Your first football memory?

[oakroader]

for me it was watching the 1966 world cup final at Wembley on our first new colour tv,aged 4,choosing Nobby styles as my favourite player because his shirt number was the same as my age.i can remember a full house of relations and neighbours joining the party

 

[DarkSithLord]

Watching Man United win the Champions League in 1999. I was 7 at the time.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Mine is probably my first Luton game, it's a bit hazy but I know we lost and I know it was against Hull City in the FA cup.

Pretty sure Steve Davis scored a header so was probably 1998 or 99 something like that.

 

[dedwardp]

I used to go to reserve games when I was little as I was none the wiser, and I can remember one against Norwich when our goalkeeper did a drop kick and it bounced over the other keeper but hit the post. I thought that was amazing at the time, must have been about 1997 or so - I reckon that's my first football memory as such.

 

[Wizwag]

I remember my first game back in the 70's. I remember the smell of liniment coming from the changing rooms, and the smell of cigarette smoke in the stand. Just smells basically.

Whatever happened to liniment?

 

[Meadow]

for me it was watching the 1966 world cup final at Wembley on our first new colour tv,aged 4,choosing Nobby styles as my favourite player because his shirt number was the same as my age.i can remember a full house of relations and neighbours joining the party

I'm the same age but can't remember a thing about that match. Must be a partly false memory for you though, colour TV didn't start until late 1967.

1970 World Cup for me.

First live match was Chelsea v West Brom on the late 70's.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Clarkes diving header in the 72 final on telly, my first live was BORO v Spurs in 73, only cos my Dad thought that seeing Jennings , Peters and Duncan and the like in the flesh would be a good memory , and it was, when I took my little one to see his first game , Pools v Rochdale.... He doesn't talk about it much for some reason

 

[RavenBish]

I remember my first game even though I was really young. Play-off game where we beat Crewe 1-0 and Gary Martindale scored, my Dad carried me out and I asked if we could go every week. I often sit and think back to that day, when our useless twats are wandering around getting tonked by a bunch of floppy-haired, tatted up self-proclaimed ballers - I reminisce about what a thick little prick of a 3 year old (although basically 4) I must have been. We went to Wembley and lost 2-0 and I remember that too, all the romanticism of my first game crushed not long after and it's been downhill ever since.

I was born with a legitimate choice between Notts, Forest, Chelsea and West Ham...and I chose Notts. As someone who cheers when thick people don't win money on TV quiz shows, I'm perfectly at peace with the idea that after making such a bad choice I deserve nothing but a life of unhappiness.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Excuse my ignorance , what determines that you are a Forest fan or a Notts fan ? I went to meadow lane in the 80s and it's closer to the city centre so I've never understood why Forest are better supported

 

[Youpies]

Forest are better supported cause they were successful under Clough. Both teams were reasonably equally poorly supported till then. Nothing else to it. Not a class, religious, area or political thing...

Notts vs Tranmere. It was a Tuesday night and finished 1 all. I also had the choice to go see Forest or Notts as my family had just moved to Notts. I chose Notts cause the game was that night. patience is a virtue

 

[BeesKnees]

1973 aged 4/5, I went to a game at Hendon FC for an FA cup game against Barnet. My memory is that it was very busy, all I could see was a forest of legs and not having a clue what was going on.
Vaguely remember 74 world cup on the tele.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Forest are better supported cause they were successful under Clough. Both teams were reasonably equally poorly supported till then. Nothing else to it. Not a class, religious, area or political thing...

Notts vs Tranmere. It was a Tuesday night and finished 1 all. I also had the choice to go see Forest or Notts as my family had just mooved to Notts. I chose Notts cause the game was that night. patience is a virtue

Forest and County had very similar grounds also I recall before Clough , particularly the side terrace with seating above

 

[Brox]

A few memories all around the same time, I vaguely remember the 1994 World Cup, mainly because I was gifted a little World Cup football with all the nations flags on it. Just remember kicking it all around the house and garden only taking breaks to drink copious amounts of Sunny Delight.

More specifically I remember watching the West Ham - Man Utd game with my Dad, he was furious with Andy Cole for missing a hatful of chances, lets just say if Andy Cole had lived in the Brox household, he'd have taken an absolute beating by father Brox that day.

Stevenage related was in 1996, one of my first games was a 2-2 draw with Stalybridge Celtic. We were losing 2-0 and we scored both our goals as we were making our way round to the exit. The only other recollection I have from that game was being absolutely mesmerised by Efe Sodje's headwear, think the only time I took my eyes off the bandana was when I was given a burger full of cheap meat.

 

[ComeOnIrene]

As a kid I was taken to games when I was just a few months old but the earliest football memory I have is as a 7(?) year old, watching us take on Stoke City in Division 2 (League One). I can't remember the score but I am inclined to say it was a draw.

