Was at that Cambridge first game too. Hinshelwood with a double pen.

One of the more memorable home games that season was the 3-3 draw against Luton who won the league that year. Think it was televised too but have never seen footage of it since.

The sudden drop in attendances was for a few reasons I think and certainly not to do with Alan Mullery becoming manager, as many have stated as fact in retrospect. For a start, Mullery didn't arrive until the following season.

Obviously our sudden drop in quality didn't help. The unbelievably exciting Team of the 80's being torn apart and the subsequent relegation and influx of mediocre players certainly made many walk away.

But the crowd reduction was not just a Palace phenomenon; it happened up and down the country outside the 1st Division. Coincided with prices starting to creep up - nothing major - but enough to make people look elsewhere especially with the early 80's recession and 3 million unemployed at that time.

Another factor was the hooliganism. Think a lot of dads thought twice about taking their kids. Going to football at that time in this country was almost deemed a lower class pursuit; a game for the riff-raff. You would certainly never hear a member of the Government or a Royal openly profess to supporting a side as you do now.

Football in the 80's was a totally different animal to what it was in the decades before and after, and in many ways what happened at Hillsborough in '89 was a culmination of this.

It does come across as quite a paradox, but I look back on going to football then as my favourite time. Palace were mostly cr*p; trouble in the air everywhere you went; grounds and facilities in total disrepair; treated like animals by the authorities; and yet, there was something real, creative, loose and invigorating about the whole experience.

There is more than a whiff of predictability and conformity about football these days.

It was a good day that.
I remember coming out the station and we all started singing england! england! england!
That was the first time id ever gone on the special aswell.

We were obviously on the same train then, it did turn out to be a great day, amazing what a win can do!! To be fair though, I enjoyed those early 80's years, despite the crap team, the lack of numbers and the bleak northern grounds it was good times, because we were young and keen and all that mattered was following team.

The amount of games we lost 1-0 away that season was unreal though, Sheffield Wed, QPR, Norwich,Luton, Shrewsbury, Bolton, derby, Chelsea, just off the top of my head, might be a couple more!!

Did you go Oldham that year?
f*** me that was a bleak day. Middle of November,freezing cold,pissing down with rain and about 100 of us on that massive wind swept end all for a proxy 0-0 draw.

no it was one of the two I missed, we had train tickets but missed it at Euston and as it was a special and we didn't have much spare money we couldn't get an ordinary train. your description seems to be my memory of most away games back then lol

Did you do Barnsley just before xmas? another defeat, knee deep in snow and because of the snow they shut the away end and because there was only about 50 of us they chucked us in a home enclosure with their fans, as it happens they were a friendly bunch, but it could've been a bit dodgy.

my 1-0 stats are a bit wrong, I've looked it up as you got me thinking about that season, the derby and Bolton games I'm thinking of were a season or 2 after and Chelsea we actually won!! the seasons all merge in together now, it was so long ago.

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That night game at chelsea brings back memorys.
Zico murphys free kick.
They werent to happy about it if i remember.
Very nasty walking back to fulham broadway that night.
They were a worse team than us back then and thats saying something.

Edited by maghull (06 Jul 2014 1.24pm)