Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on December 15, 2017, 08:00:24 AM

Title: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on December 15, 2017, 08:00:24 AM
28th January 1967. Preston FAC 3rd Round. Won 1-0, Dave Roberts.

https://www.11v11.com/matches/preston-north-end-v-aston-villa-28-january-1967-212493/

9 years old. Dad & Mom, brother and me in the back with scarves out the car window on the M6. I think we were in a Ford Zephyr 6.

Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Mortimer's Bear on December 15, 2017, 08:03:24 AM
Assuming we don't include Cup Finals (1994 at Wembley was my first game away from B6) it was 9th September 1995, Blackburn away, Savo scored.

I was 14 and went with the old man.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: levico on December 15, 2017, 10:17:34 AM
I was at that Preston match. Got in the ground early and found myself in the wrong end. My mate and I made a dash for it across the pitch, half heartedly chased by a few stewards/police.

Still remember have soggy the pitch was, sinking up to my ankles. How they managed to play on that surface I’ll never know. Made to the other end and found safe anonymity in the mass of Villa fans.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: wittonwarrior on December 15, 2017, 10:18:50 AM
Preston away first game back in Division 2.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: garyshawsknee on December 15, 2017, 10:21:47 AM
My first ever Villa game,away at Luton, December 84,lost 2-0.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Dave P on December 15, 2017, 10:43:34 AM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: PGW on December 15, 2017, 10:48:29 AM
A 3-2 defeat away at Bolton...November 1967
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: ColinMac on December 15, 2017, 10:50:13 AM
August 89 First day of the season, 1-1 v Forest, McGraths debut. I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the game and didnt spend the afternoon locked in a pen at Nottingham Train Station.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: garyshawsknee on December 15, 2017, 10:50:32 AM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

My one and only time at Highfield Rd.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Mortimer's Bear on December 15, 2017, 11:03:19 AM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

My one and only time at Highfield Rd.

Same, horrible.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Dave P on December 15, 2017, 11:06:19 AM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

My one and only time at Highfield Rd.

Same, horrible.

I went one other time a few years later when we drew 1-1 and another soon to Villain, Hadji, scored for them.  Think Dublin scored for us that day.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Chris Smith on December 15, 2017, 11:19:28 AM
21st September 1968, Small Heath 4 - Aston Villa 0.

Taken by a Bluenose uncle trying to turn me to the dark side, even getting hammered didn’t tempt me.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: thick_mike on December 15, 2017, 11:39:29 AM
August 89 First day of the season, 1-1 v Forest, McGraths debut. I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the game and didnt spend the afternoon locked in a pen at Nottingham Train Station.

Was that McGrath’s debut, I had no idea?

I remember a bloke having a heart attack at the bottom of a flight of stairs at half time. I needed a piss more than I have ever needed one before or since. It was a very difficult situation, I decided to do pelvic floor exercises rather than pushing the paramedics out of the way :)
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on December 15, 2017, 11:48:40 AM
A 3-2 defeat away at Bolton...November 1967

We won 3-2

https://www.11v11.com/matches/bolton-wanderers-v-aston-villa-25-november-1967-113547/

I went to this on the supporters club coach. Probably only a couple of hundred of us on the open terrace behind the goal.   
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Villan For Life on December 15, 2017, 11:58:09 AM
8th November 1980 a 0-0 draw against the Albion.

I recall thinking what a dump their ground was and the walk back into town with a Police escort along Soho Road was a novel experience for the 14 year old me!
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Comrade Blitz on December 15, 2017, 12:05:12 PM
8 Nov 1997
Crystal Palace 1-1 AVFC


It would've been Leicester on 5 March 1997 but Dave Wangerin forgot to get our tickets and it was sold out when we turned up for the match
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Rudy Can't Fail on December 15, 2017, 12:05:23 PM
Boxing Day 1973 at the Hawthorns. We lost 2-0.

