Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Ivo Stas on July 25, 2017, 02:49:32 PM
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The Premier League is 25 now and the Guardian are doing a series of articles. One article...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/25/premier-league-best-match-liverpool-newcastle-april-1996 (https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/25/premier-league-best-match-liverpool-newcastle-april-1996)
...is about the choosing the greatest game. Got me wondering, what was Villa's greatest Premier League game?
Completely off the top of my head, and because I was there, how about Chelsea 4 Villa 4 on Boxing Day 2007? As I recall, Villa went 2-0 up before Zat Knight gave away a penalty and got sent off. Villa had to play the whole second half with ten men and Chelsea raced into a 3-2 lead but 'brave as a lion' Martin Laursen grabbed an equaliser. Then Carvalho got a red card with 10 minutes to go and both teams went for the win. Ballack stroked a free kick home for an 88th minute winner for Chelsea... except... in injury time, Ashley Cole cleared a Gabby header off the goal line with his hand, got the third red card of the game and Barry scored from the spot with the last kick of the game to send me loopy...
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I was listening to the commentary surreptitiously while attending the panto at Wolverhampton Grand.
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Ahem
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Can't look beyond the 0-0 with Southampton at home back in 2014.
We'll be talking about that game in 50 years.
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That's a pretty good one to go with if you look at it as a neutral.
My vote goes to our 4-3 win at Spurs in 1994, the same week BFR was sacked. For the second game in a row we blew a decent lead but unlike at Wimbledon in the previous game we actually won this one with a late goal from Dean Saunders. The euphoria at the end was incredible.
10 more
1992 Villa 4-2 Liverpool Saunders home debut, Rosenthal miss
1993 Villa 4-1 QPR Five great goals if you include theirs, honestly thought we'd win the league that day.
1993 Villa 1-2 Man United. We lost but amazing amazing game, end to end. Lee Sharpe got both for them.
1995 Villa 4-4 Leicester. Bad result for us but for the neutral it would have been amazing.
1995 Villa 4-1 Coventry. Milosevic breaks his home duck with a hat-trick.
1996 Villa 5-0 Wimbledon. Should have been eight, we were that good that day.
2004 Villa 4-2 Newcastle. Lots of goals vs opposition we usually struggle against.
2008 Villa 5-1 Birmingham for obvious reasons.
2008 Everton 2-3 Villa. Late winner, exciting match to say the least.
2014 Villa 4-3 WBA. A bright spot in a bleak few years.
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My vote goes to our 4-3 win at Spurs in 1994, the same week BFR was sacked. For the second game in a row we blew a decent lead but unlike at Wimbledon in the previous game we actually won this one with a late goal from Dean Saunders. The euphoria at the end was incredible.
We gave Spurs a 5-2 spanking at White Hart Lane in April 1992 - a game I always remember as the "cherry on the icing of the cake" game (as the commentator said when Tony Daley scored the fifth) - but that was one of the last games of the last season before the Premier League began.
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My vote goes to our 4-3 win at Spurs in 1994, the same week BFR was sacked. For the second game in a row we blew a decent lead but unlike at Wimbledon in the previous game we actually won this one with a late goal from Dean Saunders. The euphoria at the end was incredible.
We gave Spurs a 5-2 spanking at White Hart Lane in April 1992 - a game I always remember as the "cherry on the icing of the cake" game (as the commentator said when Tony Daley scored the fifth) - but that was one of the last games of the last season before the Premier League began.
yep
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2011 Newcastle 4 Arsenal 4. Liverpool 4 Newcastle 3 in the title run in 1996. Spurs 2 Villa 5 was as mentioned just before the PL. I was there though and it was a great game. I think we went two goals down early doors. I seem to recall Manure beating Spurs away 2-5 in the early 'noughties'.
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That's a pretty good one to go with if you look at it as a neutral.
My vote goes to our 4-3 win at Spurs in 1994, the same week BFR was sacked. For the second game in a row we blew a decent lead but unlike at Wimbledon in the previous game we actually won this one with a late goal from Dean Saunders. The euphoria at the end was incredible.
10 more
1992 Villa 4-2 Liverpool Saunders home debut, Rosenthal miss
1993 Villa 4-1 QPR Five great goals if you include theirs, honestly thought we'd win the league that day.
1993 Villa 1-2 Man United. We lost but amazing amazing game, end to end. Lee Sharpe got both for them.
1995 Villa 4-4 Leicester. Bad result for us but for the neutral it would have been amazing.
1995 Villa 4-1 Coventry. Milosevic breaks his home duck with a hat-trick.
1996 Villa 5-0 Wimbledon. Should have been eight, we were that good that day.
2004 Villa 4-2 Newcastle. Lots of goals vs opposition we usually struggle against.
2008 Villa 5-1 Birmingham for obvious reasons.
2008 Everton 2-3 Villa. Late winner, exciting match to say the least.
2014 Villa 4-3 WBA. A bright spot in a bleak few years.
The Deano's debut/Rozenthal's miss game was great. The 1-2 defeat to Manure in 1993 was the first game after the death of Tony Barton, so I only really remember it for that.The Small Heath 5-1 and Albion 4-3 games were great too. To throw in one of my own the
6-1 v Sunderland was fun.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
Arsenal at home in similar circumstances in 1998 (despite the horrific incident at half-time).