I can remember being quite bored during the game; I naively took for granted being a solid League One side.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

It's amazing where you start from determines your perspective , when I was a kid Stoke were a useful top flight team, even getting to the league cup final , so you can imagine my delight in the 90s when Pools beat Stoke away in a league game, and WBA also for that matter. There will be kids growing up now thinking Hull are a big team and they will be wondering why they are in the bottom 2 divisions in 10 years time , same for Blackpool and Wigan

 

[Meadow]

It's also who your parents support. If my dad had carried on going to Stamford Bridge after he married my mum, I'd have ended up as a Chelsea supporter. He decided to become an armchair supporter and I discovered football for myself. Thankfully I found the Dons and I never looked back despite all the heartache.

 

[ComeOnIrene]

It's amazing where you start from determines your perspective , when I was a kid Stoke were a useful top flight team, even getting to the league cup final , so you can imagine my delight in the 90s when Pools beat Stoke away in a league game, and WBA also for that matter. There will be kids growing up now thinking Hull are a big team and they will be wondering why they are in the bottom 2 divisions in 10 years time , same for Blackpool and Wigan

It is incredible when you think about it; the divisional landscape changes dramatically over a period of just a few years. No matter what journey clubs go on, though, they always find their way back to their natural level eventually - just as Wigan and Blackpool have/are. I think Yeovil are suffering from that now too, having punched above their weight for a number of years.

 

[Murphy]

My first main footballing memories is probably the thing that anyone around my age now remembers if they was at primary school at the same time as me, and that's going into school early to watch England in the 2002 World Cup. Used to get in early and sit in the school hall and watch it with everyone else on one of those massive old block TV's - great times.

Specifically my first memory is being in my old man's car when I was 7 in 2003 and hearing Di Canio put West Ham 1-0 up against Chelsea to give them a chance of staying up, always sticks with me as my first proper footballing memory. Daggers wise it would probably be again on the radio, but this time in 2006 when we were playing away at York and it was delayed because our players were delayed on the train, remember the bloke on the radio our score out when all the other classifies were in, we won 3-2 though

As for an actual game, I remember my first pretty well, was a Daggers friendly against West Ham in 07 which they won 2-0 I *think*, pretty sure Noble scored and Jarnail Singh was the referee. My first league game was the 1-1 against Barnet which was live on Sky when their goal from a free-kick actually broke our net - sort of set the tone for the next 8 years really....

 

[RavenBish]

Excuse my ignorance , what determines that you are a Forest fan or a Notts fan ? I went to meadow lane in the 80s and it's closer to the city centre so I've never understood why Forest are better supported

Family basically. That's the only real factor because the clubs are so close, there's a few notorious hotspots from Notts fans like Clifton though, incidentally where my Dad's family are from and my Mum's side consists of no Notts fans. My Dad grew up a West Ham fan but started going to Notts when he was 16 purely because his mates from school did and then became a fully-fledged Notts fan once he got stuck into away games etc...

It's why Nottingham is so weird for support and fanbases. Attendances are shit when you consider a city like Sheffield can hold two really well-supported teams and although Forest have much bigger attendances than us, I wouldn't particularly call them a massive club from that point of view, they like to pretend they are but I've been to Forest in times where they weren't doing so well and attendances were around 17,000.

It's why the only way Notts can attract fans is by becoming successful and convincing kids not to glory-support more than anything. I went to a school about 15 minutes away from Notts, Forest and Derby and in my year at school there was 1 other proper Notts fan (as in, went to games), a few Forest fans but certainly still a small minority in relative terms and 2 or 3 Derby fans. I don't know and I partly assume it's like that most places as I have nothing to compare it to, but for me I always found it astounding and just kind of assumed it was because it was a time where Forest and Notts weren't doing particularly well.

It's a massive shame really. A great city with stadiums in superb locations and for some bizarre reason Nottingham just doesn't like football I guess, but you also kind of assume that there's massive potential should either team ever get any real success. If the whole Munto thing would've been real, I don't think it would've been ludicrous to see a scenario where we were a better supported club than Forest within about 3-5 years.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

First memory of football: Oyvind Leonhardsen, my Dad (a massive Red) tried to get me to say his name as a kid so he could show off my talent to the world and used to wear retro Liverpool kits we got at the old Heritage Market. Game wise I'm unsure, I remember Leeds in the Champions League, Liverpool winning the FA and UEFA Cups and I remember a game on Granada where Burnley played Bradford and my Dad spent 90 minutes abusing Benito Carbone calling him a variety of words I'd never even heard of at the time.

Going to a game: My first game was a Crewe game. Crewe were very much my second team back then but I witnessed a 1-0 Crewe win with Dean Ashton scoring the first ever goal I saw in a ground, was a very crap game and I remember freezing my bollocks off all evening. The next week Coventry dicked us 6-1 as we were relegated to Division Two later that season. Despite enjoying going Crewe initially my Dad finally took me, Clayton Ince and his missus to Anfield for a game as opposed to a yearly tour of the stadium, I went to Liverpool vs Olimpija Ljubiljana in the UEFA Cup and it was brilliant. Later that year I'd witness the sight of obscure Marseille forward Didier Drogba who ran rings around our back four in a 1-1 draw at Anfield.