It was also a dump back then.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 12:17:33 PM
11th October 1980. Small Heath1 Villa2. Sid scored a penalty, Worthington equalised with a penalty and Allan Evans got a late-ish winner. I went with my nose uncle as my other uncle who had a season ticket next to him was working. We were sitting in the main stand opposite the kop. We were sat next to Benny from Crossroads, although I can't remember if it was me or my uncle who was actually the one directly next to him. My second away game was slightly further away. Rotterdam. Then the third was a Milk Cup tie at The Hawthorns in 1983. If I remember correctly Regis equalised for Albion and Dennis Mortimer got a late-ish winner for us after Clive 'The Book' Thomas had sent off Gary Owen.I can't remember who scored our first goal, just the bedlam when Mortimer got the winner in front of all of us travelling Villa fans.

Just checked and Walters got our other goal against Albion. I thought it was. I know the next two away grounds I went to were Leicester (we lost 2-0 and Steve Foster made his belated debut after injury) and Coventry (a 3-0 win under Graham Turner on a frosty January day).

Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Reuben on December 15, 2017, 12:27:03 PM
Been to very few away matches but mine was Everton  in about 1991. A 2-0 win, scorers Regis and Daley...in the upper tier of the away end before a trip to Blackpool (all part of the coach package)  - good fun!
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Reuben on December 15, 2017, 12:29:04 PM
Been to very few away matches but mine was Everton  in about 1991. A 2-0 win, scorers Regis and Daley...in the upper tier of the away end before a trip to Blackpool (all part of the coach package)  - good fun!

Sorry - realised the point of this thread was to know the actual date. It was 19 October 1991
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 12:32:59 PM
Been to very few away matches but mine was Everton  in about 1991. A 2-0 win, scorers Regis and Daley...in the upper tier of the away end before a trip to Blackpool (all part of the coach package)  - good fun!

I was there. Good game. I don't know if I remember this correctly or if I have just made it up in my old age, but I seem to recall we set some kind of record for the amount of black players in our side that day. I'm thinking probably Small, McGrath, Regis, Daley, Atkinson, Blake and Yorke. I think Paul Mortimer had already come and gone by then and I think it was a few months before we signed Earl Barrett.

Just checked. The team was Sealey, Kubicki, Teale, McGrath, Small, Blake, Richardson, Atkinson, Daley, Regis, Yorke. Seven black players in the side against a club who I don't think had had that many in their entire history.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Reuben on December 15, 2017, 12:37:22 PM
Might have had Carruthers on the bench too?  I remember him starting and missing a sitter (I think against Oldham) during the goal drought in early 92.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 12:51:38 PM
Might have had Carruthers on the bench too?  I remember him starting and missing a sitter (I think against Oldham) during the goal drought in early 92.

The only game I particularly remember watching Carruthers playing in was at Maine Road. Maybe I remember because it was his debut but I'm not sure.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: luke95 on December 15, 2017, 01:05:05 PM
Boxing day 1982 . Nothing more to add.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Chico Hamilton III on December 15, 2017, 02:14:16 PM
Boxing day 1982 . Nothing more to add.

Wasn't it the day after Boxing Day?
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: LeeB on December 15, 2017, 02:22:18 PM
Swindon away, 1988.

How we got tickets I don’t know.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Godfrey Brian on December 15, 2017, 02:26:44 PM
Boxing Day 1973 at the Hawthorns. We lost 2-0.

It was also a dump back then.

This was my away debut too.Key memories are Jimmy Cumbes dropping two crosses into the path of their goalscorers and the misery of being the only Villa fan amongst many Albion on the 406 bus back home to Great Barr.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: luke95 on December 15, 2017, 02:41:17 PM
Boxing day 1982 . Nothing more to add.

Wasn't it the day after Boxing Day?
The 26th was on a Sunday this making Monday the 27th Bank Holiday(boxing day).
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: castlefields_villan on December 15, 2017, 04:06:13 PM
21st September 1968, Small Heath 4 - Aston Villa 0.

Taken by a Bluenose uncle trying to turn me to the dark side, even getting hammered didn’t tempt me.

I'll just bolden the date, the score still horrifies to this day!

I have to admit I'm with you on this one - this was my first Villa away match as well - I was just 11 at the time and went with my dad and my brother, thankfully as I remember the other 2 games I went to that season were the home wins over Cardiff on Boxing Day and the FA Cup 3rd Round win against 1st Division QPR.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: cdbearsfan on December 15, 2017, 04:45:00 PM
Wednesday away, the season after the disaster as I remember seeing the empty terraces, which had been closed off.

