Thetownend.com

As the title says. With the FA Cup buzz hitting the Town again and to get the excitement juices flowing.

What is your favourite FA Cup tie with Swindon ever?

I have a few great memories of Swindon FA Cup games over the years....
 
The 7-0 away win at Kettering in 83-84, the 2-2 draw home to Everton with Kenny Strouds brilliant goal in 76-77.

Taking 8,000 fans to White Hart Lane and being swindled out of a win by a terrible ref and a last minute goal by Gerry Armstrong in 78-79 after being 1-0 for ages and that following a great 0-0 draw at the CG in front of 28,000 fans in 79-80 season.

But my favourite of all was thrashing 5-0 of Fulham in 1977, who had a team containing 5 players that had won the FA cup with them 2 years previously but also that had Bobby Moore, George Best and Rodney Marsh playing and in front of a crowd of just under 24,000......lovely!

Same as JJ. Being on Stratton Bank watching as a kid and Swindon hammering Fulham 5-0.

Swindon 1-1 Southampton in 95/96 was a good tie and a great team goal from Horlock!

Bit more obscure but Swindon 3-2 Hereford from 2001/2002 was a great tie! Bobby Howe and Paul Edwards helping us to the win from 2-1 down!

West Ham away 1975 1-1

We could have won, but Trevor Anderson got rugby tackled when he was clean through on goal.

One of my favourite games ever.

I could also have added the Fulham match that JJ said but I didn't get in the ground till half time because I'd been in Winchester all day at an interview.

Not had much to shout about in the FA Cup in my time as a Town fan. Fulham in the play-off season was great experience, we didn't bow down to them and, had Austin been eligible, I honestly think we'd have beaten them. Huddersfield this season is probably the best of the rest, scoring four goals against a strong, higher-league team with their 'unbeaten' run was brilliant.

Fulham a couple of seasons ago was a cracking atmosphere, 6.5K Town fans packed behind the goal.
We were arguably the better team and should've got something from the game.

Huddersfield earlier this season was pretty darn good too.

However, my first ever game was an FA Cup game.
At home to Farnborough in 1986 I think, we won 4-0.

For purely non-footballing reasons it has to be the 1-0 loss to Fulham 2 seasons ago.

It was my 2 boys first away day, and coincidentally their first trip to London/first ride on the tube etc.

They stood on their seats the whole way through the match and got involved with all the singing, and we gave a good account of ourselves that day - easily the best atmosphere in a match I have been to with the 2 of them.

My dad is a lifetime town fan who can't come to matches any more, and loves to talk to his grandchildren about their thoughts on each match. So there we are, having Sunday dinner at mum and dads, and dad asks what was the best bit about the day out. My oldest, who was 9 at the time thought for about half a second before replying "Being allowed to stand on our seats and singing "Your support is fucking shit""

Of the ones i've been to, definatley Fulham away, that was a great day. I would love another away tie to a premier league side.

Huddersfield this season as it was the first match I took my son to.

I always remember Fulham in the 3rd round in 87 I think, Bamber scored and I think we got beat at home by Leeds in the next round, anyway I remember the game 'cos I was fucking freezing.

hello by the way long time lurker

Hello Dan ;)

Swindon 2 - 2 Everton, Kenny Stroud's screamer, followed by the 3-3 at Fulham

Swindon 1-1 Southampton 95/96, Swindon 3-2 Forest Green...and that Blair Sturrock goal 07/08 & Fulham 1-0 Swindon 09/10!

damn facebook  :)

Yep :)

I did enjoy the Fulham away tie from 2 years ago, a good day out! I also enjoyed the home defeat against Villa in 92. Mainly because it was old school,  a 16k plus crowd, and the banter with the pundits at the end of the match.  :)

I guess Fulham 2 years ago. Can't really say I've seen too many cup classics for us. I vaguely recall Southampton in the 90s. I was quite young though.

