The Shed End.

Yes, Dave, some people are.

I wonder if it's not a case of being victims of our own success. If you stand on the Church End corner until you know which way we're kicking then get caught in a slow-moving queue to get to the Shed you could miss the first couple of minutes. Then if you stand there until the half-time whistle it can be five minutes before you're at the back of the queue for food/drink/toilets. Also, and this is something I don't know, have we got as many young 'uns as we used to have? Older supporters are more likely to want to stand on the side than behind the goal.

dave w wrote:I wonder if it's not a case of being victims of our own success. If you stand on the Church End corner until you know which way we're kicking then get caught in a slow-moving queue to get to the Shed you could miss the first couple of minutes. Then if you stand there until the half-time whistle it can be five minutes before you're at the back of the queue for food/drink/toilets. Also, and this is something I don't know, have we got as many young 'uns as we used to have? Older supporters are more likely to want to stand on the side than behind the goal.

I think it's much more a case of that than just "not being bothered" to go down to the Shed.

My own habits have changed over the years now I am "older". I was always a "behind the goal" supporter, home or away, with very rare exceptions such as stadiums with athletics tracks and the like.

At home games these days I tend to stand along the side, as do one or two others such as Aled and Stour_boy. I have tended to go down to the Shed more often in the last couple of seasons though as there is more room for the kids to amuse themselves than along the side. Attacking the Church End I always go under down the side as I prefer being under cover for the better atmosphere, although I did stand behind the goal against Poole.

Away from home I'm almost always behind the goal except when the weather is particularly bad.

One other small point - if we have a photo in the press of players scoring or celebrating a goal it always looks a whole lot better if there are plenty of supporters in the background or even involved in the celebrations. Some of the photos from Workington illustrate this, although it can often be a a case of luck depending on where the photographer is positioned.

TRM wrote:

dave w wrote:I wonder if it's not a case of being victims of our own success. If you stand on the Church End corner until you know which way we're kicking then get caught in a slow-moving queue to get to the Shed you could miss the first couple of minutes. Then if you stand there until the half-time whistle it can be five minutes before you're at the back of the queue for food/drink/toilets. Also, and this is something I don't know, have we got as many young 'uns as we used to have? Older supporters are more likely to want to stand on the side than behind the goal.

I think it's much more a case of that than just "not being bothered" to go down to the Shed.

My own habits have changed over the years now I am "older". I was always a "behind the goal" supporter, home or away, with very rare exceptions such as stadiums with athletics tracks and the like.

At home games these days I tend to stand along the side, as do one or two others such as Aled and Stour_boy. I have tended to go down to the Shed more often in the last couple of seasons though as there is more room for the kids to amuse themselves than along the side. Attacking the Church End I always go under down the side as I prefer being under cover for the better atmosphere, although I did stand behind the goal against Poole.

Away from home I'm almost always behind the goal except when the weather is particularly bad.

One other small point - if we have a photo in the press of players scoring or celebrating a goal it always looks a whole lot better if there are plenty of supporters in the background or even involved in the celebrations. Some of the photos from Workington illustrate this, although it can often be a a case of luck depending on where the photographer is positioned.

I wonder TRM if your dad or anyone at the club has any archive pictures of days gone by showing pictures of The Shed.

My first ever game at Amblecote was on a Sunday afternoon in 1974 for a 5th round ( i think ) Welsh Cup tie,i remember being up that end with my dad as we celebrated a 5-2 win,Johnny Chambers crashed a 25 harder in off the bar at that end and the crowd erupted with teenagers pouring onto the pitch.

I was also at the Welsh Cup Final that year,of course The Shed was packed due to 5726 being inside the ground,pictures of that would show the "home end" in it's pomp.

I'm always somewhat disappointed at the lack of pictorial evidence of that great night,if again there is some good archive photos of that great night i'd be grateful if they could be posted on here.

I'd be surprised if there are any "undiscovered" photos from that era lying around. It's a shame there aren't more, I agree.

The 5-2 was against Worcester City, I believe.

TRM wrote:I'd be surprised if there are any "undiscovered" photos from that era lying around. It's a shame there aren't more, I agree.

The 5-2 was against Worcester City, I believe.

Yes it was TRM,I remember that they had at least one sent off and the crowd was around the 2500-2700 mark.

Sunday's were being used due to power cuts and lack of electricity,my memory is that it was a strange kick off time for those days like 2pm or something,i'm sure it'll be somewhere in the archive.

I guess kick-offs would have been earlier to avoid having to use the floodlights.

TRM wrote:I guess kick-offs would have been earlier to avoid having to use the floodlights.

Yes,that was the idea,it happened a lot that season,i seem to remember Liverpool playing Hull city in a cup match at Anfield midweek with an early afternoon kick off and rather than their usual 50,000+ in those days only about 29,000 turned up which seemed really strange inside an always packed Anfield.

We got sent home from school early as well on some days :-]]

There were some excellent photos, articles etc in a programme a few years back. Last home game Of a season I think, Farnborough maybe!? Very informative for a young un like me. Looked great.

I know a controversial point but at least the 'Johnny come latelys' gave me the opportunity to see the old ground full during our previous cup exploits.

flexcavana wrote:There were some excellent photos, articles etc in a programme a few years back. Last home game Of a season I think, Farnborough maybe!? Very informative for a young un like me. Looked great.

I know a controversial point but at least the 'Johnny come latelys' gave me the opportunity to see the old ground full during our previous cup exploits.

Thats a fair point Flex.

