An Argument!!!...

Me and me mates used to go in the old Dutch Barn in the Oakbank Grammar School grounds, we'd play through the week from 16/17hrs till dark, winter wasn't to bad because we just played till you couldn't see anymore,(you had to run yourselfe warm!)

Summer was hell, played till dark and usually bloody hot!.

Weekends we played from say 15/16hrs till dark, that was sometimes deadly!..

Imagine todays footballers trying that, some can only just cross the 90min line!.

In't it odd how kids can run for hours and people that get paid to do it have a problem?.

"Luvr,yeah like playing in the street,having to stop when the cars came"

You had to be bloody fast with the cars around our street's, it was usually an angry neighbour looking for revenge!..

They're not the friendliest when you break their windows or flatten their roses!.

I was four when I saw my first game, a Leeds United win, and that got me hooked. Probably not until I was about 7 or 8 when I started playing football in the street and playground at school (and sockball in the house.....).

Like others on here me and my mates were the scourge of the neighbours with errant shots hitting windows, cars and flowers etc.. Funniest moment that I can recall was this strange man who used to turn up at this woman's house at odd times of the day dusting school holidays. He'd park his Jag half on the pavement and road and disappear inside the house.

None of us knew what the "score" was until we smacked the ball into his car one day and both his and the woman's head appeared just above the window sill in the front bedroom upstairs....... From that day hence the popular chorus was "we know what yer doing" rang out whenever he came calling....

I was ten when I represented my school for the first time, playing for the U11s. Not because I was particularly good mind, I was the only kid left on the school premises with a pair of boots in me bag after home time and the year above's team was one man short.

I had this romantic notion that I'd be a Lorimer or a Clarke but the PE teacher stuck me in at left back. Didn't see much of the ball and I think it was 0-0.

After that appearances were few and far between for the school but I always played for the House team. Senior school was rugby only but I did eventually find myself in the Surton Coldfield Town youth teams as that was the route for most of my schoolmates who wanted to play the great game.

Midfielder and often out wide I played against teams representing the youth of Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Wolves including some very obscure teams. Mark Walters, John Pender and Bobby Coy were some of the lads I played against who went on to play professionally.

In order to play more regularly I played for lower level Sunday League teams as I got older ending up at the age of 20 playing for a club that had no less than four of my cousins in the team plus my youngest uncle. Broke my ankle towards the end of that season and never played 11 a side regularly again after that.

Good memories.....

First started to kick a ball at around 5 playing in the back streets of chapeltown, used to go and play at the park close by where it would start off 11 a side but soon swelled up to 70 a side.....haha great days played for primary, middle and high school even got into the house teams (blue house) if anyone's interested....also played leeds red triangle league, Sunday combination league, West Yorkshire league, played in a few Asian tournaments during summer months everything going really great enjoying life, until.......I started to discover women & booze all went down hill from there as far as the footie was concerned......but still had some great times....

Lived in a cul de sac as a child all the houses were recently built and all had young families apart from two or three. As a result we all got together in one garden at a time (worked out by mothers as a sort of sharing of responsibility for care) there was about twenty kids mostly boys.

Two of the back gardens were huge, in one which was on two levels it was cowboys and indians or war games and in the other which was flat and had trees it was football or cricket.

I think they called it community.

Progressed to school teams junior and secondary. In Leeds schools football was huge in the sixties and seventies.

Grew up with Leeds United in the blood, bigger brothers influence . Started attending games at 10/11 with bigger brothers.

The atmosphere was the clincher.

Great football, superb atmosphere. Still makes the hair stand on end today.

Billy Bremner was god and still is...!!

Amen Eric

I was at a rugby league playing school, used to watch Hunslet. My dad saw me one day doing one of those cardboard league ladders they gave away in kids mags in the early 60's (Leeds always seemed to be mid table in the 2nd div - sound familiar?).

He said 'people say they are starting to play well, why don't You go watch them?'

And the rest is history

"He said 'people say they are starting to play well, why don't You go watch them?"

Glory hunter!

It must be why people are stating similar things now, to get more fans in

Stevie

In my defence they were midtable in div 2

And it was walking distance to the ground, closer than Hunslets actually

And I didn't eat my first prawn sandwich for another 20 years