Highbury is a mirror. Depending on your mood and situation in life, Highbury means different things. Sometimes it has been bleak; other times brilliant.
THIRTIES: My father told me about Arsenal when he went in the thirties – how Alex James used to leave the ball, run one way take three or four men with him and go back and dribble with the ball without the markers.
SIXTIES:He took me to London First Division grounds as a small kid in the sixties – the Chelsea dog track [when someone lost a slip-on shoe at Earls Court tube in the rush], Spurs, high up [when an old lady next to me asked if that was a goal when Jimmy Greaves hit a post], Fulham on the terraces [when a geezeer next to me rolled his programme up and had a Jimmy Riddle], West Ham [can’t remember] and East Stand Highbury. It was a brilliant Spring day. Joe Baker cracked in two – George Eastham was brilliant (a bit like Hleb but a longer passing range] and ever since then have been a Gooner.
SIXTIES/SEVENTIES:We used to go up on Saturday – six or seven of us from school to the North Bank and we had a ritual – we had to be trampled underfoot by our schoolmates – to become a “North Bank regular“. It was dark and dangerous down there among the dark seas of legs. I remember the corrugated iron backs of the stand which people used to thump with their feet, when chanting. A couple I remember: “If I had the wings of a swallow; and “We are the Arsenal boys”. There was a raw edge, which isn’t there these days.
SEVENTIES: Tried to hitch to the Spurs away game in 1971, but got stuck on the M4. But scored in an Arsenal fans v Liverpool fans game after the Cup Final on the Saturday.
Later in the seventies, got a job on a building site near Highbury and one Saturday was let in free after half-time – only to see Terry Connor nick one for Leeds for a 0-1. Bleeding cold it was too.
EIGHTIES:Highlight of the eighties was the street party the night of the Anfield game 1989, on the Blackstock Road. Bought a bottle of Champagne and poured it out to any one with a plastic cup.
NINETIES:Highlights of the nineties: First time in the Arsenal Press Box, as a Highbury & Islington Express writer – met Alan Smith; asked Arsene Wenger and George Graham two questions about tactics.
1997: Marble Halls – called for an interview to write for the Arsenal web site; Interviewing Alan Smith and Nigel Winterburn.
1998: Drank Champagne poured in the Arsenal press box after the 4-0 win against Everton.
NOUGHTIES:2006: Real Madrid and Juventus games; getting regular tickets, getting a season ticket for Ashburton Grove and becoming an Arsenal shareholder (from someone’s father who got original shares in 1913). Moral of the story: all comes to he who waits [around ten years in both cases]
Players and incidents I remember, beside Joe Baker and George Eastham [the Henry and Fabregas of the sixties]:
*Ian Ure and his strange golden hairstyle
*Terry Neill miskicking a ball into touch
*Lee Dixon’s own goal against Coventry
*George Armstrong chuffing down the wing seemingly forever
*John Radford hanging in the air waiting for the Armstrong cross
*Jack Kelsey and his cap
*Bob Wilson and his green jersey
*Terry Mancini and his balding pate
*The Rix Brady shuttle service
*Paul Merson scoring on his debut
*George Graham’s shimmy and shot
*Jon Sammels’shot
*Petrovic the pidgeon
*Macolm Macdonald bearing down on the North Bank
*Thierry Henry scoring against Chelsea
*Dennis Bergkamp’s first game
*Dennis Bergkamp scoring against Bolton to get us into the UEFA Cup
*Perry Groves on the touchline like a bee in a jamjar
*Tony Adams’ goal (fourth) against Everton