Anderlecht

Off to Brussels. 

  When some of the North Bank boys went to Anderlecht.

   22-4-1970   Inter Cities Fairs Cup Final 1st Leg.

After beating the emerging Ajax team containing Johann Cryuff, Rudi Krol etc in the semi finals Arsenal were on their way to Brussels for the first leg of the final against Anderlecht.
This was a chance for many of their younger fans to finally see a trophy after 17 barren years.

The week before the game I was visited at home by Putney & Charlie Mc informing me that there was a day trip organised by 4S Sports for £12 including a match ticket, flights and coaches to and from London to Luton airport and to and from Brussels airport to city centre and later to the stadium and after the game back to Brussels airport.
Please bear in mind that £12 in 1970 was the monthly payment on my Triumph Vitesse convertible and therefore I had to choose which to pay.
Needless to say “the Arsenal”won.

Only a few hundred Arsenal fans went to the away leg as it was still a novelty to travel abroad for a football match and most people couldn’t afford to spend the equivalent of a week’s wages on a day out.
Granty paid for the trip but cancelled as he’d never been on a plane and although he later flew regularly it was many years before he overcame his nervousness.
Whitty bought his ticket off him.

So, on the big day we set off in coaches from 4S offices in Kingsway, wearing red shirts that we had borrowed from the Arsenal Supporters club because many of us played for them, heading to Luton airport.
Replica kits weren’t available in those days.
It was my first flight and although the journey was only about 1hour after 30 minutes I started feeling sick and had my mouth in a sick bag.
Putney was sitting next to me and when were coming in to land the stewardess told him to put my table up.
As he did this he accidentally, I think, knocked the bag out of my hands and I immediately started spewing everywhere which set off a chain reaction down the plane.

On entering the Arrivals terminal at Brussels airport Mullers found a microphone unattended and announced in his best BBC voice “Would all illegal immigrants please report to Enoch Powell”
All the fans then started singing the tune of “La Marseille “
I don’t know why because we were in Belgium.

Please remember this was 1970 so Political Correctness was many years away.

Coaches then took us to a car park in the City centre and we were told to be back at 5.30pm.
We then found a little bar where we spent the afternoon sampling the Belgian beers.
At about 4pm the barman said he was closing but we wouldn’t let him.

We never realised the strength of those beers as we were used to Double Diamond or Watneys Red Barrel in the Gunners pub in Highbury.
We had been allocated a female tour rep by 4S Sports and she never realised the strength of the beers either and ended up getting instant dismissal later on after getting too friendly with one of the blokes in back of the coach.

On leaving the bar Bonnie decided it would be a good idea to form a pyramid which was a disaster.
We then had an impromptu knees up in the road.
After this “the munchies “ set in and we got some waffles to eat and stood watching Putney & Whitty doing a cabaret act whereby they were going in and out of a department store via a revolving door and had obviously found the hat department because every time they came out they had a different hat on, shades of Tommy Cooper.

Next post tomorrow Monday 20-4-2020.
The journey to the stadium.

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