hoofitharder

What is wrong with congratulating for what has been achieved so far. We have gone from having thousands in stadiums calling blacks and others all sorts of derogatory names to a few neds at a few games so surely that has to be applauded. I don't for one minute think we should stop working to eradicate racism in football but I think credit where it is due. Ian

In the 70s and 80s abusive chants happened at every single game. Some of the abuse the dark players got was absolutely vile but so was some what non dark players got. There were chants about Kevin Keegan's dad days after he had died and Leeds fans chanting about Munich 58. Newcastle fans chanting about setting West ham fans alight after a Newcastle fan had thrown a petrol bomb into the West ham supporters. West ham supporters chanting about a Millwall fan being killed by a West Ham fan who had pushed him in front of a tube train. Players and supporters have suffered all forms of abuse and probably always will. The male of the species can be a very horrible thing especially when in a group. Put them in a football match environment and the become worse. The incidents that have happened recently should not be accepted but I do think that Stan Collimore and Ian Wright are sensationalising. Football has come a long way in dealing with abuse in all its forms and should be commended for that although there is still a way to go. We are all probably guilty of some form of abuse mainly at derby Matchs I would have thought. Ian

I was seventeen but I am short and it was quite scary in the crush. One thing that fascinated me was almost tribal it all seemed. I never got used to how much drink there was in the ground I remember a game I am sure it was against Argentina and it was really warm and there seemed to be stacks of trays of time of beer and folk didn't even go to the toilet they just burst the top of the can and pished in it and put it on the ground and carried on to the next can. You are right about the pickpockets whilst I was queuing I once saw a guy with his hand in another guys pocket folk started shouting and the pickpockets started getting a ranking lucky for him the polis came over. For Wembley 79 my mum sewed my ticket into the inside pocket of my jacket has it was a bigger trying to get it out.

My first was against I think Romania about1978 I can't remember much about this game though. Watch I do remember is how disappointed I was with Hampden. What a shithole shale terracing and the smell from the toilets. People just pished against the back walls. The atmosphere was brilliant. From getting off the bus on I think it was aitkinhead road and hearing the pipe band by the time I got into the ground I was absolutely buzzing.i still get a buzz before a game but not like then. Ian

It looks like he has dived in then got out and he has lost his trunks.

You are taking it for granted that because they are Jewish they support Israel by your way of thinking Roman Catholics would support Italy.

I know i will get pelters for this one. I would go for Steve Evans.i know he hasnt managed at the top but wherever he has been he has turned them around and he would see the job as a priviledge

Surely you have to make a certain amount of appearences to win a league medal

Bradford (Park Avenue) Dunfermline Athletic Bradford City Leeds United Huddersfield Town

At work i am the only one who goes near a football stadium and it is killing me how everyone is talking about how great WE are. I dont think any of them could name more than a couple of Englands players. I have been wearing a Scotland hat but even so folk have been asking me if i think football is coming home. But what has had me looking for a gun is yesterday i guy asked if i was going to watch the Belgium France game i said yes he then asked a guy who is doing some painting for the firm and the painter fella said no but i will be watching Britain tommorow

If you take it as a percentage of population Ireland an us are well out in front. Belgium and Portugal have about double our population and England, France and Germany at least ten times. For a supporter who lives outside the central belt the cost of travel and hotels is a bit steep and taking two days off work to go to a game can mean not bothering going to the less meaningful games. The type of football player over the last few campaign's has been pretty poor as well with managers seemingly sending out teams to not lose rather than going out to win.. Ian

Argentina 78 was a disaster but a disaster of our own making a guy i worked with talked me into going over to Hampden for the send off and i have to say by the time we were on our way home i was convinced we would win the thing. But as usual we were brought crashing down to earth. Some great stories though. The guys who were apparently looking into hiring a submarine to get there, taking a centre half who was crocked but the manager seemed to think he would be ok for the quarter final, Arthur graham in the squad picture for an advert for some car and he never made the squad and the lowest point for me in our history a player failing a drugs test. There was also a lot of stories of scotland supporters digging deep in their pockets to help local charities as if i remember right the areas where the grounds were were very deprived. The really sad thing for me was we played against and saw teams play styles of football that were totally alien to us and we learnt bugger all from them. We played Argentina and Peru in friendlies at hampden and we were chasing shadows. Ian

I will do he doesnt come to mind but i am sure i have seen a guy with a retro Arsenal shirt on.

When my family moved to bradford we lived a few hundred yards from valley parade and i used to go along at half time when the gates opened i was hooked. My family moved to south bradford and although my uncle still took me to bradford city games the area i lived was a bradford (park avenue ) haunt so as i grew up i went to both not every week but as often as possible.when avenue went bust it was just city. I moved back to Dunfermline in the late 70s and followed the pars after about 3 seasons i moved back to bradford and followed city again untill the fire. It didnt feel the same after that so i stopped going. After a while i ground hopped a bit and in the mean time avenue reformed as a saturday team so i watched them occasionally but didnt go regularly untill they moved to the ground they play at now and they were playing in the northern premier league. Ian

This is a hard one there are that many. As a boy the images that stick out are Tostao (I am not sure if the spelling is correct ) of Brazil sitting on the ball in the middle of the pitch. I just thought how good was he that he would do something like that. Another was watching Bradford City with my pals we were right at the front and during a stoppage in play a player ran over and tapped a fag of a guy stood behind us and just puffed away until play began again. My abiding memories of Scotland are Billy Bremners missed chance against Brazil. As a nieve 13 year old I thought we were going to win the tournament. Another has nothing to do with a game. for the 74 world cup a tv rental shop whom I can't remember the name had life size cardboard cutouts of players one of whom was Eddie Gray my favorite player at the time. And after the tournament my dad scrounged it and I had it stood up in the corner of my bedroom. Ian