Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Forum index | Previous Thread | Next thread
Orient October 1987 22:28 - Oct 9 with 2955 viewsDorkingDale

A few articles are popping up about the 30 year anniversary of the great storm of October 1987 which has brought back the nightmare of 8-0 at Orient 2 nights previously. My memory is of about 20 of us on that away terrace behind the goal.....and the downpour. To add insult to injury, the stewards wouldn't allow us to shelter in the adjacent covered stand for safety reasons. How anybody could seriously take 20 miserable & downhearted drowned rats as a threat to safety I will never know....definitely my worst experience supporting Dale.

Anyone else equally traumatised?!
0
Orient October 1987 on 22:45 - Oct 9 with 2931 viewsBartRowou

I wrote this for the TVOS a few years ago.

“2,4,6,8 who do we appreciate?” So teased a couple of my peers during a Wednesday morning Latin lesson with the meticulous Mr Smith. They certainly didn’t appreciate his thorough deconstruction of absolute clauses, one of which will begin the next sentence. That said, an 8-0 tonking can take precedence over most things. Yes that’s right. 8. Octo. VIII. There’s something about conceding eight that makes your blood run cold. Seven is a thrashing fair enough and qualifies for the brackets and capitals on the vidiprinter (SEVEN) but at least it rounds to 5 and is a lonely old prime number. Eight on the other hand is nearer to double figures, packed full of symmetry and most importantly, it signified that if we didn’t already know it, Rochdale AFC were in trouble: a colossal, even-numbered meltdown.
Our capital capitulation came at the hands of the recently re-christened Leyton Orient. They’d reverted back to one of their old names having been plain old Orient the season before. Clearly it had done the business: their previous game with Dale at Spotland was truly horrific, grey-skied and goal-less. On October 20th 1987, the Os became the 8s.
Back then, a trip to the Smoke was a damage limitation exercise for Dale but there were no limits to how awful we were that night. We’d never actually won in the capital in any competition ever and would have to wait another eight years and one day before we finally buried that particular hoodoo (a 4-0 trouncing of Barnet at Underhill doing the job).
Defensively against Orient we took to the pitch with two left backs in Hampton and Mycock plus Lomax, Bramhall and Smart in what may well have been five at the back. Whether it was four or five defenders is lost in the smog-filled mists of times; of more concern was that Dale were at sixes and sevens for the entire evening. Wunderkind Zac Hughes, who at 16 years and 105 days is the youngest player to have ever played for Dale, was unluckily dropped after playing the previous Saturday (it could have been any of them) and would only feature one more time for Dale the following January, making him one of those rare footballing cases whose professional career was done and dusted before he was legally allowed to drive.
What made it all the worse for me was that goalkeeper Keith Welch, probably my favourite player of that era, had to fetch the ball out of his net eight times. Welch had proved to be a vital player for Dale the season before and had earned the respect of every Dale fan despite still being a teenager (he tried to look more mature with his grown up moustache but while that may have impressed the ladies, he didn‘t fool us).
Amongst the multitude of scorers for the home team was the intriguingly named Paul Shinners who presumably shanked a couple in via a tibia or two. Since finding the net that night, Shinners has found God and is the owner of a café in St Neots which as well as providing “ high quality food at low prices for the poor, underprivileged and local community”, also offers healing services on a weekly basis. However his business has suffered in the last year dues to protests from the local LGBT community who have accused him of espousing homophobic views in Kampala, Uganda which he has vigorously denied. Not your typical “footballer retires and becomes pub landlord” type story there then.
Oddly enough, you wait your whole life for one Leyton Orient attack-minded evangelist-in-the-making to bag a brace against your team and then another one pops up in the same game. Alan Comfort, who also netted twice, decided that a second career of pulling pints wasn’t for him and he too opted to don the cassock and give his life to God. The Reverend Comfort can be heard spreading the word of the Lord every Sunday at St John’s Walthamstow and one would imagine that every now and again he drops in the odd football-related anecdote, possibly including the time he ripped Peter Hampton a new one.
I took some stick the morning after the night before from my so called mates in that Latin class but I gave as good as I got, in particular taking joy in pointing out that Man United would go nowhere with the recently installed Alex Ferguson in charge. Of more concern to me though was the state of my own team. Eddie Gray, hero, saviour, genius, and full-back tormentor had well and truly had his wings clipped. There seemed to be no means of escape from this race to the bottom. Dale were in trouble and the Trotters were on the horizon with a Robin Reliant full of hooligans.

Poll: Should Bury shop elsewhere for frames?

4
Orient October 1987 on 23:10 - Oct 9 with 2903 viewsDorkingDale

Brilliant - thanks....
1
Orient October 1987 on 01:41 - Oct 10 with 2840 viewsAussieDale

I remember it well as I was walking through a shopping centre car park near our house in SE Melbourn, having ran to the news agency that morning to get the local paper knowing that our result would be in it. Opened the paper going through the car park, saw the result, mumbled something along the lines of 'fcuk me', then walked straight into a tow bar, then repeated the above phrase but louder, then limped home. Still have the scar to prove it.
0
Orient October 1987 on 08:37 - Oct 10 with 2751 viewsfermin

I was living in Cambridge at the time and made a last minute decision not to go, something which I regretted, rather perversely, after hearing the result. Still do actually - missing seeing a bit of history in our record defeat.

