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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? 16:30 - Apr 23 with 2909 viewsWarkTheWarkITFC

In the past month I have been to four non-league stadiums, two of which I'd say were League One / Two standard and a couple of them a bit smaller.

All of them in some way reminded me of following Town away in the late 80's and early 90's when we went to places like Fellows Park, Prenton Park, Boothferry Park, Vale Park, Plainmoor and so on. The sort of grounds with portable toilets in one corner and a burger van in the other. A club shop in the ticket office, which also trebles up as yet something else.

Fans packed in on terraces behind the goal, just yards away from the away keeper who can hear every single word. Back in those days you used to have all sorts of running verbal battles between fans and opposition players.

I can't remember the last time I spoke to an opposition player at Portman Road apart from an injured Chris Martin by the touchline telling me to 'f*** off in return for me suggesting that 'Just Eat' wasn't a motto to live by.

Anyways, what are the funniest / strangest / most memorable things you recall from the traditional style lower league grounds?

For me I would have to say:

- A young Robbie Earle (Port Vale) laughing at a fat Town fan who refused to throw the ball to him when it went in the crowd, only to then throw it, it hit the wall at the front of the stand and bounced back and hit him in the head.

- A Hull keeper (I think his name was Ian Heslop) taking stick all game from us for being a bit overweight only to shout back at a Town fan 'well your missus never complains about how big I am'.

- A Town fan going absolutely mental at the Manor Ground when his car, parked behind the goal Town were attacking and visible in the gap between the stands, was hit for a third time by a wayward Town shot that went over the stand (back in the Ian Atkins days) - leading to other Town fans mocking him singing 'You're going home in a f*cking taxi cab'.
[Post edited 23 Apr 2019 16:34]

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 16:40 - Apr 23 with 2865 viewsBluefish

Connor Ripley has suffered a bit from our fans at a couple of non league sized terraces in recent seasons. The positive was though that he had lost a fair bit of weight and looked much better the 2nd time
[Post edited 23 Apr 2019 16:46]

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 17:03 - Apr 23 with 2785 viewsParisBlue

The Hull keeper was probably Iain Hesford. I saw him play frequently for Sunderland and was quite a character. Sadly no longer with us. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/iain-hesford-goalkeeper-who-playe

One of the things I like about non-league football is the fact you get to hear/talk to the players. At that level it's genuinely possible to influence the referee, though one of my mates trying to bung £20 to the ref at half time in exchange for a second half penalty was probably pushing it a bit...I dread to think how that would end up now.

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 20:57 - Apr 23 with 2555 viewsNBVJohn

A friend of mine was referee at Hinckley United (now sadly defunct, but resurrected as AFC Hinckley). Several of us went along in the hope of him making a mistake and he obliged by getting a penalty decision badly wrong. In between several dozen people yelling the usual expletives at him one bloke called him ‘a twerp.’ A beautifully old fashioned, harmless insult amongst a tirade of abuse, and it had us in stitches.
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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 21:07 - Apr 23 with 2528 viewsgainsboroughblue

Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 17:03 - Apr 23 by ParisBlue

The Hull keeper was probably Iain Hesford. I saw him play frequently for Sunderland and was quite a character. Sadly no longer with us. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/iain-hesford-goalkeeper-who-playe

One of the things I like about non-league football is the fact you get to hear/talk to the players. At that level it's genuinely possible to influence the referee, though one of my mates trying to bung £20 to the ref at half time in exchange for a second half penalty was probably pushing it a bit...I dread to think how that would end up now.


Iain Hesford was great. I remember Town fans having a right laugh with him at Boothferry Park one year.

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 22:42 - Apr 23 with 2389 viewsrgp1

Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 21:07 - Apr 23 by gainsboroughblue

Iain Hesford was great. I remember Town fans having a right laugh with him at Boothferry Park one year.


Yes I remember that game from being in the open end at boothferry park. I believe our goalscorer that day was also the sadly departed iain Redford.
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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 22:44 - Apr 23 with 2380 viewsrgp1

Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 22:42 - Apr 23 by rgp1

Yes I remember that game from being in the open end at boothferry park. I believe our goalscorer that day was also the sadly departed iain Redford.


And I believe the hull goalscorer was the legendary Billy Whitehurst who I believe also had a spell as a bare knuckle fighter!
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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 22:52 - Apr 23 with 2360 viewsDublinBlue84

Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 16:40 - Apr 23 by Bluefish

Connor Ripley has suffered a bit from our fans at a couple of non league sized terraces in recent seasons. The positive was though that he had lost a fair bit of weight and looked much better the 2nd time
[Post edited 23 Apr 2019 16:46]


Ripley did cop a fair bit of it at Accrington, but to be fair to the guy he was a good sport about it all when all was said and done.