January 1967 Swindon 3-1 West Ham. The town take Moore,Hurst and Peters apart after a 3-3 draw at Upton Park.

v Sutton in the early 80's, Howard Pritchard scoring the winner - it was my first ever game.

Apart from that we've been pretty shite the the FAC.

I didnt think the Fulham game a couple of years back was all that to be honest...good turnout, good day on the lash etc, given the amount of town fans there, thought the atmos was average. Much as I hate to say it, check out the rovers fans singing irene at fulham (on youtube obviously), we never reached those heights...

Am struggling to think of an fa cup game that I have really enjoyed that much, (for the record, started going proper in the mid 80s)...league cup is another matter mind....

The 3-3 game would certainly be a contender...but I'll go for a 2-0 win at the old Huish Park, Yeovil in 62. A noted graveyard for league clubs.  Town inspired by the wing play of the youthful Don Rogers, playing only his second first team game.

I loved the FA Cup for a good 30 years from then....but the magic has now gone.  The fact that in recent years we've been truly terrible might have something to do with it.

Yep, a brilliant day out in London, and the total disorganisation for the reply - which was just three days later - at the CG.  I seem to remember us leading at Upton Park, only to go behind and the Don getting the equaliser.  Somewhere in the loft I have still got the programme signed by Kenneth Wolstenholme who was doing the commentary for the reply.  

I remember standing on the North Bank at the Boleyn, and there being a massive ruck between these lads, who I later came to realise were called skinheads, and the Town faithful, who were essentially lads from the Railways and Vickers, who could look after themselves.

Recall Hurst scored a hat-trick for them and Bullets Brown got a brace for us, I vaguely thought we went ahead each time and Hurst pegged us back, but was more interested in staying alive so could be wrong.

I would have loved the highlights from Sportsnight With Coleman to be extant....but don't think they are.

Everton in the mid-70s - 2-2 at home (Kenny Stroud equaliser I think) although unlucky to get beat in the replay at Goodison.

Really nasty Tuesday evening at scouse central - bunch of cnuts

Can't remember if this was FA Cup or League Cup, but we stuffed Fulham 5-0 and they had Marsh and Best playing for them.

Did enjoy hammering Juventus 4-0 in the thingummy Italian cup

Likewise, the Everton 2-2 with that Stroud goal and the Fulham 5-0 with the old superstars most easily spring to mind. Other games I remember fondly are from one season in the early 70's when we beat Birmingham City with a young Trevor Francis I believe and then my first ever away game at WBA in the next round where we lost but it was a memorable day out.

See the original post and several after that :D

Missed all the 70's games, wished i had seen them. One of the better FA Cup games i remember was the 3-2 win over Watford in 92. We went 2-0 up in 10 minutes, the 2nd goal was one of the best i've seen at the County Ground with Dave Mitchell (i think) scoring with a diving header following some brilliant play leading up to it. Then Luther Blissett scored 2 for Watford, then Duncan Shearer got the winner past David James with 10 minutes to go.

I also enjoyed the 4th round match at Cambridge that season, they'd already beaten us twice in the league (including 2-0 at the County Ground 2 weeks previous) but we stuffed them 3-0 that day. Calderwood with the first (though he was dazed and i don't think he knew much about it) and Shearer with 2 in the second half.

Wasnt that the game when the Cambridge fans turned on John Beck singing "we want football" as we passed them off the pitch?

Histon away, November 2008. Absolute shite on the pitch, epitomised Malpas' reign.

Cracking away day though.

I think it was, sadly as it's 20 years ago i can't remember for definite. I can't believe it is 20 years ago!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwU9pHTEhA8

:D

Norwich away, after supposedly blowing our chance at home with a 0-0 draw, we went up there to get  hammered & won 2-0 thanks to two Bambi goals. :)

Mind you, the next round was of greater significance for the club for all the wrong reasons :(

Weve been so crap in the FA Cup since Ive been supporting STFC that Id struggle to name one.

