One More Point - The Book (Covering fanzines, Palace and football in the 80s/90s)
 

Mark it down - 17 July 2015 - some 12 years after I should have started it, is the day I finally write the 'One More Point' book. Set a target of 10 pages this weekend and already the first four page have flowed like the old days.

Finally got the motivation and the reason I'm writing this post is that I want you people reading to shame me if it ever looks like I'm slacking in any way or not staying focussed enough.

Palace fans on here who remember the OMP days - if you have any comments/stories you remember then thrown them my way.

There will be stuff I've forgotten that you can remind me of that can go in the book.

After all this time I've realised that I don't want this to be a book just about fanzines and the hassles/stories/fun that come from writing and selling on the streets but I want it also to capture the essence of football from 1990 to 2003.

OMP started in 1993 but I'll also dip into what the fanzines before mine were doing. Eagle Eye was the daddy of Palace fanzines and will certainly get a lot of love but I'll also add in memories I have of other teams fanzines.

I want it to be a footnote so that people under 30 realise you could have a whole day out (beers, travel and match ticket) to West Brom or Norwich or Leicester etc. and still have change from £30.

There have been scores of books on football hooliganism but to my knowledge NONE on fanzines written by someone who was part of the scene.

Feel free to throw any thoughts down, good or bad, about OMP. Also thoughts on Eagle Eye, Eastern Eagles and even any of the smaller ones like Suffer Little Children.

Sportspages in Charing Cross was like heaven to me in the 90s. I bought such a wide variety of fanzines. All sorts of clubs. Did you have a fave fanzine of a club you didn't even support? I liked Ipswich's Those Were the Days and Sheff Utd's Flashing Blade for instance.

There were some stories that were never printed for all manner of reasons so some of those will finally get written.

Some items actually suit being written with the benefit of hindsight.

And if someone can think of a goddamn title I'll be grateful. Just like the old days - I could write 2000 words off the top of my head no problem but trying to think of a headline for articles was a nightmare.

Working title, for now, but I'm sure it'll change is 'Is that the Programme?'

One of the worst things to hit SE25. Don't start re-writing history. Let it be.

Used to love OMP, the away days part was probably my favorite.

Looking forward to buying and reading this, might give me some inspiration for FYP too

Hello cuz:p

I loved OMP. The shenanigans of Spud & co on away days, the fiasco at Pompey away on a wet Saturday on an open terrace, "Canoe Gate"
great memories :p

Was something about Spud and the sea air on the south coast that affected Spud. In two games there in 1999 he managed to get on the pitch to attack the ref and then up in the cells for celebrating the Lininghan goal. Hilarious.

Desperately trying to remember what 'canoegate' was. I did do a dopey prank with a canoe after a party but pretty sure that wouldn't have made OMP as it was not part of a Palace day out.

Wasn't it a case of you tested out the water to see what you could get through the turnstiles, a mattress one week, I'm sure you attempted other objects including a canoe or something vaguely similar at Vale Park. Are you still in touch with Spud & co?

Blimey. Had forgotten about that. Going to have to re-read the 1999 issues - that drunken period is honestly a blur now, yet I remember 1993-95 no problem.

We got some weird stuff into grounds - inc ammunition and a chunk of Cambridge United's roof! But a can of Lynx? No chance!! Stewards are weird! :clown:

Not particularly weird, but l do remember one Villa away game when a Palace fan brought the biggest naan bread l had ever seen into the away end.

Guilty as charged!

Looking forward to this. Used to read OMP and having it sent to me in Norway at time when Palace News was scarce over here. Will be happy to contribute about the Norwegain Palace fanzine (now running in its 25 year!) if wanted.

Any idea when that was. My memory is shot to bits? I think we lost but l have a vague memory of us bringing on a sub (Matt Jansen??) who scored with a long range shot??? Mind you, we could just as well of won with a Vince Hilaire tap in!!!

Used to read OMP when I was younger thinking these loads were the bees knees, a bit like Tony and Gary in Men Behaving Badly.

When in hindsight....

Wow! I know that name Kai - are you Kai Lindseth? You were either the first or second subscriber OMP ever had. Cant recal exactly but I know the first two were Norwegian. Orneblikket must be one of the oldest fanzines in the world let alone Palace! Would love you to write a piece that tells people how you learnt of fanzines; why YOU and not someone else started
it up there in Norway and a general overview of what it was like pre-internet following Palace.

Great to hear from you!! :p

Your vague memory is pretty accurate. 3-0 down at HT but we 'won' the 2nd half through that Magic Jansen rocket to lose 3-1 at FT. It was our 8th straight defeat but felt like a victory. Palace fans at their best on that day, for sure. which other fans would get to sing about their upcoming European tour whilst three goals down (Note: we were told Palace were applying for the Intertoto Cup and we were going to get the nod on the basis we were the only bloody team interested in taking part!!!)

The good vibes obviously worked as four days later we won at Newcastle for our first win in something like three months!

Sums it up nicely. I'll take that analogy.

The One More Pint section was tricky in a way. It was generally the only part that people would moan about when buying a copy from me

'Hope there's not too much drinking stuff in there this time mate'
'No, no. I've cut it back this time, sir"

(Translated as - it's gone from 4 pages to 5 but I'm hoping you're not keeping count)

On the flip side every single year it won 'Article of the Year' and was also the most loved section when talking to fans in general, hence the Men Behaving Badly comparison is pretty accurate.

OMP, and Eagle Eye before it, were the connection to fellow fans before many of us had t'internet in the home, or in my case, before we had it at work even. Even when we did, alongside CPFRIS, and subsequently the BBS, it was an essential part of feeling part of a bigger group that you didn't know personally but helped you increasingly feel like you did. '93 was about the time that I started going to games with a small group of fans I'd got to know through stevek who I met through work. OMP was an extension of that. For me personally, it filled in many gaps that had formed from too many years of barely keeping in touch with my hometown team via the odd media coverage.

Perfect mik59 - I'll copy and paste that paragraph for Chapter 3!

Loved one more point, do you still live up in Grimsby?