Did you get a good kicking there too?
No
But it did give me my first insight into football shithousery.
The replay at theirs was my very first away trip. I was 15. We got there in the afternoon & wandered up to the ground to have a nose around. **** awful community centre type affair & easy to see into from outside.
It was January & freezing, had been raining...& we could see the bastards spraying the pitch with even more water to turn it into a quagmire, ensuring no actual football would be played.
The rest is history.
4 days later was my 2nd away trip. A 0-0 at Luton. So much for my great idea of spending my Xmas money on a thrilling new year of exciting football cheering my beloved team on the road. ****ing idiot.
My 3rd & 4th trips were early the following season (more saving up involved)
First Division now. Excited. Bound to be brilliant as we storm back to our rightful place at the summit of English football to challenge for europe (I still believed this to be who we were as a club at the time. The misery of the previous 2 years was but an unfortunate glitch & we were back where we belonged)
2 successive 5-0 hammerings at Forest & Man U.
4 games, 1 point, no wins, no goals. All before I turned 16. It's a wonder I ever went away again.
I had to wait until trip number 5 for the first kicking. 4 & a bit months later at Anfield. But at least it was preceded by a victory at last. Silver lining & all that.
No 6 was a couple of months later. Coventry...for a 4-1 hammering. Normal service resumed.
Then we got ****ing relegated.
My lifelong service to LCFC had truly begun. All illusions thoroughly dispelled.
****.