Oldham in a replay 1996.

a game against southampton at home in the 5th(?) round in 1995/96
1-1 draw

i also remember beating cardiff 2-0 and the stadium car park getting smashed up

The best I can come up with that I've seen since 1989 is Fulham or Palace.

In that time we've lost to : Stevenage, Scum, Boston, Histon, Crawley

About time we had a cup run !

The 4-1 David Duke inspired win over Sheffield Wednesday in whatever year it was wasn't too bad.
 2004?

Also the I want to say 3-1 win over L1 Carlisle - believe it was Sturrocks first game in charge and Christian Roberts tore them apart and scored twice. 2006?

Can only be the games against West Ham with Moore, Sissons, Hurst and Brooking.

Home and away, what memories.

Can't remember the headlines in the national papers on that Wednesday morning in 67...World beaters or something like that.... Just wonderful memories..

Fuck it seems like a life time away....shit it is....soapy tit wank

Why do I love Swindon.....? Cos I do

 :)

I drove to the Norwich away match  :drive:

I used a mates Tottenham season ticket for that match and sat motionless when Armstrong scored the winner, the ball hitting him on the shin and ending in the back of the net.

One of my favourite FA Cup games was a defeat, we played superbly against a brilliant Leeds side and lost 2-0 at the CG, I believe it was 1970.

 I would have to agree that the Tottenham game was probably the most atmospheric game I have been to at County Ground because in those days the fans were caged in at the Town End and I remember that a load of Spurs fans got in and caused a few problems as soon as the whistle went to start the game.

I was also at the 5-0 v Fulham with Best, Moore etc one and only time I ever saw these guys play. Those were heady days indeed.

Arsenal games at the County Ground were always a bit special because of the size of the crowds. Happy memories

Ha, I went to both of those. The chief scored a cracker against cardip.

Mine was the narrow 1 - 0 win over Morcambe... think it was 2006. The image of the sumo physio will be with me forever :D

Leeds at home 69/70 even though I couldnt see a thing!What an occasion tho'.

Haha yes! I remember that

Great memories, thank you.

The Don scoring at the old Yeovil ground - might be wrong but wasn't it a rare header? Bestie running his socks off even though we were stuffing Fulham 5-0. The record crowd Arsenal tie in 72. I was with a mate, 6 ft 8 (if you went to Park you may remember him, teacher called Les Ayers) as we got to our 'spot' on the Shrivvy terrace a bloke said. '32,000 people to choose from and you have to stand in front of me'.

32,000 yeh, right. the security /gatemen must have made a fortune that day, reckon there were at least 3 or 4k more judging by how squashed we were.

This was a great day out, 4 of us went in some pub asked the landlady if she minded us playing cards for money and was told to "do what the fuck you like"   so we did and got well and truly hammered then watched us unexpectedly beat them!!

 One fairly random game I'd like to mention was a 7-0 3rd drubbing of Aldershot at the CG in 82/83 which was our first season in Div 4 so it was a bit shit generally, but it was John Trollope's side of mostly local kids and a few old hands, and we were going ok at the turn of the year, crowd of 7,000+ turned out.

The only time I've seen us score exactly 7...and as far as I can remember the only time I've seen a hat-trick from 2 different players, Andy Rowland and Howard Pritchard.

Burnley away in 4th round....nice football special and a screamer from Pritchard, but we lost 3-1.  The promise of that side fell away with that defeat and a poor run saw JT return to his old job of Youth Team Manager, after his sacking caused by the most disgraceful episode Arkell's mong abuse...

Boreham Wood away - A 0-0 draw.

A few to be honest - Everton, Fulham, Burnley away only for the special.

......Has anyone mentioned Carlisle away - Another "special" and a 1-1 draw. We took them back to the CG and beat them 3-0.
I remember my Mate coming out of the ground. We were all streaming out down a muddy bank I recall and my mate slipped and rolled down covered in mud............Memories wonderful.