We lost one-nil to a typical Dalian wonder goal.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Woofles The Wonder Dog on December 15, 2017, 05:28:36 PM
7th November 1964. A 4-2 loss at Nottingham Forest. I did a deal with my Brummie Red friend that we’d go see Villa together if I went to see Man Utd there. I don’t remember much about the game except that I was unimpressed by their ground. I think we got there from Sutton by bus. I was 12.

And to be perfectly honest and, of course, unbiased, there aren’t many grounds I’ve been to that have impressed me compared to VP.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on December 15, 2017, 05:51:41 PM
A 4-2 loss at Nottingham Forest.  I think we got there from Sutton by bus. I was 12.

Geek alert - sounds like a Midland Red X99 job. 
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: PeterWithesShin on December 15, 2017, 05:58:05 PM
Not 100% sure but i'd have been 7 or 8 and vaguely remember going to Everton when we got stuffed in the cup, Forest for another cup stuffing, Bristol City away twice with one being a journey home with few coach windows remaining. And locally the Sty and we lost, which was probably part of their 5 in a row, no idea where we were sat but i was so upset a nose behind gave my folks 20p to buy me some sweets to cheer me up. Wolves which even that young I remember being a total dump and more memorable for my mom suffering a collapsed lung there and the Hawthorns where not much happened. And if it counts Wembley '77 where us and Everton put on a footballing masterclass on my 7th birthday.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: West Derby Villan on December 15, 2017, 06:03:47 PM
21/12/74 Stripeys, lost 2 nil
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 06:09:38 PM
Swindon away, 1988.

How we got tickets I don’t know.



Judging by the crush to get in Swindon must have sold about twenty thousand tickets to us. Then stuck us in a piddling little corner of the ground.

Actually, thinking about it, was it even made an all ticket game? I seem to remember just paying on the gate for most away games that year. Or is my memory playing tricks on me?






Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: PeterWithesShin on December 15, 2017, 06:10:41 PM
Loads of forgeries. There's a video on youtube about the day i'll see if I can find it.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: PeterWithesShin on December 15, 2017, 06:12:57 PM


Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Pat McMahon on December 15, 2017, 06:20:46 PM
First away game was a 3-0 drubbing at Walsall on 2 January 1971. They stuffed us. The 8 year old me was inconsolable and could not understand how the team which had beaten Man U 9 days previously could be annihilated by Walsall (who we failed to beat on 4 games in the 3rd division).

First non-Villa Park game under my own steam was the League Cup 2nd replay v Palace at Highfield Rd on 16 October 1978. We won 3-0 and the Mail published a fact in the match report that the 25,000 crowd was higher than Coventry's average crowd.

First away game proper with mates was Cambridge in the FA CUP on 26 January 1980 (I think). Definitely a 1-1 draw, with a goal from Terry Donovan. The special took about 4 hours to get home, presumably because in those days they were classed as second class customers and had to fit in with scheduled trains.

No idea why my first away games were not local derbies.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: somec on December 15, 2017, 09:01:13 PM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

Snap

And here it is


Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: LeeB on December 15, 2017, 09:41:32 PM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

Snap

And here it is




I was in the front row that day, and got a high five off Andy Townsend as he ran past us all celebrating Staunton's winner.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: LeeB on December 15, 2017, 09:54:43 PM
Swindon away, 1988.

How we got tickets I don’t know.



Judging by the crush to get in Swindon must have sold about twenty thousand tickets to us. Then stuck us in a piddling little corner of the ground.

Actually, thinking about it, was it even made an all ticket game? I seem to remember just paying on the gate for most away games that year. Or is my memory playing tricks on me?








I vividly remember the rest of the terrace looking empty, whilst we were crushed into that poxy corner, and those videos show that.

