10 years ago today...

[dave.woodhall]

That game could have been played anywhere, at any time, and the outcome would have been the same. There was 15 years of hatred and a lot of unwise words from that lot behind it. I honestly don't think drinking played any significant part in it.

[villan1975]

I'm not saying it's the only factor, but it's definitely a big one in my opinion.

I've been to derby games in the evening and on Sunday's at 12pm and there is a world of difference.  Yes, you still get the hostility and those that want to fight will still fight, but the evening games always seem to have more of an edge - and an afternoon of drinking would seem to be the main contributing factor (given that you have to be pretty creative to get drunk by 12pm on a Sunday).

It's not creative to get drunk on a Sunday morning it just takes a lot of commitment. Agree about the evening game scenario though as the FA cup game against Manure 01/02 was full of booze fuelled madness.

[Darlo Dave]

I'm not saying it's the only factor, but it's definitely a big one in my opinion.

I've been to derby games in the evening and on Sunday's at 12pm and there is a world of difference.  Yes, you still get the hostility and those that want to fight will still fight, but the evening games always seem to have more of an edge - and an afternoon of drinking would seem to be the main contributing factor (given that you have to be pretty creative to get drunk by 12pm on a Sunday).

It's not creative to get drunk on a Sunday morning it just takes a lot of commitment.

Or finding one of the many pubs opening at 8am, especially so you could get drunk before kick off!

[Damo70]

A shift worker who drank in the pub I managed years ago had an encyclopedic knowledge of the licencing hours of Birmingham pubs. If he was finishing his shift around the time most people get up he used to drink around the markets in town where the hours were tailored accordingly.

[Nev]

I always have to have a good drink before playing Small Heath, to calm the nerves more than anything else.

The day we beat them 3-1 (Cahill overhead), me and my then girlfriend went to visit her "down on his luck" family friend first thing that morning. Noticing my rather agitated state he thrust a can of Skol Super into my hand, telling me with a wide eyed stare that it would sort me out.

Good lord, I have never tasted anything like it in my life. I got a shocked reaction from the lads picking me up when they found me necking it and all told, from the black country to our parking spot near the King Edward, an hour outside that shop just up the road, to the turnstiles at the Holte where I left the empty can, I reckon it took me around two hours to finish it.

It was like alcoholic treacle.

[usav]

It was like alcoholic treacle.

I think everyone else learnt that lesson down the local park when they were 15 or 16.