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 23:10 - Apr 23 with 2315 viewsThe_Romford_Blue

Some small club a few years back (I’m thinking Cambridge) had about 700 fans at Dagenham a fair few years ago now. Maybe 10 years ago.

Anyway the Cambridge fans behind the goal were playfully chanting at Dagenham keeper Tony Roberts all game about him being a tad on the large side. Well what Roberts used to do when he’d get chants at him every game was pull the back of his trousers down and show them his arse.

As soon as he did that, the away fans spent the rest of the match chanting at him. Later in the game, a player was down injured just after halftime and they started chanting about letting him have a bite of the pie that was bought by one of the Cambridge fans down the front. Roberts stood there for a good three or four minutes and ate the whole thing.

Cambridge went on to comeback that day (I’m 90% sure it was Cambridge) in the second half and thought they’d scored a winner. In doing so, they threw some toilet roll and one of their scarves in their celebrations onto the pitch by Roberts. Dagenham went and scored a late equaliser and Roberts pulled his trousers down (a little bit as he did) and pretended to wipe his arse in front of the away fans. He picked up the toilet roll... threw it back behind the goal and then pretended to use the Cambridge scarf.

The game finished a draw but the Cambridge fans after the game spent longer clapping and chanting Tony Roberts than their players. The away end has the tunnel that the players come out from underneath and a fair few Cambridge fans waited after the game to shake his hand.

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 08:15 - Apr 24 with 2101 viewsFacefacts

I was at Elm Park, Reading, when we won 4 - 1, and managed to get one of the few away seats in the corner of the stand. Not sure if it was the game when Geraint Williams scored "from the half way line". I don't remember if there was any segregation/stewarding. But the banter was "Six seats, you've only got six seats", as they gave us literally just a few seats in the bottom corner of the stand.
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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 09:16 - Apr 24 with 2031 viewsWeWereZombies

Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 23:10 - Apr 23 by The_Romford_Blue

Some small club a few years back (I’m thinking Cambridge) had about 700 fans at Dagenham a fair few years ago now. Maybe 10 years ago.

Anyway the Cambridge fans behind the goal were playfully chanting at Dagenham keeper Tony Roberts all game about him being a tad on the large side. Well what Roberts used to do when he’d get chants at him every game was pull the back of his trousers down and show them his arse.

As soon as he did that, the away fans spent the rest of the match chanting at him. Later in the game, a player was down injured just after halftime and they started chanting about letting him have a bite of the pie that was bought by one of the Cambridge fans down the front. Roberts stood there for a good three or four minutes and ate the whole thing.

Cambridge went on to comeback that day (I’m 90% sure it was Cambridge) in the second half and thought they’d scored a winner. In doing so, they threw some toilet roll and one of their scarves in their celebrations onto the pitch by Roberts. Dagenham went and scored a late equaliser and Roberts pulled his trousers down (a little bit as he did) and pretended to wipe his arse in front of the away fans. He picked up the toilet roll... threw it back behind the goal and then pretended to use the Cambridge scarf.

The game finished a draw but the Cambridge fans after the game spent longer clapping and chanting Tony Roberts than their players. The away end has the tunnel that the players come out from underneath and a fair few Cambridge fans waited after the game to shake his hand.


You have to hope that Tony Roberts had washed his hands before shaking them with the Cambridge Utd. supporters.

My favourite is Paddy Kenny's non verbal thumbs up when he was in goal behind the North Stand for Sheffield United and the chant was 'Score on the telly, we saw you score on the telly' when we played them after he had accidentally knocked the ball into his own net a few days earlier in a televised FA cup fifth round replay at Middlesborough and lost his side the game in extra time.

edit: just re-read the title of the thread and realise that I have classified Portman Road as a 'little ground', I was referring to Sheffield United as being a sort of non-league set up of course...
[Post edited 24 Apr 2019 9:19]

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Memorable 'little ground' banter you've ever heard? on 14:23 - Apr 24 with 1844 viewsWickwar_Blue

I go to Forest Green a lot as they are my local team. If FGR are known for anything it’s their commitment to Veganism and environmentalism.

I heard the Bury fans chanting “We eat meat, we eat meat” whilst waving inflatable sausages earlier this season.
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