Pre-Hillsborough and all that, good to see the publicity piece for those good old boys in blue. You can get a feel for how they saw their priorities from that footage, patting themselves on the back for avoiding a war between two lots of fans that couldn't give a fuck about each other, whilst 4000 people are stuck in a fenced in space where 3000 should be maximum.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 09:57:09 PM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

Snap

And here it is




I was in the front row that day, and got a high five off Andy Townsend as he ran past us all celebrating Staunton's winner.

I was in the front row (or certainly one of the rows near the front) at Highfield Road when Coventry player manager at the time Terry Butcher got sent off for an incident right in front of us. The game also qualifies me for this thread as it was my first (and last) Villa away game in the Zenith Data Systems cup. I think it was also the first and last game Alan McLoughlin played for us.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 09:59:51 PM
November 1996.  Coventry 1 Villa 2.  Joachim and a screamer from Staunton for us.  Some no-mark called Dion Dublin for them.

Snap

And here it is




I was in the front row that day, and got a high five off Andy Townsend as he ran past us all celebrating Staunton's winner.

I was in the front row (or certainly one of the rows near the front) at Highfield Road when Coventry player manager at the time Terry Butcher got sent off for an incident right in front of us. The game also qualifies me for this thread as it was my first (and last) Villa away game in the Zenith Data Systems cup. I think it was also the first and last game Alan McLoughlin played for us.


Just checked on Wikipedia and they have him down for '0' appearances in his time at Villa, which shows a disgraceful lack of respect for the ZDS cup in my opinion.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: LeeB on December 15, 2017, 10:06:03 PM
At least we get to pretend we didn't lose 5-0 at home to Bradford in that case.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Damo70 on December 15, 2017, 10:12:30 PM
At least we get to pretend we didn't lose 5-0 at home to Bradford in that case.

I was there that night and Ormondroyd caused us loads of problems, which SGT clearly remembered when he signed him the following year. But I still love that competition in whatever guise or by whatever various names it went by as it meant I got to see us stuff the noses 6-0 on my eighteenth birthday.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: SteveN on December 15, 2017, 10:13:57 PM
26 March 1960 FA Cup semi final replay against Wolves at the Hawthorns, we lost 1-0.  I went with my dad I would have been 8 and I don't remember a thing about the game, just the excitement of a game under floodlights and a full house.

No idea of the first league away game.  It would have been a lot later.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Des Little on December 17, 2017, 03:26:19 PM
A real treat. Boxing Day 1982. I can’t bring myself to type any more about it, you all know it.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: four fornicholl on December 17, 2017, 03:30:47 PM
FA Cup 6th round, March 77, Old Trafford, 10th birthday treat.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Rudy65 on December 17, 2017, 03:41:33 PM
August 89 First day of the season, 1-1 v Forest, McGraths debut. I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the game and didnt spend the afternoon locked in a pen at Nottingham Train Station.

Were there for that one. Very hot day and loads of Villa fans. Nearly missed the start because of the queues
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Rudy65 on December 17, 2017, 03:44:15 PM
April 77 winning 3 - 2 away at Coventry a few days after we had won the LC. Hot day as I recall
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: exiled on the wirral! on December 17, 2017, 06:31:42 PM
26th September 1992..Middlesbrough 2-3 Aston Villa Saunders 2 and Atkinson...remembered it pissing down all day and the thick fog on the way home in the car. Absolutely loved it and been a regular at away games ever since.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: wittonwarrior on December 17, 2017, 10:54:48 PM
April 77 winning 3 - 2 away at Coventry a few days after we had won the LC. Hot day as I recall

That was just one fantastic day - 15,000 plus Villa fans, going two down to a ginger midget and coming back to win again.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: luke95 on December 17, 2017, 11:18:14 PM
August 89 First day of the season, 1-1 v Forest, McGraths debut. I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the game and didnt spend the afternoon locked in a pen at Nottingham Train Station.
I was one of those penned in at the station .
Football special broke down on the way there if I remember correctly. Never did get my money back for that day .
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Perthvillan on December 18, 2017, 06:42:04 AM
Small Heath 2 Us 1   February 1968.
I remember Blues scored in the first minute and I knew it wasn't going to be our day.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Deano's Mullet on December 18, 2017, 07:08:26 AM
Luton away 0ctober 14th 1989. 1-0 Mountfield. 
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Deano's Mullet on December 18, 2017, 07:12:33 AM
Been to very few away matches but mine was Everton  in about 1991. A 2-0 win, scorers Regis and Daley...in the upper tier of the away end before a trip to Blackpool (all part of the coach package)  - good fun!

