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I grew up in the West Midlands and from the age of about 11-16 even whilst carving a semi successful career myself followed Walsall FC around the country travelling either with my Dad in his maroon Cavalier SRI with the smell of the occasional hamlet cigar drifting into the back seats or on the supporters coaches with my brother where we would be on the outskirts of the "chanters" and hope to be brave enough to start a chant that took off.

I remember some great FA/League cup runs that we had as a little club and with us winning away at Brentford yesterday and into the 4th round it made me think of my most memorable match as a fan and this one from the 1986/87 season really sticks out and I think made me a real fan of the FA cup and the romance it brings where "little old" Walsall from League 3 drew Watford from League 1 (The Premier League now) at home who had stars such as Luther Blissett, John Barnes and Tony Coton etc with us having the then potent strike force of David Kelly and Nicky Cross with a bit of help from the ageing Trevor Christie and having gone behind a couple of minutes into the match at Fellows Park we managed to find an equalizer which in those days (I loved how you replayed 3-4 days later) the replay being in Watford on the Tues or Weds night so leaving school a bit early and driving home down with more hope than expectation we saw this belter of a match.

Apols for some of the quality but it was the best I could find.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTJriaZl7zA

Which match made you the fan you are today and why?

i'm older than you and you tube isn't much help for some of the games

a few memorable ones from when i was young (under 16 years old)

keith weller's tights

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK7VVqWEA_Y

fa cup quarter, 3 goalkeepers used

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLt_kHCszCY

2-0 down to leatherhead at home in the cup.....

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRU8SOVhQI4

Still gives me goosebumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tge11NHJ0U

Ty! Bit of a novice at linking Youtube :)

No worries ;) you just click the you tube box above the 2c and cut and paste the link in from youtube and then remove the "s" from https and bingo

Easy as a Boro fan, quite possibly the most bonkers 2 games of football I will ever witness.


Boro v Basle UEFA Cup Quarter Final leg 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFfjQ-E3V3E (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFfjQ-E3V3E)



Boro v Steauaauaua UEFA Cup Semi Final leg 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgpA0S2Ciqo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgpA0S2Ciqo)

To score 4 goals twice to come back and win those games was unreal. The second time was surreal! Still send a shiver down my spine listening to the local commentator going absolutely mental!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F930cgNCRgo

About 5 minutes 20 in

Des Walkers first goal for Forest a rolls royce of a player the noise when he smashed that was immense and still brings goosebumps.

Possibly the first game i ever watched live (could have been an earlier one but i have no recollection of it) was a cup game , second leg Norwich City V Chelsea , early 70s possibly 1972.

Norwich had beaten Chelsea 2-0 in the first leg and the ground was packed .It was my friends birthday and his father took half a dozen of us 10 or 11 year olds to the game.

We stood immediately underneath the floodlight pylon in the South Stand / Barclay corner , right at the very front.It seemed almost magical that we were within touching distance of those superstars.

It was a fantastic match with Norwich leading 3-2 with only about 10 minutes to go,when fog suddenly enveloped the ground.It was impossible to see any further than the 18 yard box so the game was abandoned.

It was very very late when i was returned home to worried parents  but the whole experience will live long in the memory.Thank you Mr Rivett.

I noticed he scores in the cup yesterday for Linlithgow, from the wikipedia of Graham Weir:

Weir started his career at Heart Of Midlothian, making his senior debut in 2001 in a 3–2 loss against Aberdeen, where he was sent off in the final minute for kicking Robbie Winters. During his Hearts career his goals-to-games ratio was unremarkable, although he is noted for scoring two goals in the last minute of added time against Hibernian in the Edinburgh Derby of 2 January 2003. Hibernian scored two late goals in 89th and 92nd minutes to go 4–2 up. However, the two goals by Graham Weir in the last 42 seconds of injury time marked an even more dramatic comeback by the Hearts, for a final score of 4–4.

That 4-4 game was just ridiculous I was in row 2 of the end he scored them at. Epic scenes in any game let alone a derby.

Before I opened thread I was going to put down Watford v Walsall!  I also nominate Belgium 4 Soviet Union 3 in 1986 World Cup.

Arsenal winning the league at anfield.

Man U winning the European cup v Munich.

Will think of more.

Not a fan of Reading but it was one of the best matches I've ever been too.  The 2001 play off second leg against Wigan at the Mad Stad.  I lived in Reading at the time and went to the odd game.  It was 0-0 after the first leg and Wigan scored a fairly early goal in the home leg.  We Reading trailed until about 3 mins from the end when they banged in an equaliser and then got a penalty in injury time for the win.  The pen was missed but the follow up was scored by Nicky Forster and I've never seen a stadium go so mental. 

Look how scared for his life happy Nicky is celebrating with the fans

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1330000/images/_1334981_forsterplayoff300.jpg)

At the end there was a massive pitch invasion followed by loads of mounted police coming on too to get the fans off the pitch, quite exciting from my point quite high up in one of the stands.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF5SMIzkbgk

When tickets for the final came out, I decided to queue at the stadium to make sure I got them.  I think the ticket office opened at 11am for the final ticket and it was rumoured that it was going to be busy so I got there at 7am and joined the queue of a couple of hundred fans already there.  The time went quite quick and it wasnt' too bad and I managed to get the tickets I came for.

Day of the final, we rock up at Cardiff only to find we could have bought tickets on the day :D  Ended up losing to Walsall but had a good day out nevertheless. 

