A interesting look at what TV has done to away travel <iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
cant watch it at work, can you summarise? I think aways are just as good as ever (apart from the price).
I probably shouldn't rise to the bait but a very disappointing post from presumably someone who supports the club. I have occasionally used the coaches where the distance is too much to drive in a day and have never had cause to regret it. Sure there is the inevitable tedious nature of long coach journeys but that is a choice you make. Others might have other experiences but posts like this can put off those who might be considering long distance away trips for the first time. There is good and bad everywhere but let's not tar everyone with the same brush.
What? Why? I think I've used the coach twice maybe in 20 years, but have no idea why you are implying this?
I've only used it a handful of times. The last time was an away game at leicester (I think), and the chap I was sat next to proceeded to calmly eat about 16 hard boiled eggs throughout the journey.
It's been the standard response since i started going to games in the mid 70's. If you were on the coaches you were seen as something of a weirdo.. a social misfit. I guess the implication was that if you couldnt afford the train fare or a vehicle of our own you must be one of life's losers. Funnily enough though, at least back then, it could also have meant you were 'one of the lads' As football firms used private hire coaches to avoid the long arm of the law on public transport.
Yep exactly. I'm not even sure it was about not being able to afford other types of transport, more that travelling by coach - for football or otherwise - is so horrendous you must be deranged to do it regularly. It's just a bit of harmless fun. In less PC times it was called the **** bus, window lickers etc. Nowadays coach users are just called weirdos. That's progress I guess.
Hmmm, fair cop Certs. I was assuming that my pilchard and tomato sandwiches was the reason that I had not to date had a bad experience. Just cancelled the coach to burnley.
The TV age isnt just bad for away travel, it is bad for fans who actually attend games. Last minute game changes for TV or the constant discussion about 1 game being played in Asia or the 39th game idea. It is becoming clear TV companies dont care who is at the games, just make sure the seats are full - who is in them doesnt matter. Clubs will never agree/disagree about this as they risk massive fanbase issues or upsetting the TV companies which then pose £££ risks. On the Coach subject I understand the 'negative' comments above, but there are so many reasons why people get the coaches that a lot of comments aimed at coach fans are unfair. I used to get the coaches alot between 2002 to 2005 - going to tinpot places like Crewe, Grimsby, Rotherham, Burnley, Walsall, Plymouth etc etc. My reasons were that it was only me and a mate; we hadnt yet passed driving tests/petrol money was more expensive than 2x coach tickets, trains were expensive/unreliable, we'd been out Friday night so could sleep on coach. Back then there was a fairly large group of 'regulars' who sat near the driver week in week out! Then the rest of the coach was filled up with singletons, young pairs like us, father and kids etc. It was clear it was either about money or safety - how could a dad drive 5 hours to Plymouth and then back in a day with a child in the car. In recent years i either drive or use TFL. I did use coaches to Leicester and Villa in 15/16 as it was either free or £1 - i cant remember which. The Villa match was fairly upbeat journey and result - large group of singers on coach who were on JD and Coke or beers the second we left Greenhill Cresent. They sang QSF most the way. Leicester game was mainly groups of lads just playing on their phones - a bit like the majority of train journeys these days. The general atmosphere on the coaches for those 2 games was far more similar to that of standard football crowds. The coach atmospheres of the Lewington/Boothroyd years were more like the atmosphere of a dictator running a library: coughing was shouted down, food could only be consumed if napkins were used and watching of a straight to video movie was compulsory! If you can only afford the coach - use it. If you can afford the train or have enough people to make driving possible then go thst way. To be honest it doesnt matter how you get to the game, just get there, sing and support the team. P.s. I never once saw the vegetable wavers on the coaches - i think they went by train!
I used the coach when I was a teenager in the 90s, myself and a few other mates came along and we mostly played card games to and from matches. This century I only used the coach twice, once was the FA Cup game in Sunderland in 2003 as neither my Dad nor I could be arsed to drive that far and the other was the 2006 Play off final, which in hindsight was a mistake. I've never understood why anyone would use the coach to go to London clubs particularly as public transport is very good.
Apologies for that. They were half price at the service station. Be thankful you didn’t sit next to me on the way back. In fact nobody sat next to me!!
Potentially fewer people travelling to away games because it's easier and cheaper to watch on TV? That reminds me of this song.
Used to use the coach as a 14 year old heading to the grim northern mid winter away trips such as Preston, Burnley, Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday, Hull and Blackpool as it was the cheapest and easiest option. It was awful. Full of old women and degenerates who stank. Not to mention to mandatory movie that was played at full volume in between 45 minute stops 1 hour into the journey so the other passengers could empty their colostomy bags. My favored mode of transport is easily the train - on the beers from 9am all the way there and all the way back.
Back at the end of the 60s and early 70s, I used to hitch-hike to away games - usually with a friend. I have hitched to Huddersfield, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Southport, Bristol City - even Norwich. The game against Middlesbrough was in 69 when after a Friday evening session in the Supporters Club (yes!), we caught a bus up to the Garston turn-off for the M1 and hitched up the motorway and the old A1. We arrived at Darlington at around 3.00 in the morning, kipped for an hour in a carriage in Darlington station and then cadged a lift with the first newspaper van going across to Middlesbrough. We were set down in the high street at an ungodly hour and spent the time, before a cafe opened at 6, walking along what passed for the shopping centre in those days (dire enough now but dreadful 48 years ago). To amuse ourselves (we were only young then after all) we used our fingers to write "WFC", "Hornets", "Endean is our King" and other amusing and witty comments in the dirt on the shop windows. There was a big punch-up in the Boro Supporters Club at Ayresome Park between a huge contingent of Horn fans and the locals before the game and the game itself was dire - we lost 3-1. Afterwards, smart phones not being around at the time, we bought a football paper (the Pink 'Un or Sports Echo or some similar name) - front page headlines were about the violence before the game with the prominent first line being "Watford Fans arrived in the early hours of the morning, daubing slogans on shop windows and looking for trouble". My mate & I prided ourselves on that for many weeks...... In case anyone thinks that this has nothing to do with "the TV age", inside the ground we stood underneath the rather primitive Tyne-Tees TV gantry and, when asked by the local commentator about the Watford team, gave him background info on Endean, Scullion, Eddy and the rest. On the Big Match the following day, they showed the game and I heard the commentator repeat what I had told him about the Watford team word for word.
Sounds like there will be Saturday evening games on TV soon. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42022871 How will that impact on away fans?
I've experienced some classic away days (mostly in the 80s and 90s) but none that could possibly match that. A memory form 50 years ago but I guess you smiled broadly writing that. Some people will never 'get' what a good away day means. Top story.
I stopped watching after 1:40. Seemed to be full of northern poor folk who would have to get up at sparrow's irrespective of KO time.
