the best firm ever where the whitehorse,did nt give a monkeys who we were playing at home,two little mobs either side of the away fans,on the signal used to steam in ,caused absolute chaos,at the time a mixture of excitement,bravado,buzz,it was part of the day out and the scene at the time,the clothes ,music,that was then ,dont knock it till you have tried it ,top boys and respect to tufty ellis,johnny brought on,paul pruett,gary neate,and the rest of the lads at the railway and the grey hound streatham

Some crazy times described on this thread. I've just written on the thread about the Wrexham game in '77 how the play has changed since those days, well going to watch has changed too.

I was clearly a more passive spectator than some of you, but I do remember taking my old Dad to watch us play Brighton at the Goldstone one time. Couldn't say when it was, but recall being surrounded by Brighton supporters as we left the ground and poor old Dad was petrified. Fortunately for us the baying mob was distracted by a crowd of Palace looking for a scrap so Dad and I made a quick exit stage left.

That was a long time before the Mullary/Venables thing, but it was the beginning of a domestic Palace/Brighton rivalry in our house. Mo

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

Nixon was the keeper who got sent off think they had been on a run of 10-12 games without defeat. God bless my mum she didn't have a clue and me and my brother used to go to most away games when we were 13 or 14 on coach 2. Don't know why i didn't go to this but my brother did and he would have been 14. He said some big Palace fan seeing he was a young 'un came over and said you'll be alright stay close before walking over to the kippax singing 'c'mon then if you think you are hard enough' as in his words 5,000 Mancs were try getting over the fence. He still maintains that the police escort for the coaches lasted till Birmingham. Couldn't imagine letting my children do anything even remotely similar these days
The scariest for me was going to Samsanspor for the intertoto they we all fine but right on top of you and the carpark afterwards was a bit intense.

One supporter of hacking argued that without it "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week's practice -Blackheath secretary at first meeting of the F.A

Leeds 1976 FA Cup. After the game Leeds fans started gathering outside the Palace end. Myself and three mates hid scarves in coat pockets, kept our heads down, and tried to look as miserable as possible. We got away with it.

First time i read this I was in that but from essex so i had fun going home , cant remember if it was brigthon at home we had already kicked off in the whitehorse and the police forced us down and escorted us to the holmesdale , looking over the pitch a large group of fans being moved to the whitehorse , thinking they was Brighton then we looked again and it was Tufty and co what happened next ? yep kicked off then they was kicked out by police , changed my name so many times when i was being matched out the ground, you could get back in the ground in them days

Always remember a load of us waiting at the top of the holmesdale road on park road corner,against brighton, a mob of about 50 came up past the holmesdale in a police escort, singing albion, albion, albion albion, when they got to the top the police kept us seperated, and put them in the away end of the holmesdale, it was the wilton lot! They got in, and within about a minute a massive brawl kicked off, you could hear it, and people started getting dragged out! It was a clever ploy back in the day! Still say us nicking the train at london bridge after the luton away game and taking it for an hour joyride, packed with 2000 palace on board, will never be repeated, i was only a passdenger but had my head squashed against the window so saw it all, certain palace , who will remain unnamed, got in the drivers cab,tooted the horn, to that tune that everyone shouts paalace at the end, and made off! The train went all over different lines, new cross, deptford, brixton, tulse hill, and back around for best part of an hour, at tulse hill for the third time, about 100 police were on platform with dogs and the culprits driving, about 10 handed, stopped train on bend and jumped off, climbing the bank. Police top man in peak commander cap came up track with a driver, and pulled away, the ironic thing is the culprits started to brick the train from the road, no idea why. It was a time when you werte proud of those things, like taking the north bank, but was never ever mentioned on news or paper the next day!