Worst ever away day

[sinophile]

Away days are great, no matter what happens, but some are less great than others!. One that sticks in my mind is the FA Cup game away to QPR in 1975 (I think). We had just sold the best player Notts ever had, Don Masson, to QPR and it was a wet Friday night. I was at Digby College then, and a friend drove down in his unreliable VW Beetle. The back of the car filled up with water, we got stuck in traffic and arrived at Loftus Road just before half time to see Arthur Mann lay on their third goal with a defence-splitting pass. We lost 3-0. The car packed in completely, and we got back to Nottingham around 6 am, courtesy of AA relay.

[Woodypie]

Crewe away, New Year's Day, 1990. It was early Warnock years, so travelled with hope. It absolutely hammered down with rain all day, there was no shelter for away supporters, freezing cold, the loo was a hole in the ground in a corrugated metal shed and couldn't even get a cup of tea. It was a poor Notts performance and we lost 1-0. A very tall, bald midfielder scored for Crewe after being jeered by Notts fans all match. I recall they had a goalie called
Greygoose that played a blinder. We drove home, wet through and finally found something to eat and drink in a KFC in Derby. Never returned to Crewe!

[LaxtonLad]

I was on the train with a few friends It was a 5- 0 battering wasn't it. On the walk back to the station some yobs leaning out the car giving us the 5 -0 5-0 yelp only for the car to break down in the middle of heavy traffic accompanied by all our jeers made the walk back to the train much better

Checking online records for Man city v Notts it would seem the game I was thinking about was in 1980 and we lost 5-1 not 4-1! Dennis Tuart scored four and "Clever" Trevor Christie scored our one.

[The_Pie_Man]

Dagenham and Redbridge 6-1 Notts

Bristol City 5-0 Notts

Rushden & Diamonds 5-1 Notts

Mansfield 5-0 Notts

I was at all of those. Pick one.

Shudder.

[upthemaggies]

Notts won 2-1 and I think it was Trevor Christie who scored the winner in the last minute (help me out on this one please UTM).
.

I've got it down as McCulloch, with Christie scoring the first goal.....

Saturday 31st January 1981
3pm kick off at Hillsborough

2nd tier League fixture
*Then known as Division Two

Sheffield Wednesday 1
Mirocevic 87

Notts County 2
Christie 20
McCulloch 90

HT 0-1

Attendance :- 22,685

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
Colours:- Blue & white striped shirts, Blue shorts, White socks
League position before match:- 6th/22
Manager:- Jack Charlton

1. Bob Bolder
2. Ray Blackhall
3. Charlie Williamson
4. Mark Smith
5. Peter Shirtliff
6. Mel Sterland
7. John Pearson
8. Jeff Johnson
9. Dennis Leman *
10. Andy McCulloch
11. Terry Curran

Sub: Ante Mirocevic *

NOTTS COUNTY
Colours:- All yellow with blue trim
League position before match:- 3rd/22
Manager:- Jimmy Sirrel

1. Raddy Avramovic
2. Tristan Benjamin
3. Ray O'Brien
4. Eddie Kelly *
5. Brian Kilcline
6. Pedro Richards
7. Iain McCulloch
8. Don Masson
9. Trevor Christie
10. David Hunt
11. Paul Hooks

Sub: Rachid Harkouk *

[upthemaggies]

I wasn't a regular away traveller and didn't see us lose on the road by more than 3, never got beaten up, spat at, arrested, soaked with a bottle of pee or by the rain on a freezing terrace either, despite going to almost all away grounds before clubs began re-locating or re-building. In which case, losing over the river was probably my worst away experience, though it did open up old wounds for me when we surrendered a lead in the last minute at Fellows Park in the first meeting with Walsall after they'd beaten us in the play offs (the worst I've ever felt leaving Meadow Lane).

First game following the death of a close relative, as somebody mentioned earlier, is tough. In my case we had a home game the next day and I wanted to go, and I know my dad would have wanted me to go, but I felt the rest of my family wouldn't have understood so left it to the next one. Wasn't a nice feeling sitting down next to an empty seat for the first time.

[since41]

Checking online records for Man city v Notts it would seem the game I was thinking about was in 1980 and we lost 5-1 not 4-1! Dennis Tuart scored four and "Clever" Trevor Christie scored our one.

Thats it I forgot (Tommy) scored

[for*sttown63]

I have three I reckon.

Wolves, sometime in the 1980s in the League Cup. I think we lost 1-0, but the best bit was the West Midlands Constabulary keeping the Notts fans in for 30 minutes after the game, just to give the highly intelligent Wolves fans enough time to get around to the away end and throw bottles at us as we were leaving.

Second - New Years Days away at Grimsby - this one in the 90s. It was frigging freezing and Gary Lund missed a last minute penalty to give Notts a 1-0 win. Mind you, the Notts fan who started the song 'amphibious landing craft' definitely got the award for making us laugh.

Third - Field Mill 2016. My lad had just been mascot at the 1-0 win at home to Stevenage and we also had a 1-0 home win against Halifax. We were only in the UK for 10 days, but were excited to see Notts beat Mansfield and cap off a brilliant trip. We lost 5-0, were never in the game and were surrounded by a load of living brain donors calling themselves Notts fans who spent more time goading the Mansfield fans and kicking in the toilets than shouting on their team. It scared the $hit out of my 8 year old. Mind you my friend, !961 pie, had warned us about the intelligence of some of those that travelled.

On saying that, Notts have brought me some fantastic away day memories - far more positive than negative.

Who'd like to start a 'best ever' away day thread?

Went to all 3 of these and last 2 are definitely two of the worst experiences although I forgot about dodging the bricks and stones thrown by Wolves ‘fans’ from the overpass!
Always hard to get away from Baseball Ground without an incident but Leicester 1978 being chased down all the side streets with my dad and brother after the local constabulary decided to release the ‘hounds’ to compensate for a Notts 1-0 victory!

[ncfcog]

Crewe away, New Year's Day, 1990. It was early Warnock years, so travelled with hope. It absolutely hammered down with rain all day, there was no shelter for away supporters, freezing cold, the loo was a hole in the ground in a corrugated metal shed and couldn't even get a cup of tea. It was a poor Notts performance and we lost 1-0. A very tall, bald midfielder scored for Crewe after being jeered by Notts fans all match. I recall they had a goalie called
Greygoose that played a blinder. We drove home, wet through and finally found something to eat and drink in a KFC in Derby. Never returned to Crewe!

Yes, remember this one well, was soaked to death. I remember Phil Turner didn't play, can't remember if it was injury or suspension but it really did have an impact on our performance that day.

[meoldlaner]

Fulham away 11 May 1985.
We needed a win to have any chance of staying up. We lost 2-0 but then hearing about the fire in Bradford the score didn't matter.
It was deafeningly quiet on the coach home.

I had a friend who was in the Police force and was supposed to be patrolling in that stand but he switched with someone else.