Old Barclay Memories

[Gerry Harrison 2]

Signing "Bring Your Daughter The Slaughter" to the tune of Toms Diner!

[Gerry Harrison 2]

* Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter

[Bill 1,788]

"If the visiting fans got there early they''d position themselves behind the goal."

Pompey usually were there very early, as I think they always took a train that left at 6.59am (?). Remember away fans coming round from the River End singing along the back of the South Stand.

Various other club names sprayed on the toilet walls and outside the ground. Usually initials with ''rule ok'' after.

"She wheeled her wheel barrow

From Kings St to Carrow"

Singing (humming) the Dambusters them tune with arms outstretched

" You''ll never walk alone " with scarves held out

"Oooh all together" which was not some camp exclamation, more a Zulu type chant when we pushed towards the coppers and the away fans.

Given that all that went on I''m surpised many were not seriously injured. I suspect though that if any injury was sustained, unless it was life threatening you just dusted yourself down, went home and accepted that it was all part of the ''fun''.

[Syteanric 1]

i remember being a little boy in my seat in the family enclosure from 1991, i''d look at the barclay and always wonder what it was like in there... Never got to stand in the old Barclay but did sit there from 1997 - 2010 in the same seat, many of those around me are still there, which is great testimony to our long support.I remember some of the early songs we dont sing anymore (We are Norwich, to the tune of "we are sailing") was always one of my favourites. but i can remember hearing the old terrace chants from 1991/92. some of these need resurreccting by you old timers!why on earth did they stick the away fans in the barclay in those days?!Can anyone remember Chase''s idear to put away fans in the upper Barclay when it opened.. think we did it against Coventry or Chelsea? either way it was scrapped after 1 game!

[Gerry Harrison 2]

I Think only Spurs and Coventry (twice) fans sat in the Upper Barclay before away supporters were sent back to the South Stand.

[Harry 0]

Jas the We are Norwich, to the tune of we are sailing has been sung recently in the Snakrpit.

[Bill 1,788]

"why on earth did they stick the away fans in the barclay in those days?"

The home end was a bit tribal. As more fans travelled to away games it became a challenge to ''take the home end'' ie occupy it. So at the beginning away fans weren''t stuck in the Barclay, they headed there.

Previously away fans congregated in the River End as being lesser in number it was safer. I do remember some being in the South Stand once. Also going round the back (along the top of the terrace) of the South Stand to confront (!) away fans who were in the River End. Ended up being chased back to the Barclay by plod. Being an open terrace (no roof) I suppose the support got lost and away fans soon began to head towards the home end.

Towards the mid 70''s as away fans started to turn up in bigger numbers, almost all by train plod could then round them up and stick them in the Barclay. Kept all the ''idiots'' in one place and allowed plod to concentrate their resources.

While talk is often about the football violence in the 80''s that is mostly because there were cameras to film it - and so it was seen as violence and hooliganism. In the 70''s it was often far ''worse'' but was seen as merely a part of the day out rather than anything newsworthy.

[barclaystand 0]

[quote user="City1st"]"She wheeled her wheel barrow

From Kings St to Carrow" .[/quote]Anyone know all the words to that one?Plymouth Argyle were singing a song to that tune when I went down there a couple of months ago.Would be great to hear a NCFC version.

[Lord Horn 0]

[quote user="barclaystand"][quote user="City1st"]"She wheeled her wheel barrow From Kings St to Carrow" .[/quote]

Anyone know all the words to that one?
Plymouth Argyle were singing a song to that tune when I went down there a couple of months ago.
Would be great to hear a NCFC version.
[/quote]

"In Norwich fair city,where the girls are so pretty

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone

As she wheeled her wheel barrow from King Street to Carrow crying

(clap clap,  clap clap clap, clap clap clap clap) NORWICH!"

 

 

[Bill 1,788]

a bit too much clap there Lord Horn, methinks

mind you probably not, given some of the girls who used to frequent the other end of King Street

many of whom were not so pretty

or so I''ve been told

[Google Bot 3,256]

My best Barclay memories would be 89-92 when i was first going to matches on my own.