You have to remember though that the 70's were very different to today and locally it was absolutely massive locally that we'd reached the final,it bas back page news in the Express and Star along with big photos etc as if we were a league club on a big cup run.

As i said previously,the 5th round tie at home to Worcester City had a crowd of 2500-2700,generally our crowds were better in those days AND we were doing superbly in the Southern League Division One North.

If i remember correctly we pipped Burton Albion to win the league and we got promoted to what is now the Skrill Premier,we were hammering sides by big margins and Chic Bates and Ray Haywood our front pair were plundering over 100 goals between them in the season.

Stour were a very attractive side to watch in 74 and were on a real roll.

As for the final against Cardiff,i don't remember even needing a ticket,i think it was just pay on the gate.

Hopefully people will be talking about this group of players with the same enthusiasm and esteem on years to come?

Going back to the Welsh Cup Final I did especially like the photo that appeared to be people sitting on what looked like an assortment of dining room chairs along the cricket pitch side? ! ?

flexcavana wrote:Hopefully people will be talking about this group of players with the same enthusiasm and esteem on years to come?

Going back to the Welsh Cup Final I did especially like the photo that appeared to be people sitting on what looked like an assortment of dining room chairs along the cricket pitch side? ! ?

They also put a selection of the old style benches that we used to have in PE at our school behind the goal at The Shed End for us younger one's to sit on due to the crush in The Shed.

In effect you had lines of kids sat six feet from play directly to the side of each goalpost!

'Health and safety" didn't exist in the 70's……………………it was great! :-]]

Just a bit of a rallying call to everyone really to make sure you get there as early as possible to claim your spot in The Shed.

I hope we make BGW's day as uncomfortable as possible on Saturday,let's make the old place rock with noise and not give them an easy day out.

Oh and please please please can we attack Shed second half!

Not sure if anyone knows how many stour fans gonna be allowed in? As we know what happened last time! The clicker system did not work last time and the Albion stewards were at best nieve!

baz wrote:Not sure if anyone knows how many stour fans gonna be allowed in? As we know what happened last time! The clicker system did not work last time and the Albion stewards were at best nieve!

As far as I know it's less than 150.

This maybe the only area were maybe a bit of trouble on the day? Not sure what people think of this?

It seems to get less and less each year. We all know there will be more than there should be in there Saturday.

Jack wrote:It seems to get less and less each year. We all know there will be more than there should be in there Saturday.

Shed is segregated on Saturday, there will be Biggles and Algy in there too.

UlsterJim wrote:

Jack wrote:It seems to get less and less each year. We all know there will be more than there should be in there Saturday.

Shed is segregated on Saturday, there will be Biggles and Algy in there too.

I just dont get this segregation of Shed End? If anything this will be the cause of any potential trouble. Why we all cant mingle in ground i dont know?

If there does need to be a limit of 300 ish in Shed, then simply let the first 300 ish in, does it matter what team they support?

 

It's difficult to see how it can practically be done other than letting the first 300 in (or whatever the number is) and then one-out, one-in after that. I can't see 150 Biggleswade supporters wanting to be down that end when we're kicking that way so surely they will allow more than just 150 Stour fans in, and if that happens to be in the first half then how do they turf out 150 Stour fans to let in the Biggleswade lot?

Don't see how you can "segregate" one part of the ground when the rest of the ground is "open". That said, I'm not aware of any official announcement of arrangements for the Shed, so surely we're all jumping the gun a bit?

Anyway, I won't be there, so why am I bothered???!!!  

TRM wrote:It's difficult to see how it can practically be done other than letting the first 300 in (or whatever the number is) and then one-out, one-in after that. I can't see 150 Biggleswade supporters wanting to be down that end when we're kicking that way so surely they will allow more than just 150 Stour fans in, and if that happens to be in the first half then how do they turf out 150 Stour fans to let in the Biggleswade lot?

Don't see how you can "segregate" one part of the ground when the rest of the ground is "open". That said, I'm not aware of any official announcement of arrangements for the Shed, so surely we're all jumping the gun a bit?

Anyway, I won't be there, so why am I bothered???!!!  

The Shed has already been segregated…………end of!

Devil's Advocate wrote:

TRM wrote:It's difficult to see how it can practically be done other than letting the first 300 in (or whatever the number is) and then one-out, one-in after that. I can't see 150 Biggleswade supporters wanting to be down that end when we're kicking that way so surely they will allow more than just 150 Stour fans in, and if that happens to be in the first half then how do they turf out 150 Stour fans to let in the Biggleswade lot?

Don't see how you can "segregate" one part of the ground when the rest of the ground is "open". That said, I'm not aware of any official announcement of arrangements for the Shed, so surely we're all jumping the gun a bit?

Anyway, I won't be there, so why am I bothered???!!!  

The Shed has already been segregated…………end of!

How do you mean? Fencing half way along?

EDIT - D'you know what - I've just gone back and read the Club's original statement about arrangements for the game and seen that segregation is mentioned there. Somehow I hadn't spotted that before!

Like Brockmoor, my gut instinct is that it's not really necessary but we may be "playing by other people's rules" now we're in the Comp Proper so we probably didn't have any choice. Shame, though.

Plus me and the android are fackin animals after a few pints and will be up for a bit of a rumble against the cock- a-nees!!!!

The Shed is segregated? So does that mean that Biggleswade only have that section? Or can they move at half time? If so, surely it defeats the purpose oh segregation. As well though why have we given them any of the shed anyway? I assume it's to do with locations of turnstiles?