[Football] John Byrne tweet.

[Codner's Wallop]

It's just a shame that, on the whole, the atmosphere at the Goldstone was on a par if not worse than what is currently generated at the AMEX.

Perhaps nostalgia has fogged my memories, but I always savoured the atmosphere at the Goldstone during the eighties and nineties. The demographic was of course totally different; predominantly young men fulled by testosterone and flat lager. But the north stand songs were loud and boisterous. Probably helped by the fact no-one attempted anything fancy (Boxing Day, On to Victory, We are Brighton, We all follow the Albion etc) and most blokes had lost all their inhibitions over a few Tennants in a sweaty Hove pub a few hours earlier.....

 

[Simster]

It's just a shame that, on the whole, the atmosphere at the Goldstone was on a par if not worse than what is currently generated at the AMEX.

Correct. It was decent in the north when the overall gate was 9,000+ I'd say.

Best ignore RotR and his tiresome ramblings. We had 33,000 approximately 5 times ever in the 70s. The average gate in the 80s would have been about 12,000, and in the 90s nearer 6,000.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

It is true, those days are gone..... Today my heart stirs when I pass Amex , but in unguarded moments I still call it The Goldstone ...Oops!
The memories of one's youth never fade.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Correct. It was decent in the north when the overall gate was 9,000+ I'd say.

Best ignore RotR and his tiresome ramblings. We had 33,000 approximately 5 times ever in the 70s. The average gate in the 80s would have been about 12,000, and in the 90s nearer 6,000.

So me saying the an evening game with 33k against local rivals was a great night= We averaged over 30k during the 70's/80's The reason it was so special was because it was a far larger and nosier crowd than normal. At the amex we have a great average attendance but not many big games.

 

[Simster]

So me saying the an evening game with 33k against local rivals was a great night= We averaged over 30k during the 70's/80's The reason it was so special was because it was a far larger and nosier crowd than normal. At the amex we have a great average attendance but not many big games.

No, the reason you're so tedious is because of your tendency to downplay everything that is good about the club now while only ever talking about those 33,000 passion-fuelled nights at the Goldstone as if that was in any way the norm. It wasn't. As you now say, the nights of which you speak so fondly accounted for approximately 5% of games (being generous) through the 70s and 80s.

 

[Return of the Rev]

No, the reason you're so tedious is because of your tendency to downplay everything that is good about the club now while only ever talking about those 33,000 passion-fuelled nights at the Goldstone as if that was in any way the norm. It wasn't. As you now say, the nights of which you speak so fondly accounted for approximately 5% of games (being generous) through the 70s and 80s.

Settle for 5% at the amex

 

[Simster]

Settle for 5% at the amex

So you want 5% of all Amex matches to be equal in atmosphere to 5% of the most glorious 6 or 7 seasons in the club's history? Apart from the fact that doesn't seem very fair, I'd say it already does. People like you love to run down the atmosphere at the Amex, but I'd say it has been absolutely rocking for 5% of games - we've been here 4/5 seasons and I reckon we could all pick out 5 or 6 games in that time with it being a tremendous atmosphere.

If you don't agree then I suggest you don't bother coming.

Oh, you don't already? Right.

 

[rool]

It may be my old and tired senses but everything seemed more vivid in those days. The smells, the colour of the pitch, the brightness of the lights, the noise.

I love the Amex and it's comfort but it does lack the old style match day excitement and other sensory experiences but that's probably just my jaded old ass.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

The standard of living was significantly lower in the days of Goldstone (60s onwards). Entertainment available was far less and people's expectations were far less. The Goldstone as it was' would never be acceptable in today's world of football. Its place is in the past and should be used for great memories. There is no comparison with the AMEX which is for today's age.

 

[Official Old Man]

Mine to!

Re the photos of the view from the houses, post #10. Who owns a house with a view and plants a big bushy tree?

 

[Doc Lynam]

I still remember my first visit to the Northstand as a kid with my mates, being packed in like sardines and told if we score run forward! Run forward! Who would have thought so many men would be able to move with all the timing of a Classical Greek play.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

When I was a kid, my dream was to buy one of the houses behind the East Terrace, so I could watch the games, free, with my mates

Me too, in fact when I got married in 1989, my wife, new to the area, said perhaps we could buy a house with a nice green in front of it . . .

 

[The Birdman]

Re the photos of the view from the houses, post #10. Who owns a house with a view and plants a big bushy tree?

