favourite ninian park memories

The smell of pipe tobacco wafting across the Bob Bank in the seventies. Sitting on the wall at the back of the Bob when I was a kid with the players looking like subbuteo players. Watching some of the crowd surges on the Bob for some of the big cup games and thinking thank f**k i'm sitting on the wall. The dark dingy walkway at the back of the Canton Stand before it was reduced in size. Walking underneath the original Grange End to get to the Bob.

Most of my favorite games are the usual suspects, Spurs, Man City, Leeds etc. But one other that sticks in my mind was a midweek game against Orient in the nineties when we were once again battling relegation. We were one down and Orient spent the last 20 mins wasting as much time as possible. In those days hardly any injury time was ever played but this night the ref saw fit to play about seven minutes during which time Tony Bird scored twice - cue bedlam from about 4000 of us. Typically for City, we still got relegated a few weeks later.

Over the years there have been many special memories of Ninian park some of which have already been mentioned. However for me personally these would rank amoingst the top 5 lasting memories.

1 An evening game in winter when you see the haze of the ninian park floodlights in the distance always sent shivers down my spine.

2 Carl dale scoring in front of the grange end against wrexham in the mid nineties and the thousands on the grange end surging and dancing in delirium absolutly incredible

3 The Nathan blake goal against Man city. I remember being overwhelmed that day with the occasion the emotion and the result an incredible game.

4 The flare in the grange end was pure class never thought id see it at Cardiff

5 The old bank bank in early nineties with thousands doing the barmy army and bouncing up and down from top to the bottom.

This post has made me check my video i did and seeing those turnstiles again click click !!! argggggggh I miss Ninian so much can we go back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAIqW6ObQoE

Man United 74/75 only a kid, but the memories are fresh to this day.

The 77 cup run beating Spurs, the late winner over Wrexham and Everton getting battered on the Bob bank (never seen so many milk bottles flying about as I did that day)

Buchanans rocket in the 3-3 with the Jacks in 1980

Although the best memory as to be the cup triumph over Leeds, never ever known Ninian Park as hostile as that day.

Wales v Yugoslavia 70`s was cracking entertainment, as was Englands visit in 1982 or 1983, I can`t recall the

exact year of that, though I can recall me and a few mates getting nicked outside the grandstand for brawling with some QPR fans.

Loved Ninian Park, hate the CSS.

There are so many that stik in my head...I can always going remember going there in 2001 and watching us play Crewe Alex in the 3rd round of tha Fa cup! They were in the 1st div at the time and we were in the 3rd! Again I can always remember us playing Ipswich, there was around 8,000 there on a Friday night, live on sky. I cant remember the correct score but I can recall Jason Koumas putting one in the top corner to either tie the match or win it! Me and my mates run from the one side of the grange end to the other to celebrate!

Mine will have to be Totenham at home .
First time i have ever seen a flare !!

The smell of pipe tobacco wafting across the Bob Bank in the seventies. Sitting on the wall at the back of the Bob when I was a kid with the players looking like subbuteo players. Watching some of the crowd surges on the Bob for some of the big cup games and thinking thank f**k i'm sitting on the wall. The dark dingy walkway at the back of the Canton Stand before it was reduced in size. Walking underneath the original Grange End to get to the Bob.

Most of my favorite games are the usual suspects, Spurs, Man City, Leeds etc. But one other that sticks in my mind was a midweek game against Orient in the nineties when we were once again battling relegation. We were one down and Orient spent the last 20 mins wasting as much time as possible. In those days hardly any injury time was ever played but this night the ref saw fit to play about seven minutes during which time Tony Bird scored twice - cue bedlam from about 4000 of us. Typically for City, we still got relegated a few weeks later.

I was at the orient game you mention in the canton stand it was absolute bedlam incredible drama

Why not see if any of your memories are in my Ninian Park video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bDyCM9ItXI

gotta be the jacks for me with ross scoring the penalty was my first ever cardiff swansea game in ninian missed a holiday for and was well worth missing

When we beat Cardiff 2-0 to win promotion May 1984!!!! 10,000 + Wednesday fans on the pitch! Not many clubs can say they have done that at Ninian park!!!!

