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Post by ashonthepa on May 6, 2016 7:25:27 GMT
Well there are a few of us left that have been supporting the team since 83/84 (and indeed before) when it all started for Braintree under Chris Symes and our first ECL Championship. The halcyon days of Bibby and Nash at the back and Chris Guy and Ivan Gooday upfront being the mainstay of the 80's success (great F A VASE runs and a great cup run in 86)......a journey up the non-league pyramid in the 90's with the old Beazer Homes League culminating in our brilliant 1995/96 season when Benno and Falana were the talk of the town. In 1996 starting in Ryman League Division 3 and getting to the league cup final in 1997 and by 2001 getting into the Ryman Premier League - winning it in 2006 with Lorraine, Adedji and Revell outstanding and Mr Braintree Quinton..........play-off heartbreak in 2007 at Stevenage v Salisbury in the 88th Minute..........Champions in 2011.... Finally getting to the F A Cup First Round and this season to top it all off 3rd place in the best non league division in the country.....a truly remarkable 32 years of Iron fortunes. I salute you Messrs Cowley for an incredible achievement and the players of course, Connie South winning members Davies, Marks and Painey all need a special mention as well. Indeed what a journey and we dare to dream of perhaps bigger things around the corner, smuff, franny, roger adams Jon weaver and Paul Claydon all have been on that same journey (apologies if I've missed anyone). Special mention must go to Tom Woodley as well what a club secretary who has been with us throughout every year of this fascinating rise of little ole Braintree from a market town in North Essex......COYI !!!
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Post by essexblue12 on May 6, 2016 9:51:17 GMT
I used to pass the ground when the Sportsman pub was there and see the floodlights and big corrugated perimeter fence when I was younger (must have been mid eighties I guess when I was 10-11 year old) and always longed to go in, I had no idea what kind of crowds or the standard the football was and in the pre internet days there was very little ways of finding out. There was the odd small report in the Braintree and Witham but that was about it. When I started at Alec Hunter in 1987 my tutor room was on the top floor of the main block at the back and looked into the ground, the only thing you could really make out was the clubhouse at the far end.
In 1988 I finally got the chance to go to a game, a mate was going and it was half term and an evening game, bear with me know my memories are a bit hazy but I think it was a regional floodlight cup game against Basildon United. Braintree went 2-0 down but come back and won 4-2 after extra time, remember as Braintree scored their fourth goal two Basildon players ran back to try and stop the ball crossing the line (think the striker had rounded the keeper and rolled it towards the empty net) and the goal posts fell on top of them trapping them in the net.
The next time I entered Cressing Road was in 2001 for a FA cup game against Chelmsford, we lost 1-0 but the ground had been significantly upgraded from my previous time. Again it was a number of years before I went again for the infamous penalty shoot out win against Havant and Waterlooville which put us into a final against Salisbury which we lost.
Started coming more regularly the last season in the Conference South. I don't come to every game, I am an Everton fan for my sins and watch them when I can but come to 7-8 games a season and always follow the Iron's scores when I am not at the game. I have to say what the Cowley's and players have done for this club is amazing and I can't believe how far we have come in a short period of time and think the whole town and area should feel proud of the clubs achievements. Seeing how much effort the players put in puts a lot of professional clubs to shame. Feels like an unstoppable momentum is building at the moment, can't wait for Sunday and hopefully see the ground buzzing.
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Phil P
Regular reserve teamer
Posts: 87
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Post by Phil P on May 6, 2016 12:13:51 GMT
Essexblue12 enjoyed reading your post but you've got me thinking........the Basildon 4-2 was also my first ever game! In my mind I always thought it was 1987? Perhaps it was the 1987-1988 season? Jon W any chance of the date please?