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Being more negative, the time we lost 4-3 at home to Charlton would've made entertaining viewing had I not been a Villa fan.
The 4-4 at Chelsea and the 3-3 there a couple of years later were both thrillers.
Of games that we actually won, I'd go with the 5-2 and 4-2 at Tottenham, and the 3-2 victories against Arsenal and Everton.
The time we went in leading 4-3 against West Brom must have been the best half.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
I was at that game, David O'Leary was the manager back then, I remember that Can't Control started the comeback. As much as I enjoyed the game, it effectively relegated Saints so it was rather bittersweet for me as I was meeting some Saints-supporting good friends after the game.
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The time we went in leading 4-3 against West Brom must have been the best half.
It was 3-3 at HT, 2-0 down, 3-2 up, then 3-3. Benteke scored a second half penalty.
Best 10 minutes was possibly Bolton at home, 2-2 after 9 or 10 mins and then 80 mins of pretty much sod all.
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My vote goes to our 4-3 win at Spurs in 1994, the same week BFR was sacked. For the second game in a row we blew a decent lead but unlike at Wimbledon in the previous game we actually won this one with a late goal from Dean Saunders. The euphoria at the end was incredible.
We gave Spurs a 5-2 spanking at White Hart Lane in April 1992 - a game I always remember as the "cherry on the icing of the cake" game (as the commentator said when Tony Daley scored the fifth) - but that was one of the last games of the last season before the Premier League began.
yep
The 4-2 win there in 2000 was coming back from 2 down, with our scorers successively attempting to beat the quality of the last goal, some going given Dublin's overhead kick started the comeback off
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3-0 at half-time against Manchester United was a bit special.
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Of the games I've been to, Arsenal home in 1998 was a classic, remember the 2-2 draw at home to Newcastle ( game after Keegan quit ) was a cracker, destroying West Ham away in 1995.
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I've remembered that we came from behind to beat Coventry and relegate them in 2001. Was it the final home game of the season? I wasn't at this game, so it had slipped from my memory, but I think they were 2-0 up at half-time and we won the second half 3-0 with Merson scoring a wonder goal to bang the final nail into their coffin. Guess this game would be a contender for best half of a match too..?
Edit: I think Angel scored his first goal in that game too.
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The 3-2 game v Arsenal with added half time parachuting drama.
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I've remembered that we came from behind to beat Coventry and relegate them in 2001. Was it the final home game of the season? I wasn't at this game, so it had slipped from my memory, but I think they were 2-0 up at half-time and we won the second half 3-0 with Merson scoring a wonder goal to bang the final nail into their coffin. Guess this game would be a contender for best half of a match too..?
Edit: I think Angel scored his first goal in that game too.
I was at that game with a few mates and my wife. My wife was due to give birth to my son. She wasn't impressed with my dream of her giving birth to him in the medical room at Villa Park!
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off the top of my head:
Chelsea 3 Villa 3
Chelsea 4 Villa 4
Everton 2 Villa 3
Spurs 3 Villa 4
Villa 3 QPR 2
Villa 3 QPR 3
Wolves 2 villa 3
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When we beat Manure 1-0 away in about 2009, as I was beginning to think we'd never beat them again.
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The 3-2 game v Arsenal with added half time parachuting drama.
I was in Blackpool from the Friday to the Monday on my stag weekend that weekend. Half of the lads headed home during that game, leaving the rest of us a little bit lonely and suffering a bit from a third consecutive day on the piss.
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The 4-3 defeat at Newcastle was a great watch despite the loss. Yorke hat trick...and disallowed goal. We were down to 10 men I think (Tommy Johnson sent off?) and came back well.
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Draper was the one who got sent off at Newcastle. The decision to disallow Yorke's 4th goal was an incorrect offside call if I remember rightly.
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
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In recent years beating Sunderland 6-1 sticks out to me. High pressure game as if we'd lost we could've still gone down. We could've scored 10 that night.
Long term Arsenal 3-2 sticks in my mind considering they'd won the double the previous year and their defence hardly conceded so scoring 3 in half an hour was pretty good going. Shame what happened at half time.
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
I also remember us doing them 5-0 I think just before Christmas 1996. With The Holte singing 'Merry Christmas Wimbledon'.