Obvious choice I guess but it was the Leeds game for me, thought it was quite simply amazing that day. Ive never seen/heard/been at a game with an atmosphere like it and I dont think I ever will again. Everything that day was tailor made for a perfect match.

My 1st game, cannot remember when it was but it would have been when I was about 8 (I'm 49), my dad, who wasn't a big City fan took me to NP for a night game, always remember being on the grange end, standing to the right as you face the pitch and all the crowd getting excited when Ronnie Bird (RIP) was given the ball, if he didn't have it they were screaming for him to be given the ball. Now my memory isn't the best but I seem to recall he had longish flowing hair / blond.

NP has some great memories for me, the Spurs, Wrexham, Everton cup run, Hereford night game, the bob bank pissers up on the left hand corner facing the pitch, the fires under the grange end, the smell was so different then, the rattles, rosettes, Llanrumney boys ruling the back of the grange, the yoyos of relegation & promotion, the nodding to people you didn't know but saw every other week (no mobiles or internet), pitch invasions.

That said, I'm glad it's now history, other than looking like a box of lego, the new stadium is on the whole a very good stadium, Borley and the gang did very well to get it as good as it is given the restraints of cash.

Nathan Blake vs Man City is up there for me aswell as goading Barnet keeper Gary Phillips in 93!

My favourite though was the 5-1 against Wrexham when Darren Adams scored "THAT GOAL"

Started supporting City in 74/75.....I will always remember John Buchannans piledriver against the Jacks to make it 3-3....I thought we had lost till that one stunning moment!!.....Also,Blakeys against Man City was one feckin adrenalin rush!!

just sitting in my seat enjoying the warm up before the game,watching my boy try and get autographs,something as simple as this has been taken away now they warm up the other end

Keith 'sky' Walkers half volley hitting the back of the net and the bob bank gates bulging with fans trying to get onto the pitch. Then Cardiff attacked us all game and couldn't get the back of the net and it finished 1-0 to us. Interesting walk back to the bus.

getting in free , climbing over the grange end wall, was caught a few times though, slap on the head, today its a 3 year ban

TRUE I SWEAR.
Now then can anyone remember those dirty old men, ( not me I was to young at the time but I maybe one now though ) under the GRANGE END with there torches shining there lights through the slats in the railway sleeper type floor we had up the GRANGE END up some poor unsuspecting females skirt hoping they had no knickers on, NO? but ask your Dad he might have been one of them.

On a personal level, it was doing a Penalty Shoot out at half time on Boxing Day in 2006 or 2007, can't remember which, but we were playing Plymouth.
It was an immense feeling to go out on the pitch in front of a packed out Ninian Park and take a penalty.

I missed.

im only 16, but the earliest memory i have, where i can actually remember something happening, was when they still had the fencing up on the bob bank, and getting all that crap on my hands when i tried climbing on it, my father wasnt happy! other memories are how gutted i was after the jacks scored in the 2-2 draw right at the last before ross' penalty in the last season there, and after the last game with the 'party', and the tour on the last open day, so many others though, would love to go back there now

Keith 'sky' Walkers half volley hitting the back of the net and the bob bank gates bulging with fans trying to get onto the pitch. Then Cardiff attacked us all game and couldn't get the back of the net and it finished 1-0 to us. Interesting walk back to the bus.

This after members of the Canton stand had broken through the gates and run up the front of the Bob Bank
Jumped more fences than Red Rum that day

When we beat Cardiff 2-0 to win promotion May 1984!!!! 10,000 + Wednesday fans on the pitch! Not many clubs can say they have done that at Ninian park!!!!

With due respect Sam Sunderland can, and they ran us everywhere outside the ground. Tossers

Wow so many memories. My first game around 76/77 against PNE and we lost 2-0 The game against Scotland when Jock Stein Died , The Leeds game, Man City FA Cup, 83 season game against Shrewsbury when some tosser set fire to a Jack beanie type hat on the Grange end oops that was me Singing "you were beaten by Nuneaton" to the Swansea players when they came out for the second half The Chelsea game when we drew 3-3, Oh soooooooooo many memories.

Well there's two for me. The night we (Merthyr Tydfil) won the Welsh Cup against Newport County, and the night we put 4 past CCFC again in the Welsh Cup and Dai Webley scored my favourite hat-trick of all time.

