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On this day 2001 - The Battle of Longford



Hiney

Hiney

Super Moderator
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
19,397
Wadebridge, Cornwall
Pre-Season friendly

All going smoothly, until Andy Crosby gets elbowed, Matt Wicks & Steve Melton go mental, then Charlie Oatway gets mistakenly sent off.

Cue mass brawl, match abandoned and the rest of the tour cancelled.

And people moan about a 0-0 against Lewes

longford.jpg
 










El Presidente

El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
40,150
Pattknull med Haksprut
Listening to Kerry Mayo on the Albion Roar it was clear that they were always up for it!
 




Bozza

Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
58,718
Back in Sussex
My now ex-wife was out in Ireland for her hen do with, amongst others, [MENTION=449]Biffer[/MENTION]'s wife. The cancellation of the remainder of the tour stuffed up their plans to take in the game after Longford.

(At the same time around 25 of us were, nearly all Albion fans, were taking in the Amsterdam pre-season tournament and other offerings of the city...)
 


T

The Birdman

New member
Nov 30, 2008
6,313
Haywards Heath
Bozza said:
My now ex-wife was out in Ireland for her hen do with, amongst others, [MENTION=449]Biffer[/MENTION]'s wife. The cancellation of the remainder of the tour stuffed up their plans to take in the game after Longford.

(At the same time around 25 of us were, nearly all Albion fans, were taking in the Amsterdam pre-season tournament and other offerings of the city...)
Click to expand...
did roll it and :smokin: or did you pay fot it and :sheep: or just:drink::shrug:
 


R

ROSM

Well-known member
Dec 26, 2005
7,525
Just far enough away from LDC
I was there.... The game was taken by a 'junior' ref which would be County League level here. All other refs were at a conference.

Cardiff had played Longford earlier in the week and battered them 4-1 so the Longford players were 'bang up'

Early in the game, Longford had a Jamaica international who decided to elbow Andy Crosby and went unpunished. Matthew wicks decided to get some retribution the next time said forward had the ball and clattered him. He was like a headless chicken and ended up being subbed for arguing with his fellow defenders.

He was replaced by Steve Melton. Who having been on the pitch 2 minutes tackled a Longford midfielder about waist height flying. Mêlée ensued and oatway was dismissed in error. As he walked off the pitch he clearly said something to Longford players who then chased him to the dressing rooms that were in the far corner outside the main ground. All the albion players followed them quickly down the that way and Mickey Adams decided to abandon the game. The ref actually blew the whistle with no players still on the pitch as they had all by now, started a little wrestling match in the changing rooms.

The tour was abandoned the next morning, and the club didn't appeal Oatways sending off in an agreement with the irish fa not to draw any more attention to the situation given it was a uefa sanctioned tour
 




JJ McClure

JJ McClure

Go Jags
Jul 7, 2003
11,288
Hassocks
You could see the way the game was going from early on. I remember some Brighton fans shouting at Mickey Adams to take the players off prior to the brawl that ended the game.
We'd planned to go to the following game too (against Athlone I think), we ended up finding the teams training base and watching Brighton vs Brighton instead.
 


Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
69,373
Beside the seaside, beside the sea


C

Cian

Well-known member
Jul 16, 2003
14,262
Dublin, Ireland
The Longford chairman actually got involved in the brawl - as a participant, not to try calm it down.

I believe Oatway's FAI ban for the card actually applied in England under UEFA rules
 




R

ROSM

Well-known member
Dec 26, 2005
7,525
Just far enough away from LDC
Cian said:
The Longford chairman actually got involved in the brawl - as a participant, not to try calm it down.

I believe Oatway's FAI ban for the card actually applied in England under UEFA rules
Click to expand...

Yes it did. He missed 3 games but it was better than a full scale investigation.

We saw the players the next day having a walked and an ice cream from the local corner shop to their base. There was a lot of nervous humour from them. One of them mentioned the Longford Chairman and said he got hit by one of his own players by mistake.

Mind you the early abandonment meant I ended up gatecrashing a wedding at the local Longford arms hotel, got drunk and performed a grease song or 2 with Sarah watts
 


Tony Towner's Fridge

Tony Towner's Fridge

Well-known member
Aug 22, 2003
5,588
GLASGOW,SCOTLAND,UK
I was there and was only thinking about it at the weekend there when the King George Horse race was on.....

Afraid to say that our players did start it but an incompetent 25 stone referee didn't help. I believe they couldn't get a proper referee so they gave it to the local Weight-Watchers group to arrange....

Fond memories all the same


TNBA

TTF
 


T

Tooting Gull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
11,035
I was there, unbelievable scenes. Remember the double page spread in the Irish Sun: 'Seagulls in a flap on day of shame - and this was supposed to be a friendly'.

Longford were looking to start a fight, and they got it and then some from Micky's band of brothers. Some of the more excitable Longford fans started having a go at us saying we were trying to finish off what we'd started at Lansdowne Road with England, a little paranoid.

Cancelled tour meant an unscheduled trip to the Galway racing festival (which was superb).
 




R

ROSM

Well-known member
Dec 26, 2005
7,525
Just far enough away from LDC
Id never seen a team coach pull up so closely to a dressing room door so the players literally stepped out the door onto the steps of the middle entrance.

Calm irish stewarding as well. As tooting says, some locals were a bit excitable and a gentle 'calm down now' seemed to do the trick
 






C

Cian

Well-known member
Jul 16, 2003
14,262
Dublin, Ireland
ROSM said:
Calm irish stewarding as well. As tooting says, some locals were a bit excitable and a gentle 'calm down now' seemed to do the trick
Click to expand...

With only about three team pairs in the entire league system having enforced segregation (all Dublin derbies), there's not a huge amount of risk for stewards and they're usually fairly lax as a result.
 






W

Wardy's twin

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2014
9,171


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