Club Brugge 1-2 Birmingham City
Europa League Group Stage 2011

My Uncle's ex girlfriend got us tickets in the home section with her Belgian ID card. The away section was long sold out and I am not longer a member as I live abroad and I was forced to sell my shares. We bought Brugge scarves from the club shop as disguise. It turned out we were in the 'Ultras' section where the atmosphere was a bit tasty. Even at 1-1 the home fans were pretty aggro. And when Chris Wood knocked in a 99th minute winner, it is fair to say they were not best pleased. We tried to stay as stoic and quiet as we could for fear of getting our heads kicked in. We mostly kept it together until we got back to the car where we let out cheers and fist pumps aplenty.

Great match.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkDGlMKKUc

Nuneaton 1-1 Middlesbrough
FA Cup Third Round January 2006

I worked for the BBC at this point so ostensibly I was there to take photos, sample the atmosphere and the occasion. Manor Park was absolutely packed, hard to see the game, great atmosphere. Nuneaton played really well and Middlesbrough didn't really look up for it but got a 1-0 lead. Nuneaton managed to get an extremely dodgy penalty in the 90th minute after Southgate kicked the ball onto his own hand. Gez Murphy stepped up and slotted it in. Pandemonium! I'm trying to think but this was possibly the only post match pitch invasion I've participated in. As a member of the press, I was duty bound to capture the action.

Two years later the club went into liquidation.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJh4MQCICAk

Tighty!

My first ever match was at Filbert Street. Leicester 0-2 Port Vale. I liked that stadium a lot

Eso!

I have a softspot for Walsall for sure. I went to school with your current captain Adam Chambers and his twin James who recently retired. Used to play in the school team with them. My proudest moment in football is me and my mate Reno beating them in a game of two on two football when we were about 16 in the local park - a tactical masterclass.

I was lucky my dad was a Wednesday fan and went all over watching them with him from about 1972 onwards.

So difficult to pick most memorable but these are up there :

Wednesday winning League Cup against Man Utd in 1991

Wednesday destroying Blackburn in League Cup semi away, 1993, on live TV - one of the most complete halves of football I have seen any team play. Magical stuff, stood in the old away end before they replaced it.

An FA Cup second replay against Crystal Palace. A night match at Villa Park. Won in extra time and Brian Joicey scored a hat trick - around 1974/75 I think.

The Sheffield FA Cup semi at Wembley. It should have been 10-1!!!

Just four off the top of my head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcu81EPYnk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcu81EPYnk)

Blackburn away on this link.

 First visit to the old Wembley in 1970 for the League Cup Final City v West Brom:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy0erbcc0IA

United v City 1974 and the famous Denis Law backheel and United relegation:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HQhV3ujyg

Leeds v City 1978 FA Cup 3rd round  ... game had everything, atmosphere, Leeds players fighting, pitch invasion and lots of trouble which was normal at that time:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3YfKuVHgxs

Went to a lot of Leics and Forest matches as a kid as i lived in the area (best mate at school's dad had a spare forest season ticket and my dad had a spare leics one so we pretty much used to go to whatever game was on every week).  Tighty might remember some of these.

Leicester 3-3 v Scousers. April 1983.  First ever game i went to.  Braces for Lineker and Dalgeish and a 30 yard corker from Andy Peake (Tighty probably the only guy to remember him) made for a insane introduction to watching football live as a kid.

Leicester 2-0 v Chelsea to stop them going up to the then Division 1.  10,000 Chelsea fans were there and not happy.  Pretty scary day as a kid.  Most memorable thing however was it was the day of the Hillsborough disaster,  April 1989

Leicester 6-1 v Sheff Weds 3 Jan 198x.  Was my bday and my mum had arranged for the players to represent me with a signed football and a great result to boot.  Quality bday.

Leicester 3-2 v Swindon no idea on the date (late 80s i think might have been midweek as well)  We left the ground at 2-0 down with 5 mins left to miss the traffic and by the time we got back to the car at the old cattle market it was 3-2.  I have never left a game early since.

Forest v Liverpool - Pretty sure this was the game Forest beat Liverpool's 40 odd game unbeaten streak.  Can't remember the date.  Pretty sure it was very early 90's.  Quality game with loads of all time great players on show for both teams.

Leicester 2-1 v Liverpool 3rd September 1986.  Gary Mac scored a free kick for the ages.  Russell Osman scored the other Leicester goal.  Can't remember who scored the scouse goal.  Was my first day at senior school and a cracking way to round it off seeing Leicester beat a quality scouse outfit.

Leicester 3-0 Manure 6th September 1986.  Manure were a middle table side in this era but this rounded off a cracking week for me.

this was the all time great andy peake game

very good young midfielder, never quite went to where he should have done in the game

currently? U17 coach at Leicester in the academy

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLtX43AB-vI

My first ever game was at The County Ground to see Northampton Town v Swindon.
Two goals each from Frank Large and Peter Kane in a 4-0 win.
The local sports paper headline was Cobblers Give Swindon Large Kaning.

Most memorable game,

Northampton Town 2-8 Manchester United

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znVkQKq-pDc

Bournemouth v Man Utd FA Cup 5th round 1989

Luther Blissett's leg wasnt quite long enough so a reply at Old Trafford. Two great days out.





YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkczU9mItLo

Going to look a bit of a saddo but didn't Mark Venus score in the 1986 game not Osman?  Remember it on Sportnight as a kid.

I'm wrong.  Just found it on YouTube.  Could have sworn it was Venus.  Would have blown 500k on who wants to be a millionaire!