Away grounds Part 1 - My Hillsborough jinx

I have been going to away matches for the best part of 30 years and seen Arsenal play in around 80 different stadiums, both at home and abroad. In this new series I look back at my visits to some of those grounds.

This first chapter is all about a stadium who's name resonates far further than the world of football. Hillsborough. Apart from being forever remembered for the awful disaster that killed 96 Liverpool fans in April 1989, the famous old stadium was also something of a jinx for me. In 9 visits between November 1984 and September 1999, I saw Arsenal lose 7 times and draw the other 2.

The famous facade to the Spoin Kop

Despite Sheffield Wednesday now languishing in the lower reaches of the Championship, Hillsborough is still one of the great British football stadiums. Before the days of Wembley being used for everything, FA Cup semi finals were often played there and it was a ground I had always wanted to visit. Thankfully the opportunity arrived after The Owls were promoted to the First Division in 1984, so my first visit was that November.

Under Don Howe, Arsenal had recently topped the table so our trip to Wednesday was selected for live TV coverage on the Sunday, a real rarity at the time. I was certainly not disappointed by the stadium, although it had clearly seen better days. I stood on the Leppings Lane Terrace that afternoon and noticed how the perimeter fence obscured the view. Of course we were spoilt at Highbury, one of the few grounds not to have fencing in those days. As for the game itself, well it was far from memorable as our title challenge was already beginning to falter. In the event a first half goal from Tony Woodcock was not enough to prevent us slipping to a 2-1 defeat and although I didn't know it at the time, just seeing us score up there was about as good as it would ever get for me.

I did not make the trip in 1985-86 (a 2-0 defeat), 1986-87 (a 1-1 draw), or, regrettably, 1987-88 (an exciting 3-3 draw) so my next visit was not until September 1988. Under George Graham, Arsenal were destined to win their first league title in 18 years but inevitably we would lose at Hillsborough. I was on the Leppings Lane Terrace again as we had a first half goal disallowed for a very marginal offside decision, and a strike from Alan Smith was not enough to prevent another 2-1 defeat. Of course that was my last visit to Hillsborough before the disaster seven months later and I would never be able to look at the Leppings Lane End in quite the same way ever again.

The now infamous clock on top of the Main Stand

By the time of my next visit - February 1990 - our defence of the title was not going well. We were struggling to score goals, especially away from home, and his match summed up much of the season as a first minute own goal from Steve Bould saw us lose 1-0. I seem to recall the terrace was not open that day (perhaps they were fitting the seats) so we sat in the upper tier. It was a particularly bleak encounter on a cold and foggy winters afternoon that all but ended our title challenge.

Wednesday were relegated at the end of that season but they bounced straight back so my next trip, in November 1991, saw as arrive as defending champions once again. This game sticks in my mind for two reasons. One, I travelled up on the train alone as none of my usual away companions could make it, and two, I saw us score at the Leppings Lane end for the last time. In fact it would prove to be the last Arsenal goal I would ever see at Hillsborough. Despite going a goal down to a first half strike from David Hirst, Bould gained his own personal revenge with a second half equaliser that led to great celebrations in the upper tier seating and made the lonely journey home all the more bearable.

The first season of the Premier League would see us beat Wednesday twice at Wembley and our league visit to Hillsborough came in-between the two cup finals. Played on a Thursday evening in April 1993, and coming on the back on two 0-0 draws against Everton and QPR in the previous five days, it was a game neither side really wanted and ended in a drab 1-0 defeat. I remember sitting in the front row of the upper tier spending much of the match wondering why I had bothered.

Typically, I missed our only league victory at Hillsborough during this period, which occurred at the start of the following 1993-94 season - an Ian Wright goal giving us a 1-0 success - while I also missed the 3-1 defeat in March 1995. Therefore my next visit was not until Easter Monday 1996 and ended in another uneventful 1-0 defeat. This was one of the most frustrating matches I have ever been to. We needed a win to stay in the hunt for a European place but we did not even muster a single shot on target in the entire 90 minutes.

The following 1996-97 season saw the Wenger revolution in full swing and we travelled up to Yorkshire on Boxing Day sitting proudly on top of the league. Surely I would finally see us win at Hillsborough now. But again it was not to be as this live-on-TV teatime game ended in a tedious 0-0 draw - Dennis Bergkamp's first half effort coming back off the post being the only highlight.

View towards the Leppings Lane End

The 1997-98 season would end with Arsenal gloriously winning the Double but we still managed to lose at Hillsborough in the November, going down 2-0 during a run of only 2 wins from 8 matches that threatened our title challenge. Again we seemed to save our worst performance of the season for the trip to Wednesday and it was another occasion where we failed to create a single chance of note.

The last time I saw Arsenal play at Hillsborough was in September 1998. Again we were defending champions and arrived in West Yorkshire still unbeaten in the league. But this game proved to be memorable for non-football related reasons. Wednesday's Italian forward Paolo Di Canio was sent off in the second half and pushed referee Paul Alcock to the floor, earning himself an 11 match ban. Martin Keown was also sent off as Arsenal slipped to a late 1-0 defeat, meaning I had seen over 500 minutes of football at Hillsborough without seeing us score a solitary goal, a run stretching back nearly 7 years and 5 visits, to Bould's effort in November 1991.

Of course we scored there the following season in our first match of the new Millennium - Emmanual Petit finding the target in a 1-1 draw - but I missed that game too. Wednesday were relegated at the end of the season and are yet to return to the Premier League.

I have been to Hillsborough on one more occasion since. That was in August 2010 for Dagenham and Redbridge's first ever match in League One. I was not in the Leppings Lane End that day however, I was in the press box covering the game for the clubs website. I hoped my Arsenal jinx would not be carried over to the Daggers and we would start life in the third tier of English football with a win. But the score? 2-0 to Wednesday. So should the Owls ever return to the Premier League remind me not to bother going again...

Next time, I look back on my trips to Villa Park.