The fireworks which signalled the walk out during a game in the anti Archer days came from the back of the house in the picture and the Sky TV crew filmed them being launched.
One was lit by he crystal Palace fan who purchased 50 tickets in the Arthur Waite stañd for Brighton fans

 

[Return of the Rev]

Re the photos of the view from the houses, post #10. Who owns a house with a view and plants a big bushy tree?

Mark lawrenson?

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Pulling into Hove Station if you got the late train from LA and you could see how packed the North Stand was between the church and the houses !

 

[1234andcounting]

Correct. It was decent in the north when the overall gate was 9,000+ I'd say.

Best ignore RotR and his tiresome ramblings. We had 33,000 approximately 5 times ever in the 70s. The average gate in the 80s would have been about 12,000, and in the 90s nearer 6,000.

Far more than 5, I think. Doing this from memory so may have overstated some and missed some

Reading Easter 1970
Bournemouth New Year's Day 1972
Rochdale, promotion clincher May 1972. God knows how many were in the ground that day
Chelsea FA Cup 1973, friendly on and off the pitch that day
Palarse as already mentioned in 1976, strangely I think we only topped 30,000 against them at the Goldstone once
Derby Co, League Cup 1976, another how many in the ground
Sheff Wed 1977 - promotion clincher, again
S'ton New Year's Day 1978 (? not sure about this one)
Spurs - same season near to Easter
Charlton - penultimate home game 1978
Blackpool - should have been promotion clincher but for the fix along the coast
W Ham Oct 1978
Charlton - Easter Monday 1979

Have I missed any?

 

[The Birdman]

How many for the leauge cup run Birmingham Portsmouth Wolves which I think Derek Dougan played and Mike Bailey which we lost 2-3 to Hugh Curran goal our hero I think was Alex Dawson grey cells struggling !

 

[Moshe Gariani]

We used to queue outside the North Stand on a Friday night to be guaranteed to get in the next day.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Far more than 5, I think. Doing this from memory so may have overstated some and missed some

Reading Easter 1970
Bournemouth New Year's Day 1972
Rochdale, promotion clincher May 1972. God knows how many were in the ground that day
Chelsea FA Cup 1973, friendly on and off the pitch that day
Palarse as already mentioned in 1976, strangely I think we only topped 30,000 against them at the Goldstone once
Derby Co, League Cup 1976, another how many in the ground
Sheff Wed 1977 - promotion clincher, again
S'ton New Year's Day 1978 (? not sure about this one)
Spurs - same season near to Easter
Charlton - penultimate home game 1978
Blackpool - should have been promotion clincher but for the fix along the coast
W Ham Oct 1978
Charlton - Easter Monday 1979

Have I missed any?

Nope thats the lot Southampton was deffo 32.979 The game before the 33k for palace we had 13k for halifax another 20k turned up which was my point about having bigger games back then rather than a steady average.

 

[Peter Grummit]

I have added the actual crowds and scores fyi. Thanks to Tim Carder/Roger Harris book Seagulls! The Story of BHAFC for the data.

Far more than 5, I think. Doing this from memory so may have overstated some and missed some

Reading Easter 1970 32,036 2-1
Bournemouth New Year's Day 1972 30,600 2-0 (27/12/71)
Rochdale, promotion clincher May 1972. God knows how many were in the ground that day 34,766 1-1
Chelsea FA Cup 1973, friendly on and off the pitch that day 29,287 0-2
Palarse as already mentioned in 1976, strangely I think we only topped 30,000 against them at the Goldstone once 33,300 2-0
Derby Co, League Cup 1976, another how many in the ground 33,500 1-1
Sheff Wed 1977 - promotion clincher, again 30,756 3-2
S'ton New Year's Day 1978 (? not sure about this one) 32,979 1-1
Spurs - same season near to Easter 32,647 3-1
Charlton - penultimate home game 1978 31,203 1-0
Blackpool - should have been promotion clincher but for the fix along the coast 33,431 2-1
W Ham Oct 1978 32,634 1-2
Charlton - Easter Monday 1979 30,859 2-0 Good Friday

Have I missed any?

No, but as you can see the Chelsea cup game didn't quite make 30k, so there were 12 matches which did. We have only ever lost 1 home league game in front of a crowd of 30,000+.

I was at all of these bar the Reading game (didn't start going until 71).

Wolves in the League cup late 69 was 32,539

PG