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
I also remember us doing them 5-0 I think just before Christmas 1996. With The Holte singing 'Merry Christmas Wimbledon'.
Savo hat trick.
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
I also remember us doing them 5-0 I think just before Christmas 1996. With The Holte singing 'Merry Christmas Wimbledon'.
Savo hat trick.
I think he only got 2 and so did Dwight Yorke but we did have 3 goals disallowed.
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
I also remember us doing them 5-0 I think just before Christmas 1996. With The Holte singing 'Merry Christmas Wimbledon'.
And 'Merry Christmas Vinnie Jones' which I reminded him of a few years later at a publishers do. Wimbledon were on a really long unbeaten as well before that game.
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The best Villa game I can think of is the Ronny Rosenthal miss, Deanos home debut and we beat them 4-2 after being behind
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
I also remember us doing them 5-0 I think just before Christmas 1996. With The Holte singing 'Merry Christmas Wimbledon'.
And 'Merry Christmas Vinnie Jones' which I reminded him of a few years later at a publishers do. Wimbledon were on a really long unbeaten as well before that game.
How did he react?
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off the top of my head:
Chelsea 3 Villa 3
Chelsea 4 Villa 4
Everton 2 Villa 3
Spurs 3 Villa 4
Villa 3 QPR 2
Villa 3 QPR 3
Wolves 2 villa 3
Some wonderful games there. Also;
Villa 3 Chelsea 2 (April 2004)
Villa 2 Liverpool 4 (November 1998)
Villa 3 Spurs 2 (November 1998)
Villa 4 Man City 1 (August 2008)
Villa 4 Newcastle 1 (February 2008)
Villa 3 Coventry 2 (May 2001)
Villa 5 Wimbledon 0 (December 1996)
Apologies if these have been mentioned!
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Beating Wimbledon 7-1. After going one down too. Deano and Tommy J with hat tricks, though one of these may have been chalked off
I also remember us doing them 5-0 I think just before Christmas 1996. With The Holte singing 'Merry Christmas Wimbledon'.
And 'Merry Christmas Vinnie Jones' which I reminded him of a few years later at a publishers do. Wimbledon were on a really long unbeaten as well before that game.
How did he react?
He probably bit a few reporters noses and then went and shot some animals. Then went and made a straight to DVD film.
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He just laughed, he seem alright. Katie Puckrik was also there and was lovely.
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Some of the games in 95-6 up until the League Cup final were truly outstanding. WHU 4-1 away especially has a soft spot in the back of my mind.
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The 2-0 away at Middlesbrough at New Year always sticks with me. A thunderbolt from Alan Wright then a magnificent team goal that must have had about fifty passes in the build up. The touch from Tommy Johnson to bring the ball down and slam it into the far corner was a thing of beauty. I loved that season, we played some glorious football.
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He just laughed, he seem alright. Katie Puckrik was also there and was lovely.
Who, unbelievably turns 55 on Saturday.
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That 2-1 win against 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' with Collymore scoring two was great, particularly as Michael Owen took a - ahem - tumble to put them one up from the penalty spot.
I'll always have a soft spot for the 1-0 against Liverpool with Ian Taylor bagging the goal. Seemed like we lost two or three nil to them throughout the nineties, often with an unlucky goal against. Tayls' celebration seemed to have a bit of fan's relief in it.
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The 2-0 away at Middlesbrough at New Year always sticks with me. A thunderbolt from Alan Wright then a magnificent team goal that must have had about fifty passes in the build up. The touch from Tommy Johnson to bring the ball down and slam it into the far corner was a thing of beauty. I loved that season, we played some glorious football.
We certainly did, even draws at home like Forest, Newcastle and Arsenal were epics.
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The next one. When the traffic problems around Villa Park won't matter either way as we will all have flying cars.
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Wimbledon. February. Raining.
1.0 down.
7 goals later
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The first one nil Kevin Phillips win at the Sty was just the best.
I still breathe a sigh of relief at the thought of it.
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That 2-1 win against 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' with Collymore scoring two was great, particularly as Michael Owen took a - ahem - tumble to put them one up from the penalty spot.
I'll always have a soft spot for the 1-0 against Liverpool with Ian Taylor bagging the goal. Seemed like we lost two or three nil to them throughout the nineties, often with an unlucky goal against. Tayls' celebration seemed to have a bit of fan's relief in it.
The 1-0 Ian Taylor game was great. I watched it in a pub where I was working behind the bar with a Liverpool fan.
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The 3-2 game v Arsenal with added half time parachuting drama.
Yes
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Albion 4-3 win after being 2 down in the first 5 minutes.
