FA Cup 4th Round I think, may have been 3rd but it was definitely in January..
My mate Dave was going up with a bunch of his mates from the Southampton OSC and asked if I fancied coming with, he knew I was starting to take an interest in City after years of chopping and changing teams, so I said yeah, why not?..
The Saturday came and I met him at the station, 4 pack of Carlsberg at the ready, dead excited about the day ahead of us. We met up with the lads from Southampton on the train and proceeded to take over the buffet car, in those days the only place on the train where people could smoke. The rest of the journey was filled with jokes, insults and just general footy banter that goes on..
We got to Waterloo about lunchtime and found our connection to Brentford easy enough considering the number of empty cans we left with Southwest Trains. There were a few other Blues on the train and a few songs started up, which I tried to join in with as best I could, not easy for a rookie I’ll admit..
At Brentford station I got a bit of kudos for knowing it’s the only ground in Britain with a pub at each corner, or at least it was back then.. Anyway, we soon found the away pub and stood outside, in what i remember was unseasonably warm sunshine, until the City coach came over the bridge next to the pub and a huge cheer went up from the Blues in and around the pub, I loved it..
Match time approached and I found a souvenir seller, and boy did I get into the spirit of things! City pin badge, City bucket hat, City t-shirt was soon snapped up and proudly displayed along with my first King of the Kippax too, I was suddenly City Boy!
Now, after all the various alcoholic refreshment I had enjoyed that day, the match passed im a bit of a blur, but i vividly remember the goal, Nick Summerbee picking it up and slapping one in from about 20 yards, great goal, and that got the whole end up and bouncing, the few thousand Blues in the lower tier where we were all stood just went beserk!
Match over, we all merrily wound our way back to Waterloo, City chants filling the train and slowly settled into a happy, drunken City filled slumber back home..
What a day, what a club, City Til I Die from that day forward