Northampton v Barrow match thread

[Suffolk Blue]

I had not walked to the ground down the usual and sensible Ceme Hill route that day. Instead, had come down the Newby Terrace steps and and onto Romney Road, severely bricking it in case the Stringer clan came out of their house...

Oh God, I always used to go that way. So much quicker than going all the way round the right angle formed by Highfield Road and Ceme Hill.

I wasn't particularly brave, maybe I was just stupid (don't answer that!).

For my entire childhood and youth, Romney Road was a no go area. It did not exist or feature in my mental A-Z of Barrow. When on the old reservoir playing fields Id never go west of Titchfeld Street as the proximity to the Stringers patch grew closer. What a fab trio - the Krays, the Richardsons and the Stringers!

[Holkerbird]

Oh God, I always used to go that way. So much quicker than going all the way round the right angle formed by Highfield Road and Ceme Hill.

I wasn't particularly brave, maybe I was just stupid (don't answer that!).

For my entire childhood and youth, Romney Road was a no go area. It did not exist or feature in my mental A-Z of Barrow. When on the old reservoir playing fields Id never go west of Titchfeld Street as the proximity to the Stringers patch grew closer. What a fab trio - the Krays, the Richardsons and the Stringers!

A bit libelous that comment.

[200miles]

Having been a direct victim (punched,kicked and mugged of fishing tackle by three of them) as a child, I can say that this is truth, not libel.

[Holkerbird]

Not the Krays or Richardsons though. Comparing grown men who were gangsters and murderers to kids. Come on!!!!

[200miles]

One of them was over 18. I was 11. I have the slightly deviated septum to this day, over 50 years later.

[Leo]

Can someone start a topic on the off topic forum to fill in the younger folks about this lot?! I've never heard of them!

[Holkerbird]

Hope your parents brought criminal charges .
My son was stopped when going to the shop by a gang with members from Furness Park Rd. Oxford St, Victoria Ave and Ainslie St to name a few places, tied to a post box and held a lit firework to his arm. Things happened. Said it was boring where they lived.
Anyway this is a thread about a football game in Northampton.
Back to business.

[200miles]

Snitching, even with injury and a clear criminal act, wasn't done in those days. Barrow was the Wild West......bit like the Holker Street end at the time

[Suffolk Blue]

Hope your parents brought criminal charges .
My son was stopped when going to the shop by a gang with members from Furness Park Rd. Oxford St, Victoria Ave and Ainslie St to name a few places, tied to a post box and held a lit firework to his arm. Things happened. Said it was boring where they lived.
Anyway this is a thread about a football game in Northampton.
Back to business.

My comment re the Krays etc was a little tongue in cheek Elaine though I wouldn't say that it was libellous. So let me do a Boris and clarify my remark (though not retract it or apologise for it obviously).

Clearly there is absolutely no similarity between the aforesaid North and South London "families" and the erstwhile occupants of Romney Road hitherto referred to as "the Stringers". The comparison is not with the scale of any nefarious activities and associated custodial sentences that may or may not have been committed or exacted. It was more to do with the spirit conveyed by the posters on this subject and their recollection of a time when we as youths lived in the shadow of a group of adolescents who were generally feared by many and treated with the utmost caution by all. For many of us, getting to a saturday or midweek game involved crossing Romney Road at some point and I doubt that anybody did that without full knowledge of any risk they might be taking. I passed Romney Road last week before the horrid Salford game and my sub-conscious still reminded me of where i was. Illogical so many years later but there you go.

We are talking late 60s/early 70s so you have to be of a certain age to remember those times. And as has been said above we are not talking about todays society that lives by very different standards and values. Hooliganism was endemic (and not just at football matches) and it was quite common to be picked out in Romney Road simply for being there. There was no gang culture as such, but these were not nice people. Having said that I'm not sure how this thread has drifted off the fantastic performance at Sixfields. Time to move on.