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A bit of national media recognition for Town as the only English team to win in Naples prior to Man City's victory this week
Anyone here attend the game or at least have memories of it? I"d be fascinated to know. Was before my time and seems inconceivable.
I love the silent black and white footage at this link.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/talksport.com/football/english-club-manchester-city-would-emulate-win-napoli-will-shock-you-171101260443%3famp

 Of course, Fabio Capello played for Roma, in the earlier comp, and he did say that the memory of how Town turned them over 4-0, did have an influence on how he saw the game thereafter.

I didn't attend the game in Naples but I've got the match programme. I went to the two home group games against Juventus and Napoli, as well as the 4-0 thrashing of Roma the year before, which Reg refers to, and the home games against Bologna and Sampdoria in 1971.  Happy days!

My dad went to all the the AIC home games. I’ve always been envious of that generation of supporters.

C’mon Football League invite some (EasyJet accessible) clubs from Serie C, 3. Bundesliga and Segunda Division B to play in the Checkatrade.

I think we upset their ‘Erics’

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QO19qG-UCe4

I went to all but one of the home games - the ticket price went up (doubled?) at some point so we boycotted one of the matches. And yes I think we were a fortunate generation. I've never seen that riot footage before, looks pretty scary.

In my list of grudges against the football authorities, not letting us enter the Inter City Fairs Cup ranks second only to our demotion post-Sunderland playoff. It'll be disappointing, I just know, when they finally announce the punishment for QPR buying promotion from Div 2. Paying for a player's wedding = demotion 2 divisions. Spending £millions you shouldn't have? Don't do it again (prob).

The AIT did carry on (forgotten the details) with Serie C teams playing the likes of Dulwich Hamlet, so a non-league cup.

Thanks for the links to the film clips and article!

I was an apprentice at Pressed Steel at that time and called in sick on the day of the Final ;-) There was a supporters' and officials' plane to Naples and about a hundred of us took a couple of Rimes coaches to the airport (Gatwick I think) early in the morning. The plane was a BEA Comet and the Swindon Town Marching Girls were on board wearing their red jackets and fairly short white skirts. On arrival coaches picked us up and took us on a short tour around Naples then on to the stadium for the late afternoon kick-off.

The Swindon Town Girls did a bit of marching and formed a guard of honour for the teams as they came out.

It was a big game for Napoli with around 50,000 in the ground, almost all not under cover. As in the above reports, we were deservedly winning when fans on the other side of the ground started breaking up the wooden and concrete benches and throwing debris on the pitch. The ref stopped the game and eventually police and officials did their best to shield the players as they ran the gauntlet to get to safety, one or two of them being hit by missiles but nothing serious. There was no trouble on our side of the stadium.     There were rumours later of political agitators being involved.

It soon became obvious the game would have to be abandoned and we were awarded the win. I can't remember the cup being presented on the pitch.  Us Swindon fans made our way out and on to the waiting coaches. Between us and the stadium was a large open space where rioters were being chased backwards and and forward by mounted riot police, but we couldn't leave because the Swindon Town Girls were still in the stadium. After a while the rioting stopped, the rioters parted like the Biblical Red Sea and the Girls came marching two by two across the plaza to the coaches. Then the rioting carried on as before!  Various Napoli fans were milling around us and some came on the coaches, but without exception they were friendly and shaking hands with us.  (Very similar to the Sunderland fans after our first Wembley play-off win)

The coaches whisked us away to an open air restaurant. I remember my steak being a bit bloody but being British just ate it and didn't complain. After that we were taken to the players' hotel and several of us drank champagne? out of the cup. Gigi Peronace signed my programme.  Then back to the airport and home to Swindon in the early morning :-)  

An eventful away day :-)

Edit: just watched another of the above videos, it seems the cup was indeed presented on the pitch, I hadn't remembered that. Didn't remember the fires either, maybe they were after we left the ground. Part of the Plaza outside can be seen very briefly at the end of the Argentinian film report.

My Pressed Steel foreman Jack Viner didn't speak to me for weeks. He was a good bloke and a very keen Town fan but was unhappy at me taking the day off and lying about being sick.

ps among other memorabilia, my programme was unfortunately stolen from my sister's loft by some cowboy roof lagging installers. In the unlikely event anyone comes across a programme including Gigi Peronacie's signature I'd be happy to pay a reward for it.

btw one of the other stolen programmes was a small one from a Swindon v Northampton game in the early/mid 60s, priced 4 old pence. An identical one was on top of a pile of programmes featured on BBC's Flog It a couple of years ago. Maybe the very one, I'll never know...

 ^^ Best post ever

My abiding memory of that Roma game is when two opposing players were injured. While Town trainer Harry Cousins ran out with a bucket of water and his Magic Sponge for ours, no less than four Roma trainers ran out to treat their player...

Edit: Checking up on Harry Cousins, as a player his nickname was "Iron Man" and he once played a whole season with a broken bone in his foot.

Now we are talking, a European wide shit trophy.  If only the hadn't fucked up the UEFA Cup.  Post fucking us over of course.

I wasn't even born you old cunts.

Great post Munichred. Good to hear from someone who witnessed it first hand.

I did some computer repair work for Joe Butler a few years back while he was on the taxis, he told me a long story about this game.

How the players were scared stiff of being attacked by the fans of Naploi and that 20 armed police came into the Town dressing room with machine guns to protect them and some were threatening the players too! they didn't like getting beaten at home it seems!

He said they had to be escorted to the coaches while Napoli fans tried to attack them and then they stormed the dressing room just as the players were leaving.

Joe said it was the most frightened he had ever been in his life.

Its great to have some publicity in the national media again.

Ive done the lounge thing a couple of times before games.  We've been on Joe's table.  Its been quite amusing to tell my wife afterwards that the old fella she was ranting on about tactics to at half time might just know a bit about football after about 400 games and a league cup medal!

Joe is a lovely bloke and does love to talk football...a lot!

This.

Lucky enough to go to all the home games and being in the Town End to boot. The one thing that always sticks in the mind apart from the games was the sight of the warm ups and exercises done by the Italian teams prior to the start, never seen it at a Town game before and a bit of a revelation.  :)

I went to all the home games against some really top opposition who were supposed to win against us at a canter. We really did take some of the best teams in Europe apart. Any one remember Juventus at home where we tanked them 4-0. They completely lost it and the tactics by them had the crowd at Swindon ready to riot with cushions coming onto the pitch. Juve included the great Helmut Haller in midfield and Pietro Anastsia up front. Great games and great times for me.

Went to all the home games - we were awesome  :D

Thanks for sharing all those memories folks. Truly wonderful. Munichred's post is indeed the greatest post ever, will never be topped and we can probably hereby declare the whole Townend forum closed!

This is great stuff.
Just before my time, but would be fantastic to be able to follow Town in Europe one day. It won't happen, but can only dream.

Same here. Sat in the old "ringside seats" if I remember correctly.

Really glad to have been able to share my memorable day in Naples and to read other fans' experiences on this forum.   A lot more fun than my last flying visit, a day trip from here to watch the Swindon-Preston play-off debacle.

Reflecting on the Napoli game, it was incredibly brave of the Swindon Town Girls to have calmly marched across that plaza while the rioting was going on around them, albeit with a police escort. We as Town fans were lucky to have been sat well away from the trouble.

Also stolen was a scrap book of photos etc cut out from the Adver and Football Pink, covering Swindon Town in the 40s and 50s. These had been collected by my uncle Edgar (Cottrell) and he gave the book to me when I was young.  After Edgar died in the 80s a small family memorial service was held at the County Ground and his ashes were spread in the Stratton Bank goal.