I used to love the "If you can''t hear us... we''ll shoutabit louder!! EVERYWHERE WE GOOOOO... PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK US!" chants, think it was stolen from millwall.

Also, anyone remember the guy in the white Happy mondays top who used to practically live in his t-shirt and would be absolutely wasted on the terraces having the time of his life!

Wonder what he''s doing now, as a youngster i remember thinking that was a good life! :)))

[yellow blood 0]

I remember meeting up with some of the faces on the Haymarket, buying a packet of fags from the kiosk there (always a cheap packet as I was under age) and then making a way down to Carrow Road via the old Cattle Market car park past Zaks (?) hoping to bump into the oppo supporters. I would have shat myself if we did probably. Down Rouen Road and over Carrow Bridge. Making our way along Carrow Road to the Barclay and knocking on the gate to be let in for nothing by my Grandad''s mate right in front of the plod. Making my way up the steps to the centre pen and trying to get as close to the fence but far enough away not to be gobbed on or pissed on by the oppo who had climbed the fence. I remember all sorts being chucked at us, coins, lighters, match boxes which if you picked up exploded in your hand cos they had put a lit match inside and then chucked it.

Regularly some bloke would climb up into the beams and look like he was going to climb into the away pen but never did.

I remember one game which was the end of the season when there was a pitch invasion after the final whistle and we wanted to join in as well (may have been Orient?) but they wouldn''t open the gates to begin with so people piled forward to try to climb the fence. In the surge I got pinned on the front fence next to a gate. Thankfully, someone saw sense and opened it so that the crush was relieved otherwise it could have resulting in a major issue...still I went home that night bragging about how the surge had taken me all the way down the terraces. Loved it! :)

[gshub 0]

I remeber as a lad trying to get under the old metal gate ,then being escorted back to the turnstiles having to pay to get in.....

also trying to get out after a game trying to walk down the grass at the back instead of the steps going arse over head knocking myself out then getting a bollocking off police for not using the steps...

they were the good old days,then getting home to tell my parents i didnt see any trouble at the footy...

[First Wazzock 902]

What about the old pre-match ritual.

Some of our fans would climb over the fence, run to the centre spot and pin yellow and green balloons down. This would be closely followed by some away fans who would stamp on ours and put their own coloured balloons down, closely followed by our lads again. This was all done in good humour, and no being chucked out for going on the pitch!

[gshub 0]

Remeber the song yer gona get f**king head kicked in...

yer going home in a Norfolk ambulance...

remeber going to Westham singing "Westham think its unbelievable Davey stringers green and yellow army"....

[Hard Cell 0]

The balloon thing before games was more fun when we went away as oppos didn''t like us on their pitch.  A different version was played out in a Leeds home game when instead of pinning balloons on the centre spot it was setting fire to the other teams scarf.  Remember that the Barclay Boy who ran off into the South Stand to get away from the OB was hunted down , and found, by some Leeds.  My worst kicking came after that game.  Always hated Leeds.City 1st.....Pompey were the 6.57.  Met up with some of them a few years ago and one wouldn''t believe that we remembered them coming into the city at 6.00am on private coaches back in 1970.  They turned a milk float over and rampaged down St Stephens into the city.  They were in the Barclay when the lads turned up and held it until the second half when normal service (well, for those days) was resumed with City back in the centre.  We won 3-1 if I remember right with Malcolm Darling scoring on his debut.BP wasn''t the only well known face though.  Thought CD was the main man in the late 60s early 70s.

[Clever Farke 64]

Earliest memory - Bernie tipping beer on my head.

Being let into the middle pen so the away fans were only about a metre away. Scarves being burnt, the jangle of coins in the railings.

