Best Game You've Attended As A Neutral

[Satchmo Distel]

Russia v Italy, Euro 96.

Domestic: Sheff Wed v Liverpool, 11.5.97.

[RobM]

East Stirling 7 Stenhousemuir 3.

Won the half-time raffle as well and bought a mug off part of the winnings which the handle came off on the train home. Magic day.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I haven't watched many games as a neutral and the few that I have been to were wholly-unremarkable low-scoring affairs.

The best was probably the Alan Cork testimonial game at Plough Lane when the entire Wimbledon team mooned the crowd from the half-way line.

I'd taken my mum to the game and had to inform her that this wasn't a regular occurrence at football matches.





Can't remember the score.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Chelsea 2 – 0 Spurs. FA Cup 3rd round replay at Stamford Bridge first week of 1964. Over 70,000 in attendance. It was the first match under floodlights I'd been to. I was way down the front of the touchline terrace, opposite the Shed and dead in line with Bobby Tambling when he scored the first goal. Also heard Glad All Over for the first time on the car radio on the way home.

[jameswba]

The Coventry vs Spurs FA Cup final of 1987 is the only possible nomination for me. I will be forever thankful to have experienced that live.

I wonder if Barnsley fans will recall a 1988/89 4th round cup-tie at Stoke that finished 3-3. That seemed a fantastic game at the time. I stood on the old Boothen End at the Victoria Ground - there was around double Stoke's normal league crowd of the time there. I am pretty sure Stoke came from 1-3 down to secure the replay, but Barnsley made no mistake back at Oakwell. I should look up some footage of this game, come to think of it.

[Billy Casper]

I do remember that game - there were Pink Panthers everywhere and Barnsley fans were still entering the ground twenty minutes after kick off.
We won the replay 2-1 but lost to Everton in the next round.

[Arturo]

When I was at university in Leicester in the early 90s, I went to Filbert Street on five occasions, four as a neutral. All the games were a bit mad.

3-2 v Notts County 1993-94.. Leicester were 1-2 down and eventually won it with a last minute goal that went in off David Speedie's face.

2-2 v Wolves 1993-94. Leicester were 0-2 down to a rampant Steve Bull who bagged both goals. Iwan Roberts, on his debut, scored twice to level and missed a hat-trick when he blazed over an open goal.

0-2 v Brigbton, 1994-95 . Major cup shock at that time (Leicester just promoted to the top flight, Brighton in the third tier). Stuart Munday's spectacular opener is still one of the best goals I have seen at a match.

2-2 v Everton, 1994-95. Leicester were 0-2 down. Anders Limpar scores from 30 yards, Duncan Ferguson gets sent off, Leicester almost come back and win it.

The non-neutral game saw Norwixh lose 3-2 after Leicester were...wait for it...two-nil.down.

[Jah Womble]

Inverness Caledonian 4 Keith 3 - Highland League, August 1971.

It remains the most exciting match I’ve attended.

[Sean of the Shed]

New Year's Day 1996, Sheffield Wednesday 4 - 2 Bolton. Went with a couple of mates who were Wednesday fans. We were in the same stand as the Sheffield Wednesday band but this when they were still something a bit different and was before they were taken in by the FA to parp out the national anthem every ten minutes. It was also helped by the fact that I had put a cheeky £1 bet on the correct result before the match at 50/1. I was probably the only one in the stand who made any kind of celebratory sound when Bolton pulled one back to make it 4-2, though that made the last few minutes of the game a bit torturous as neither defence seemed capable of holding firm.
It was the only game for Sheffield Wednesday that Darko Kovacevic looked any good, he scored two with David Hirst getting the other two.

[Sean of the Shed]

Inverness Caledonian 4 Keith 3 - Highland League, August 1971.

It remains the most exciting match I’ve attended.

Bit one-sided against one bloke though, but you have to credit him for scoring three on his own.

[Jah Womble]

I’ve just won a bet with myself.

[Stobart]

Airdrie 2 Nottingham Forest 2. Airdrie won on penalties - the first Scottish club to do so. 1970 European Cup. Or maybe it was the Texaco.

[Stobart]

I’ve just won a bet with myself.

I just lost out - I bet on half an hour.

[imp]

West Ham v Forest, November 1988. When West Ham fans still loved Paul Ince. You can hear the home fans applauding after Nigel Clough's free-kick. The highlights don't really do it justice - I can remember both sides playing great football along the ground for most of the game, which wasn't something you saw that often in England at that time.

Arsenal 4 Norwich 3, November 1989 - a game featured on p.235 of Fever Pitch under the sub-heading Seven Goals and a Punch-Up.

USA v Italy, 2006 World Cup in Kaiserslautern. Just for the atmosphere and the excitement. Though I wasn't really neutral that day - I got caught up cheering the US on mainly out of a dislike for that Italian team.

[Arturo]

I wonder if Barnsley fans will recall a 1988/89 4th round cup-tie at Stoke that finished 3-3. That seemed a fantastic game at the time. I stood on the old Boothen End at the Victoria Ground - there was around double Stoke's normal league crowd of the time there. I am pretty sure Stoke came from 1-3 down to secure the replay, but Barnsley made no mistake back at Oakwell. I should look up some footage of this game, come to think of it.

