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Oldham 1980


mickjj

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This is a picture of the empty Kop at the Owls V QPR game which was the first home game after the Oldham Riot.

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The funny thing was all the traveling QPR fans were choked as they were forcrd to pay extra to go in the West stand instead of standing on the Leppings Lane terrace. lol

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Hey Mick. I think you meant first game after the ban on standing areas was imposed? The first game after the Oldham riot was Bristol City, which we won 2-1, with a certain John Pearson marking his debut with a goal. I recall the atmosphere that day being quite subdued.

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Hey Mick. I think you meant first game after the ban on standing areas was imposed? The first game after the Oldham riot was Bristol City, which we won 2-1, with a certain John Pearson marking his debut with a goal. I recall the atmosphere that day being quite subdued.

You are right about the Bristol game. JP also scored the only goal in the 1-0 win in the QPR game whos team inluded Tony Currie.

We managed to get tickets for the Swansea(my uncle lived there) , Derby and Grimsby( went during the week to buy tickets) away games where we were barred. It was a hoot we were all singing "We're not here, we're not here"

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We were also banned from the Bristol Rovers match 3-3 with Blackhall & Grant scoring.

How many matched do both full backs score in?

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I was at the QPR game - it was my last before emigrating.

I think the photo was in the Green 'Un that I still have a copy of.

I sat in the North with the then gf. The QPR fans were in the upper West - it was funny when the tannoy announced that QPR fans should stay behind after the game for a police escort. There must've been about 20 of them lol

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I was at the Oldham riot game, I would have been about 17 at the time.

To be honest there was a strange atmophere all morning. When we got to the station in Oldham we went by bus to the ground, they were normal buses, not laid on coaches or anything....with a poor conductor going round taking fares. Everybody on my bus was banging on the ceiling of the bus in time to that John Hark song that the blunts still sing.

Everybody talkes about the sending off being a catalyst for what happened next, and of course it was.......but I was standing near the front right in the thick of the travelling owls and one supporter jumped up onto the wire fence that separated us from the pitch and a policeman hit him with his truncheon. To my mind that was the real catalyst.....though I suppose it could have happened anyway.

The major factor was that the stand we were on was completely littered by lumps of concrete and stones....absolutely covered in them. I don't know why, maybe some building work had gone on or something, but fans started to throw these onto the pitch. In traditional 70's style the police lined up in front of the goal facing the fans. It was like that scene at Hillsborough when we played Arsenal in the FA cup run and the Kop was covered with snow. Except these were lumps of concrete and not snowballs. I saw one copper get hit on the leg by a big lump and he went down heavily. The police turned pretty nasty at that point.

Big Jack came out eventually and appealed for calm, which was restored. On the way out though, we all had to pass between a wall and a line of police and dogs and each recieved a punch from the police or a bite from the dog (or was it a bite from the police and a punch from the dog....I forget).

The police were jumpy even in Sheffield and as we walked through Pond Street a speeding plain clothes police car almost ran my mate over on a zebra crossing. My mate said WTF or something, and three burly plain clothes police suddenly jumped out of the car and pinned him to the ground.....totally unecessarily. I think he'd have got a kicking if we hadn't been there at witnesses.

I think there was a double page spread in one of the Sunday papers labelling us ANIMALS.

There was no actual fighting.

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Guest daveyboy66

I was at the Oldham riot game, I would have been about 17 at the time.

To be honest there was a strange atmophere all morning. When we got to the station in Oldham we went by bus to the ground, they were normal buses, not laid on coaches or anything....with a poor conductor going round taking fares. Everybody on my bus was banging on the ceiling of the bus in time to that John Hark song that the blunts still sing.

Everybody talkes about the sending off being a catalyst for what happened next, and of course it was.......but I was standing near the front right in the thick of the travelling owls and one supporter jumped up onto the wire fence that separated us from the pitch and a policeman hit him with his truncheon. To my mind that was the real catalyst.....though I suppose it could have happened anyway.

The major factor was that the stand we were on was completely littered by lumps of concrete and stones....absolutely covered in them. I don't know why, maybe some building work had gone on or something, but fans started to throw these onto the pitch. In traditional 70's style the police lined up in front of the goal facing the fans. It was like that scene at Hillsborough when we played Arsenal in the FA cup run and the Kop was covered with snow. Except these were lumps of concrete and not snowballs. I saw one copper get hit on the leg by a big lump and he went down heavily. The police turned pretty nasty at that point.

Big Jack came out eventually and appealed for calm, which was restored. On the way out though, we all had to pass between a wall and a line of police and dogs and each recieved a punch from the police or a bite from the dog (or was it a bite from the police and a punch from the dog....I forget).

The police were jumpy even in Sheffield and as we walked through Pond Street a speeding plain clothes police car almost ran my mate over on a zebra crossing. My mate said WTF or something, and three burly plain clothes police suddenly jumped out of the car and pinned him to the ground.....totally unecessarily. I think he'd have got a kicking if we hadn't been there at witnesses.

I think there was a double page spread in one of the Sunday papers labelling us ANIMALS.

There was no actual fighting.

