Planet Swans Archives|
Autoglass Memories – Views From The McAlpine |
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As part of our week long celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the 24th April 1994, we talked to some Huddersfield fans about their memories of a truly great day out – this is what they had to say It was a great day out …. even for Huddersfield fans …. reading your memories I’d even forgot that it went to penalties:-) We went back a year later to win the Div 2 play offs. The Autoglass and Play Offs are great innovations giving fans like us the chance to get to Wembley. I wonder how long it will be before either of our teams make it to the new Wembley:-) Richard Holt We were there – but as Huddersfield fans First time in a long time that we had had any success so there were many thousands there from Yorkshire, the following year we were there again for the play-offs (well it becomes a habit I suppose!) and 29,000 Town fans were there. For the Autoglass the main memories we have are of drinking in the pub before hand with a bunch of Swansea fans, there was some good natured banter. My son, who was then 12, was given a Swansea cap, one of those nice black and white cotton ones, on the condition that he wore it for the game. He did – with a Town hat on top. The game was fairly even; needless to say we thought the Town goal, a towering header from Richard Logan, was the better of the 2 goals The penalties from our lot were absolute and the only other good thing we got out of the game was that Steve Jenkins joined us shortly afterwards. 10 years ago – a lifetime really – we’ve had promotion, sat proudly on top of Division 1 for a while, then relegation, play-offs and another relegation since then. Oh yes, and Administration last summer where we nearly went out of business and this year – we can only hope! So much in such a relatively short period of time. Enjoy your celebrations and all the best for what’s left of this season. Peter Watson Not a good day for Town fans, but my best memory of the day was walkingalong Wembley Way with my older brother (David), me walking fast as I was wanting to get into the ground, but David pulling me back and saying "Slow down I want to soak up the atomsphere", you see it was his first time at the Twin Towers, I`d been there before, and he was loving the `show` of it all. Well after the match, having lost!! we were once again walkingalong Wembley Way, this time in the opposite direction of course, and David was setting a good pace, wanting to get back to the car, when I grabed his arm and said with a smirk on my face "Wait on a minute, I want to soak up the atmosphere", he turned and gave me such a schowl, I just burst out laughing. OK so it may not seem funny now, but it shows just how fickle football fans can be. Richard Lambert I can remember i was about 7 and me my mum and dad was having a drink with some swansea fans on wembely way. And the other thing i remember is my seat position in the stadium and that was about it Mick Downes One thing that sticks out in my mind (oddly enough) is Roger Freestone, during the penalty shoot out, having a bit of banter with the Town fans. He stood there shaking the back of his shorts with his hand and pulling a face as if he had just s t himself. Paul Stephenson To be honest, and not just because we lost, the Autoglass Final was somewhat eclipsed by our 2nd Division Play-off Final success at Wembley the following year against Bristol Rovers. So if you don¹t mind I¹ll skip the details of the actual Swansea game, not that I remember much, for reasons you will discover later. I do remember though, that the excitement generated for the Swansea match was enormous. Our average home gate was about 7,000 that season and we sold 29,000 tickets for the Final. I decided to travel on the supporters coaches to the Wembley, something I rarely did as a rule. The atmosphere was tremendous, the only problem was not being allowed to Odrink¹ enroute. However, I had a cunning contingency plan. I decided to waive these primitive rules and disguised a very strong alcohol brew in a large Coke bottle. Don¹t ask me why or how I drank the stuff but it was mixture of sherry and vodka  garrrrrrrrrrrrrrew! I started to tuck into my Osecret stash¹ around about the Northamptonshire and had just about finished it has we drove through the streets near Wembley. By which time everything and everybody seemed just……… Grooooooooooovie! Around Wembley it seemed everywhere was covered with Blue n¹ White, every person, every coach, every car, every pub and every off-licence. Swansea where are you I thought? I¹d heard the place to head for was a pub called the OGreen Man¹ and after some stumbling around and squinting at a small street map I¹d photocopied at work (be prepared, that¹s my moto!) I found it! Predictably it was full to over flowing but there was a good and friendly mix of Swansea fans and ours Dick Durkin Keep checking back throughout the next week as we continue to share peoples memories and thoughts of the day at Wembley – a day that Swans fans will never forget? |
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