Euro 96

[giblet]

Shearer's documentary of Euro 96 is on tonight.  With that in mind, had a wee trip down memory lane.  Had an amazing road trip down there.

Saturday 8th June Whitley Bay

Sunday 9th June   Travelled to Aston University and had night out in Birmingham

Monday 10th June  Scotland v Holland at Villa Park, amazing atmosphere, the pub with the huge beergarden outside the stadium was jumping.  Spent a great night on Broad Street and finished up in O'Neills pub there.  We invited the pub back to our animal house on Astons Univ campus and were playing football at 1am , brilliant times.

Tuesday 11th June  Night out in Birmingham

Wednesday 12th June  Night out in nottingham!  Brilliant.

Thursday 13th June  Night out in Birmingham

Friday 14th June  Travelled down to London to stay with our pals in Dalston

Saturday 15th June  Megahot day, Wembley was a cauldron, Scotland played well, the fans won half time then that horrific 10 mins with Gascoigne scoring at the end.

Sunday 16th June  Went to the Aussie nightclub that started at 10am called the Church.  Mental

Monday 17th June  Night out in Birmingham

Tuesday 18th June  Scotland v Switzerland  An amazing atmosphere, really thought for 17 mins we had qualified, we were already about staying in Blackpool and going to see Scotland v France at Anfield.  Then fricking Seaman let one in through his legs and we were out.  I still blame Brown for not going for more goals during that period we had qualified for the quarter final of the Euro championship. (crazy thinking about that to where we are now)

Wednesday 19th June  Last night out in Birmingham

Thursday to Saturday 22nd  Last three nights in Whitley Bay/Newcastle.

 

How my liver coped I will never know.  What a trip.   

Edited June 1, 2016 by giblet

[bossman4]

The Holland game was on BT Sport last night, first time I've really seen it since then. By god we got battered that day and then some. Remarkable we got a draw.

[giblet]

1 minute ago, bossman4 said:

The Holland game was on BT Sport last night, first time I've really seen it since then. By god we got battered that day and then some. Remarkable we got a draw.

I was in the Holte End behind the goals.  Goram kept talking to the crowd, pretending he was shaking, wiping his brow after the wave after wave of attacks on our goal.

Still cant believe we got away with Collins handball on the goal line.  I do remember Gary Mac coming close with a free kick, probably miles away, but seemed close at the time. 

[Ally Bongo]

Hard to believe that it was 20 years ago

Probably the best concurrent 14 days of my life starting with England Switzerland on the Saturday 

The weather for those 2 weeks was incredible and watched that opening game at the bottom cross in Hamilton hardly being able to contain my excitement about going down for Scotland's games starting on the Monday - was getting picked up at midnight Sunday to travel down

When Switzerland scored the noise from every pub in the area was something else

Went for all 3 games with Ian Sharp's Euroscot

Holland - atmosphere was electric. Backs to the wall for 90 minutes but survived

England - Heid burnt at Trafalgar Square (my first time). Mate got lifted on the Tube to Wembley as the carriage was rocking at Baker Street and the polis grabbed a few guys that were standing at the door to search them.

Had to wait on the next tube which was full of not so pleasant England fans - pampers time

Switzerland - placepot at Royal Ascot bumped in the last leg (paid thousands)

Got left behind by the bus - went to the boozer and sneaked on the football special going back up to Glasgow and thankfully dodged fare (had about a tenner and a bottle of Lambrusco left).

[McExpat]

4 hours ago, giblet said:

Shearer's documentary of Euro 96 is on tonight.  With that in mind, had a wee trip down memory lane.  Had an amazing road trip down there.

Saturday 8th June Whitley Bay

Sunday 9th June   Travelled to Aston University and had night out in Birmingham

Monday 10th June  Scotland v Holland at Villa Park, amazing atmosphere, the pub with the huge beergarden outside the stadium was jumping.  Spent a great night on Broad Street and finished up in O'Neills pub there.  We invited the pub back to our animal house on Astons Univ campus and were playing football at 1am , brilliant times.

Tuesday 11th June  Night out in Birmingham

Wednesday 12th June  Night out in nottingham!  Brilliant.

Thursday 13th June  Night out in Birmingham

Friday 14th June  Travelled down to London to stay with our pals in Dalston

Saturday 15th June  Megahot day, Wembley was a cauldron, Scotland played well, the fans won half time then that horrific 10 mins with Gascoigne scoring at the end.

