Yes. I think he said “We LOVE the Albion”. I remember it because my mum said why is he saying it so aggressively. As a 15 year old I couldn’t articulate why but I got it. In hindsight I think it’s because we did love the Albion but we were in real danger of losing the Albion.
[Albion] York City 1996: What was your experience?
- Thread starter sneakygeorgeparris
- Start date
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
herecomesaregular
We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
The last time I commented unfavourably on this I received pelters.
Had we been relegated we would not have been allowed to ground share with Gillingham in tier 5.
That's fact.
I got grade 1 GCE maths, but failed the A level, so maybe my calculus is insufficient to recognise risk....
If someone can persuade me the York pitch invasion drove Archer to sell up,
and without it he'd have just let the club fold,
I'd be happy to immerse myself in the narrative.
Neither have I. It was already in my mind before I read your post. I wonder who that person was and where they are now?
herecomesaregular
We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
Hang on a minute isn't this different seasons? The 4-4 Orient was my last game at the Goldstone before I went off backpacking. York was season before when were relegated? Goes off to check Google v memory....
edit - sorry, brain fog. I gotcha.
- Apr 5, 2014
- 28,247
I'm not sure it had any effect on that. I was fuming at the time. Really afraid of a large points deduction (not so bad in the end) but also the FA washing their hands of us. I think our support overall was pretty divided on it.
The Lincoln City one was more annoying. Senseless, achieved nothing, and could have been the moment that sent us down.
- Apr 5, 2014
- 28,247
Yes, but the suspended deduction was carried over. Would have been a bit silly deducting a relegated team points or a punishment that would have no adverse effect on a team. They wouldn't do that to a club. Well, Manchester City, maybe.
I’ve never quite known how I feel about that day. I was 15 years old, with my dad, stayed in the north stand and didn’t go on the pitch.
I took part in all the other protests (with my dad) including:
- leaving 15 (?) mins before the end as part of a mass walk signalled by a firework
- the march through Mellor
- the boycotted game and stood in the east after we broke in. My dad erred on the side of caution and we didn’t cross the pitch to stand below the directors box in the barriered off section of the west.
Over the years I’ve read comments about ‘rent a mob’ ‘non-Albion fans’ but it’s also clear many diehard Albion fans did take part. Was it necessary? Did it help? I don’t know.
But it did happen and we did save the Albion. So I guess all’s well that ends well.
I took part in all the other protests (with my dad) including:
- leaving 15 (?) mins before the end as part of a mass walk signalled by a firework
- the march through Mellor
- the boycotted game and stood in the east after we broke in. My dad erred on the side of caution and we didn’t cross the pitch to stand below the directors box in the barriered off section of the west.
Over the years I’ve read comments about ‘rent a mob’ ‘non-Albion fans’ but it’s also clear many diehard Albion fans did take part. Was it necessary? Did it help? I don’t know.
But it did happen and we did save the Albion. So I guess all’s well that ends well.
Any idea why Archer decided to 'sell up' to Dick Knight?
I remember seeing pictures of Knight in discussions with Archer*.
I'm guessing that having profited from the sale of the land
(and doubtless been a beneficiary when it was sold on for 3 times the money a couple of years later)
there was no reason to cling on to a valueless football club without any assets,
apart from some of the worst players ever to wear the stripes.
How much did Attila and co standing outside his house in Mellor force his hand?
*Did anyone call that a betrayal?
These days when someone meets with a hated enemy they get accused of capitulation and betrayal.
I understand your position and as per my post I’m unsure of my own. However it happened, the club survived, Archer was forced out and eventually the club thrived.
So all’s well that ends well.
I’m trying to remember what Dick Knight wrote about it in his book. I know the FA employed arbitrators. And I think the FA did apply quite a bit of pressure.
300 hundred (?) Brighton fans plus media in a small village can’t have made Archer popular where he lived. As part of an overall campaign, including the Gull’s Eye ‘Bugger Bastard Bill’s Business’ thing (remember that @Lenny Rider), it probably helped to apply pressure and made Archer wonder if it was all worth the effort.
Oh, quite. I agree.
I am not really that interested in getting to the bottom of it all.
Partly because it may upset or anger some people were they to discover that some of what they did was counterproductive.
And then it would trigger a 'you really think we should have done nothing?' 'debate'.
Not being relegated
Getting the club out of Archer's hands
Years of hard work, first to get the move to Withdean,
and ultimately getting approval and finance for the Amex.....
These seem the pivotal moments to me.
And keeping the momentum going by all the amazing things people did was probably essential,
but hard to 'measure'; boiling down to: if nobody seems to care, why bother?
As a veteran of anti-nuclear marches, my views on the effectiveness of popular protest are...mixed.
Yes, I can see that.
But as I said, the 'club' he sold was little more than a name with a right to play in tier 4,
so one assumes the sale was facilitated by mollifying his ego and allowing him to 'move on'.
Yes, I suppose the asset stripping was complete by then. All that was left for him was to kill the club as a final f*** you to the fans.
mile oak
Well-known member
- May 21, 2023
- 1,324
and all those years later I still FVCKING HATE PORT5CUMOUTHY
And as we know, businessmen are not normally successful for long if they are egregiously vindictive.
Not in his self-interest to hole the boat then shit on the deck it as it sinks.
- Apr 5, 2014
- 28,247
I don't know the full ins and outs, but in the end I'm sure walked away with more than £56.25
Lenny Rider
Well-known member
- Sep 15, 2010
- 6,456
But bearing in mind in the not too distant past he’s had to pay HMRC a significant 7 figure sum in back tax what he actually made out of us was in the words of the odious Greg Stanley “no more than a round of drinks”, and he’s still with us, giving weight to the time honoured phrase “Only the good die young”.
Woah….
I was in the North, up near the back. To me, it felt like people ran on from the South before anywhere else, which struck me as a surprising place for it to all start from!
Made my way steadily down the North and onto the pitch, by this time there were hundreds already on and the crossbars were starting to come down.
All felt a bit surreal and sad. It was absolutely necessary, and I’d told plenty of non-Albion friends (at the time I was living and working in Reading) that the match wouldn’t finish, but on the day I just remember wondering what would happen to us now.
Also went to the rearranged game, at 11am on a Tuesday or something, as I felt it helped show it was never about the game per se, it was about what was happening to our club.
Made my way steadily down the North and onto the pitch, by this time there were hundreds already on and the crossbars were starting to come down.
All felt a bit surreal and sad. It was absolutely necessary, and I’d told plenty of non-Albion friends (at the time I was living and working in Reading) that the match wouldn’t finish, but on the day I just remember wondering what would happen to us now.
Also went to the rearranged game, at 11am on a Tuesday or something, as I felt it helped show it was never about the game per se, it was about what was happening to our club.