Old Gunners and Gooners : Final Last Curtains.

Final Last Curtain ( Part 1).

FA Cup Final - 1979 - 80.

In the FA Cup Final Arsenal played West Ham at Wembley and lost to a rare Trevor Brooking header.

Arsenal Fans are gutted - Hammers are ecstatic - Nothing more to say!!

Billy Bonds’ Big Day.

Trevor Brookings Rare Header.

Liam Brady’s Last Arsenal game in England.

Arsenal’s FA Cup Finals 1970 - 1980.

1970 - 71.

1971 - 72.

1977 - 78.

1978 - 79.

1979 - 80.

Remember that when I was a kid, I only wanted to go to one Arsenal FA Cup Final!!

We should’ve won at least one more but I can’t complain.

Final Curtain (Part 2).

European Cup Winners Cup Final.

Hysel Stadium - Brussels.

Arsenal vs Valencia.

A few days after losing to West Ham, at least 25,000 Arsenal Fans travelled to Brussels for the ECW Cup Final against a Valencia team managed by the legendary ex-player, Alfredo Di Stefano.

Amazingly, this was despite a strike by Rail & Cross Channel ferry workers.

Most fans went over to Belgium the day before and the police in Ostend actually closed the city down that night and refused entry, due to so many Arsenal Fans arriving.

Amongst them was a coach from the White House pub carrying Hoyboy, Jonah, Dotty, Malcom F, Gordon N & others from Highbury Quadrant & Essex Rd.

Also travelling the day before were Putney, Rod M, Young Raddy & Dave W.

This car load decided to take the country back roads from Calais and after a while they got lost.

They came to a crossroads, without any direction signs, in the middle of nowhere and Putney tells Rod M to ask someone the way to Brussels.

After a few minutes the only people Rod M sees are a large group of cyclists, so he gets out of the car and stops the first one to ask for directions.

It turns out that the cyclist is the leader in a major race and by the time Rod M let’s him go he’s been overtaken by most of the others. He wasn’t happy.

Excuse moi - où est Brussels?

On the morning of the match, I went over on a Hovercraft from Wapping Wall, with a special trip that was organised by the Arsenal Travel Club.

On arriving in Ostend, I’d arranged to be met by Eddie P & Mullers who’d arrived the day before.

We then drove to Brussels, to meet Putney & co at a bar in the “Grand Place”.

On arriving we could see that they’d obviously got there early, as they were very merry. They’d also made aquaittance with a couple of women who were wives of British Diplomats based in Brussels. These women were almost as drunk as our mates due to their efforts to keep up with their drinking.

When the husbands turned up after finishing work, one of them said in a very posh voice

“Audrey you’re pissed”. We then got the husbands drunk as well.

Rod M & co decided to return to their hotel for a nap, luckily for them their alarm clock went off an hour before kickoff and they got a taxi to the stadium in time to meet us.

Eddie P, Mullers & me went straight to the stadium from the Grand Place bar.

On arriving at the stadium, there was a funfair next to it and I could see hundreds of Arsenal Fans on the rides. There was also a big restaurant that was closed except for one huge window, that had been removed, all along one wall. This window had fridges full of beer bottles & cans pushed up against it.

Apparently, Arsenal Fans drank the place dry.

I was standing nearby having a beer, when a voice behind me said “ I fucking knew you’d be here”

It was my old mate Hoyboy who I hadn’t seen since 1973 in Spain.

He went on the run in 1972 after jumping bail and was eventually caught in 1975.

He couldn’t go to any Arsenal home games in that time but managed to see a few away matches.

We’ve kept in touch ever since.

Hoyboy Facts.

I’ve read many articles in books and had some emails regarding Hoyboy - Fact;

Hoyboy is not dead at time of writing this 16/5/2020.

Hoyboy will be 70 this year.

Hoyboy is not 6’ 5” tall.

He used to go to most away games by train, as he was an expert jibber.

He mainly only went to matches with 2 or 3 close mates and met up with us in the ground.

Hoyboy has never seen a game at the Emirates, although he managed to get to all the recent Cup Finals.

He never got in for the Champions League Final vs Barcelona in Paris.

However, he did manage to snatch a ticket from a tout to get his son in.

Old habits, die hard!!

John Radford - Sammy Nelson - Tommy Baldwin - Gordon Neilson,

all lodged with his parents when Arsenal youth team players.

He’s never had a Haulage company.

He doesn’t live in London anymore.

The Match.

The Hysel resembled a building site, just like Anderlecht 10 years earlier.

As usual, Arsenal Fans, like all the fans of British clubs in European finals, filled 2 sides of the stadium, with only a couple of thousand Valencia fans attending.

Nothing much happened, apart from David O’Leary having the Argentinian World Cup winner Mario Kempes in his pocket all game, until the penalty shootout.

Everyone remembers Graham Rix missing his penalty, but seem to forget that Liam Brady and Mario Kempes missed theirs as well.

After the game I jibbed on a ferry as the Hovercraft wasn’t leaving until later the next morning.

Two Cup Defeats in a week - Disaster!!

The Bar (Bottom right) in Grand Place.

The Official flag used on bus parades.

The funfair next to the Stadium.

I’m there - again.

I’ve still got the Scarf.

David O’Leary did just that.

David O’Leary.

Paying the penalty.

Knackered, like for most players - it was a game too many.

Sammy Nelson was up next?

Losing in Brussels 1970.

Losing in Brussels 1980.

Fucking place is a Jinx!!!

Final Curtain (Part 3).

Liam Brady leaves for Italy.

To crown a nightmare month, Liam Brady decides to move to the Italian giants, Juventus.

Mainly to test himself abroad but also because Arsenal, unlike Liverpool & Man Utd, were not investing in top quality players. Ironically, after he left they bought Clive Allen for £1 million.

This was a bitter pill for fans to swallow and it would be 7 years before we reached another final.