The first time I walked in there, with my Mates, St. David's day, 2008 , v Leicester, game was ok , result was shite, Purses OG ! But it was just how a football ground should be, as I remembered from years ago , been to a few others since then , including a Jacks game, which was awesome, but nothing will take away the memories of that first time at NP, a REAL ground !

Many many memories but the things that stand out was being taken there when i was about nine or ten for an International which i think was Wales v Scotland i stood there proudly on the Bob bank with my Welsh Scarf, Rosette (remember them) and my Welsh Bobble Cap then some barstard nicked my bobble cap and i have never forgotten that moment

On the subject of Internationals i will always remember Brian Flynns goal against the Jocks with all those one twos before he slotted the ball in the net at the Grangend if Brazil or Argentina had scored that goal it would be hailed as one of the best ever.

The old Grangend and all the fighting that took place there between Cardiff, Barry and Valley Boys remember chants of Seasiders from the Barry Boys then all hell would break loose very scary when you are 14 years old but wonderful memories.

Can never forget the sheer excitement and manic celebrations when Buchanan scored the winner in the FA Up tie against Wrexham and after Peter Sayers winner against Spurs which was followed by the worst fighting i have ever seen outside Ninian Park.

John Buchanans screamer against the Jacks in the 3-3 draw, the Hereford game with over 35000 crammed in, the 3-3 draw with Chelsea and Chelsea coming around to the Bob Bank at the end of the game.

The utter devastation i felt after the defeat to Stoke in the Play Off semi final and the sickness i felt in the pit of my stomach when Joe Allen scored in the last ever derby played at Ninian Park followed by the relief and exhultation that followed whe Ross scored the last minute penalty

So many memories the 'fixed' draw with Orient, the fighting on the Bob Bank with Everton in the FA Cup game, Jimmy Gilligan scoring one of the best goals i have ever seen against Exeter, Tony Evans and Adrian Alston, Carl Dale, Earnie, Gary Stevens own goal, Dwyers goal aganist England, the 3-2 defeat to Weymouth.

Then above them all the Leeds game in all the years i have been to Ninian Park that was the most hostile i have ever seen it and there was definitely something special in the air, Scot Youngs winner and the roof nearly came off the Grange End and Bob Bank.

Fantastic memories too many to list will the CCS ever match it i doubt it but to be fair the euphoria that followed Chopras last minute winner against the Jerks last season was almost on a par with Ninian Park.

Ninian Park RIP

One that stands out for me was a warm spring evening in April 1976 when we played Hereford. Malcom Allison had publicly said that we were'nt a well supported club & on arrival to the ground you could hear the announcement from the tannoy telling the crowd to move from the entrances to let the huge crowd outside in.35,000 there that night for a old division 3 game & the chant from the Grange of "Allison, Allison shout your mouth".After 3 seasons of freefall it felt like we were back.

leeds 2-1 best i can remember but im only 19 mind lmao

Having watched Cardiff since the late 1970's, easily greatest memory is taking my little lad to his first game a few seasons ago.

Parking near sanitorium road and carrying him on my shoulders to the game...stopping off in the newsagent for crisps and sweets...into the club shop to get him a Cardiff Kit..then his face painted...

And then finally into the mecca that is Ninian Park..where we played Mick McCatrthy's Wolves team..and what a game winning 4-0 (and they had a man sent off for elbowing Thommo) ....I tried to explain to him that it aint like that every week down the city but the little lad was hooked...

since then we've been to wembley together 3 times, he's been home mascot once and away mascot twice,...missed out on the playoffs and seen some players come and go...but great times together...

and he's mascot at home to Burnley on the 18th December...

wolves fa cup game the year we got to the final, my daughter, who was 19 at the time wanted to come and see what all the fuss was about, anyway shes a sussex girl at uni and a bit posh i suppose compared to her old man, so we go in the grange end and she goes to get herself a drink, she gets to the bar and theres a few lads waiting behind her and she says " hi, how are you, is it possible i could have a glass of white wine please with plenty of ice " she walked away with a pint of lager with a red face 2 go with it, would'nt change her for the world

Defenetly not the last game there, the celebration afterwards was a disgrace.