I remember the FA Cup tie at home against Merthyr Tydfil in about 1965 or 1966 (can't remember which round but probably Round One or Two. Danny Williams brought in a centre forward that he'd signed at the start of that season from Portsmouth when they disbanded their reserve team, a lad called Keith East.  We promptly won 5-1 and East scored four of them.

Even better the next week as we played Mansfield Town at home in a League 3 game.  I remember one of my mates saying, "Can't see East scoring four today".  He didn't - he scored five in a 6-2 home win!  Nine goals in 2 game - happy memories

I remember that....that Town side was the epitome of inconsistent, on a good day it could just blow sides away, especially at home....previous to those 2 games mentioned, we'd put 5 on Reading, 3 on Peterborough, 6 on York and 4 on Wovers, yet I went to Walsall in early 66 and we lost 5-0...later in the season, going 5 games without a goal.

I like events like East's gola fest because it's such a rarity....he's the only man I've seen score 5, and I've only seen Don, Dennis Brown, Andy Rowland, Duncan Shearer and East score 4 in a game. Shame Coxy couldn't have done a big numbers game, because his final season stats were mighty impressive otherwise.

she must have known you were from swindon, because we do what we want....... :doh:

Here is the home tie when we played them off the park even though they were 2 divisions higher in the league than us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8zCnyNoqGQ&feature=player_embedded#!

The Burnley and Carlisle away specials were brilliant days out, I remember them so well. The wet mudheap just outside the away entrance at Carlisle, Scott Endersby making a fantastic save to keep us in the game near the end.

The train window blowing out when a door on an errant train next to us smashed it delaying us, somewhere around Crewe I think, and the Burnley special being bricked by their fans as we left the area......happy days!

The Aldershot game was a good memory, we played them totally off the park, Pritchard scored 3 and TBH could have scored 6 or 7, they were one of the worst sides defensively I have ever seen at the County Ground, totally lost heart when it was 3-0 and Rideout could also have bagged himself a hattrick but didnt even get on the scoresheet in the end.

 Histon a few seasons back was memorable......

There hasn't been much in the last 20 years but beating Norwich in 88 with La Bamba scoring. In 1989 we played West Ham and nearly 19,000 in the CG which must have been the biggest gate since the early 80's. Remember Fraser had an immense performance that day and pulled off an amazing point blank save.

We also played Norwich in 1990/91 and Chalky put us 1-0 up and we looked great until Nestor Lorenzo and Jon Gittens both got sent off for incidents with Robert Fleck who lived up to the sterotype of diminutive Scottish strikers.

1996 away at Southampton was good and Mark Walters then a Saint given some stick for looking like Benny from Grange Hill (one of Tucker Jenkins gang) and we had signed him within months.

Great indeed. Train Stopping at Crewe and a special full of Stoke fans I believe going to Liverpool.
Loads piling out and singing on the platform.

Never seen so many bottles and objects flying out of the train window as we travelled on the  secondary train lines through the penines.

Happy Days.

Serious question - Did anyone else on this forum go to Boreham Wood FA Cup game ?

One of the most scary experiences ever on the train station waiting for the train back into London.
Skin heads appearing over the pedestrian bridge and plenty of them as well.

Norwich away a few years back when Nestor Lorenzo got sent off had everything...great away day....we lost but should have beaten them....also Everton away losing 2-1 after THAT match and also Spurs away losing to two late Gerry Armstrong goals.

Actually we should have won all those games.

But my favourite game was a little remembered 4-1 loss at Forest...they had a great team under Clough and our fans were right next to the Trent End.....Kammy missed a sitter early on and i think Moss got our consolation......the atmosphere that day was incredible,probably around 1978?....anyone else remember it?

Yep Banbury i went to Boreham Wood and it was dodgy....but not as bad as Dagenham years back :eek: :eek:

Reg we did Bromley 7-0 in the cup in the late 70's. We always seem to beat non league opposition those days.
Norwich away 2-0 was probably my favourite - a long way to go on a Tuesday night but well worth it. Went there a few years later lost 3-1, I got a parking ticket and had to call out the RAC for a flat battery.
My first away game was an FA cup game away v Aldershot we lost 2-1.