I remember seeing the goals (or some of them) on MOTD. Peter Beagrie scored a superb solo effort and I remember people talking about him after that as the next big thing. Think he went to Everton not long after.

Arsenal 4 Norwich 3, November 1989 - a game featured on p.235 of Fever Pitch under the sub-heading Seven Goals and a Punch-Up.

I wasn't there but it still hurts. George Tyson and the officials robbed us that day. It was bordering on scandalous.

[Viktor Boskovic]

The Coventry vs Spurs FA Cup final of 1987 is the only possible nomination for me. I will be forever thankful to have experienced that live.

I wonder if Barnsley fans will recall a 1988/89 4th round cup-tie at Stoke that finished 3-3. That seemed a fantastic game at the time. I stood on the old Boothen End at the Victoria Ground - there was around double Stoke's normal league crowd of the time there. I am pretty sure Stoke came from 1-3 down to secure the replay, but Barnsley made no mistake back at Oakwell. I should look up some footage of this game, come to think of it.

I was at college in Stoke at the time and heard the crowd noise from my house as the second and third Stoke goals went in. I remember thinking at the time it must have been exciting!

A couple of games as a neutral for me spring to mind, both also 3-3 draws. Port Vale v Sheffield United in the same 88/89 season and Russia v Czech Republic at Anfield in Euro 96. I seem to recall for the latter, they had Italy v Germany playing out a 0-0 on the telly as it was the last group games, but the one I was at was rather exciting.

[Crystal Staples]

Man City 3-3 Burnley, ten years ago this month. City went two down early on but Craig Bellamy inspired them to bring it back to 3-2, until... They were a bit more fun in those days.

[Sean of the Shed]

[QUOTE=Jah Womble;n2223410]I’ve just won a bet with myself.[/QUOTE}

If only you could predict football results this accurately...

[E10 Rifle]

I was at that Italy-Russia game at Euro 96 too - Zola absolutely imperious.

But I'd go for Arsenal 1-3 Benfica in 1991-92, France 2-1 Czech Rep in Euro 2000 or Tottenham 3-4 Man City in 2004

[Duncan Gardner]

Walsall 2-2 Darlington, FA Cup R1, November 2019

In the words of that great Bloxwich philosopher: "Look to the future now- it's only just begun"

[Capybara]

I find it difficult to remain neutral at any game and usually favour one side for, usually, irrational reasons and it may change as the game progresses for reasons such as player behaviour, attitudes of spectators, etc.

I guess it's the high-scoring games that stand out. I went to Torquay in the 90s when I was chasing the 92 far more seriously than I am now. I decided to join the 50 or so Scunthorpe supporters in the away end and they were the ones who went home happy with an 8-1 win. I visited Wycombe the following Tuesday to get to within 2 of the 92 and haven't been that close since.

Earlier this season I went to Unterhaching for a game against Würzburg that included a 15-minute break while a massive thunderstorm went over. The home side weren't in it at any time and in the 89th minute they were 4-2 down. Somehow they managed to score three times to win 5-4. Incredible scenes.

And in 1975 while at university I went down the road to Leicester for what was, technically, Leatherhead's home FA Cup tie. You've all seen it because MOTD was there. Non-league Leatherhead were 2-0 up at half-time and missed a great chance to make it three at the start of the second half. Almost inevitably, Leicester came back to win the tie 3-2, but it was a fantastic game and great to be there.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I went to an FA Cup 4th round game on my birthday in 1991 at the Den, where Millwall were hosting Big Ron's Sheffield Wednesday. Millwall scored in the first minute, it was 2-2 by half time (Trevor Francis scoring for Wednesday), and 4-3 to Wednesday with seconds to go before Millwall equalised. A young Teddy Sheringham scored for the home team, and was on his way to bigger things.

[S. aureus]

The December 2007 Spurs - Reading game.
Finished 6-4, with Berbatov scoring 4 for Spurs. Also special to me as the only game in England that I went to with my (soon-to-be) wife, falling in the rather narrow window between meeting her and having kids. I don't remember anymore the exact chain of acquaintances that led us to get the tickets (I think one of my wife's co-workers' sister's husband had season tickets and wasn't able to attend owing to their spending the holidays in the US). It was only a couple of days afterwards that she confirmed that she was pregnant.

[jameswba]

Found the goals from Stoke vs Barnsley : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB9XebzVc4M

No pink panther for me I'm afraid.

Cota, I wonder if you were at another incident-packed game I saw at the Victoria Ground ; Stoke vs Chester in 1990/91 (I think). Certainly it was during Chester's exile in Macclesfield. A friend and I were studying in Chester at the time, went down on the train and stood with the Chester fans. Chester were 3-0 up at half-time - Carl Dale might have scored a couple - and finally hung on to win 3-2. We were kept behind afterwards and eventually got a lift back to the station in a police van. The Stoke fans had not taken kindly to the defeat, and were throwing bricks at the club office windows. The police were worried they might turn their attentions to us if we walked it. The things you do for teams you don't support.

[Patrick Thistle]

Newcastle v Aston Villa on my birthday in 2005. The game where Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer got sent off for fighting each other.