I dont know what match you went to but there was trouble in the ground on their end which spread round to the wednesday end and at one point the wednesday fans tore down a fence to throw at the oldham fans. When Big Jack appealed for calm there were still missiles being thrown and he walked off shaking his head cos' he was being ignored

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It was a long time ago and there may have been a few scuffles here and there that I don't remember. But basically, these things are and were always exaggerated.

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It wasn't so mutch a riot as a pitch invasion, but a few nutters were lobbing aggregate from the building site behind the Owls terrace. Charlton had a near miss.

But the funnniest thing was, I was walking down the hill to my house after being dropped off in Grenoside when a neighbour came running out and she shouted "Have you seen our Craig?" I said, yes he was stood behind me, she then said "cos his Dad has rung up, he heard there was a major riot at an English football ground, he heard it on the World Service"..."is he ok?"...his Dad was working in Leningrad at the time....just shows, the way the press can make amountain out of a molehill.

Yet years before when Geordies and Forest fans were all over St James Park scrapping in an FA Cup game, it was just another incident.

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Guest infamouszigg
I dont know what match you went to but there was trouble in the ground on their end which spread round to the wednesday end and at one point the wednesday fans tore down a fence to throw at the oldham fans. When Big Jack appealed for calm there were still missiles being thrown and he walked off shaking his head cos' he was being ignored
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Guest infamouszigg

I dont know what match you went to but there was trouble in the ground on their end which spread round to the wednesday end and at one point the wednesday fans tore down a fence to throw at the oldham fans. When Big Jack appealed for calm there were still missiles being thrown and he walked off shaking his head cos' he was being ignored

Would like to comment on this particular incident at Oldham.

We arrived via car from Dronfield around an hour/ hour and a half before kick-off and the atmosphere around the place was forboding.

We took our place on the side terrace to the right of the away end and saw a large mob of Wednesday fans take the home end completely. The police started to escort groups of way fans into the away end from the home end during the match and eventually leaving around a hundred Wednesday fans left, Oldham re-grouped and charged the remainder. The Stainrod/Curran incident occured (to my memory) around the same time, Wednesday fans incensed both at what was happening on the field and then on the home end tried to rip the fences down and clambered over the suport wall where we were stood and ran down to the home end down both sides of the ground trying to help those getting pumelled at the other end.

As i've moved to the Midlands one of my former fellow work colleagues originated from Oldham and tells of the story of what happened the season before the Wednesday riot at a match with Chelsea. The old away end was wooden terracing and Chelsea basically broke up large sections of the floor and set it on fire. Oldham were still clearing up the mess of the re-work the day they played us.

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Guest Charlie Wag

I remember going to watch Wednesday away at Bristol when we were banned , we went on the home end and i remember getting surrounded by Bristol fans when we scored and a few random kicks were aimed our way , The steward let us through to the side terrace after that and we were ok .

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I too remember one of the matches post oldham.It was at Derby's old baseball ground and the tickets were obtained for me by a Senior member of South yorkshire police.I found that quite amusing at the time.

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I went to Oldham that day on the Inter City Owl train, it got there a bit late if I remember, the Stainrod - Curran incident caused the main uproar, but it was never a riot ! The media made a meal of it like they do, a few objects were thrown from behind the goal at the Wednesday end, which was a rubble terrace, the ref took the players off, Big Jack tried to restore order but was not very successful, however the most violent behaviour was from a small group of Wednesday at the opposite end of the ground. The sitting down only phase lasted for four games at Hillsborough and had little or no bearing on attendance figures.

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Guest neil down

i went on the dronfield supporters coach,we arrived about an hour and a half before kick-off-the 1st coach there!!for some reason the majority of lads (16-20ish) on our coach decided to go on their end... like a fool i followed (the 1st and only time i have ever gone on a home end knowing i was going to 'reveal my colours').at first we stood there silent but then,having seen quite a few others who we knew to be owls,we started singing-obviously all hell broke loose!after taking a few blows i,and others were led round the pitch (the only time thats ever happened too!).this was all BEFORE kick off,the rest is history as they say.i felt/feel really guilty that in some way i had helped to ignite what happened later on.i had an interview for a job in the civil service on the monday and i was praying my picture wouldn't be in the papers!!! i didn't get the job anyway....was that my punishment for my part?????

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I seem to remember just showing up at both Derby and Grimsby and getting in with the wednesday fans. I was working at RAF Scampton (Lincoln) at the time and went to those games with work mates. 1 was a Geordie, 1 was a Derby fan and the other a Grimsby fan. I expected to have to stand with the home supporters and was surprised that so many Wednesday fans had shown up that they put us all together. Strangely enough the Derby fan and the Grimsby fan stood with us (or was it just seating at Derby?)

My memory is shocking, maybe somebody can straighten me out. :rolleyes:

One thing I'm sure of (gulp) is Mel Sterland played one of his first games (2nd?) for us at Grimsby, in place of Ticker.

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Guest J V Frome

I remember going to watch Wednesday away at Bristol when we were banned , we went on the home end and i remember getting surrounded by Bristol fans when we scored and a few random kicks were aimed our way , The steward let us through to the side terrace after that and we were ok .

Being a Rovers Fan I was there that day in the ' Tote End ' , I thought you bought about 200 down , over 30 years ago !!!

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This is a picture of the empty Kop at the Owls V QPR game which was the first home game after the Oldham Riot.

This was my ticket that day - looks like ticket arrangements were done in a hurry

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