Football Memories (1 Viewer)

The AP were definitely a top non-league side in that period, and going there and mixing with the players in the bar afterwards was very different from watching First Division football at Highfield Road. Very easy for me to attend as well, so I followed them casually for a while, but I was only ever a fan of the Sky Blues.
There was normally a pre-season friendly at the Windmill Ground, and unlike now we usually fielded something like a first team. I have a particularly nice memory of dear old Les Sealey exchanging good-natured abuse with the crowd behind the goal.

Talking old skool memories anyone remember 'Beard' on the turnstile of the West Terrace? Getting in for 50p or less sometimes

Chris1987 said:

Obviously a vast diversity in age of people on this forum so we all have different football memories. Mine go back to the 70's & early 80's . When Civ were away I used to go and watch the old AP Leamington at The Windmill ground . 50p to get in and 5p for a programme Saw some really good games there in the old Southern League and later on The Vauxhall Conference and a few AP players who went on to League football , amongst others Roger Brown who captained Norwich Seems an age ago now

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Didn’t Harry Redknapp play a few games for them in that time?

Loved going up to watch AP as a kid, 5 mins from my house. Disgrace they werent allowed to get promoted and Kidderminster did instead.

Started going again a few years ago, watched Jude Bellinghams dad play for a couple of seasons

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Didn’t Harry Redknapp play a few games for them in that time?

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Now here’s a funny thing. I used to believe this too. He was friendly with some of the old Lockheed management and turned out in at least one testimonial at the Windmill but despite the fact that I was told this repeatedly by my dad in my youth; he never played for or managed AP.

The only time I ever went to watch other football than City on a regular basis was at AP. The old ground was walking distance from my grandmother’s house and I went most home games for about 18 months in the first few years of the Alliance Premier. The novelty of playing big exotic names like Altrincham and Frickley Colliery was great.

After a couple of seasons, AP got relegated and the following year built a really good side under Graham Allner; Center forward Kim Casey scoring goals for fun. They got involved in a cup run and got seriously behind league leaders,Kidderminster Harriers, in terms of games played. However a magnificent run of games playing 3 times a week for months saw AP overhaul Kiddy and were crowned champions at the end of the season. Promotion back to the Alliance Premier (about to be renamed the Vauxhall Conference) was due.

However the league decided that the Windmill wasn’t up to standard (AP had been in that very league the season before) and denied Leamington promotion. Instead they gifted the promotion spot to second placed Kidderminster Harriers.

This would have been bad enough but Kiddy immediately sacked their manager and installed Graham Allner, who spent the rest of the summer recruiting Leamington players (inc Casey).

AP were relegated, lost the Windmill and had to reinvent themselves much further down the food chain with a team of mostly Sunday league players from the area.

The revival in recent years rivals that of Stockport, Luton and possibly us (although on a smaller scale). It ought to be a warning for how quickly things can go wrong and was one of my worries when we were playing in Northampton and the Council were obviously willing us to go out of business and start again from scratch.

I remember when we used to win.

Losing at Wembley, losing a Lester, losing at fucking Wimbledon. It's OK though, we have 2 10 million pound donkeys upfront.

We have just this year helped to create treasured memories for Deadpool FC, easyJet Town, the Dewsbury-Hall family and now a team whose stadium is covered in Cadbury’s Caramel posters.

New memory made tonight...

Sat in the opposition end for the first time in my life and had to just stand there like a mug and take it as strangers hugged me in glee when their last minute winner went in.

Never doing that again but one to add to the rank bank nonetheless

SkyBlueSam01 said:

New memory made tonight...

Sat in the opposition end for the first time in my life and had to just stand there and take it as strangers hugged me in glee when their last minute winner went in.

Never doing that again but one to add to the rank bank nonetheless

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Were you not rumbled as the elephant in the room?

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Were you not rumbled as the elephant in the room?

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I gave the more aggressive womble to my left a forced smile which I think assuaged his suspicions

To my right were two overly enthusiastic Aussie students who hardly even knew what was going on

All sounds like some kind of horrendous fever dream