Good Morning!
A vivid memory for me, last day of the season, my team Newport needed an unlikely victory at Walsall to secure promotion or, needed Cobblers to beat Portsmouth!
. So one last chance on the Saturday, away at Walsall. I couldn’t go to this one as I was now working on Saturday mornings but next best thing was to head to the County Ground, If Cobblers could beat Newport’s promotion rivals Portsmouth then we were up! I paid to go in the away end and it was bedlam! Thousands of Pompey fans and I couldn’t see a thing, a famous photograph of fans climbing the floodlight pylons sticks in my memory. So I had no choice, I exited the Spion Kop and paid again, this time to get in the Hotel End. No mobile phones for updates however someone had a transistor radio, and news came through that Newport were winning at Walsall! To upset the Pompey fans the Cobblers fans, to my amazement all started chanting “Newport! Newport!” I joined in of course and probably was the loudest !
Portsmouth did winnand got promoted however Newport also got promotion winning at Walsall. A real roller coaster of emotions that day!
Another memory , whilst I used to watch the Cobblers fairly regularly in the eighties, was the shock at the crowd announcement, on a cold midweek match, of 998 (or similar) the first sub 1000 attendance at the County Ground. I also recall my displeasure at being served Happy Shopper cola out of a bottle despite the Coca-cola logo on the menu board!
Phil in Northampton
Was in the Spion Kop too for that one as a kid...Hotel End full - or appeared to be!
Remember Pompey fans in the paddock with transistors relaying the Newport score.
10,774 there with around 6000 or more Pompey. Yes, bedlam!