Sunday 16th June  Went to the Aussie nightclub that started at 10am called the Church.  Mental

Monday 17th June  Night out in Birmingham

Tuesday 18th June  Scotland v Switzerland  An amazing atmosphere, really thought for 17 mins we had qualified, we were already about staying in Blackpool and going to see Scotland v France at Anfield.  Then fricking Seaman let one in through his legs and we were out.  I still blame Brown for not going for more goals during that period we had qualified for the quarter final of the Euro championship. (crazy thinking about that to where we are now)

Wednesday 19th June  Last night out in Birmingham

Thursday to Saturday 22nd  Last three nights in Whitley Bay/Newcastle.

 

How my liver coped I will never know.  What a trip.   

I also can't believe it was TWENTY years ago, surreal!

Your trip sounds amazing. 

I was fresh out of school and didn't make it down, one of my major regrets of the last 20 years!

 

 

[Davied14]

The day of the England game I was at Alton Towers on a youth club trip and a group of us were wearing our Scotland tops. I had just entered the building where you board the Nemesis when they announced that it was 2-0. 

Some of my mates were listening to the game on a radio and when we got the penalty they banged the table which knocked the batteries out. By the time they got them back in Gazza had scored, but they missed it so spent a few minutes telling people who asked that the game was 1-1. 

[thistle do nicely]

Good to see him and Sherringham slowly realising they were the stiffs that went to bed early while everyone else drank beer without them. 

 

[Brummie Hibs]

Fantastic time - in fact I moved to Birmingham based on how good a time I had.

That was a big mistake...

Best football experience ever, however Bordeaux was something else as well...but we can talk about that in 2 years time!

 

 

[Derek]

Had an amazing few weeks and lucky enough to have been at all 3 games.

Stayed in Blackpool on the Sat - the old Jaggy Thislte was bouncing, expecially when the Swiss go the draw.

Train from Preston to Birmingham - jam packed with our support.

1st time at Wembley - what an experience (except final result) 

Back to Villa Park for the Swiss game - again noise from Holt End amazing.  Super Ally seemed to miss 2 or 3 sitters then scored the hardest chance of them all. 

Usual Scotland though

Had planned to make the trip to Liverpool had we made it, but it wasn't to be

Great memories - just wish we were going this year to France

 

 

[Toepoke]

1 hour ago, thistle do nicely said:

Good to see him and Sherringham slowly realising they were the stiffs that went to bed early while everyone else drank beer without them. 

 

Had a chortle at that

Quite enjoyed some of the nostalgia in the programme, but it was too much of an England overload. I will watch it in installments.

Euro 96 was the tournament that made me join the Travel Club, after I failed to get tickets for any of the games. I mind driving to work in Glasgow and seeing cars with flags hanging out of them heading to Brum. Much envy.

Although during the Switzerland game we were making plans to go to Liverpool for our quarter final. Damn!

 

Edited June 2, 2016 by Toepoke

[Bristolhibby]

Was 15 at the time. Everyone down here was buzzing. Remember getting home from School for the 0-0 v the Dutch. 

Then giving it big licks before the England game. There were 3 Scots in my year at school and we were loving noising up our mates.

Saturday, had to keep taking the phone off the hook (remember being able to do that) as England scored, we missed the pen then Gazza scored his amazing goal. 

Much rippings at school on Monday, had to take that on the chin.

Game v Switzerland wasn't on as we all had to watch the England v Holland game. Never cheared so much for an English goal in my life as we were going through at 4-0.

4-1 and we were out.

England win on penalties next and at school everyone goes mental. We had a 1/2 Spanish English teacher (go figure) and the class were tearing into her, despite the fact that she simply didn't care about football.

And then onto the dependable Germans. A ding-dong of a Game with our Saxon friends doing the business in the end.

I always remember Chris Evans shredding a pair of Germany v Czech Republic Final tickets live on TFI Friday. His logic being that the semi was actually the final. Soor Plooms my Ginger host.

That was their best chance in years of silver wear and they blew it.

20 years later and we still haven't managed to get to the Euros, despite us all saying that if we couldn't make an expanded Euros we should just give up, low and behold we are in that position and I can't wait until the weekend in Metz.

