You Never Forget Your First...

Allmodcons said:
I first started watching Blackpool properly in 1969 sitting on the wall in the south paddock.

Despite it being a very good season results wise I remember very little about it. The first game I remember well was the following season when we were 3 nil up against Chelsea and lost 4-3.
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My dad used to lift me onto that wall, we may have sat adjacent to each other
 
Blackpool 1 Birmingham 0
September 23 1967
Gerry Ingram header kop end.

Scratching sheds, sat on my brother's mate's shoulders. David Jenks. Which is mad cos I was 6 and DJ would have been 11. Big lad for his age though. Amazing what you remember and how different it was.
 
Blackpool 1-1 Maidstone 91/92

Wooden seats in the west and it was cold. I was fascinated by the South Paddock. My dad had some mad scheme in mind that we'd groundhop and go and see different games but I only wanted to go and watch Blackpool again after that.

It seemed so old fashioned - the adverts on the roof were so faded, the kop was massive and had weeds on half of it - I can remember the toilets in the west better than I remember the game but I remember that I liked Mitch Cook (of course!) and I think Paul Groves scored.
 
PdxTangerine said:
Pretty sure it was home to Halifax in 1991.

Mostly remember the "Fish n' chips" crisps they sold in the west stand snack hole and the orange drink in the plastic cups with the foil lids.

Remember my dad saying "if you're bad, we'll take you again".
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Classic dad saying! 👏
 
Fuck knows... some dogshit cup game when it was quid a kid. Probs in the early/mid naughties. The South stand was not even thought of at this point, just a building site. I was sat in the southern most part of the west, getting battered by wind, hail and rain.

It was ** horrible, could not have given a fuck what the score was. No idea if we won. Just wanted to go home.

Never returned for many, many moons 🤣
 
Eamon O’Keefe testimonial vs Everton, May 1987 it appears! I remember walking up the stairs into the west stand with my dad, and the big green pitch opening up in my view. That was that…
 
Any ideas @Hazi ? All I remember is a very early memory of being at Bloomers whilst the North were singing “we’re shit and we know we are” - Worthington era?
 
Mid 1950’s versus the Busby babes, full house at Bloomfield Road, sat on my stool on the cinder track in front of the
Spion Kop. Think we lost 2-1 with Tommy Taylor scoring for United.
I also remember going to Old Trafford and we won, with the headlines in the Green newspaper “ Pool spank the Busby Babes”
Great days with 30,000 plus attendances at home during the illuminations and Matthews pulling in massive crowds when we played away from home. If he wasn’t playing, they never announced it until 2:55pm when the crowd was already in the stadium.
 
td53 said:
Blackpool 1-1 Maidstone 91/92

Wooden seats in the west and it was cold. I was fascinated by the South Paddock. My dad had some mad scheme in mind that we'd groundhop and go and see different games but I only wanted to go and watch Blackpool again after that.

It seemed so old fashioned - the adverts on the roof were so faded, the kop was massive and had weeds on half of it - I can remember the toilets in the west better than I remember the game but I remember that I liked Mitch Cook (of course!) and I think Paul Groves scored.
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It's difficult to explain to younger fans how good the kop was with a roof. It held huge numbers and the atmosphere and the view were just fantastic. My favourite time as a Pool fan. Partly cos I was a teenager and it was such a buzz.
 
Clockwork Tangerine said:
...but I have! For the life of me I can't remember who Blackpool played the first time I went to Bloomfield Road.

All I remember is that it was around 2001 and I was perched on a railing in the Stanley Matthews Stand before it was all done up. My dad likes to tell me that a chunk of turf flew past my head after Steve McMahon kicked the ground after a poor decision. I also think we lost... definitely didn't win anyway, but it didn't stop me coming back!

Since I can't fully remember my first game at Bloomfield, I was wondering what other peoples first games were like and what they remember. A nice trip down memory lane.
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I can't remember my first either. Dad and Grandad long gone, I was probably about 7 and my younger brother 5, no idea of opposition, score or anything!
We've been to quite a few games since where the same lack of memory applies!!!
 
I didn't realise how young I was on here until reading this thread.

Plenty of folk had been to watch the Mighty at Bloomers long before I was born.
 
I think it was Port Vale in the mid 90's. I was a mascot and walked out with Andy Preece. Forgot to run off the pitch and the ref was about to blow for kick-off, before Tony Ellis picked me up and carried me to the sidelines. 😄
 
Boxing Day 1967. 1-1 v Carlisle. My first visit and stood in the Kop to the left of the goal.
Remember the steep walk up the steps to get onto the amazing Kop
 
voyeur said:
It's difficult to explain to younger fans how good the kop was with a roof. It held huge numbers and the atmosphere and the view were just fantastic. My favourite time as a Pool fan. Partly cos I was a teenager and it was such a buzz.
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Biggest regret I have about missing a game (and I've missed many, life hasn't always been as conducive to attending as it is now) is that last stand on the Kop.
 
