Page 103 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

better and we ended up sixth off bottom. My Mam would send me the Football Echo and it took six weeks to get there by sea if she forgot to write Air Mail on the package. There was something magical about getting a Footy Echo on the other side of the world.
I got back to Sunderland on Wednesday 12th October 1983 and went to my first match on the following Saturday. I met my mate Keith for a pre-match McEwan’s Scotch in the Blue Bell and then we walked over to Roker Park. On that day I forsook my former place in the Roker End and we went in the Clock Stand. As we were paying to get in I was confused as I’d never come across a £1 coin before, though that was quickly resolved, but when I emerged onto the terrace I was shocked to see how drastic the changes to the Roker End had been. It had been greatly reduced in size while I’d been away to make it safer and it looked like a ghost of its former self. The weather was dark and rainy too and I felt rather depressed after having looked forward to being back there for so long. As for the football itself, we drew 2-2 with Stoke. The crowd was less than twelve thousand and that was grim too. The following Saturday I was in the Paddock with my mate Col and my Man United supporting cousin for the 0-1 defeat to Man United. We lost through an early Ray Wilkins goal but the crowd was more than double the previous week’s. After a quick slurp in the Wheatsheaf on the way there we passed a young woman collecting for the ‘Feed Poland Appeal’. “Who’s gonna feed fuckin’ Sundland?” a passing youth shouted at her.
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