Ending up down the front after a surge following a goal or alternatively getting crushed against a barrier. Trying to get out after the game. The singing building up before the games. Those wonderful toilets where I remember hearing ''my old man said be an ipswich fan'' for the first time ahhhhh, memories.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Memories, like the corners of my mind, misty water-coloured memories of the way we were………………..

It seemed like only yesterday that my Firm were dominating the Barclay, and the City for that matter, we were hard.

I can recall how we would get into the City early on a Tuesday morning, on the first tram from Guestwick, and start looking for opposition fans straight away. Usually, they didn’t dare show themselves until the Saturday; I suppose they wanted to get a few more numbers in before they wore their colours.

Of course, we were on the p!ss from the off. I reckon we averaged 18 to 20 pints a day each and for that level of serious drinking you needed some serious dosh so we’d rip off some gear from Curls or Bonds and sell it on to Arthur South’s cousin who had a clothing stall on the market.

Match day was special, by lunchtime we were seriously p!ssing it up in The Pheasant Cock on Ber Street and if Bernie was okay with it having a little NF rally which wasn’t really political, it was just having a laugh so no one got hurt. I loved Bernie, he once gave me a friendly punch in the mouth and I have kept those two dislodged teeth as souvenirs ever since. What a lovely bloke!

Then it was down to the ground for the game. On the way we’d sing about who we were and enquire loudly where the opposition fans were. It was a bit of a waste of time doing that because we never saw any on our route from Lakenham which was because their coach park was up Clarence Road.

Having got to the ground late there was regrettably never any time to wander off to the away area and put the boot in because we might miss the kick off (match); so it was a little pushing game to bundle through the turnstiles and the usual competition over who could look most aroused while the copper searched him.

Like 99% of the other boys who stood in The Barclay Middle we were always three quarters of the way back to the left of the goal as we faced the pitch. The away fans were up at the fence and it was time to hunt for some low-denomination coins or expired cigarette lighters to throw. The best coins were the heavier pre-decimal ones but they were like gold dust. Luckily, my Granddad had collected coins for years which he kept in his attic and so I regularly took a few of those. It was always useful when you had a cold or throat infection because the phlegm always travelled further and faster.

Sometimes you managed to get hold of a limb or two of an away fan and give him a quick dislocation. I remember one time, so many of us were pulling so hard on the left leg of a Chelsea fan that it came clean off, serve him right because it was ‘property of The Royal Brompton Hospital’ so he shouldn’t have had it anyway; and it was the property of The Queen. You could still be hung for that sort of thing.

My mate Terry, who was actually the local vicar in my village, once managed to get some oxyacetylene cutting gear into the ground and tried to cut his way through to the away fans. Progress was slow because he forgot to bring his protective goggles and gloves and he was only on his third wire when the coppers jumped him, confiscated his gear and reported him to The Health and Safety Executive and The Ecclesiastical Court. B@stards!!!

Yes, I’ve seen away fans spat at, punched, kicked, stoned, garrotted, disembowelled, be-headed, pressed and subjected to the hot irons, the pulley and the ducking stool into The Wensum.

I remember one time we all got right into the away section for the whole game and sang our hearts out. No one wanted to take us on; I think we just looked too intimidating. It was a great night that; Martin Peter’s Testimonial.

After the game we’d go looking for away fans to kick their heads in or throw them in the river. The coppers always led them away from the river to save them a swim but if we could find a straggler asking for it we’d all pile in.

Yes, those were the days, my friend (sound almost song like) and we were The Barclay Boot Boys where boots were made for kicking and guns were made to shoot! But in this namby-pamby age of all-seated stadia and prawn cocktail fans (sic) no one can ever seem to believe it when you tell them what it was really like, back in the 70’s.

[Wings of a Sparrow 1,409]

Quality, Rudolph.

[Gerry Harrison 2]

[quote user="gshub"]Remeber the song yer gona get f**king head kicked in...

yer going home in a Norfolk ambulance..[/quote]And to the same tune......We''re gonna drive our tractors over youandYou''re so quiet you sound like Aldershot