, certainly was not a weekend game, it was floodlit.

coldest I have ever been at a game in my life.

[StuartL]

Got a few but will only post 1 for now.

Watford away circia 1988 - 1990 ?

Paid for train and tube travel (return from Colchester) but stupidly chucked one half of the ticket away before getting to Watford so had to pay again for the journey from Liverpool St

Had no ticket, for an all ticket match, got to the ground after kick off............no touts, no way of getting in, so had to turn around and come back

We lost 2-0 and I think the Gooners started a fire or something at the back of the stand.

Haven't been back to Watford since.

[Trevor Ross]

Got a few but will only post 1 for now.

Watford away circia 1988 - 1990 ?

Paid for train and tube travel (return from Colchester) but stupidly chucked one half of the ticket away before getting to Watford so had to pay again for the journey from Liverpool St

Had no ticket, for an all ticket match, got to the ground after kick off............no touts, no way of getting in, so had to turn around and come back

We lost 2-0 and I think the Gooners started a fire or something at the back of the stand.

Haven't been back to Watford since.

Was 87 mate, Joe Worrall slaughtered us that day. Gooners tried to get on the pitch, one bloke made it until a police dog got hold of him (all that was on the news later and I'm sure it's on you tube now). As we were walking out another bloke stuffed his jacket under the turnstiles and set light to it. Apparently it got very lively in town shortly after.

[EC3]

Yeah there's been a few.....

Standard Liege away.......what a shithole, pissing in dirt under the stand, having to go out of the gates outside the ground to get a hotdog, just about to buy one after waiting for ages when old bill come running over and manhandle all of us back inside and lock the gates! A few seconds later, the 'Hellsiders' came steaming round the corner....old bill brought a water cannon up and went into them. We had a decent view of it too! Of course we completely stuffed them and the coach got stoned as we left the area, couple of windows went in. Happy days!!

Sampdoria away......looking forward to a few beers in the city before the match, we'd been given the all clear by old bill to do so according to the club. As we were nearing the city centre, the coaches were pulled over and old bill got on and told the stewards that the police chief had changed his mind and we were being taken to a special area with full facilities for us......a car park with fuck all there!! If that had been the Chavs or someone like that there would have been a riot.....Arsenal fans were as well behaved as ever and just moaned like fuck. Game turned out to be fab though with Spunky's penalty save. I don't know who the geezer next to me was but his glasses came flying off in the mad celebrations and he finally found some pieces of them a few minutes later!! Funny enough I wasn't overly fussed by not getting in to the city as I'd been into Genoa when I went to the World cup in 1990, my mate and I got the ferry from Genoa, an absolute shit hole. It was also after that trip (world cup), that I stopped following England away, too many lunatics, and most of them seemed to be Leeds fans!!

Torino away......Old bill were holding Gooners in a little area right outside the stadium, not allowing anyone to wander. We were getting well pissed off, we were there early and bored shitless. Two carabinieri were guarding us when something kicked off about a hundred metres away outside the Del Alpi stadium....the Gooners took their chance and about 10 of us ran for it! We got a few hundred metres up the road when an old boy in a tiny pizza shop was trying to get all passing Gooners to come in. Cheeky bugger was charging about a fiver for a beer but there were plenty of us dying for a drink so many of us piled in. After quite a few beers, my mate and I were running up a bit of a tab....the place got seriously packed with locals and Gooners and with about 45 mins to kick off, with no room to move in there, someone knocked a load of glasses over in the far corner, the old boy and his assistant went to clear up the glass etc and my mate suddenly said 'Go'......and just dived for the door and did a runner with me in close pursuit, pissing myself laughing. When we got to the stadium we were still laughing and I said 'you bastard'!! If I'd known you were going to do a runner I would have had a pizza as well!!'

Kiev away......
Wow, it's true, Eastern block girls are seriously gorgeous, almost every single woman we passed in the street was stunning. We flew independently with Flight Ops and found ourselves in the centre with about 8 other Gooners. We found our way into a bar, downstairs in the basement and got well and truly ripped off for a small beer. My mate and I wandered off after one and met up with a few other Gooners mooching about. We got interviewed by a local TV crew in the street before we found this bar run by two young birds, one blonde one brunette, both gorgeous. There were about 8 Gooners round this table and I think over the course of 4 hours or so we sang every single Arsenal song at the top of our voices whilst drinking beer and vodka with the two young birds on our side of the bar just sitting watching us in some kind of amazement, and serving us of course! When we left it was pissing down and we got the coach to the stadium. As we got off the bus, the police pulled my mate to one side and detained him, along with about 5 other random people. I tried to protest and the copper put his hand on his gun and physically pushed me away. I ended up watching the game without my mate, who I finally met up with after the match. He said he missed 10 mins or so as they held them outside. Then finally let them go saying they had been told to randomly detain some Gooners for no reason!! We played shit and lost 3-0 if I remember rightly. I lost my voice completely by the time I left the stadium.....I still love that trip!!

