So you think our away record's bad now? We've seen worse . and we don't just mean the 28 games without an away victory mentioned in a recent edition of the Cambridge News.

Programme Editor Mark Johnson was quoted as saying that he could recall the goal scorers on the day we snapped that run at Newport County back in November 1984. The article didn't mention that Assistant Groundsman Trevor Ball could also remember that U's keeper Dean Greygoose saved a penalty while the score was still 1-0 to United.

What it also omitted was that this wasn't United's worst away run without a victory. On October 24th, 1981 goals from Steve Spriggs, Chris Turner, Roger Gibbins and Joe Mayo gave John Docherty's Cambridge United the points from a pulsating 4-3 win at Bolton. It was United's second consecutive away victory, but little were the travelling U's to know that they would not be cheering success on their travels again until April 9th, 1983 - 35 away games and almost 18 months later!

Oakwell was the venue for this momentous victory - not that any of the dwindling band of travelling U's fans would have expected victory to be the outcome. Barnsley were sitting in 7th place in Division Two and, with games in hand, they had realistic ambitions of winning promotion to the top-flight for the first time in their history.

Despite United's miserable away record, 'Fortress Abbey' ensured that we were in a reasonably comfortable mid-table position, in no danger of threatening go up and little of going down.

The thought of taking 98 to Wigan for a Tuesday night match, as we did this season, would have been simply incomprehensible to the U's fans who travelled the length and breadth of the country to watch their side back then. Very rarely did the Club run a coach, and with the country's road network far more primitive then now, train was the only option for most.

Not that good old British Rail was without its problems. In December 1982, there was a report of a group of seven U's fans getting back home 22 hours after setting off for a match in Oldham. After getting spilt up on their way out of the ground, as they tried to ensure they were not hassled by unfriendly locals (nearly all locals were unfriendly in the 1980s!), they managed to miss their planned train out of Oldham.

They eventually found their way to Doncaster, only to find that the train they were on had been held up by signal problems and that the connecting train hadn't waited. Due to be back in Cambridge at 10.30pm, they discovered that the next train south wasn't due until around midnight. Luckily, the Doncaster station staff took pity on them by arranging a London train to make a special stop for them and laying on taxis.

Even when they boarded the London train, they found it was diverted via Lincoln and Spalding, and when they arrived back at Cambridge station at 3.30am - in those pre-mobile phone days - they had to walk into town to find a telephone as the station was locked up!

So what's so special about seven United fans that they made the news, you may ask? Together with three others, they had made up the entire away support at the game!

This group of fans where later to become the 'infamous' Inter City Trickle, named in mockery of the West Ham hooligan element - the Inter City Firm. 'Inter City', because they travelled to the games on the train, and 'Trickle' because there weren't many of them. That smirk of mockery was as close to trouble-making as they ever got - partly because they were more interested in getting to and from the match (and pub) in one piece, and partly because virtually all of them wore spectacles!

The ICT, and a few other independent travellers (perhaps a total of a dozen away fans) duly arrived from Barnsley station, via the pub, onto the vast, open away terrace for what they fully expected to be another defeat. Those expectations seemed fully justified when Tony Cunningham and Ronnie Glavin put the Tykes two-up inside the first quarter of an hour, but for once that was not the end of the story, as Barnsley appeared to believe that the job was done.

Andy Sinton - two weeks after his 17th birthday - hammered home a low, right-foot drive on 55 minutes, then Martin Goldsmith levelled it with a fine cross-shot five minutes later. To cap a memorable afternoon, George Reilly chipped a 67th minute winner to send the travelling handful into jigs of disbelieving delight.

Manager John Docherty bounced onto the pitch on the final whistle, arms aloft in a victory salute as the travelling fans planned their escape back to Cambridge.

The first, and most difficult task was to get to Barnsley railway station. The single policeman who accompanied the fans on the short walk from the ground was certainly do deterrent to the sticks and stones which were lobbed in their direction. That was a fairly minor problem, as there were only a few missiles. And there was one question the disgruntled fans had for the travellers, "Are you happy now, are you pleased? We was goin' oop." Yes, they were actually - very happy indeed!

Defeat marked the end of Barnsley's challenge for promotion. They were eventually to fade away to a 10th place finish - just two places above the U's.

A final point of irony is that the win at Barnsley was followed by defeat at Bolton, a draw at Carlisle and, on May 7th, a 1-0 win at Middlesbrough - the final away win before that success at Newport County!

So what do you think? Why not log onto the Message Board to share your views?

Mark Johnson

Previous Main Features:
03Mar02 -  The Best Of The Best?
24Feb02  - The Future of Football?
17Feb02  - U's Fans On Sky TV's Soccer AM
10Feb02  - U's Fans Feature On ITV Digital Quiz
02Feb02 - A Week In The Life of PR Manager Graham Eales
20Jan02  - U's Players Get Darth Vader Treatment
13Jan02  - Kit Carson Explains His 'Head of Talent Development' Role
05Jan02  - Dale Brooks Enjoying New Role
04Dec01 - U's Players Try Out Premiership Physio Machine
10Nov01 - U's Launch New Away Kit

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