Page 55 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

day was like a war-zone. There was still no serious segregation of the fans and huge numbers of Newcastle fans had turned up so that they outnumbered our own inside the ground. They were everywhere, even dominating our fans’ bastion of the Fulwell End. There’d been a lot of fighting outside and cars had been set on fire, windows smashed, the lot. I’d arranged to meet a girl from school and go to the game together but her dad wouldn’t let her out of the house when he saw what was going on. Until then there was just a casual under-standing that the away fans would turn up and go into the Roker End, traditionally the away fans’ end. After that the police and the club had to wise up.
I used to live near the Royal Infirmary and early on a Saturday evening a Football Echo salesman would walk the streets delivering papers and selling them to passers- by. We called him Ned and you could always hear him coming because he had the lilting cry of, FOOTBALLEKKHHHEUUURRRGGGGGAAAAAAHHH HH!” Now, that’s a very Sunderland sound.
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