Kettering away 7-0 and poor sid nearly lost an eye from a Northampton fan using a snooker cue as a spear.

Pool balls flying everywhere.

My dad went to Forest but I wasn't allowed to go as a 12 year old, can't really remember why, it was the season they went up as champions to the top divison I think.

And the Daggers game in the 80's under Macari was bloody scarey when we got a 0-0 there and then they beat us in the replay at the CG, the first non-league team to beat us at the CG IIRC.

Ha ha yeah Sid Sellars, I was stood next to him having a chat in the pub a few minutes before that, the Northampton fans were a bit evil that day.

Saw Sid at Torquay Boxing Day and had a chat.

Lucky he didn't lose his eye. Still got the scar.

Bloody war zone but Boreham Wood was worse :)

Also now remember a match at snow bound Luton when Rideout scored a good goal disalowed....lost that 2-1 also..............Horton grabbing a late winnner :no:

Sid was never a looker so it didn't affect him much! ;) and difficult not to recognise when he ran on the pitch and had a go at the lino/ref (can't remember which it was now!) in the MuckMarn championship winning season, I was an apprentice at the Rail Works with him in 83, a good lad now that he supports Pompey less and less!

Bloody hell, i remember that one. We were taking the piss telling them that "Aardvark will get you" to which they replied that "Aardvark" was going to get killed. We were lobbing snow balls at them and winding them up. After the game Me, aaardvark and a few others walked into the middle of their mob and had to run like fuck to get away.
We also went there and won 2-0 in another cracking game.

Ha was pete there?

I don't think so. He wasn't one of the ones who run like fuck. We had to run through shops and in the end 3 of us jumped in a taxi, the driver said where to and we said just get the fuck out of here. He earned a decent tip that day. "Aardvark" was probably the most docile fan we had - as harmess as a fly. we just thuoght if Millwall could have Harry the Dog then Swindon could have Alex the Aardvark.

Can you remember that little feller with curly permed hair...think his sirname was Ashby :hmmm:

Was always in bother him.

The thing is there were so many lads that you only knew their nicknames. I'm sure our paths must have crossed at some stage leefer.

 :nod:

For me it's the Fulham pair in the 70s being 3-3 at the Cottage and 5-0 at the County.  They had Moore, Best and Marsh (well past their best tbf) but we had Moss, McHale and Anderson (who were smoking).

Never been a hard man and the only blows actually suffered by me at football came from STFC at the Cottage when I had a stripey Breton-style white and navy (nearly black) woollen hat yanked off my head from behind as we were leaving a packed away end, turned and demanded its return and suffered a punch and a kick from not too sure where and meekly gave up.

If your dad reads this forum Crispy, tell him to give me back my hat - or else!

The "pair" I would most like to have attended were the two WHU ties (3-3 and 3-1) with the boy Rogers already mentioned.  was that the year we took Forest (who finished runners up in the old First Division) to a second replay?

Add the League Cup exploits (Arsenal twice, the Wolves semi etc) and I'm really struck by how "historical" STFC's real Cup upsets have become

What about those 2 away cup matches at Grantham? Absolute shithole of a ground and took forever to get there but murdered them in ’65, 6-1. Couple of years later, same 2nd round, same crap draw, same crap journey (except with under age booze). Won 2-0 I think?

The Forest matches around that time were epic. 5th round, 0-0 up there, 1-1 at home with that great Bruce Walker last minute equaliser then the 3-0 defeat in the 2nd replay at Villa Park when most of us got in late ‘cos of the chaos around the ground. 50k+ crowd.

Agree Boreham Wood was scary. I lived near there for a short while in the early ‘70s. Their idea of a sophisticated Saturday night out was to go to Scratchwood Services (as was) on the M1 which had opened a year or 2 before. Says it all really.

That 2-0 win in 1980 was my first away game. Luton were doing well in the 2nd under David Pleat at the time, memory tells me Rowland and Williams scored that day, that could be wrong...

