1985

sat in the flat in muswell hill watching the rugby on telly and it’s bradford v wigan and the fans are on the pitch and it isn’t all over and it’s 1985 and the wiganers are wearing flares… flares what the hell is happening? i’m sat at home - the flat in muswell hill – wearin’ nike omega flames and hardcore jeans and a mustard baggy shirt, hanging out never tucked in but this was 1985 this was not the nineties and the mondays. and wigan win and they get to wembley and we all go to wembley to watch them against hull and I’m wearing omega flames and I’m out of sync but I’m in sync and wigan win and it is great. and we go again to wembley on the first day of june to watch latics against brentford and it’s the saturday after heysel and things are about to change and latics win and it is great and wigan celebrates but as i say things are about to change. and all these lads that fought and celebrated for wigan would be split up and two years later when leeds come to town wigan stands firm and maurice lindsay says his bit and people are drifting about and although it will be a few years before wigan rl go on that wembley run the damage is done but in dark dusty places like the bricks and the crofters and the springy the hardcore stand firm and as jjb sports and its supremo put money the way of the rugby we fight the corner. against owners and regulators, id cards and hooligan firms and the wigan football fraternity stand shoulder to shoulder. nobody chips the goon squad and nobody chips wafc. to the gills and cambridge on friday nights and carnage with carlisle and treatments with bradford and arguments with people from our town that turn up their noses at soccer and all that is over. meetings at the mill and music and fashion change and it is us against them and still it kicks off – everywhere - and those were dark and dirty days and we survive. we get by and we go our own little ways. the 7.34 to london and 35 of us going into orient’s supporters club and back to orient on another friday night and 25 of us go in there end and it kicks off and they run and we go back the pub and I go back to the girl that i love and we go to wolves a minibus of us and we are not to be beaten and Hartlepool in the cup when two firms had it in a way that people today would never understand and the italian kits and the friendly faces in the club shop and the phonecalls to tell the club there’s a good lad playing at burscough and they should have a look and we put some pennies in a tin and rotherham next week and mansfield the week after and we stood firm and the cockney latic fanzine and the legal letters and the market tavern and west ham in the cup and, and, and, and all this is muddled-up because it was and it is and amongst it all we went to wembley again and we stood together, and got stuck in together and there are so many stories that could be told in print and many, many more that could never be put anywhere near print and it was great and now in 2009 maurice lindsay is on the board of wafc and nobody says or does a thing…