Orient were a particular bogey team for us back then (even more than everyone else) if I remember properly. They used to score at least 3 against us regularly.
0
Orient October 1987 on 14:54 - Oct 10 with 2553 viewskiwidale

Orient October 1987 on 22:45 - Oct 9 by BartRowou

I wrote this for the TVOS a few years ago.

“2,4,6,8 who do we appreciate?” So teased a couple of my peers during a Wednesday morning Latin lesson with the meticulous Mr Smith. They certainly didn’t appreciate his thorough deconstruction of absolute clauses, one of which will begin the next sentence. That said, an 8-0 tonking can take precedence over most things. Yes that’s right. 8. Octo. VIII. There’s something about conceding eight that makes your blood run cold. Seven is a thrashing fair enough and qualifies for the brackets and capitals on the vidiprinter (SEVEN) but at least it rounds to 5 and is a lonely old prime number. Eight on the other hand is nearer to double figures, packed full of symmetry and most importantly, it signified that if we didn’t already know it, Rochdale AFC were in trouble: a colossal, even-numbered meltdown.
Our capital capitulation came at the hands of the recently re-christened Leyton Orient. They’d reverted back to one of their old names having been plain old Orient the season before. Clearly it had done the business: their previous game with Dale at Spotland was truly horrific, grey-skied and goal-less. On October 20th 1987, the Os became the 8s.
Back then, a trip to the Smoke was a damage limitation exercise for Dale but there were no limits to how awful we were that night. We’d never actually won in the capital in any competition ever and would have to wait another eight years and one day before we finally buried that particular hoodoo (a 4-0 trouncing of Barnet at Underhill doing the job).
Defensively against Orient we took to the pitch with two left backs in Hampton and Mycock plus Lomax, Bramhall and Smart in what may well have been five at the back. Whether it was four or five defenders is lost in the smog-filled mists of times; of more concern was that Dale were at sixes and sevens for the entire evening. Wunderkind Zac Hughes, who at 16 years and 105 days is the youngest player to have ever played for Dale, was unluckily dropped after playing the previous Saturday (it could have been any of them) and would only feature one more time for Dale the following January, making him one of those rare footballing cases whose professional career was done and dusted before he was legally allowed to drive.
What made it all the worse for me was that goalkeeper Keith Welch, probably my favourite player of that era, had to fetch the ball out of his net eight times. Welch had proved to be a vital player for Dale the season before and had earned the respect of every Dale fan despite still being a teenager (he tried to look more mature with his grown up moustache but while that may have impressed the ladies, he didn‘t fool us).
Amongst the multitude of scorers for the home team was the intriguingly named Paul Shinners who presumably shanked a couple in via a tibia or two. Since finding the net that night, Shinners has found God and is the owner of a café in St Neots which as well as providing “ high quality food at low prices for the poor, underprivileged and local community”, also offers healing services on a weekly basis. However his business has suffered in the last year dues to protests from the local LGBT community who have accused him of espousing homophobic views in Kampala, Uganda which he has vigorously denied. Not your typical “footballer retires and becomes pub landlord” type story there then.
Oddly enough, you wait your whole life for one Leyton Orient attack-minded evangelist-in-the-making to bag a brace against your team and then another one pops up in the same game. Alan Comfort, who also netted twice, decided that a second career of pulling pints wasn’t for him and he too opted to don the cassock and give his life to God. The Reverend Comfort can be heard spreading the word of the Lord every Sunday at St John’s Walthamstow and one would imagine that every now and again he drops in the odd football-related anecdote, possibly including the time he ripped Peter Hampton a new one.
I took some stick the morning after the night before from my so called mates in that Latin class but I gave as good as I got, in particular taking joy in pointing out that Man United would go nowhere with the recently installed Alex Ferguson in charge. Of more concern to me though was the state of my own team. Eddie Gray, hero, saviour, genius, and full-back tormentor had well and truly had his wings clipped. There seemed to be no means of escape from this race to the bottom. Dale were in trouble and the Trotters were on the horizon with a Robin Reliant full of hooligans.


Possibly the finest post ever a literary masterpiece.

My match report was a tad briefer went something like "we were shite"
[Post edited 10 Oct 2017 15:03]

This is not the time for bickering.

0
Orient October 1987 on 19:15 - Oct 10 with 2426 viewsseasidedale

If memory serves we also conceded 6 to tranmere either 2 weeks prevously or afterwards
0
Orient October 1987 on 19:39 - Oct 10 with 2401 viewsTVOS1907

Orient October 1987 on 19:15 - Oct 10 by seasidedale

If memory serves we also conceded 6 to tranmere either 2 weeks prevously or afterwards


It was 11 days earlier.

Friday 9th October 1987 - Tranmere 6, Rochdale 1
Tuesday 20th October 1987 - Leyton Orient 8, Rochdale 0
[Post edited 10 Oct 2017 19:56]

Undoubted knowledge? Or just the application of common sense and using my brain?