Paris - Zaragoza........
Fuck it, I don't even want to think about it. We were by the Eiffel tower, 2000 odd spaniards steamed up to a small bunch of Gooners, the spaniards were giving sieg heil salutes. One of the went right up to a geezer I know and was shouting in his face. Cue one tasty punch in the mush for the spaniard and all hell broke loose! It all culminated in old bill coming in and splitting everyone up but the funniest thing of all was this large spaniard standing there shouting at us as the police ushered others away, as he was shouting abuse at us a car came up, just joe public, and parked on his toes!! We pissed ourselves whilst he was banging on the roof of the car screaming.
We all know what happened in the game. We were behind the goal and when they locked us in at the end I saw a copper run up to the big locked gates, look over the top of them and smash an old boy (must have been at least 60) over the head with his baton, loads of claret. Gooners went mad, I haven't seen anything like it, a large group steamed the gates and broke through, as we ran down they broke out the tear gas......not nice!! We ended up being made to walk two miles back to our car all because they wouldn't let us walk in a certain direction. Bastards. French and Italian police are by far the worst in my experiences.

Paris - PSG
Wow, treated like shit by old bill, I hate the city, belts and money had to be dropped in big tubs before the start, that was them gone!! They held us down the street until a bit before kick off then let us go, everyone steamed up to the gates to find they only had two turnstiles open so loads of us missed the start of the game. Absolutely fantastic atmosphere, 1-0 to the Arsenal was born and we were applauded out of the stadium by the Bois de Boulogne boys. I got home the next day to find I had been on TV right near the end of the match too, on the terraces!!

There's more games to think about but that's enough for now!!

Some good stories, they and were all intersting away trips from my memory.

Noticed the comment about Genoa 1990 and the World Cup. Like you i got the boat over to Sardinia, stayed out in Italy for the duration, just over 3 weeks i think. That was a one top trip with many memories.

[clockender1]

Paris - Zaragoza........
We were behind the goal and when they locked us in at the end I saw a copper run up to the big locked gates, look over the top of them and smash an old boy (must have been at least 60) over the head with his baton, loads of claret. Gooners went mad, I haven't seen anything like it, a large group steamed the gates and broke through, as we ran down they broke out the tear gas......not nice!! We ended up being made to walk two miles back to our car all because they wouldn't let us walk in a certain direction. Bastards.

you were lucky, i was in the group just behind you that didn't make it out the gate - they steamed us as we backed off down the terrace cos of the smoke then they locked us in again. they held us for 45 minutes and then let us through in small groups pulling out 'the ringleaders' all of which happened to be black or asian, and i got a baton across the back of my hand as they tried to make me let go of this young black kid.

it was obvious what they were doing and we wouldn't let them have any of it. we had argy bargy back and forward with them right up until we got outside to the waiting dog handlers, who then kindly escorted us the two miles in the pissing rain to where the coaches were - even though we'd come by metro from monteparnasse.

Marseille in 1998 was pretty hairy too - gangs of african muslim kids from the slums with knives smashing up every single england car and coach, picking off small groups of England fans in the streets, with no cops anywhere in the middle of one of france's biggest city's ??? a total set up by the frogs imho.

though i did hear later that the guys on the beach gave both the cops and the turks a good running, so maybe the cops were elsewhere.

[OneBardGooner]

I was only 15 and went to a party full of girls older than me....I was just getting on 'good terms' with this girl who was a prefect in my school when some utter *word censored* spiked my drink with Black Microdot...it was absolute hell for 12 hours....If I ever find out who it was they WILL die.

Ooops! wrong thread.... oh well.

[StuartL]

Worst ever trip was a 3 day excursion by travel club coach to see us in the away leg v Austria Vienna, (we had won the first leg 5-1 so were effectively through already)
Coach wasn't allowed to stop by our police escort through France / Germany saw the game which we lost 1-0 and only on the return journey did the coach make a stop where all disembarked and proceeded to the bogs........

being about 6th in line for a cubicle in an already shitty truckstop service station was no joke and I vowed to fly to European away trips after that experience.

[beck]

Oldham away 1989 - 1990 season.

Cold, windswept terrace.
We lost 3-1, Quinn scored for us.
A first generation plastic pitch!
Waste of money, to see us play on a plastic pitch, where the bounce of the ball was odd and we never got to grips with that.

Was that the one where everyone piled onto the buses at the station going, but we're then marched back by the police afterwards as no one had paid going. Seem to remember it being a midweek game. Don't think I ever saw us win at Oldham!

yes it was a league cup game
coldest i have ever been on a football terrace
lukic got beaten by shots across his body that was always his weakness
the only time we have ever won at oldham was in the 92/93 season when linighan scored just after half time

[Wazza97]

Worst ever trip was a 3 day excursion by travel club coach to see us in the away leg v Austria Vienna, (we had won the first leg 5-1 so were effectively through already)
Coach wasn't allowed to stop by our police escort through France / Germany saw the game which we lost 1-0 and only on the return journey did the coach make a stop where all disembarked and proceeded to the bogs........

being about 6th in line for a cubicle in an already shitty truckstop service station was no joke and I vowed to fly to European away trips after that experience.