J

[iainmac1]

Our last two tournaments came 5 years too early. I was 12 in '96 ams 14 in '98.

I attended my first away game in '99 and my first one with my mates  (without an 'adult') in 2000. 

Since I've started going away we haven't been able to qualify. What a shit time to start. I'm pushing middle age now and haven't been to see us in a tournament. 

[bonny78]

we should have had a Hearts player called John Robertson upfront since super Alley couldn't seem to score again v the Swiss.

 

[saintsparky]

I went down to all three games and the atmosphere was different class.

watched the Holland game on TV this week as well, and surprised to see that there seemed to be more Dutch fans.

the worst thing is imagining the support we would have taken down to Liverpool in the quarter final. Would have been the closest to Wembley in the 1970's we have seen since....

[bonny78]

anyone know when England are due to host a W.C. or a Euro again?

[Dairbee]

We got lucky and joined the travel club for our first away trip to Athens a part of qualifying for Euro 96. Never been so cold in my life at a game....

Seem to remember that being part of the TC gave you access to all 3 games in England. 

Birmingham for the Dutch and Swiss games was brilliant. 

London was good pre match but horrible after as the idiots from the pubs started looking for easy pickings.

We had 4 nights in Nottingham to try out the theory of 4 birds to every bloke. 

Apart from that afternoon in london I couldnt fault the welcome everyone gave us. It was an exciting time to be 3 25 year old lads on the lash in a country that embraced the tournament.

[ParisInAKilt]

I would have been 12 as well. Watched the holland game from behind the couch. Even at that age I knew we were very lucky to get a draw. 

Was on a school trip to Milport for the England game. We were allowed to watch the game in a pub. Mind the atmosphere being very loud, we even got free chips. Someone went mental when Gazza scored and got chucked out.

[Guest allyc]

Difficult to accept there is a whole generation of young folk who have never seen a decent Scotland side.

[derekfaejapan]

I'd only just turned 17 and went down by myself, had two other mates who'd said they would go down but refused to pay the 20 quid entry fee for the Travel Club and ended up losing out on tickets  ...Might sound odd but when I look back on their pishy/tightfisted decision over 20 quid it was definitely the beginning of the end of our friendship.

I only took two tickets, Holland and England...One of my sisters had a house quite near Watford Junction station so this placed me quite well for travelling to Birmingham and Wembley.

The day out in Birmingham prior to the Holland game was one of the best days I've ever lived, utterly amazing atmosphere and even though I was by myself I ended up tagging along with another group, great times! Christ knows how we escaped with a 0-0, felt like a win at the end for me.

The England game was a bit of an anticlimax, I wasn't at Trafalgar Square before or after the game so missed out on all the atmosphere. The game itself was just a sore point...Some cvnt also threw a half bottle at me at Harrow and Wealdstone tube station afterwards.

I ended up getting a ticket for the final too

 

[Fairbairn]

When I look back on Euro 96 now I still can't comprehend why I didn't go or even attempt to get tickets.  I was 19 at the time and although I'd never been to an away game I was a regular at home games since my early teens.  We ended up booking a boys holiday to Tenerife and got there on the day of the England game.  We dumped our cases and headed in to Las Americas and it was like a ghost town.  We met 2 or 3 different people and each one of them told us that nowhere was showing the game as it was decided there would be too much bother it was on.  After the 3rd person told us this we started to think it might not be a wind up and panic stations were setting up that we would miss the game.  It must have been a planned noise up as obviously everywhere was showing it!

We made our way in to the Cally Bar in Veronicas (our home for the next 2 weeks!) and it was packed to the gunnels.  Fought through to one of the bars and basically didn't move for the rest of the afternoon.  I vividly remember when we got the penalty I couldn't watch and turned away from the screen.  When I heard the groan and seen my mates faces I slumped to the ground in disappointment amidst a sea of sun burnt legs and dayglo shorts!  I sat there for a moment and was just about to get back up when one of my mates came down to join me and all he could say was "Gazza" and that was that.

I'm pretty sure that we couldn't find anywhere that actually had the Switzerland game on and we ended up in a bar near our hotel watching England v Holland in the very strange situation of cheering on England while wearing our Scotland gear!  For the brief time we had both qualified the atmosphere was brilliant and some of the English boys were first class and genuinely seemed gutted for us when Kluivert scored.

