Mine was at West Ham in November 1978 (our promotion season which ended up with us beating Burnley 2-0 in front of 51,000!)

Decided to drive from Purley with the Mrs and her 2 younger brothers. The eldest was 21 and home on leave from the Navy, he was a submariner.

Parked up and the younger brother put his scarf on, told him it wasn't a good idea and within minutes we were spat at and threatened.

Got in the ground at the away end which was known as the chicken run and noticed all the police had "cross iron" badges on their tunics. Also noticed that there was a sizeable west ham contingent in that area.

Pretty quickly we went 1-0 down and the west ham lot went mental and the police sort of herded them together about 20 yards away from us.

Unbelievably we equalised (can't remember who scored for us) and I felt a boot in my back.

I looked round and the older brother was fighting about 3 blokes and smacked fcuk out of them and drove them back up the terracing. I managed to get the Mrs and little brother behind me and booted out at another thug who had probably booted me.

It all calmed down but we noticed a little posse was gathering so went over to stand by the police who had seen it all and done nothing. One said to me "If you don't like it don't come here!"...nice!

The game ended up 1-1 and we managed to get to the car and get home safely. Chatting to the brother on the way back he explained that most weekends he had a fight in Portsmouth whilst training and quite enjoyed a good scrap!

Anybody else got a similar story of that day or another away trip with a bit of aggro thrown in?

Edited by Hoof Hearted (19 Jan 2011 12.15pm)

Stoke away 94 kept in for our own safety the police escort to train station with stoke fans on grass banks above us rushing the police line . Then got to train station & we were kept outside until the Stoke fans had got on there trains to go home. I always remember the chant that day. If you like alot of violence at your football join our club!!! Also Birmingham new street station was proper naught after fa cup semi final with the manchester united in 95 & of course when we beat millwall 4-1 at the new den that was very touch & go

Crawley v weed FA cup.
in a pub outside the station full of Crawley Palace fans and mates. They kicked the door in,gassed us and said come on then xxxx we know you,re in there.
Picked cues, sticks, balls chairs and ran out after them and there were about 150 of them on the other side of the road waiting for us.
Just stood and stood but they bottled.
We got escorted to the station.
Scary at first,then a bit scary then fukk it.

"Numb,gutted and shocked . Three words that sum up how I feel."
"Passionate,principled, genius. Three words that sum up Joe Strummer"
Martin Scorcese, Film director.

Remember going down to Plymouth in 1988, i was about 15 at the time. Me, my older brother and a few mates arrived on the train and were surprised to find no police waiting to give us the usual escort to the ground. What had happened was we had taken the earlier train and the police were expecting the main Palace contingent on the next one.

We thought nothing of it and went on our merry way, just following a few other Palace fans that seemed to know where they were going. We ended up walking through this park that led to their ground - schoolboy error! Suddenley in the distance at the bottom of this hill we saw a group of about 20 smartly dressed guys slowly walking towards us.

It then descended into some Python-esque scene as we all stopped in our tracks after a murmur went round that they were 'Plymouth'. We started to back off - quickly!, but then a few of our crowd said relieved: 'No don't worry their Palace, yeah, definitely Palace', and we stopped andwent back to walking towards them. When this group of blokes started running at us shouting blue murder in accents that weren't London ones, I kind of guessed at that point they weren't Palace!!

Can't say there was one 'geezer' amongst this small crowd of us, but by luck one guy I'd never seen before decided to be the sacrificial lamb and divied into this herd of testosterone and got duly hammered - nothing bad, just a black eye and a few bruises.

This 'kill' seemed to satisfy the Plymouth firm and they carried on to God knows where, leaving said Palace fan lying flat on his back and shouting in our direction the immortal words: 'Thanks a lot lads!' A few embarrassed giggles later and he was helped back onto his feet.

Edited by Bubbs (19 Jan 2011 7.27pm)

'Better stop dreaming of the quiet life 'cos it's the one we'll never know'

If he reads these boards, Nigel Elsey from the Monks Hill Estate. Late 1980's, Norwood junction, platform 2 full of happy Leicester City fans after they had beat us. He raging, walked onto their platform (for a dare too), punched and kicked as many people as he could. They didn't know what was happening for a hood 10 seconds.....and then he disappeared under a mountain of boots and fists. When their train left he stood up covered in blood, completely battered, raised his arms in the air and screamed "YEEEAAAH".
Legendary fisticuffs I've never forgotten.

So many stories. John (on here), Craig and his bro from Croydon, Lee Mal, John (Man Utd & Leeds & Palace fans) & Curly, Roy (West Ham & Palace), Bullet, Pat, Latter, Mark, Gary & Grant (twins), Dean and a few I can't remember, our little firm from New Addington sometimes alongside Clive and Adrian. Scary but fun times.

I forgot to add the scariest away day, duh!!
Oxford, lost 5-0 got attacked by a gang of black fellas armed with
catapults that fired ball bearings and saw one of the twins get hit on the head with a claw hammer. Oh, got stabbed in the knee too. Bit of a mare that day.

Edited by jelholyoake (20 Jan 2011 9.10am)

When i see him, it's gonna be painful. Skinny little cont.

Now watching Dorking Wanderers