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6-1 Sunderland was amazing too - the sheer relief and joy
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6-1 Sunderland was amazing too - the sheer relief and joy
If anyone on here watched that in the Coat & Badge in Putney, I was the other Villa fan in the pub that you hugged at the end.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
I was at that game, David O'Leary was the manager back then, I remember that Can't Control started the comeback. As much as I enjoyed the game, it effectively relegated Saints so it was rather bittersweet for me as I was meeting some Saints-supporting good friends after the game.
Loved that game particularly for the game before when we were 2-0 up and drew 2-2. Their fans were signing '2-0' and you f*cked it up'. I lost my voice signing it back to them.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
I was at that game, David O'Leary was the manager back then, I remember that Can't Control started the comeback. As much as I enjoyed the game, it effectively relegated Saints so it was rather bittersweet for me as I was meeting some Saints-supporting good friends after the game.
Loved that game particularly for the game before when we were 2-0 up and drew 2-2. Their fans were signing '2-0' and you f*cked it up'. I lost my voice signing it back to them.
Southampton fans were lovely that day... racist chants before the match "Youre just a town full of P***s", constant pisstaking about the closure of the Rover factory during the game.
From 2-0 down to 3-2 was great fun.
The day was topped off by meeting Peter McParland after the game, he is my mums all time favourite player and he agreed to speak to her on the phone (i may have had a few beers and handed him the phone asking him to say hello to my mum) .. to this day she still thinks we were winding her up.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
I was at that game, David O'Leary was the manager back then, I remember that Can't Control started the comeback. As much as I enjoyed the game, it effectively relegated Saints so it was rather bittersweet for me as I was meeting some Saints-supporting good friends after the game.
Loved that game particularly for the game before when we were 2-0 up and drew 2-2. Their fans were signing '2-0' and you f*cked it up'. I lost my voice signing it back to them.
Southampton fans were lovely that day... racist chants before the match "Youre just a town full of P***s", constant pisstaking about the closure of the Rover factory during the game.
From 2-0 down to 3-2 was great fun.
The day was topped off by meeting Peter McParland after the game, he is my mums all time favourite player and he agreed to speak to her on the phone (i may have had a few beers and handed him the phone asking him to say hello to my mum) .. to this day she still thinks we were winding her up.
It may have been, or not been, the last away game of the season where it kicked off at Yates' with Villa in fancy dress. Could be wrong though.
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Beating Southampton 3 2 when Delph scored the beauty was a great night out.
4 3 against the Stripeys
3 2 win Everton away
4 2 win over spurs
Any win against the shite
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
I was at that game, David O'Leary was the manager back then, I remember that Can't Control started the comeback. As much as I enjoyed the game, it effectively relegated Saints so it was rather bittersweet for me as I was meeting some Saints-supporting good friends after the game.
Loved that game particularly for the game before when we were 2-0 up and drew 2-2. Their fans were signing '2-0' and you f*cked it up'. I lost my voice signing it back to them.
Southampton fans were lovely that day... racist chants before the match "Youre just a town full of P***s", constant pisstaking about the closure of the Rover factory during the game.
From 2-0 down to 3-2 was great fun.
The day was topped off by meeting Peter McParland after the game, he is my mums all time favourite player and he agreed to speak to her on the phone (i may have had a few beers and handed him the phone asking him to say hello to my mum) .. to this day she still thinks we were winding her up.
It may have been, or not been, the last away game of the season where it kicked off at Yates' with Villa in fancy dress. Could be wrong though.
I think the game you're on about was the season before. Drew 1-1 and we were still going for a European place. The 3-2 was the next season.
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Southampton away in 2005 was good, we won 3-2 after being two down.
I was at that game, David O'Leary was the manager back then, I remember that Can't Control started the comeback. As much as I enjoyed the game, it effectively relegated Saints so it was rather bittersweet for me as I was meeting some Saints-supporting good friends after the game.
Loved that game particularly for the game before when we were 2-0 up and drew 2-2. Their fans were signing '2-0' and you f*cked it up'. I lost my voice signing it back to them.
Southampton fans were lovely that day... racist chants before the match "Youre just a town full of P***s", constant pisstaking about the closure of the Rover factory during the game.
From 2-0 down to 3-2 was great fun.
The day was topped off by meeting Peter McParland after the game, he is my mums all time favourite player and he agreed to speak to her on the phone (i may have had a few beers and handed him the phone asking him to say hello to my mum) .. to this day she still thinks we were winding her up.
It may have been, or not been, the last away game of the season where it kicked off at Yates' with Villa in fancy dress. Could be wrong though.
I think the game you're on about was the season before. Drew 1-1 and we were still going for a European place. The 3-2 was the next season.
I could look it up but it's more fun to speculate, but my memory is that it went 1-1, 2-2 then 2-3. I was at the 1-1 with my ex girlfriend. Hendrie scored I believe.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4427547.stm We were two nil down and went on to win 3-2.
The 1-1 the season before - our goal was an Angel penalty.