[Toepoke]

21 hours ago, bonny78 said:

anyone know when England are due to host a W.C. or a Euro again?

They've got the semis and final in 2020. Could be a tall order for us though...

[Toepoke]

21 hours ago, Dairbee said:

 It was an exciting time to be 3 25 year old lads on the lash in a country that embraced the tournament.

Really can't believe I didn't go down to it on reflection. Similar to Fairbairn me and the boys went to Grand Canaria that summer, but it never cross my mind to make a holiday out of the Euros.

Looking back, and this now seems unbelievable, there was a lot of apathy towards the team in the mid 90s. Even then we didn't seem to have the superstar players anymore (despite having some hugely successful members of the squad), and the football in the Roxburgh / Brown years was seen as pretty dull (even though we made it to 4 tournaments in the 90s!)

I can only remember being at the home qualifiers v Russia and San Marino (and that one was because I got a last minute invite). In fact I was working backshift listening to the Switzerland game on the radio, didn't even bother getting a night off to watch it!

Edited June 3, 2016 by Toepoke

[Dairbee]

34 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Really can't believe I didn't go down to it on reflection. Similar to Fairbairn me and the boys went to Grand Canaria that summer, but it never cross my mind to make a holiday out of the Euros.

Looking back, and this now seems unbelievable, there was a lot of apathy towards the team in the mid 90s. Even then we didn't seem to have the superstar players anymore (despite having some hugely successful members of the squad), and the football in the Roxburgh / Brown years was seen as pretty dull (even though we made it to 4 tournaments in the 90s!)

I can only remember being at the home qualifiers v Russia and San Marino (and that one was because I got a last minute invite). In fact I was working backshift listening to the Switzerland game on the radio, didn't even bother getting a night off to watch it!

Your right about the apathy, the game in Greece was really poorly attended by the TA. Duncan Ferguson played in one of his early games that night and all we did was lump it up to him. It didnt work...(Rambo v Costa Rica 6 years earlier was the same)

Looking back, it was the only qualifier I went to, but because we joined the TC we got tickets for the 3 games in the finals. Imagine the commotion if that happened now.!!

Just hope the next generation get to see us at a finals at some point, although the thought of Russia and Qatar doesnt really appeal. 

[Ally Bongo]

Was at the Greece away game - went to the Under 21 game the day before and their fans threw bricks at us. Neil McCann was tremendous.

For Euro 96 the adrenaline and excitement that i experienced was something that i doubt will ever be bettered and im sure most that attended the games felt the same.

Its a crying shame that most Scotland fans under the age of 30 will probably never experience that kind of feeling.

For the England game on the Saturday we were getting picked up at Anderston bus station at midnight on the Friday.

The weather was scorching and i went into Glasgow to meet my pals at the Copthorne. Only 2 of us were going down but we had a crowd that wanted to go out with us and see us off

That feeling around teatime going into the Copthorne was incredible. There was a real buzz everywhere

We left there and went up to the Bon Accord for a night of singing and dancing then got picked up

Got up the back of the bus at midnight absolutely blootered worried that some folk wouldnt be happy. Thankfully the bus had been on the go from Fife since 9pm picking up folk on the way and everybody was just as drunk as we were, probably in an attempt to get a sleep on the bus

Were joined on the back of the bus by 2 big Hibees - one of them was a gem of a guy called Raymond

Woke up about 2 hours from London feeling like shit but big Raymond had a couple of 2 litre bottles of coke laced with Vodka - squared me right up (in my own mind)

Then off to Trafalgar Square in the sun with a big cargo

Magic

Edited June 3, 2016 by Ally Bongo

[Dave78]

On 1/6/2016 at 9:35 PM, giblet said:

How my liver coped I will never know.  What a trip.   

I was thinking that as i read your post.

I'm pissed off my prime drinking years have coincided with Scotland's exile from tournaments. When we do qualify for one (and we will, eventually), i'll be an old man with a wrecked liver and a colostomy bag!


I remember i didn't see much of the England V Scotland game. Spent it riding my first ever burd on her parents living room floor while they were away for the weekend. Shameful i know - burds before your country, but that's young love for ye. I remember i stopped the 'heavy petting' to watch McAllister's penalty. It was like that scene from Trainspotting, but from hell.