Inside the Anderlecht stadium.
Once inside the stadium, all hell broke loose.
Arsenal fans already in there were having a stone & rock throwing fight (there was rubble all over the terraces for some unknown reason, same as Hysel stadium years later) with Anderlecht fans.
For some stupid reason The Arsenal fans had been put behind the same goal as Anderlecht’s most fanatical supporters with only a wire mesh supported by scaffold poles embedded in concrete supporting them.
Some of the Belgians were trying to climb over the fence to get at the Arsenal fans but were getting knocked back and then one big Belgian made it to the top of the fence and one of our lot started hitting him on the head with a large lump of wood that had been lying on the floor. The place really was like a bomb site.
I remember our bloke saying “this bastard won’t go down” and he kept on hitting him until finally he did covered in blood.
Just after this incident the Riot police arrived wielding batons dressed all in black with white helmets on and guns in holsters on their hips, we’d not seen guns at football grounds before.
They grabbed Putney and dragged him onto the cinder path surrounding the pitch perimeter and dragged him backwards and down the players tunnel.
I thought they’d taken him to police cells.
As he was being led down the tunnel he passed the Arsenal team who were lined up waiting to come out and warm up. He passed Charlie George and said “Hello Charlie” Charlie recognised him but could only nod his head and grin for obvious reasons.
The game eventually started and things calmed down behind our goal as the Riot police were now stationed between the warring fans.
After about 20 minutes I was distracted by laughter behind me and assumed someone had cracked a joke when I heard “I’m back “.
It was Putney dressed in a long white butchers coat pushing an empty mobile hot dog stall.
He said that he’d found stall and coat next to a hut that the vendors were taking a break in. So he borrowed it and walked back in the open gate.
Needless to say after losing 3-1 the coach trip back to Brussels airport afterwards was unremarkable except for either;
A- Single headache from the result.
B- Double headache from the result and strong beer.
C- Triple headache from the result, strong beer and being hit by stones.
On arriving at Luton airport Whitty was still fast asleep and Putney woke him up and told him that there was a fault with the plane and we’d have to get another flight tomorrow.
He was walking through Luton airport moaning about Belgian airplanes as he thought he was still there.
Peter H recalled finding an unattended open Duty Free cabinet full of bottles of spirits at Brussels airport and some of his mates helped themselves to a couple each.
Rod M has pointed out that in 1970 only about 4-500 Arsenal fans were at our first European final due to lack of money or organised travel.
Whereas in 1980 25,000 were in Brussels for the Valencia ECW cup final despite a Train & Ferry strike on match day.
How times changed!!!
I will save photos of 2nd leg until 28/4/2020.
Next post 22/4/2020.
My Arsenal life begins 1957-58 season.
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