Away Days in the 80s - Mad, Bad, and Brilliant

The 1980s were different times for football fans. No mobile phones, no internet - you turned up and hoped for the best. Some of my greatest memories are from those chaotic away trips. One that stands out was Newcastle in 1986. We hired a minibus from a dodgy geezer in Stratford - twelve of us crammed in with a crate of beer and sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil by someone's mum. Set off at 5am, got lost twice, van broke down near Doncaster. We eventually made it with twenty minutes to spare, rushing through the streets of Newcastle looking for St James' Park. Found it, got in, and watched us lose 4-0. Didn't matter. The journey was the adventure. The train journeys were legendary too. Proper football specials, carriages full of Hammers fans singing all the way. Manchester for the FA Cup was always special - leaving Liverpool Street at dawn, not getting back until the early hours, voice completely gone from singing. My favourite away memory? Probably Sunderland in the cup, 1989. Got there, ground was frozen solid, game called off. Rather than go home, about fifty of us found a working men's club that let us in. Spent the whole day drinking with confused Mackems who couldn't believe we'd travelled all that way for nothing. Those trips forged friendships that last to this day. The lads I went to Newcastle with? We still meet up before every home game, forty years later. That's what supporting West Ham means.