0
Orient October 1987 on 07:41 - Oct 11 with 2230 viewssoulboy

Orient October 1987 on 19:39 - Oct 10 by TVOS1907

It was 11 days earlier.

Friday 9th October 1987 - Tranmere 6, Rochdale 1
Tuesday 20th October 1987 - Leyton Orient 8, Rochdale 0
[Post edited 10 Oct 2017 19:56]


Compared to the 8 0 thrashing, i was at Brisbane Road for a night match in either season 85/86 or 86/87 to see a narrow defeat, 5 0. 4 0 down after 25 mins, i was fearing double figures!
0
Login to get fewer ads

Orient October 1987 on 08:11 - Oct 11 with 2212 viewsfermin

Orient October 1987 on 22:45 - Oct 9 by BartRowou

I wrote this for the TVOS a few years ago.

“2,4,6,8 who do we appreciate?” So teased a couple of my peers during a Wednesday morning Latin lesson with the meticulous Mr Smith. They certainly didn’t appreciate his thorough deconstruction of absolute clauses, one of which will begin the next sentence. That said, an 8-0 tonking can take precedence over most things. Yes that’s right. 8. Octo. VIII. There’s something about conceding eight that makes your blood run cold. Seven is a thrashing fair enough and qualifies for the brackets and capitals on the vidiprinter (SEVEN) but at least it rounds to 5 and is a lonely old prime number. Eight on the other hand is nearer to double figures, packed full of symmetry and most importantly, it signified that if we didn’t already know it, Rochdale AFC were in trouble: a colossal, even-numbered meltdown.
Our capital capitulation came at the hands of the recently re-christened Leyton Orient. They’d reverted back to one of their old names having been plain old Orient the season before. Clearly it had done the business: their previous game with Dale at Spotland was truly horrific, grey-skied and goal-less. On October 20th 1987, the Os became the 8s.
Back then, a trip to the Smoke was a damage limitation exercise for Dale but there were no limits to how awful we were that night. We’d never actually won in the capital in any competition ever and would have to wait another eight years and one day before we finally buried that particular hoodoo (a 4-0 trouncing of Barnet at Underhill doing the job).
Defensively against Orient we took to the pitch with two left backs in Hampton and Mycock plus Lomax, Bramhall and Smart in what may well have been five at the back. Whether it was four or five defenders is lost in the smog-filled mists of times; of more concern was that Dale were at sixes and sevens for the entire evening. Wunderkind Zac Hughes, who at 16 years and 105 days is the youngest player to have ever played for Dale, was unluckily dropped after playing the previous Saturday (it could have been any of them) and would only feature one more time for Dale the following January, making him one of those rare footballing cases whose professional career was done and dusted before he was legally allowed to drive.
What made it all the worse for me was that goalkeeper Keith Welch, probably my favourite player of that era, had to fetch the ball out of his net eight times. Welch had proved to be a vital player for Dale the season before and had earned the respect of every Dale fan despite still being a teenager (he tried to look more mature with his grown up moustache but while that may have impressed the ladies, he didn‘t fool us).
Amongst the multitude of scorers for the home team was the intriguingly named Paul Shinners who presumably shanked a couple in via a tibia or two. Since finding the net that night, Shinners has found God and is the owner of a café in St Neots which as well as providing “ high quality food at low prices for the poor, underprivileged and local community”, also offers healing services on a weekly basis. However his business has suffered in the last year dues to protests from the local LGBT community who have accused him of espousing homophobic views in Kampala, Uganda which he has vigorously denied. Not your typical “footballer retires and becomes pub landlord” type story there then.
Oddly enough, you wait your whole life for one Leyton Orient attack-minded evangelist-in-the-making to bag a brace against your team and then another one pops up in the same game. Alan Comfort, who also netted twice, decided that a second career of pulling pints wasn’t for him and he too opted to don the cassock and give his life to God. The Reverend Comfort can be heard spreading the word of the Lord every Sunday at St John’s Walthamstow and one would imagine that every now and again he drops in the odd football-related anecdote, possibly including the time he ripped Peter Hampton a new one.
I took some stick the morning after the night before from my so called mates in that Latin class but I gave as good as I got, in particular taking joy in pointing out that Man United would go nowhere with the recently installed Alex Ferguson in charge. Of more concern to me though was the state of my own team. Eddie Gray, hero, saviour, genius, and full-back tormentor had well and truly had his wings clipped. There seemed to be no means of escape from this race to the bottom. Dale were in trouble and the Trotters were on the horizon with a Robin Reliant full of hooligans.


Was that the series of programme articles about that season named after Eddie Gray? They were fantastic - probably the best series of articles I have read in the programme.

Picking up on the 6-1 Tranmere results mentioned earlier, I think they were below us in the league at the time so in some ways it was even worse than the Orient result. I remember Les Barlow writing a particularly depressed article in the Observer after that result.
0
Orient October 1987 on 22:35 - Oct 11 with 2038 viewsDorkingDale

My memory failed me - the match was the Tuesday night after the hurricane, not before it. It certainly felt like a bloody hurricane.....
0
About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© FansNetwork 2024