Fancy going to spurs on tues night glyn ? ...not sure mate will have to stay at yours if i do go !..It was a date . Me and dave were off to white heart lane on tues .18th January 1982 for a 5th round league cup game ,Ossie ardiles , jimmy greaves, chas n dave..glyn n dave are bunking school to see the mighty reds on your manor.. The number 33 rolled into bilsthorpe at about half ten , 2 halves to Nottingham please..We should have been having a hummanities lesson about now with Mr Williams wee billy as we called him . He wouldnt mind though as he was a forest season ticket holder. The bus used to take ages from bilsthorpe to Nottingham bus station ,once there it was a rather long walk to the city ground via the broadmarsh centre....quite a intimidating place at times especially in the 80s, probably been smartened up and policed properly now.
We arrived at the ground about half twelve the bus was leaving approx one thirty......Bartons buses...still makes me smile to this day,The luxury red and cream coaches with threadbare seats. We had purchased our bus ticket at the ticket office which was at the back of the main stand , The game itself was pay at the gate think it cost a four quid to get in &the travel was a fiver rather different now i fear ?...Mick oram (think he took over running forest buses ) steve from leicester, Doughnut (never knew his name,he was the loudest forest fan i ever heard bit plump but very likeable...youve probably seen him) some lads from newark pike brothers if my memory is intact, A Right mixture, it was all led by Mr Mel Cox the chain smoking organiser..in a suit ,always reminded me of the guy in dads army who could get you anything you wanted
We arrived at the ground about half twelve the bus was leaving approx one thirty......Bartons buses...still makes me smile to this day,The luxury red and cream coaches with threadbare seats. We had purchased our bus ticket at the ticket office which was at the back of the main stand , The game itself was pay at the gate think it cost a four quid to get in &the travel was a fiver rather different now i fear ?...Mick oram (think he took over running forest buses ) steve from leicester, Doughnut (never knew his name,he was the loudest forest fan i ever heard bit plump but very likeable...youve probably seen him) some lads from newark pike brothers if my memory is intact, A Right mixture, it was all led by Mr Mel Cox the chain smoking organiser..in a suit ,always reminded me of the guy in dads army who could get you anything you wanted
.....On arrival at watford gap it was time for the usual raping of the shop by hordes of reds ,some stuff was really expensive ...some stuff was free !!!!!!...back on the bus ,along the M1 right to the end turn right at the roundabout up the north circular and there you had it ..we was at the ground , pitch black walking at the side of some multi story towerblock with some very large and unpleasant geezers looking down...Gulp....the away end was cordened off with police outside so away fans could be searched and allowed to enter without being assaulted...we kept our heads down ,scarf under wraps and quiet as mice...once into the area sectioned off that was it "FOREST...FOREST..FOREST" LOL..we was so brave, as the spurs fans passed offering us their best wishes 'you northern wa......rs' etc Dave was alot bigger than me more of a adult in appearance he even had a forest tattoo.... ,i was a bit ..well..small ....mind i had a tattoo with forest on some years later didnt half make me look harder ...(not) so
Into the ground to the front pushing and swaying ,forest always took a few to london ,in fact we are prob one of the best away followings around for size of the club ..The view at spurs was similer to Everton in my opinion, your eyes were level with the players calfs like you was in a ditch
"Ossie Ardiles scored a miss hit shot which eventually won the game 1-0..Peter Shilton saved a penalty from Glenn Hoddle which had already been re taken twice for encrouching , This game was also the official opening of the new west stand.crowd was 31,192
So we lost but "we dont care were forest fans doo dah doo dah ..
Exiting white heart lane was always a exercise need with military precision if you got on the outer edge of the police escort you would almost certainly end up with a slap or a bit of spit for your hair stylist to mould your mullet. As we were led to our coaches the local met police liked to scare us younger lads with stories of how we would be lucky to make it alive to the coach ...i actually believed him in fact a few years later on 6th oct 1985 pc Kieth Blakelock was tragically murdered in the same area ..Broadwater farm....