I was there. Good game. I don't know if I remember this correctly or if I have just made it up in my old age, but I seem to recall we set some kind of record for the amount of black players in our side that day. I'm thinking probably Small, McGrath, Regis, Daley, Atkinson, Blake and Yorke. I think Paul Mortimer had already come and gone by then and I think it was a few months before we signed Earl Barrett.

Just checked. The team was Sealey, Kubicki, Teale, McGrath, Small, Blake, Richardson, Atkinson, Daley, Regis, Yorke. Seven black players in the side against a club who I don't think had had that many in their entire history.


At that stage I don't think Everton had any. Amokachi was the first and he didn't sign for them until about three years later.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Holte L2 on December 18, 2017, 10:41:25 AM
1994 League Cup Final. Villa 3 Man Utd 1
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: St AustellAVFC on December 18, 2017, 11:39:24 AM
Down at Spurs early 90s. Sat with spurs lot and remember my mom moaning she had to pay adult price for kids ticket. Lost 2-1 I think. Villa fans singing "we all agree, Platt is better than Gascoigne ".
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Richard on December 20, 2017, 03:14:23 PM
Feb 25th 1978

Blues 1 Villa 0

Satan for them

I remember we left early as my Dad wanted to avoid the traffic or them ! That wasteland behind the Tilton was something to behold as a 12 year old.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Flamingo Lane on December 20, 2017, 07:16:07 PM
15 October 1966, at Albion.  We lost 2-1.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: lennythekad on December 20, 2017, 07:18:04 PM
April 10th 1971. Shrewsbury, lost 2-1. Went on the coach, and all I can remember, is it kicking off in the ground for most of the game. Glass beer bottles being thrown, and iirc, the police dogs being let into the crowd, by the corner flag at the covered end. (They may have been on leads, if time is playing tricks on my memory).
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: OzVilla on December 20, 2017, 07:25:41 PM
Everton League Cup semi final 1st leg, 15th February 1984. The Kevin Richardson 'handball' game for those with a decent memory.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Flamingo Lane on December 20, 2017, 07:25:52 PM
April 10th 1971. Shrewsbury, lost 2-1. Went on the coach, and all I can remember, is it kicking off in the ground for most of the game. Glass beer bottles being thrown, and iirc, the police dogs being let into the crowd, by the corner flag at the covered end. (They may have been on leads, if time is playing tricks on my memory).

I went to that one too, and also remember a fair amount of trouble behind the goal, though we were stood on the side.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: frankmosswasmyuncle on December 20, 2017, 07:42:29 PM
10th August 1968 Sheffield Utd. Lost 3-1.
I was 14 years old and went on my own from Tamworth...almost the first person in the ground and had to walk round the pitch (with the cricket pitch on my left) to get to the other end...I was cacking myself and was so relieved when a few more Villa fans started coming in.
My memory of the game is being incredibly optimistic before kick off, Woodward for them tearing us apart and wondering what I was going tell my family when I got home.
My tea was baked up in the oven....happy days!!!???
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: Rudy Can't Fail on December 21, 2017, 03:15:09 PM
Everton League Cup semi final 1st leg, 15th February 1984. The Kevin Richardson 'handball' game for those with a decent memory.

I was at that one. After the joys of Norwich in the quarter final there was no way I was going to miss it. It was anything but joyful though, starting with the walk across Stanley Park and the welcome from Merseyside's Finest. I can't remember what ignited the Villa fans, I don't believe it was just the handball but it all turned very nasty with Villa fans ripping out the wooden seats in the upper section and throwing them into the Everton fans to the left. 1981 it wasn't.
Title: Re: Date of your first Villa away game.
Post by: wittonwarrior on December 21, 2017, 03:24:43 PM
What people can’t comprehend nowadays is a that an awful lot of kids would go always by themselves who were 14 or 15. A hell of a lot more bananas than today but we have all lived to tell the tales
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