Old Gunners and Gooners : Dreams Become Reality.

FA Cup 1970 - 71.

We beat Yeovil - Portsmouth - Man City - Leicester - before going to Hillsborough to meet Stoke in the semi final.

Portsmouth away.

Nothing eventful happened apart from us all being in a pub outside Portsmouth’s ground, when someone said they could smell gas coming from a heater on the wall.

Whitty, who was a gas fitter at the time, held a lighter against the heater and says “ No, it’s not leaking “ , by which time many people had squeezed out of the doors.

More laughter.

Man City away.

Charlie’s Cracker at City.

After knocking City out, four of the blokes were waylaid by a large group of City fans when walking back to the station. They had to leg it but after a while were running out of steam and decided to stop and face the fairly large number of those still chasing them.

As the City fans got within arm’s length, one of ours pulled out a plastic bottle of ammonia and sprayed their faces with it. Much to the surprise and relief of the other three.

They then carried on to catch the train home, safely.

Leicester away.

I’ve heard there was a big fight before the game in a park that was situated between the train station and the stadium but as far as I know none of us were involved.

Hillsborough 1971.

I don’t recall any trouble as the police seemed to have divided the City and stadium into two halves.

We never saw many Stoke fans until we got into the ground. They had Leppings Lane and one stand.

We had the Kop end and the other stand.

We came out for the second half 2-0 down and looked beaten but after 15 minutes Storey scored and the Kop became the North Bank, bedlam! We’d all gathered about halfway up behind the goal and when everyone calmed down Granty, me and a couple of others were now at the bottom of the terrace. Granty starts screaming “ My leg, My leg, I’ve broken my fucking leg!!” So we get the St John’s ambulance people over. They load him onto a stretcher and start to carry him around the perimeter of the pitch. I jump over the railings and go with them because as we went in Granty’s car, we’d need the keys to get home, if they kept him in hospital. So I’m shouting at Granty “give me the keys” but he won’t. Then as we’re arguing some Arsenal fan throws a Union Jack flag towards us. So I picked it up and laid it across Granty as he’s lying on the stretcher.

He now looks like a dead warrior leaving the battlefield. By this time I’m crying with laughter and he’s getting the hump.

When we arrived at the first aid tent the medics examine him and tell us that he’s got cramp.

Now I’m going nuts at him, as we’re missing the game.

Anyway all’s well that ends well.

On our way to Hillsborough.

Last gasp Arsenal.

The Replay.

On our way to Wembley.

We were still celebrating winning the League,
even if the players weren’t.

Dreams Become Reality - May 8th 1971.

On this day my dreams of seeing Arsenal walk out at Wembley in the FA Cup Final and hopefully winning it, were finally accomplished.
Like many other Arsenal fans, I’d spent the past 5 days celebrating winning the League and the Usual Suspects met up and made our way to the stadium.
In those days it was not all seater and like nowadays you entered the stadium then went into a numbered enclosure from the concourse. Obviously, we all had tickets for the same end but not the same enclosure. So a few went in, one gathered the others ticket stubs and went back to the concourse and got the rest of us in together.
Our enclosure must have had nearly twice as many as the others.

The rest, as they say, is History. So I’ll let you see it again through photos. Enjoy the memories.