Away Trips Go Bad

[Wazza97]

Following my recounting on another thread of my Anfield 89 trip that didn't quite go to plan it got me thinking of other trips that went a bit wonky! The stand out one was Sampdoria away in 95. Should have been a day of food, drink and the Arsenal was instead a day spent locked in a dockside car park for seven hours! Anyone else on that trip or have you had other away days go a bit wrong. The full account can be seen on http://www.notanotherarsenalblog.wordpress.com but here's a taster
As the coaches pulled into their destination I’m guessing something had been lost in translation. The Piazza was a seafront car park (think Harwich rather than Bournemouth). The restaurants were in fact a fast food van, there was no bar but on the plus side there was a portaloo!

[REB]

I love these old stories, nice one wazza

[TheCook]

Gather round my friends, and I'll tell you a tale......

Was driving to Leicester on New Years Day a few years back ; Got as far as Watford Gap when I heard the game was off due to a frozen pitch. So I drove home.

It's the way I tell 'em, etc.

[SPUDMASHER]

I've only ever really had one bad away day and that was when I got the shit kicked out of me in Manchester during the 89-90 season.

I was on my own with no colours on walking through St Anne's square about 2 hours after the game. Two guys just walked up to me and started laying in. I didn't even know how they had spotted me as being Arsenal.
According to the old bill that turned up pretty quick and nicked them (rare thing for them to be around when you need them), they had seen me leave my car which had a registration plate from Romford. That was enough to single me out for a beating.

I wouldn't mind but I don't even come from fucking Romford.........shithole of a place!

[worthing_gooner]

Yeah Aston Villa away last season. Freezing cold, pissing down with rain, drove up to the ground. One of the first times we've ever arrived early, decided to go into the ground for a nice beer. They tell us they don't sell beer to away fans Not only that, but it finishes 0-0! Shocker

[QuartzGooner]

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.

[Wazza97]

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!

[Bunting14]

Swansea City away 1982-3 season. Missed charter train at Paddington but managed to get service train which was due in at Swansea twenty to three. However it was delayed for an hour so only got into the ground at half time. Luckily we were 1 nil down but came back to win 2 1. So I think we were on the train for 7 hours that day for 45 minutes football and were only physically in Swansea for about 75 minutes.

[QuartzGooner]

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.

[SteveO 35]

Sheffield Wednesday 1 Arsenal 0 - 98/99

Di Canio got sent off and shoved the ref over and my dickhead mate had bought us cheap return tickets on a train that we had no chance of catching if we waited till the final whistle. So after a wanky old game that looked to be heading for 0-0 we left the ground with about 2 minutes to go to sprint for a tram to get us back into the city.......just missed one and stood outside listening to the ground erupt as they scored an 89th minute. We missed the train too

[DB10GOONER]

I've only ever really had one bad away day and that was when I got the shit kicked out of me in Manchester during the 89-90 season.

I was on my own with no colours on walking through St Anne's square about 2 hours after the game. Two guys just walked up to me and started laying in. I didn't even know how they had spotted me as being Arsenal.
According to the old bill that turned up pretty quick and nicked them (rare thing for them to be around when you need them), they had seen me leave my car which had a registration plate from Romford. That was enough to single me out for a beating.

I wouldn't mind but I don't even come from fucking Romford.........shithole of a place!

Nothing to do with Arsenal, mate. You just have that kind of very punchable face!

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

I've only ever really had one bad away day and that was when I got the shit kicked out of me in Manchester during the 89-90 season.

I was on my own with no colours on walking through St Anne's square about 2 hours after the game. Two guys just walked up to me and started laying in. I didn't even know how they had spotted me as being Arsenal.
According to the old bill that turned up pretty quick and nicked them (rare thing for them to be around when you need them), they had seen me leave my car which had a registration plate from Romford. That was enough to single me out for a beating.

I wouldn't mind but I don't even come from fucking Romford.........shithole of a place!

Nothing to do with Arsenal, mate. You just have that kind of very punchable face!

What I want to know is Who the fuck can punch that low

Were they completely covered in hair and look very similar to teddy bears

[burg hohenzollern]

Man Utd away, think it was the 90/91 season. Little ol me sitting in the stand surrounded by Utd fans, Limpar scores almost direct from a corner, yours truly can't help himself, jumps up, celebrates like hell, next thing, wham, bash, clump on the back of the head. Looking back, suppose I was asking for it, but I would never go back to that shit hole if I didn't have a tkt for the Arsenal section.

[TeeCee]

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!!

[samflitt]

Yeah Aston Villa away last season. Freezing cold, pissing down with rain, drove up to the ground. One of the first times we've ever arrived early, decided to go into the ground for a nice beer. They tell us they don't sell beer to away fans Not only that, but it finishes 0-0! Shocker

That is hardly a horror away story lol