Was that "jimmy Summerville" a bit of a punk. piercings and a tatty black leather jacket ?
Always in the thick of it.

Looking through the posts,the mention of "football specials" made me smile.
Used to love going on them. Burnley was a cracker. Can remember when we played Stoke City in the late 70s
Ended up going by coach because there was a train strike?
Best one must have been . . . Wrexham 77.Worst had to be to Pompey 78 ?. . about 150 on it!! :no:
Cant remember the results of said matches,mixture of being pissed at the time and the onslaught of old age. :-[
Happy days.

Definatley today  :D

Seconded!

thanks for all the memories.... yeah i'd go for all of these early ones - WHU home and away, Forest home and away
[my seat today was almost exactly where I stood for Bruce Walker's last minute rocket, and the first time I've been near that spot since !],
Sheffield Weds away, then later on WHU away again, Norwich away, Everton away, Spurs away, Fulham away with Best etc.

is there a pattern emerging there ? soapy tit wank

actually there was a pattern - look how often we played 1st Div teams off the park and got caught near the end of the game to lost unjustly... and a pattern of excellent draws too...

am struggling to remember if Blackburn away around 1971 was Cup or League - we won 4-0 I think... awesome display...

the two big ones vs Arsenal and Leeds back in the early 70s have less fond memories for me - we were comfortably contained by the country's 2 biggest teams at that time..but then our expectations were sky high in those days {Roma 4-0 etc}

and then there was today  ;D

Today will definately be up there, just wish I could have been there instead fo watching it online, still brilliant though!

Has to be Swindon v Wigan 07/01/2012.  A day I will remember for a very long time.  Absolutely fantastic!

Just went back and looked to see if I'd missed any out...
Winning 3-2 at Millwall with Quinny scoring two was a great day out -
especially after the disappointment of 1970/1 and its effect on the promotion hopes.

Mind you, as I was living in London at the time, had to buy a ticket that sat me in the
midst of Millwall fans - I think you can imagine how tough it was to get through that
incognito and safely given the result :-)

Worse game wud probably be the 6-1 thrashing by Ipswich - even our goal was
an own goal !

And yeah, the Blackburn one *was* the FACup  ;D

Yes but the Ipswich game was in the League Cup :D we had a great following there that night, a good game but such a thrashing.

Was Huddersfield, now Wigan without a shadow of a doubt!

January 1967 Upton Park a few months after Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters won the world cup at Wembley. We go there as complete underdogs as we were close to the bottom of the old third division and outclass them. Don Rogers was unplayable making the normally immaculate Moore look like a novice. Finished 3-3,  we fully deserved to beat them there first time around. The replay a few days later was a sell out and we won 3-1 although we didn't play half as well as the first leg.

The ipswich game was one of my favourite away days ever...as a 14/15 yr old or thereabouts, it was quite an adventure, particulary coming after two fantastic wins over leeds and sheff weds I seem to recall...

I will never forget the long line of coaches, that at one point all pulled over, and several hundred town fans all piled out, ran down the embankment at side of road, had a piss, ran back up again and got back on coaches...hundreds of em..it was like a scene from band of brothers..
how many do you reckon we took there that night...seemed like loads..

Around 3,500 I reckon. This was the 102 point season so was memorable for all of us then as the previous 5 seasons were pretty dire.
By the way it was Sunderland and not Leeds that we beat on the way to the Ipswich tie.

yes, you are right...but did we not also beat leeds in a cup game either that season, or maybe the one after?


post edit...hmm, just looked, cant find anything in the records about a leeds cup victory...mind playing tricks maybe
(but, I swear I can picture their fans up in the arkells getting all agitated!?)

We played Leeds in the FA cup the following year at the County Ground  and even though playing well lost 2-1. David Bamber put us one up with a bullet header but they sneaked the win. The one thing that I remember from that night is the behaviour of the Leeds fans, even more unpleasant than now.