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Post by essexblue12 on May 6, 2016 12:47:00 GMT
Essexblue12 enjoyed reading your post but you've got me thinking........the Basildon 4-2 was also my first ever game! In my mind I always thought it was 1987? Perhaps it was the 1987-1988 season? Jon W any chance of the date please? It could maybe have been 87, it was certainly around that time. A massive coincidence in all of the hundreds of games we have played that we both went to the same game first. The ball kept getting launched over the fence so a club official of the time said he would give us 25 pence every time we retrieved the ball, mainly from Alec Hunters school field in the pitch black. This happened about 8 times, on one occasion my mate was about to get the ball and a couple of teenagers jumped out at him and scared him for a laugh. They then got the ball and pelted it back into the ground meaning there would have been 2 balls on the pitch at one stage as the replacement ball was out. Think there was just a wooden terrace type thing at the side where the dug out are now. Do you remember the goal falling over on the Braintree fourth goal? There was three older Basildon fans (late teens, early twenties) that started getting a bit stroppy when we started cheering the goals so we ended up running out a minute from the end to meet my mates parent picking us up on the main road. |
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Post by jonw on May 6, 2016 20:59:25 GMT
Our record attendance of 4,000 is actually shared between two games. The first occasion we got 4,000 gets overlooked by everyone so it would be very nice if the press considered it when making crowd comparisons this weekend! In 1935-36 we had 4,000 for an Essex Senior Cup tie with Barking. After World War II lots of clubs ignored pre-war records for crowds and scores, often because records had been lost. It became a bit like when the Premier League came along and everyone immediately forgot there was football before that. In 1952 we entertained Tottenham Hotspur in a match in aid of Tuberculosis Research and the 4,000 gate was declared as a record without any thought at all to what the record actually was.
We regularly used to get gates above 3,000 - particularly for cup ties. The last season in which we averaged over 1,000 for league games was 1954-55. On 13th November 1954 we had the best post war league crowd of 2,550 v Clacton Town.
Since then we have had four gates above 2,000....
17th July 1998 Tottenham Hotspur (Centenary Match) 2,923
21st July 2000 West Ham United (Friendly) 2,300
1st January 2012 Cambridge United (Conference Premier) 2,029
24th March 2015 AFC Telford United (Conference Premier) 2,115
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Post by braintreeo on May 6, 2016 22:02:19 GMT
Surprised myself reading the original post as I started watching in the days of Bennett and Felana in 1995/6 where did those 20 years go!
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Post by newishiron on May 6, 2016 22:33:24 GMT
Any big occasion and our Ash can be relied on to wave his "willy" with the best. I think he deserves an award for knowing Chris Symes and mentioning it.   We love you Ash but we get the message 1983. 
braintreeforum.proboards.com/thread/5090/day-performance-crowd braintreeforum.proboards.com/thread/4686/30-years braintreeforum.proboards.com/thread/4264/honest-quarter-term-report
and today....
May 6, 2016 8:25:27 GMT 1 ashonthepa said:
"Well there are a few of us left that have been supporting the team since 83/84 (and indeed before) when it all started for Braintree under Chris Symes "
**************
I am not talking about if a supporter can put some meat on the stories from years gone by, excellently done by Jon.Weaver (fascinating reads), Phil and EssexBlue above.
My niggle is when the post has no content apart from to remind everyone that you are a loyal supporter.
Personally I don't think it matters whether your first game was in 1983, 1990, or promotion to National South from the Ryman or even since promotion to the National League Premier. If we want to be a Football League two club, we need more supporters than we have currently and everyone of them whether they came last Saturday for the first time or even if Sunday is their first game, they are for the club as equally as important as the fans that have been coming since Jesus was in a cradle nestled in Mary's arms. Otherwise the club does not grow. I can remember my first game and being told X, Y, Z had been watching 20 years, is it relevant? We get these posts appear with any success, be it FA Cup, FA Trophy or climbing the League's we should be going out of our way to make people feel new supporters are welcome rather than remind them that they have only been supporting the club 5 minutes.
Congratulations Danny Nicky and the team on a superb achievement. COYI.
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Post by jonw on May 7, 2016 19:14:30 GMT
Surprised myself reading the original post as I started watching in the days of Bennett and Felana in 1995/6 where did those 20 years go! I have heard that no less than Wade Falana will be attending the game tomorrow!!! All time legend!!! |
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