24th of April 1971
Home to Hull City and it sticks in my mind like it was yesterday, can recall the walk into cold blow lane under the railway bridges/arches and the excitement I felt aged 9 as we got nearer the ground, the smell of boiling onions permeated the air with the old boy in a white like doctors coat shouting “ peanuts,peanuts” as we walked under the last railway arch, graffiti on the dirty white wall tiles read T Tex, You are now entering bovverland, and “ if you come, you’ll get done Villa” ( although the latter may have been brocklehurst street
)
then as we approached the fence at the back of the halfway line I remember seeing dozens of daily mirror billboards advertising the coming FA cup final being Arsenal v Liverpool a few weeks away.
my grandad lifted me over the turnstile where I saw scores of long haired youths on the CBL stairs in doctors marten boots some in butcher coats, most with blue and white bar scarves either reading programmes or looking for any stray Hull bods who might have entered the wrong end, I was then handed my first ever wall programe as we climbed the steps to the corner of the HWL & Cold blow standing under the old bill observation box on the high steps, the green pitch and yellow crash barriers along with the orange seats couldn’t have looked any more uncoordinated but it was too late, I was already hooked, the game ended with us winning 4-0 and we played away to Sunderland the following week beating them 1-0 if my memory serves me right.
My grandad never saw us at Wembley and I bawled my eyes out at old Trafford after we beat Sunderland to reach the cup final, I just couldn’t forget how proud he would have felt and for being the great man he was introducing me to the greatest club in the world