The journey home was a little subdued due to the loss but dave was happy cos i bet they would score the penalty that peter shilton saved ....so i was a fiver down ,also...we stopped at watford gap again but on the north bound side..always prefered this side in later years because if you walked up a bit of a hill you ended up in a pub ,now this pubs beer was like horse piss and probably still is ,if its still open ...back on the coach after 2 pints of HP and off to notts....Radclffe power station,not long now....As we entered the great city of Nottingham i asked Dave how he thought we might get home? Not a clue he replied , Not a good sign at 1.30am in the morning twenty odd miles from home . The bus unloaded at the city ground. we asked the driver if he was going anywhere near Bilsthorpe...how naive was we ."Arnold roundbout mate, i can drop you there not supposed to like but i will "? We jumped off at the roundabout and decided as we had no money (always a sober moment) to walk the approx 15 miles..after about 2 miles and the dissapearance of street lights we did the thumb out thing to every car that passed, "hes stopping Glyn" we both ran to the car as fast as we could prob the quickest 200 metres this country has seen , yes he drove off as we got to the car ...the bastard...about 3:30/ 4am on the darkest part of the A614 we were over three quarters of the way home when out of this bush someone asks "you got any fags" ...Oh my god we nearly died of fright, it was a tramp having a kip in a bush ..never laughed so much !!! Finally we got to daves house about 5ish sore feet thirsty, hungry and very tired ....just think school in couple of hours, dont think i got any sleep that morning due to the friggin gerbil on his wheel in daves front room drove me round the bend ! "Get up Glyn" school time. Bus comes at 8..................wouldnt change a thing, another great forest memory..thanks for reading youuuuuu reeeeeeeeds
Exiting white heart lane was always a exercise need with military precision if you got on the outer edge of the police escort you would almost certainly end up with a slap or a bit of spit for your hair stylist to mould your mullet. As we were led to our coaches the local met police liked to scare us younger lads with stories of how we would be lucky to make it alive to the coach ...i actually believed him in fact a few years later on 6th oct 1985 pc Kieth Blakelock was tragically murdered in the same area ..Broadwater farm....
The journey home was a little subdued due to the loss but dave was happy cos i bet they would score the penalty that peter shilton saved ....so i was a fiver down ,also...we stopped at watford gap again but on the north bound side..always prefered this side in later years because if you walked up a bit of a hill you ended up in a pub ,now this pubs beer was like horse piss and probably still is ,if its still open ...back on the coach after 2 pints of HP and off to notts....Radclffe power station,not long now....As we entered the great city of Nottingham i asked Dave how he thought we might get home? Not a clue he replied , Not a good sign at 1.30am in the morning twenty odd miles from home . The bus unloaded at the city ground. we asked the driver if he was going anywhere near Bilsthorpe...how naive was we ."Arnold roundbout mate, i can drop you there not supposed to like but i will "? We jumped off at the roundabout and decided as we had no money (always a sober moment) to walk the approx 15 miles..after about 2 miles and the dissapearance of street lights we did the thumb out thing to every car that passed, "hes stopping Glyn" we both ran to the car as fast as we could prob the quickest 200 metres this country has seen , yes he drove off as we got to the car ...the bastard...about 3:30/ 4am on the darkest part of the A614 we were over three quarters of the way home when out of this bush someone asks "you got any fags" ...Oh my god we nearly died of fright, it was a tramp having a kip in a bush ..never laughed so much !!! Finally we got to daves house about 5ish sore feet thirsty, hungry and very tired ....just think school in couple of hours, dont think i got any sleep that morning due to the friggin gerbil on his wheel in daves front room drove me round the bend ! "Get up Glyn" school time. Bus comes at 8..................wouldnt change a thing, another great forest memory..thanks for reading youuuuuu reeeeeeeeds
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