sparrow, do u remember the 1/4 final in West Ham's 1974/75 cup win?

At Arsenal on the worst pitch I have ever seen in terms of how a day's torrential rain meant it was mostly waterlogged.

How it was allowed to go on was a major surprise. Today, well it would be unthinkable!

Anyway, Hammers won 2-0 and one of the goals was wholly down to the ball simply being almost completely stopped by the rain-sodden pitch. A great afternoon, though, with my Dad getting soaked to and from where we parked some distance from the ground.

Actually, one day soon I will post on here how I ended up with a ticket to the final despite missing out on the various conventional methods - programme ballots etc etc. Given how gold-dust FA Cup final tickets were back then, the way I got one shows how the world has changed so much in the past forty years and more...I think you will love the little story!

I was at that semi.. Arsenal-Wolves at Villa Park..

Thinking about it some more, I can't see any harm in saying what I saw go wrong at Villa Park on the Holt End when West Ham played Ipswich for the 1975 semi-final.

A terrible crush of West Ham supporters developed at the Holt End about 30 minutes before kick off. I was at the front half-way down where the terrace used to split into two. I, and others, were crushed against the terrace-long crash barrier but my dad who was behind me took some of the load through bracing his arms and protecting me. Anyway, ten minutes into the game it became too much and a lot of us, including Dad and I, clambered underneath the barrier and jumped down the small drop onto the pathway that split the terrace into two.

We then left the ground but not before my dad berated a police sergeant about the crush. It was a different world back then and the sergeant openly told us that the problem had been caused by some turn-style operatives accepting £1 to let ticket-less people into the ground. They were simply clicking people through above the capacity allowed. The police realised this and stopped it but the damage had already been done.

Had the barriers given way that day, many would have been killed and it has long led me to wonder if the same thing happened at Hillsborough in 1988?

I ended up with a ticket for the final because on the Monday prior to the match, my mum and her neighbor took the bus up to Upton Park and went in the general office to complain about the unfairness of ticket allocation.

It was the neighbor's idea actually. Her son and his friend, who were both three years older than me, had gone to almost every West Ham game home and away that season. I, too, had been to most of the home matches and a fair sprinkling of the aways with the two aforementioned lads.

Hence, on that Monday the neighbor and my mum went to the general office armed with a big bag of all the programmes from the games we had been to. They protested that it was unfair how young lads like us, such loyal supporters, were all missing out on tickets having been unsuccessful in the various ballots. The general manager in the office sympathised and said he would see what he could do, asking for our home addresses just in case.

Later that day, he turned up at both houses with a ticket for each of the three of us! And, he would not accept any money for them saying they were with 'the compliments of the club'. So, upon arriving home from school that afternoon I found myself with a FA Cup Final ticket.

Trouble was, I was on the very cusp of tipping over away from being a football fan and into the worlds of horse and dog racing!! So, I wan't that bothered about going to the final - which might help explain why I found it an anti-climax. I never told my dear old mum that, though!!

My god, it really was a different world back then!

They were £25 in 1976

I was only earning around £30 a week in 1975.

We were opposite the tunnel end in 76 sparrow I think face value was around £3 but some fans would sell for a pony touts I guess would be more ,77 was against Liverpool whilst I don’t really remember what the market price was it would be reasonable to think they would be quite a bit more especially as Liverpool were going for the proper  treble .