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arsenal fa cup 1979


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havin just purchased the 3 programmes for the three games at filbert st from ebay i was wondering who was there i attened the first game at home and the 1st and 2nd games at filbert street the 3-3 being in my top ten games attended being ten years old at the time must b some wednesdayites on here who remember them matches

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Went to all 5 games mate.

Lived in Leicester at the time and gave up a ticket for Elvis Costello at De-Montfort Hall for one of the games.

Remember the replays like they were yesterday, mostly:

Freezing cold. Snow, ice and fog.

Wednesday outnumbering Arsenal ten to one

John Lowey running his socks off every game

"Sunderland's a bishop basher"

20 or so Owls piling out of the back of an old box type transit with no seats in the back.

"We're proud of you" sang at the end of the last game for about 20 minutes non stop - tears rolling down my face.

We were really MASSIVE in them days

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I missed the 1st replay at Arsenal and the 3-3 draw.

In last game at Filbert Street only just got in ground as it was very close to Capacity.

In both games I watched at Leicester I can remember us outnumbering Arsenal fans in MASSIVE numbers, must have been well over 20,000 Wednesdayites at last game.

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fantastic memories,still got the newspaper clippings somewhere. didn't go to highbury but went to the rest. at one of the filbert st replays our end must have been reaching capacity and there were loads still outside after kickoff ... the cops opened the gates and let us in for free -the only time i've got in at a match without a ticket. oh the irony !

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Guest kentowl

Those games will never be forgotten by those of us lucky enough to be there, The first snowball game is on youtube and still makes me laugh. The accuracy of the snowball chucking , at Jennings, cameramen etc is pretty impressive tbf. We deserved to win at Highbury, but it was the 3 replays at Leicester that made it so unforgettable for me. Snowfall all over the country ruled out most grounds, but Leicester had their giant pitch- covering balloon so was chosen as a neutral venue.

The first one is the only time that I've feared for my safety, crush- wise at a game, luckilly being ushered out of the packed Kop cages into the main stand seats. I think the games were Sat-Tues-Mon-Wed and finally the following Monday where 20- oddk Owls swelled the attendance to over 30k. We finally went out 0-2 to a team several streets above us in the 5TH GAME !

So many events in that marathon wouldn't happen today - the 1st would have never been played on that surface. The Kop was covered in a foot of snow. The EBRA lads got on the Lepp with the Arse. There were smokebombs on the pitch at Highbury. Obviously the drawdown there would have lead to extra time and pens, never mind 3 replays.

Amazing memories for a young lad to share with his brother & Dad. The support was unreal.

NB-I've still got the giant Sheffield Telegraph souvenir pullout in the attic

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First four for me. I was living in London so put a load of mates up who came down. Unfortunately, I had seats amongst the Arsenal for the first one at Highbury. When we started singing, a bloke at the back of us shouted 'Get back to your Northern Pit Factories!'....never laughed so much in mi life. Cracking days.

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Missed the Highbury game (remember listening to it on Radio 2) and the first Filbert one (2-2) but went to the others... a brilliant time to watch The Owls .... and I was lobbing snowballs in the first game too!!! The last replay I saw about 5 mins as we were running along the side terrace trying to get somewhere to get a decent view all game....there were so many fans down that side who couldnt even get on the first step up off the concourse!!! The 3-3 was an unbelievable night and we actually were taken by one of our teachers in the school minibus...were in the stand behind the goal...fantastic days!!! :biggrin:

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I missed the 1st replay at Arsenal and the 3-3 draw.

In last game at Filbert Street only just got in ground as it was very close to Capacity.

In both games I watched at Leicester I can remember us outnumbering Arsenal fans in MASSIVE numbers, must have been well over 20,000 Wednesdayites at last game.

Wasn't that the last time Filbert Street saw a crowd north of 30,000?

Does anyone have the poster that the club brought out afterwards, you know the "Marathon Men" one?

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havin just purchased the 3 programmes for the three games at filbert st from ebay i was wondering who was there i attened the first game at home and the 1st and 2nd games at filbert street the 3-3 being in my top ten games attended being ten years old at the time must b some wednesdayites on here who remember them matches

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I'm old enough to remember and to have attended all five games. My outstanding memory is of the first replay at Highbury, when John Lowey had a perfectly good goal disallowed for a "foul" on Pat Jennings. The ball was crossed, Jennings flapped and missed it completely, Lowey banged his header into the back of the net, and for some reason nobody could ever explain the ref decided Lowey had fouled Jennings and disallowed the goal.

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Can vividly remember Lowey's equaliser in the second game at Leicester.

We were 2-1 down and only a couple of minutes or so left and had a corner from the far side. The ball was swung in, Lowey and an Arse defender went for it and the ball sort of ballooned in the air. When it came down Lowey somehow squeezed it between the defender and the post....right in the corner. flipping bedlam.

What made those games so special was that there were no other matches being played anywhere over those few days, the weather was so bad. So everyone was talking about Wednesday v Arsenal and the radio was there in force (no TV, unfortunately). I remember at one of the Leicester games seeing Denis Law outside the ground....he was doing the radio comments. In what was a terrible decade for Wednesday it was nice to have a bit of the limelight.

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