Was there. Stood on East Terrace. The bloke behind us opened up a bottle of bubbly at the final whistle and handed round glasses. In those days you could take those things to games!
A lasting memory of that night was a heavily bandaged Harry Cripps head injury, being squeezed in a packed covered end , the ecstasy of those 3 goals in the second half after losing at half time and missing a penalty and invading the pitch at full time and digging up a little piece of turf as a souvenir and putting it in a matchbox for fear of being accused of vandalism and later planting it in my mums back garden so a little bit of the valley will always be with me.
How eerie was the silence that fell over the valley when Preston scored? Never experienced another silence like it following a goal since. Brilliant night
Great night that was, remember thinking how bright it was on the pitch under the lights, it always used to look a bit murky from the terraces at the time. Like most people on here who have chipped in, it was the first time I'd seen CAFC actually achieve something (I'd waited six whole years) other than a few relegation escapes. I suppose that barren run had stretched back to 1947 at the time! When you look at the crowd, makes you think what they would have been if we had pulled it off in 1968/9.
The story was that they opened the gates after the kick-off that night as there were so many people outside, so the official crowd was an underestimate, not for the first time in those days I'm sure. It was a big crowd, but nowhere near the Spuds game in 1977, the biggest 30000 in history....
It seems everyone who had dealings with Andy Nelson said he was a grumpy old sod, but he delivered the most exciting football I've seen down there. Happy days.
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The story was that they opened the gates after the kick-off that night as there were so many people outside, so the official crowd was an underestimate, not for the first time in those days I'm sure. It was a big crowd, but nowhere near the Spuds game in 1977, the biggest 30000 in history....
It seems everyone who had dealings with Andy Nelson said he was a grumpy old sod, but he delivered the most exciting football I've seen down there. Happy days.