Yeovil matches used to be quite full too from what I remember.
Ah yes, of course, the first season we met as Isthmian rivals (85/86?), when we won the league by miles but still managed to lose to them 4 times across the season! I remember being in awe of Huish Park, a sloping pitch filled to the rafters with carrot crunchers!
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That Kidderminster gate was 4200 in February 89. I can remember looking at the Gasworks End from the Cowshed and thinking I’d never seen it so full.
And as you say, a couple of months later the Kettering gate was just under 4900.
Nothing came close to that in 89-90. I’m surprised the final league game at LP didn’t attract more people. Only 1800 for that Stafford game. Balmy evening too.
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Think there was a Macclesfield game in there somewhere as well which drew a large crowd.
Andy Kerr scored the winner in a one nil win against Kiddy didn’t he? The place erupted.
I also remember a few fisticuffs on the terraces against Kettering and (I think) John Goldsworthy taking to the tannoy to admonish the perpetrators in a very schoolmastery tone
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This is very informative. Really good website.
Always felt very close to the pitch at Loakes Park.
That’s right - Enfield won the Gola league and we got relegated. I’m sure we actually beat Enfield that season. The points were also different this that year something like 2pts for a home win and 3 for an away win. If the points system was the same as now we wouldn’t have been relegated. I think our manager was Paul Bence but I can’t remember him.
You could hear George Borg effing and jeffing at the referee very clearly from the cow shed. This usually resulted in a yellow or red card and a telling off from Brian Lee later. Great fullback though, loved him.
Lakes Park under the lights could be a magical atmosphere. The evening Anglo-Italian cup match against Monza was possibly the best atmosphere I experienced there.
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We actually did the double over Enfield that season, 1-0 at home and 3-2 away. Also, yes that was the strange points system that season. There was another experimental thing in the Conference, in the 87/88 season, where you could not be offside from a direct free-kick. Created more penalty-area action as teams would hoof the ball into it from pretty much anywhere on the pitch.
Rose-tinted spectacles can be overly-powerful at times, but I have never felt the same about Adams Park as I did Loakes Park. That’s despite the fact I only started following Wycombe from the 85/86 season. Fell in love with that old place. So much character, sloping pitch and all. I guess the crappy location of Adams Park doesn’t help. You can’t beat a town-centre location.
The move had to happen of course. We wouldn’t get away with the sloping pitch now, not to mention the wooden stand, terracing etc.
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George Borg was never sent off for WWFC, amazingly
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Every day is a school day.
I loved Loakes Park and visiting The Gate before a game for a couple of pints and using our bar after the game they were happy days.
I’m nostalgic for the Woodbine fug in cowshed, and the mooing of its unhappy inhabitants!
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The first time i went to Loakes Park I was at school and attended a demonstration of American Football by the Americans stationed at the Abbey. That must have been about 1943/4. The first football matches I went to watch were when the Wanderers were playing in the Great Western Combination, a wartime competition worth remembering;
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I’ve been talking recently about the cattle shed. Someone should have corrected me.
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I think you must have a slight edge on me age wise @wingnut. Good to hear from you.
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i suppose so. There is a mistake in the Lincoln write-up about Loakes Park. The General Hospital wasn’t there when it was built. The original cottage hospital was in Priory Road and was built in 1875
Like most who attended in the 80’s, George was an absolute hero.
The Cowshed could make or break a player and its groans of disapproval were legendary. I can remember Gary Toll being booed on as a sub in the early 80’s.
But George was the darling of the Cowshed, He would swear at the opposition,officials and his own players with equal gust. The fans could see how much he wanted to win, and that lovely left foot of his, and his attacks from the left wing got the crowd roaring with excitement.
Certain players just feel irreplaceable when they leave, and George was one of them.
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