50 years ago today | Vital Football

50 years ago today

Remains one of our most iconic fixtures, I was 12 !

What has staggered me though is that it was the same day as the Ibrox disaster, which I remember well but I never linked the two occasions or remember them being the same date.

Im guessing the news footage of Ibrox would have been the following day as the tragedy was unfolding slowly and news coverage back then was nowhere near as slick and quick as today.
 
I remember getting off the coach on the car park behind the kippax and walking with my mate and his dad to the Platt Lane stand where most of the latics fans sat and seeing the first real skinhead I had ever seen, he seemed massive, checked shirt, short jeans, braces and red doc martens, he was terrifying to look at, I was 13 at the time.
 
I went with my mate Al Greenough and his Dad, Harold who drove there. I recall within the stand at Half Time, some City scally of a similar age trying to pinch Al’s scarf ....Al just about held on in this ‘tug of war’ .....I left him to it as he appeared to have the situation under control :whist:

I suppose this was the Platt Lane stand? .....it was behind the goal where City scored their winner ☹️.......but I suppose that mixed crowds in the same general area must have still been tolerated back then.
 
I went with my mate Al Greenough and his Dad, Harold who drove there. I recall within the stand at Half Time, some City scally of a similar age trying to pinch Al’s scarf ....Al just about held on in this ‘tug of war’ .....I left him to it as he appeared to have the situation under control :whist:

I suppose this was the Platt Lane stand? .....it was behind the goal where City scored their winner ☹️.......but I suppose that mixed crowds in the same general area must have still been tolerated back then.

I was stood on the Kippax zeb along with thousands of other tics. I was 14 , my dad dropped us off and picked us up after the match.
Also United played at home same day v Middlesboro.
RIP the Ibrox 66...Up The Teddy Bears.
 
I was stood on the Kippax zeb along with thousands of other tics. I was 14 , my dad dropped us off and picked us up after the match.
Also United played at home same day v Middlesboro.
RIP the Ibrox 66...Up The Teddy Bears.
Yes RIP indeed and a great result today against that lot. Just keep the nerve now and win the league.
Platt Lane was a mass of Latics and the goal went in at the other end. Could just see it in the mist. Great day.
 
Yes RIP indeed and a great result today against that lot. Just keep the nerve now and win the league.
Platt Lane was a mass of Latics and the goal went in at the other end. Could just see it in the mist. Great day.

Don't know if exactly true jeff but they did say at the time that the Tics had the biggest following of any team at Maine Rd that season. Estimated at 15,000 out of the 46,000.

Some going for a non-league team.
 
Don't know if exactly true jeff but they did say at the time that the Tics had the biggest following of any team at Maine Rd that season. Estimated at 15,000 out of the 46,000.
.

The same was said of the FA Cup game away at Everton.

Never been as packed in at any game as that day.
 
Maine Road, Goodison Park, St Andrews (Alf Ramsey),
great days out, fantastic memories and the Latics following did the Club proud, the Latics coaches too and from the matches was awesome to see,
for a 'little' Club from Wigan.
 
The same was said of the FA Cup game away at Everton.

Never been as packed in at any game as that day.



There was 173 coaches went to Everton and we had 20,000 followers in a crowd of 52,000 which was Everton biggest crowd of the season

On a side note as an 11yr old I went with my cousin to Everton v Burnley on Boxing Day 1961 there was over 76,000 on that day And I only managed to get a quick glance at Ray Pointer never saw another thing
 
For some reason I was directly behind the goal when Dennis Reeves boot split and presented City with their goal. Don't know why we were in that end. I was 16 at the time and absolutely gutted. Couldn't even drown my sorrows, legally that is.
 
For some reason I was directly behind the goal when Dennis Reeves boot split and presented City with their goal. Don't know why we were in that end. I was 16 at the time and absolutely gutted. Couldn't even drown my sorrows, legally that is.

Makes sense TB...if you bought seats pre match you would have been placed Platt Lane End. If you rocked up on the day like we did you stood on the Kippax like about 10,000 other Tics did. The City yoof had decamped to behind the goal at the North Stand as they had just put a roof on it. When they put seats in the North Stand season after they all returned to the Kippax. The goal was scored Platt Lane End.
 
Found these today.
 

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Makes sense TB...if you bought seats pre match you would have been placed Platt Lane End. If you rocked up on the day like we did you stood on the Kippax like about 10,000 other Tics did. The City yoof had decamped to behind the goal at the North Stand as they had just put a roof on it. When they put seats in the North Stand season after they all returned to the Kippax. The goal was scored Platt Lane End.

Was the TV gantry in the Kippax back then rather than the main stand?
The Platt Lane End was always to the right of the camera view point for as long as I can remember (late 70’s onwards) and was the end where Wiekens kicked Kevin Sharp about 6 foot in to the air in 1999.
The North Stand was to the left of the camera (where Goater handballed it)

If in 1971 the TV camera was in the Kippax it’d explain the confusion as to which end the goal was scored in
 
Yes it was. Goal was 100 % Platt Lane End which was to the left of the Kippax. Must have moved the gantry that summer because I was at the Manchester Derby late in 71 ( 3-3 match ) and the footage on you tube clearly shows Kippax opposite cameras.
 
On the subject of TV gantries...they do move ( assisted ofcourse ). The footage from Anfield upto about 73 ish clearly shows the Kop to the left. After that is was in the Main stand with the Kop to the right.

The TV gantry at Old Trafford was in itself a thing of beauty. It was accessed by a rope bridge like off " get me out of here " and a ladder was dropped at the back.

Happy days.
 
Yes it was. Goal was 100 % Platt Lane End which was to the left of the Kippax. Must have moved the gantry that summer because I was at the Manchester Derby late in 71 ( 3-3 match ) and the footage on you tube clearly shows Kippax opposite cameras.

I think I'm losing it. I have just watched the highlight of the goal and it does look like the North Stand behind. I was stood on the Kippax and remain convinced it happened to my left. I'm now in a state of confusion and I will go lie down in a darkened room until the mist clears.