May 1972 "Champions"

And so to the final game of the 1971-72 season. We had seen some fabulous games and sampled some great atmospheres over this season with Town requiring one point from this final home game to be crowned champions. I have witnessed some great crowds over the years supporting the Mariners but have never felt it come close to reproducing the feeling inside Blundell Park that night. People up the floodlights, people sat ON TOP of the stands etc etc. When you look at the Park today you wonder how on earth did they ever manage to fit 22484 people in to it ? Suffice to say it was one of the highlights of my years supporting the Mariners. Sir Matt Tees finished the season with 29 goals in all competitions followed by Stuart Brace on 22. Average home gate for the season was 11748.
I hope that this re-run of the season has cheered a few people up during this period of doom and gloom and that we will all eventually be back to normal supporting our favourite team at the Park.
Below are highlights of that fantastic evening back in May 1972.

https://ibb.co/f2JPxTb
https://ibb.co/F6x6gzG
https://ibb.co/FqzV2TD
https://ibb.co/9nCsRv6
https://ibb.co/CVM9Npx
https://ibb.co/9s2bzCd
https://ibb.co/cLzf8cF
https://ibb.co/ZYP7377

Enjoy.

Thanks for these Sir Matt, a bit before my time but they’ve been fantastic to read!

That was brilliant thank you. What happy memories, i saw all the home games and lots of away games too. - my first child was born 3/11/71 when we played Norwich at Carrow Road and I had to miss the game. Perversely that's where we now live and the trek to Blundell Park is a long one that we will both be doing regularly when next season starts.

I think with Ollie in charge it will be worth a new champions scrapbook

Quoted from Sir Matt Tease

And so to the final game of the 1971-72 season. We had seen some fabulous games and sampled some great atmospheres over this season with Town requiring one point from this final home game to be crowned champions. I have witnessed some great crowds over the years supporting the Mariners but have never felt it come close to reproducing the feeling inside Blundell Park that night. People up the floodlights, people sat ON TOP of the stands etc etc. When you look at the Park today you wonder how on earth did they ever manage to fit 22484 people in to it ? Suffice to say it was one of the highlights of my years supporting the Mariners. Sir Matt Tees finished the season with 29 goals in all competitions followed by Stuart Brace on 22. Average home gate for the season was 11748.
I hope that this re-run of the season has cheered a few people up during this period of doom and gloom and that we will all eventually be back to normal supporting our favourite team at the Park.
Below are highlights of that fantastic evening back in May 1972.

https://ibb.co/f2JPxTb
https://ibb.co/F6x6gzG
https://ibb.co/FqzV2TD
https://ibb.co/9nCsRv6
https://ibb.co/CVM9Npx
https://ibb.co/9s2bzCd
https://ibb.co/cLzf8cF
https://ibb.co/ZYP7377

Enjoy.

Many thanks for sharing such happy memories.  Like a lot of older posters I was at every home game and quite a few away and seeing your press cuttings brought all the memories flooding back.

Great to see the majestic Lew Chatterley (!) In action again, but Matt Tees was fantastic that season. I was taken aback by just how high he managed to jump for some of those headers.

Thanks again.

Thanks for your kind replies, I'm glad you all enjoyed the pics and memories.

The whole set has been brilliant. The atmosphere for the night games in the Barrett Stand was wonderful. The aroma of Park Drive, Embassy Tipped and Senior Service from the wealthier plus the hip flasks.

We could hear that lot on the roof during the Exeter game and bits of rust kept falling on us when they banged their feet. That was a wonderful night. In a way it was like a comeback for the club as well as Matt Tees. Laurie Mac simply revitalised us.

Thanks for the reminders.

  Brilliant stuff! One of the regrets of my life is not being there that night. I was 12 and my parents had tickets for the local amateur production of "Oliver" the musical on the stage at the theater right by Blundell Park where the McDonalds is now. So that was that. I enjoyed the show but I know where I really wanted to be. So near and yet so far! They did announce the score at the interval though so I knew what was going on. Not quite the same thing certainly!

yeah brilliant stuff......

that Mike Hickman header.....remains perhaps my favourite Town memory ever.

Best night and best match ever. Better than all the Wembleys and the Sheff U promotion game but then it was my 21st birthday

....and it would never have happened had the original game not been abandoned due to the most localised fog ever seen in the area....basically Blundell Park, and that was it. I'd turned down the chance to go see Spurs at Leeds with my dad on the abandoned game as wlell.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

The whole set has been brilliant. The atmosphere for the night games in the Barrett Stand was wonderful. The aroma of Park Drive, Embassy Tipped and Senior Service from the wealthier plus the hip flasks.

We could hear that lot on the roof during the Exeter game and bits of rust kept falling on us when they banged their feet. That was a wonderful night. In a way it was like a comeback for the club as well as Matt Tees. Laurie Mac simply revitalised us.

Thanks for the reminders.

Interesting about the atmosphere at that time as I recently watched on another thread the game v Millwall on MOTD and thought god what a great atmosphere why isn’t it like that nowadays. Then I remembered this match was before the Barratt Stand came down, probably had to be demolished but the ground and the atmosphere have never been the same since.

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Interesting about the atmosphere at that time as I recently watched on another thread the game v Millwall on MOTD and thought god what a great atmosphere why isn’t it like that nowadays. Then I remembered this match was before the Barratt Stand came down, probably had to be demolished but the ground and the atmosphere have never been the same since.

Totally true. I’m sure people know that the Ramsden plan was to move the whole admin and changing rooms over to the new stand when it was built. The groundworks caused all manner of problems but it was the plan of the stand that ruined everything. The Barratt was more or less the same size as the Main and the sound went straight across the pitch and was kept at that level, the new stand meant half of it disappearing into the Humber. I suppose if part 2 of the plan had happened, replacing the Main Stand with one of similar dimensions to the Findus, as it was, the sound bounce would have been a lot better than it now is.

Fantastic  pics I was there for a few of those games I wish It was for all of them and A BIG THANK YOU FOR SHARING THEM brought loads of great  memories back UTM