Alf said:
Any ideas @Hazi ? All I remember is a very early memory of being at Bloomers whilst the North were singing “we’re shit and we know we are” - Worthington era?
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Worthington was the old ground. New ground and hence the North Stand as we know it was built under McMahon.
 
1959/1960 season v Man City the first match my Dad took me to , sat at the front of the Kop and my abiding memory was the noise of the crowd. .
( Edited ) Just checked Roy Calley's book 33,326
 
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My first game at Bloomfield Road was versus Charlton Athletic, 1951. The late, great Ernie Taylor was playing his first home game for Blackpool after his transfer from Newcastle United. I have been very fortunate to see so many top class players at BFC over the years and then of course came the decline and the dross culminating in the no hope Oyston years followed by the four years of boycotting the hallowed ground...
 
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17 Aug 1970 v Liverpool 0-0 stood somewhere on Spion Kop. First home game in Div 1 that season 23,818.

170870BFCvLiverpool0-0.jpg
 
St_Ives_Seasider said:
Watford for me too bizarrely enough but 1978, think it was a 1 - 1 draw and I was sat in the South Stand with my Dad and big brother Crowngreenpool absolutely fixated at how loud the bloke in front of me could shout Seasiders
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Beat me to it mate. My first visit to Bloomfield was to watch England v N Ireland schoolboys - school organised a trip to it. Then saw our reserves play Liverpool's in about 1973-4.

The Watford game was the first 1st team, Graham Taylor's team that went through the divisions so I guess it had the likes of Luther Blissett and Ross Jacket up front? Memory is that we played really well and deserved more than the 1-1 draw, Stan McEwan scored at the South end.

Like you, I can remember the bloke in the row in front!
 
Alf said:
Any ideas @Hazi ? All I remember is a very early memory of being at Bloomers whilst the North were singing “we’re shit and we know we are” - Worthington era?
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I think you were two years old! Def Worthington years
 
Blackpool 0 Portsmouth 0 1975 ish
second game Blackpool 1 Sunderland 0. Goal was in the first couple of minutes. My brother, who took me, was late home for work before the game, so we missed the goal. It wasn't until my 3rd game that I actually saw a goal!
 
1966 can't remember the exact date but it was Blackpool 5 Man U 1 in the League Cup. I was supporting Man U though at the time as my parents had just moved to Blackpool from Mossley in Greater Manchester. Didn't take long to switch allegiance but I can't remember what the next game was.
 
Crystal Palace 1967. We won 2-0 . Charnley scored and was his last game before we sold him to Preston. My next game was Preston about a month later and Charnley scored but we won 4-1
 
CGP1 said:
Beat me to it mate. My first visit to Bloomfield was to watch England v N Ireland schoolboys - school organised a trip to it. Then saw our reserves play Liverpool's in about 1973-4.

The Watford game was the first 1st team, Graham Taylor's team that went through the divisions so I guess it had the likes of Luther Blissett and Ross Jacket up front? Memory is that we played really well and deserved more than the 1-1 draw, Stan McEwan scored at the South end.

Like you, I can remember the bloke in the row in front!
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Yes I remember that Watford game, stood at the front of the Kop aged about seven. It was a decent crowd, about 9,000 if memory serves. I think the Watford player you referred to was Ross Jenkins a tall centre forward who scored a header at the Kop end I think.
 
Satriale's Pork Store said:
78 under the floodlights; the pitch looked immaculate.

Mighty 2 - 3 Sheff Utd!

Three down at half time; Alex Sabella ran the show for them.
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I went to that, sat on the Scratching Shed wall, it kicked off right near me, the only time I ever saw my old man get stuck in, right amongst it trying to find me. I was on the cinder track watching it all .

I can't remember who we played at my first game, towards the end of the 75/6 season, small crowd nothing to play for but the season after different story, I remember every one. Starting with an Anglo Scottish Cup game against Burnley. Bob Hattons debut.
 
L’étranger said:
Yes I remember that Watford game, stood at the front of the Kop aged about seven. It was a decent crowd, about 9,000 if memory serves. I think the Watford player you referred to was Ross Jenkins a tall centre forward who scored a header at the Kop end I think.
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Sorry yes Jenkins.

The crowd was the main memory from the day. From where I was at the back of the South Stand, the ground seemed packed, but of course I had nothing to compare it to.

Later in the season, dad took me to a midweek game with Exeter. Another 1-1 but tbh the contrast with the Watford game couldn't have been much greater. Crowd was 3 and a halfish, Exeter understandably brought about 2 dozen. There was zero atmosphere, we lead 1-0 in the last minute when Iain Hesford spilled a cross and gifted them an equaliser
 
December 11th 1965 Blackpool v Stoke City that dirty Maurice Setters took out Ray Charnley who left the pitch on a stretcher Alan Ball converted the penalty from the foul to equalize for the Pool final score 1-1
 
2 October 1982 Darlington 2-0 at home - was my 7th birthday and still have some pics somewhere.
 
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