The United Photo Detective | Remembering Ajax away in 1976 | UEFA Cup

Clive believes the trip to Amsterdam was the first modern “Euro away”; the first trip where thousands of United fans travelled abroad en masse to the continent. Even now, he still sees people he first encountered on this journey; even now, the excitement of the trip regularly crops up in conversation.

 

“None of us, of my generation, had gone to any of the ones in ’68 or ’69,” he explains. “’76 was the first Euro away. It was typical of the time: chaotic! 

 

“It’s funny, of all the hundreds of games I’ve been to, some you can remember really well, other games you haven’t got a clue. But that particular game was very memorable for  a lot of things. First of all, it was the first one back since the Milan semi-final in ’69, so it had been seven years. And we were all very young. I was 20-21 at the time and I was one of the older ones around! So everyone who went to games hadn’t been old enough to go to a Euro away until that one.

 

“The guy on the right was my mate, Jacko. His name’s actually on the flag. Jacko’s real name was Ray King, but no-one ever knew him by that. Jacko was a well-known DJ. He worked in several places, but one in Margate called the Atlantis. The Atlantis has got more famous as time has gone on. It was a pretty good club at the time, but if you look at lists of iconic soul music venues, it’s now on those lists. 

 

“There were a few great nights on there for several summers. That summer of ’76 was really hot; an iconic summer of that time. The club had been booming. So Jacko had been paid a lot of money. I DJ’d there myself a couple of nights a week, plus a couple of other places. It wasn’t my proper job: I was on holiday from university. It was what I did at the time. 

 

“So just for that game, he’d got a really big summer bonus, so he was flush with cash. Because we’d been told the ferries would not be serving alcohol, Jacko said: ‘We’re going to meet at the Railway Tavern the moment they open on Tuesday.’ So this was a trip that began 10.30 on Tuesday. I didn’t get home until Friday!”