Yep I was on that one. The coaches had an interesting aroma by the time we got back to Highbury. To make it worse I bumped into Stodge inside the ground. He'd flown over and delighted in taking the piss especially when telling us that the papers that day were saying George was to use game as defending practise in Europe. So we knew it'd be a crap game before it kicked off!

[Poldi]

Standard Liege was my first Arsenal away match. Went to the pub next to the Stadium for a pre-match pint. Some other gooners in there as well, friendly atmosphere until some Liege thugs came in and started some provocation. They picket me out as I was also wearing my Cologne scarf (no love lost between Belgium and Germany on football terms and at the time their hellside lot had something going on with Cologne’s rivals Leverscum). 10 to 15 followed me and my mate as we went out, chased and kicked us once and luckily stopped when they saw one copper on his motorcycle who just stood around the corner.
Remember there was a (Belgian) Tottenham flag in the upper tier to our right, there was some fight going on and they had to remove it, I think. Stadium was a real shithole. No sanitary installations for the away end, just a wall everyone p***** against – poor women, don’t know how and where they ended up when in need for a toilet. Lots of confusion after the match, lots of riot police, blue flash lights and sirens, tear gas tanks, the works. The bridge which would have taken us to the car park got closed for twenty minutes or so by the police to prevent Liege thugs, who were pissed off a bit after their team’s 7-0 defeat at home, from having a go at the Arsenal fans. When we finally got to the car park a couple of cars with English registration had had their windows and rearview mirrors kicked in…

Went to London to camp in front of the box office at Highbury queueing up for the CWCF-tickets for Paris. Great but rather cold night, nice gesture by David Dein to come by at midnight or so to chat with the waiting Arsenal fans – if I remember rightly he also stood a round of coffee… In the end I didn’t get a ticket then – for I was no member nor travel club member – which was surely frustrating.
Spent a fortune on the phone with a French agency, who promised me tickets, but insisted on the tickets to get picked up personally one day before the final. Took a EuroLines coach to Paris on Sunday, was sitting next to another Gooner. After arriving in Paris first stop was at a cash machine, as I had no French money on me. My French is close to non-existent and I had some trouble to figure out what the machine said when it didn’t work properly. Banks were closed due to bank holiday, so I couldn’t ask for help there. Machine repeatedly asked for my PIN number and finally kept my cash card and wouldn’t give it back. Other Gooner helped me out with French money worth 150 quid, so that I was able to pay for my youth hostel and the ticket next day. The bank didn’t want to give me my cash card back the following morning and insisted on sending it back to my bank in Germany – funny guys. It took me some time and effort to convince them, but I finally got my cash card back and went to another bank to get some money…

Went to Sheffield in the mid-‘90s, boxing day or other day between xmas and new year, traffic on the roads was nightmare, weather conditions awful, heavy snow, freezing cold. Never froze so much at a football match. Match itself dull as f***, a nil-nil draw vs Wed, if I am not mistaken (been to 3 Arsenal matches at Sheffield Wednesday in the ‘90s – don’t know why, match result always shit (two losses, one draw).

[beck]

sheffield wednesday was never a happy hunting ground
i only remember us winning twice there
88 league cup when winterburn scored and 93 when wright scored
i went to the sunderland semi we lost there in 73 and the 1st semi v liverpool in 1980 0-0
the only time i went there to see us play wednesday was the 1-0 defeat in 89/90
our 1st touch of the ball was steve bould turning into his own net after 15 seconds

[16-21 supp forum rep]

Schalke away last season in October. The travel club coach left the Emirates at 2am drove straight through the night and our first stop was 9 hours later in Antwerp and that for only 30 mins. The smell onboard was shocking to say the least. After a day on the finest, cheapest German beer in Gelsenkirchen and a short tram ride we arrived at the stadium in high spirits. 2 nil lead thrown away carelessly and the match finished 2-2.

However, unlike other countries visited, German police allow the fans to leave straight after the final whistle and don't keep us back for the standard hour. Try to find where the coach was parked after a day on the beer and no sleep in 2 days. We couldn't. Both mobiles were dead and the rain was hammering it down. For anyone that hasn't been to the Veltins Arena it is pretty much situated off a motorway in the middle of a forest. After an hour of stumbling around we finally found other members from the coach who were lost. 90 mins later we found the coach and a load of fuming gooners. Due to the delay the coach speeded from the stadium to the eurotunnel and made the crossing with minutes to spare. The toilet was blocked with the remains of many a German sausage and the chunder of a few too many beers. We didn't stop once for 10 hours.

£90 return and £25 for the ticket? Wouldn't have it any other way!