Still have a lot of affinity towards Liverpool given it's the family home, it's a really special football club and Liverpool is pretty much the only city not to be infested with Manchester United supporters. However I couldn't afford to support Liverpool to the extent I support Crewe and I'd much rather support my local team, even if we're the laughing stock of the Football League once again.

 

[oakroader]

I'm the same age but can't remember a thing about that match. Must be a partly false memory for you though, colour TV didn't start until late 1967.

1970 World Cup for me.

First live match was Chelsea v West Brom on the late 70's.

really?? I stand corrected, perhaps,in hindsight,it was the 1970 world cup 4 years later ,doh!!!!

 

[Trapdoor]

Standing in the back of the cowshed in the gloom, could barely see half the pitch.

 

[dedwardp]

My first main footballing memories is probably the thing that anyone around my age now remembers if they was at primary school at the same time as me, and that's going into school early to watch England in the 2002 World Cup. Used to get in early and sit in the school hall and watch it with everyone else on one of those massive old block TV's - great times.

Oh, I hated that. I'd already been going everywhere watching Colchester for four years by this point, and I hated sitting at school surrounded by a load of idiots who didn't really seem to understand football. We went in at half-time but I would much rather have just gone in an hour later and watched the second half at home with my dad.

It's why the only way Notts can attract fans is by becoming successful and convincing kids not to glory-support more than anything. I went to a school about 15 minutes away from Notts, Forest and Derby and in my year at school there was 1 other proper Notts fan (as in, went to games), a few Forest fans but certainly still a small minority in relative terms and 2 or 3 Derby fans. I don't know and I partly assume it's like that most places as I have nothing to compare it to, but for me I always found it astounding and just kind of assumed it was because it was a time where Forest and Notts weren't doing particularly well.

Yeah, I think the same generally rings true of all lower league clubs to be fair. Colchester is a one-team town, and yet I was the only Colchester fan in my school. There were a few Ipswich fans, but mostly just Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham, Tottenham, Liverpool, Man United etc. Yet, when we got promoted to the Championship it all of a sudden became a bit cool to support us and you'd see a few kids from school going along and talking about it at school - success is the only thing to bring people in.

None of them would care again now. But when we were up nearer the top of the table we were getting an extra 1,500-2,000 each game, so the only way we could ever bring crowds in would be to compete at the right end/find ourselves back in the Championship for a time. Again, I imagine this is the same for most clubs that are typically third or fourth tier.

 

[AdamStag]

Watching england lose to Germany on penalties in 1990. I was nearly 6, but remember it quite well.

didnt properly get into football until about 1995

 

[EricSabin]

Beckham's pen against the Argies in '02. Can't remember my first Cobblers game, but my first vivid memory is Diego Forlan missing a penalty at Sixfields for United.

 

[Habbinalan]

It must have been 1966 when football began to take over from rugby as a major interest. My uncle had played in the 1965 Challenge Cup Final for Wigan and I got taken down to Craven Park fairly regularly in the early 60s - then the 1966 World Cup coincided with Don McEvoy putting together the best Barrow AFC side for decades. I remember the 1966 Enfield v Skelmersdale Amateur Cup Final and replay, the Everton side that beat Sheffield Wednesday in the 1966 FA Cup Final and of course World Cup matches at Goodison, Ayresome Park, etc.

Despite still playing RL and Barrow RLFC getting to Wembley in the 1966/67 season, Barrow AFC getting a replay against Southampton in the 1966/67 FA Cup 3rd round was a bigger deal. I was hooked and got my first season ticket at Holker Street (and in Feb 1968, first motorbike) for the 1967/68 season

 

[mowgli]

The 1970 FA Cup final between Chelsea and leeds which finished 2-2 and i was so young i wasn't allowed to stay up and watch the replay.

 

[LordJord]

Watching Michael Owen tear up the Argies defence in World Cup 98. Didnt become a Cobblers fan until moving here in my teens from the Isle of Wight, first memory was probably Bas Savage scoring for Tranmere and doing a moonwalk celebration. He played for us 8 times and never repeated the feat.

 

[MrGloverLover]

First football-related memory was Graham Taylor giving me a Watford badge when he came to my infants school.

First match was Watford v Everton in the '84 Cup Final. I remember an Everton fan asking if we could swap flags before the game. I didn't, obviously, and still don't understand why he wanted to.

(Just to explain, I was born and grew up in Watford and supported them before moving to Yeovil when I was a kid)

 

[hellogregory]

World Cup Final 94. (I was 7). All I remember was the penalty miss by Baggio (I think). Then after that I remember CUFC at wembley in 95 and that season which got me supporting the club. Then Euro 96 the following year was my first full international tournament in my memory. It was great!