Good Fridays of the past.

lionheart48

lionheart48

Well-known member
Back in the days when the cup final was the only televised match on TV, I was football mad and would have walked miles to watch a game of Blow Football,

Anyhow it's Good Friday and we were away somewhere so I decided to watch the Hammers in an 11 am kick-off still not had my fill I decided Chelsea in the afternoon would fill my football need but that was insufficient so I decided on Leyton Orient's evening KO.
I could not name who the opposition was in each of the three games but I was a serial jibber in all things football and transport but I remember that I kept popping home and my mother would replenish my Duffle bag with food and drink.
I must have been a model child who disappeared for long stretches of the day:grinning:
 
I swear my memory is correct but I also done the same on bank holiday, watched Arsenal v West Ham in an 11.30 kick off, shot over to watch QPR v Liverpool ( my mate was an avid Liverpool fan ) then back to catch Millwall v Charlton from Jews Hill ( didn't get there for the start and was probably skint by the time we got back )
 
Like most football mad teenagers in the 1960s, I couldn't get enough of 'live' football and towards the end of the 1963/64 season I saw Millwall play Walsall on the Saturday, West Ham on the following Monday night, Chelsea (v Leicester) on the Tuesday. Had a night off on the Wednesday, Leyton O v Charlton (Thursday night) West Ham Good Friday morning, then down The Den for the Southend game in the afternoon. Port Vale v Millwall on the Saturday, followed by the return game at Southend on the Easter Monday.

Nine games in nine nine days. If I took in that number of games today I would have take out loan. I had only been in work for 14 months at the time, so the wages wouldn't been great, but it goes to show how much cheaper the game was to watch back then. I was probably earning around £6 per week.
 
rotherwall said:
Like most football mad teenagers in the 1960s, I couldn't get enough of 'live' football and towards the end of the 1963/64 season I saw Millwall play Walsall on the Saturday, West Ham on the following Monday night, Chelsea (v Leicester) on the Tuesday. Had a night off on the Wednesday, Leyton O v Charlton (Thursday night) West Ham Good Friday morning, then down The Den for the Southend game in the afternoon. Port Vale v Millwall on the Saturday, followed by the return game at Southend on the Easter Monday.

Nine games in nine nine days. If I took in that number of games today I would have take out loan. I had only been in work for 14 months at the time, so the wages wouldn't been great, but it goes to show how much cheaper the game was to watch back then. I was probably earning around £6 per week.
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rother, you were doing well salary-wise, in 63 my first job was apprentice shopfitter at £2.50 per week, it was glorified laboring and exploitation, and I lasted about 4 weeks then took a series of jobs that paid about a fiver before hitting on the idea of going along to Percy Daltons in Commercial Road and purchasing a bag of roasted peanuts for a guinea selling the 100 bags for 6p each at the bigger London grounds.
I decided not to work anymore and make the peanuts my profession and lay in bed all day, but my mother was too wily for that scheme and told me I had to work and the Peanuts were a sideline and if I was not out of my pit by 7am she would be back with a cold jug of water and she meant it and so I was no longer semi-retired at 15 and back in the work-place.
It was a great idea but I overlooked my mother's work ethic, she and my old man worked until they were 80 but that was stretching it for me because I still needed time to follow the wall and boxing at the Albert and Wembley along with Shoreditch.
 
rother, you were doing well salary-wise, in 63 my first job was apprentice shopfitter at £2.50 per week, it was

When I first read this It looked like you said you were an apprentice shoplifter, visions of you looking like Oliver Twist came to mind.
 
My first wage in 1966 (I was just short of 16 years old) was £4.11 shillings. Always remember my mum laughing when I asked her how much she wanted for keep. She just said “Don’t bother as you will be skint in a few days and I will have to give it back!”
 
lionheart48 said:
rother, you were doing well salary-wise, in 63 my first job was apprentice shopfitter at £2.50 per week, it was glorified labouring and exploitation, and I lasted about 4 weeks then took a series of jobs that paid about a fiver before hitting on the idea of going along to Percy Daltons in Commercial Road and purchasing a bag of roasted peanuts for a guinea selling the 100 bags for 6p each at the bigger London grounds.
I decided not to work anymore and make the peanuts my profession and lay in bed all day, but my mother was too wily for that scheme and told me I had to work and the Peanuts were a side-line and if I was not out of my pit by 7am she would be back with a cold jug of water and she meant it and so I was no longer semi-retired at 15 and back in the work-place.
It was a great idea but I overlooked my mother's work ethic, she and my old man worked until they were 80 but that was stretching it for me because I still needed time to follow the wall and boxing at the Albert and Wembley along with Shoreditch.
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lionheart, my first wage packet was £4.10s.0d and two quid of that went to my Mum for my house keeping. Apprenticeships back then were slave labour.
 
We left school at 15 mine was £4 pound and 6 shillings per week, when the bus strike was on i walked from the Old Kent Road (Gasworks) to the West End and back every day for a week to go to work and was not late once.
 
Eamon Dunphys tackle said:
Back in 1976 I think it was when Gordon Jago was manager, didn't we play Brighton at home on Good Friday then Peterborough at home the next
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Eamon Dunphys tackle said:
Back in 1976 I think it was when Gordon Jago was manager, didn't we play Brighton at home on Good Friday then Peterborough at home the next day?
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Yes, we won both games, I went to them. The Peterborough game was on Sunday’s The Big Match I think and from memory Chris McGrath who scored was the guest. (On loan from Spurs?). The Brighton game was the most packed I have seen the old Den, I know some on here will have seen it even busier. One of the goals against Brighton was an overhead kick or something similar, Brian Moore had a photograph of our player in mid air, no tv cameras at all games then. That year our Croydon friends had games in hand to possibly overtake us but bottled it and we went up to what was then Division two.
 
greenwichlion said:
Yes, we won both games, I went to them. The Peterborough game was on Sunday’s The Big Match I think and from memory Chris McGrath who scored was the guest. (On loan from Spurs?). The Brighton game was the most packed I have seen the old Den, I know some on here will have seen it even busier. One of the goals against Brighton was an overhead kick or something similar, Brian Moore had a photograph of our player in mid air, no tv cameras at all games then. That year our Croydon friends had games in hand to possibly overtake us but bottled it and we went up to what was then Division two.
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Yep Trevor Lee over head kick got to palace and they nicked a penalty and their superstar Peter Taylor smashed 🥴 over the bar got Kitches shirt after the Swindon game happy days 👊
 
greenwichlion said:
Yes, we won both games, I went to them. The Peterborough game was on Sunday’s The Big Match I think and from memory Chris McGrath who scored was the guest. (On loan from Spurs?). The Brighton game was the most packed I have seen the old Den, I know some on here will have seen it even busier. One of the goals against Brighton was an overhead kick or something similar, Brian Moore had a photograph of our player in mid air, no tv cameras at all games then. That year our Croydon friends had games in hand to possibly overtake us but bottled it and we went up to what was then Division two.
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Thanks for jogging my memory.
Chris McGrath was a decent player.
And Trevor Lee overhead kick.
 
Remember that season like yesterday; before the drink and drugs kicked in. Gordon Jago’s Blue & White Army. Massive support that season up at Villa Park quarter final of the league cup.
Swindon away all on the pitch, old photo doing the rounds of us on the pitch. Some proper old school bods in it.
Then upto selhurst park to see palace at home to Chesterfield. Palace had to lose or for us to get promoted, they did and we went up. Thousands of Wall up there that night, best away support Chesterfield’s ever had. All on the pitch final whistle taking the piss. Can’t imagine any team doing that down Wall, first or second Den. Over my dead body.
 
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