Ireland v England 1995

t_rAndy wrote: Was on the north terrace. No trouble my way but learned later there was a crush as people made their way for the exit and how it was lucky no one was seriously injured or worse

I couldn't get a south terrace ticket that night so was on the north. Cabra Hoop touches on what happened underneath but it rarely gets reported as the main trouble was obviously down the other end. What happened was that the English had a limited number of terrace tickets and had been housed in the old schoolboy pen on the north terrace over to the right as you look out to the pitch. The place was hopping that night, we were flying at the time and England hadn't yet had a competitive game since 93 and hadn't really found their feet under Vemables. Atmosphere was a proper old school football atmosphere that might walking up to the ground, bit of an edge despite it being a friendly but really good, everyone well up for it and very confident. Anyway game started and we were right on it, dominating the game, McGrath absolutely bossing Shearer and we were well worth the lead, place erupted when Kelly scored. Then they broke and had a goal rightly disallowed for offside, think it was Platt. They'd been waiting for a spark in the East Upper and that was it, next thing all hell broke loose, seats ripped up etc. We'd seen scenes like that involving England over the years although never over here but still thought the Gardai would sort it out and the game would resume even after the players went off but they were woefully undermanned and ill prepared. People always talk about the English being put in the East Upper as being an idiotic idea but that oversimplifies it. They were there for the Euro qualifier in 90 as well and other than a shower of lighters and coins on us in the south terrace there was no trouble in the ground because that section had a ring of uniformed Guards around them and as soon as anyone acted up they either had a quiet word in their ear or were collared. Difference in 95 was that, due to the peace process and ongoing IRA ceasefire, a decision was made to have a lower key police presence so while I believe there were plenty of plain clothes Guards in there, that was no deterrent to anyone so things escalated very quickly beyond those who had come to start it.

Anyway, we were waiting on the North for the Guards to regain control but it soon became clear this wouldn't happen. Next thing there's an announcement for Ireland fans to leave the stadium as the game was being abandoned. When the stewards started unlocking gates one of them opened the gate to the schoolboy pen by mistake and the English in there burst out and ran around under the terrace to the exit people were leaving through that also led to the pitch. There were Irish lads on the top of the terrace could see over the wall and saw these English rushing through the crowd swinging boots and digs under the terrace and started shouting "Get back, get back!!" at us. We were close to the exit at the stage and next thing there's a huge surge back and a gang of English burst through screaming "ENGLAND, ENGLAND!" still swinging and kicking, they ran onto the pitch and straight down to where the trouble was. I was literally picked off my feet in the surge and moved back about 10 feet or more, hard to tell. Was lucky no one went over or it could have been a lot worse.

Total buzz kill on the night though, reckon we'd have beaten them 2 or 3 that night.

90 was different, nothing in the ground but mayhem on O'Connell St after, ended up holed up in the Daniel O'Connell beside the bridge till closing, tried to leave between 6 and 7 and was stopped doing so so settled in for the evening!

Edited by Drumcondra 69er - 21 Jan 2015 at 7:16pm

Drumcondra 69er wrote: t_rAndy wrote: Was on the north terrace. No trouble my way but learned later there was a crush as people made their way for the exit and how it was lucky no one was seriously injured or worse I couldn't get a south terrace ticket that night so was on the north. Cabra Hoop touches on what happened underneath but it rarely gets reported as the main trouble was obviously down the other end. What happened was that the English had a limited number of terrace tickets and had been housed in the old schoolboy pen on the north terrace over to the right as you look out to the pitch. The place was hopping that night, we were flying at the time and England hadn't yet had a competitive game since 93 and hadn't really found their feet under Vemables. Atmosphere was a proper old school football atmosphere that might walking up to the ground, bit of an edge despite it being a friendly but really good, everyone well up for it and very confident. Anyway game started and we were right on it, dominating the game, McGrath absolutely bossing Shearer and we were well worth the lead, place erupted when Kelly scored. Then they broke and had a goal rightly disallowed for offside, think it was Platt. They'd been waiting for a spark in the East Upper and that was it, next thing all hell broke loose, seats ripped up etc. We'd seen scenes like that involving England over the years although never over here but still thought the Gardai would sort it out and the game would resume even after the players went off but they were woefully undermanned and ill prepared. People always talk about the English being put in the East Upper as being an idiotic idea but that oversimplifies it. They were there for the Euro qualifier in 90 as well and other than a shower of lighters and coins on us in the south terrace there was no trouble in the ground because that section had a ring of uniformed Guards around them and as soon as anyone acted up they either had a quiet word in their ear or were collared. Difference in 95 was that, due to the peace process and ongoing IRA ceasefire, a decision was made to have a lower key police presence so while I believe there were plenty of plain clothes Guards in there, that was no deterrent to anyone so things escalated very quickly beyond those who had come to start it. Anyway, we were waiting on the North for the Guards to regain control but it soon became clear this wouldn't happen. Next thing there's an announcement for Ireland fans to leave the stadium as the game was being abandoned. When the stewards started unlocking gates one of them opened the gate to the schoolboy pen by mistake and the English in there burst out and ran around under the terrace to the exit people were leaving through that also led to the pitch. There were Irish lads on the top of the terrace could see over the wall and saw these English rushing through the crowd swinging boots and digs under the terrace and started shouting "Get back, get back!!" at us. We were close to the exit at the stage and next thing there's a huge surge back and a gang of English burst through screaming "ENGLAND, ENGLAND!" still swinging and kicking, they ran onto the pitch and straight down to where the trouble was. I was literally picked off my feet in the surge and moved back about 10 feet or more, hard to tell. Was lucky no one went over or it could have been a lot worse. Total buzz kill on the night though, reckon we'd have beaten them 2 or 3 that night. 90 was different, nothing in the ground but mayhem on O'Connell St after, ended up holed up in the Daniel O'Connell beside the bridge till closing, tried to leave between 6 and 7 and was stopped doing so so settled in for the evening!

roverstillidie wrote: Nope, in the record books as match abandoned

FAI awarded caps and recognise Kelly's goal in his stats. English FA didn't award caps.

Drumcondra 69er wrote: roverstillidie wrote: Nope, in the record books as match abandoned FAI awarded caps and recognise Kelly's goal in his stats. English FA didn't award caps.

Had we beat the Nordies we only needed a point to qualify IIRC.

In the end we needed the Austrians to lose to Latvia (I think) and the North for us to get into the play-off at Anfield.

Shedite wrote: Junior wrote: Sham157 wrote: Junior wrote: Was it not Dessie Ellis getting extradited that day? 14th Nov 1990 was Dessie's extradition day, havent cheked if the dates coincide Yeah it was alright. www.youtube.com/watch?v=frUEfTtY0BY I feel drunk watching that

After the 1991 Wembley game I went into work the next day in London.
Some work colleagues were complimentary and said we should have won.
Other work-mates wouldnt talk to me.
They knew we'd absolutely bashed them.


Edited by Gary McKay - 22 Jan 2015 at 3:46pm

Cabra Hoop wrote: Just looked at the RTE 9 O'Clock News from the night of the game on youtube, a 60 year old man died at the match from a Heart Attack and an English fella was stabbed.