Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on October 20, 2019, 07:32:48 PM
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Notts County away 71/72..well over 15,000.
Blackpool away 74/75... I reckon 10,000 ?
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There were a million at Highbury in 1981 and another million at Rotterdam a year later. :)
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Old Trafford 1988/89 8000+
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Old Trafford for the second replay in 1977 or the FA Cup semi in 1996?
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I was one of the million at Highbury and Rotterdam. The Highbury game was my greatest experience of following the Villa...ever! Just beats Rotterdam. It was a day when I'm sure I experienced most human emotions all rolled up together in the space of an hour and a half. I never, ever thought I would see my beloved Villa win the first division title and just ten years earlier we'd been in the third division. A tremendous, wonderful day. The joy of being with tens of thousands of Villa fans both at Highbury and on foreign shores at Rotterdam has never been surpassed.
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Old Trafford 1988/89 8000+
I think it was bonfire night and we drew 1-1 with Sid scoring. I think Colin Gibson played for United and got badly injured. John Ward took the team that day as SGT was attending his daughter's graduation. We went on a Premier Entertainments coach and it was as foggy as I can ever remember on the way back. Made even more atmospheric because on the coach back we were watching The Lost Boys. If I remember right it was pay on the gate and United opened another part of the terracing to let more of us in.
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I was one of the million at Highbury and Rotterdam. The Highbury game was my greatest experience of following the Villa...ever! Just beats Rotterdam. It was a day when I'm sure I experienced most human emotions all rolled up together in the space of an hour and a half. I never, ever thought I would see my beloved Villa win the first division title and just ten years earlier we'd been in the third division. A tremendous, wonderful day. The joy of being with tens of thousands of Villa fans both at Highbury and on foreign shores at Rotterdam has never been surpassed.
I wasn't at Highbury, I was following everything at home on BRMB Radio. I was however lucky enough to be in Rotterdam, front row top tier behind the goal we scored in.
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Sheffield Wednesday at the end of 74/75. The promotion clincher.
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Anyone who was in the crush getting into the Swindon game in 1988 could be forgiven for thinking we had taken 20,000 fans. If I remember right there was also a big crush at Portman Road for our first game of the season.
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I was at Utd in 88
Anfield for F A Cup quarter final, didn't we have the whole of Anfield Rd ? Which would've been around 8000 at the time I'd guess
Sheff Weds Big Ron's 1st game , we had about 7-8000
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Old Trafford for the second replay in 1977 or the FA Cup semi in 1996?
Typical lawman you have found a loophole in Dave's stipulation about cup finals.
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Sheffield Wednesday at the end of 74/75. The promotion clincher.
Yeah we took their Kop end. It was estimated 20K Villans in the ground that night after the trip to Blackpool 4 days before. Dangerous crush getting out of Hillsborough that night, very lucky no fatalities. Following Saturday against Sunderland at VP, 57k with thousands locked out Old second division, happy days.
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Sheffield Wednesday at the end of 74/75. The promotion clincher.
Yeah we took their Kop end. It was estimated 20K Villans in the ground that night after the trip to Blackpool 4 days before. Dangerous crush getting out of Hillsborough that night, very lucky no fatalities. Following Saturday against Sunderland at VP, 57k with thousands locked out Old second division, happy days.
I planted lumps of turf from each of those pitches in my mom and dad's back garden after that run of games.
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Sheffield Wednesday at the end of 74/75. The promotion clincher.
Yeah we took their Kop end. It was estimated 20K Villans in the ground that night after the trip to Blackpool 4 days before. Dangerous crush getting out of Hillsborough that night, very lucky no fatalities. Following Saturday against Sunderland at VP, 57k with thousands locked out Old second division, happy days.
I sometimes think I'm still trying to get home from that match. We couldn't get away from the place, Sheffield that is, no problem getting out of the ground at all, we must have been lucky.
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Highbury by a million miles apart from finals and semis.
Highfield Road twice - 77 Saturday after Old Trafford, or the league cup 2nd replay v Palace.
Stoke 76 at least 12,000
Blues in the 70s several massive gatherings
Blackburn 5th round of the FA Cup.
Blackpool/Sheff Wed 1975
Sheff Wed the Big Ron game
Old Trafford late 80's with over 7,000
Modern times Blackburn with over 7,000 there, Wigan a couple of times
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Anyone who was in the crush getting into the Swindon game in 1988 could be forgiven for thinking we had taken 20,000 fans. If I remember right there was also a big crush at Portman Road for our first game of the season.
with most of us on blag tickets
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The Swindon end was half empty as well.
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Went to Blackpool on the special with my old man.Fantastic.Old Trafford 88/89 was special.
Molineux 76/77 we had the South Bank; don't know how many but must have been around 20k.
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From what i've read over the years i'd guess that for a league game it's between Highbury and Meadow Lane as even those that go for the more conservative estimates tend to have those at 20,000+
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It would be interesting to know how many we took to blues during the 70s. On the old film footage of the games we seem to have both ends of the ground.
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Ez I would say the bank holiday game (3-2 loss) in 76 was the biggest turn out, not only did we have the Tilton which was packed but also that corner stand at the other end of the ground. would say up to 15,000 and I am trying to keep this realistic.
Molineux - from what I remember and it was years ago we didn't feel the pen. I think possibly the night game the season after they had to win to stay up and we had to win to have a chance of UEFA cup place we may have had more.
I will still maintain that Highbury was the biggest away support outside semi and finals
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Blues away boxing day 82, and Wolves away the year we won the league! obviously Highbury was the ultimate away following for me.
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Please don’t mention Boxing Day 82. I was in the railway end which in those days was mainly used by away fans. Horrible experience.
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Went to Blackpool on the special with my old man.Fantastic.Old Trafford 88/89 was special.
Molineux 76/77 we had the South Bank; don't know how many but must have been around 20k.
Just checked.The match at Wolves was 23 Sept 1975-a Tuesday night match and I'm sure we had the whole South Bank which held over 25k back then.Newly promoted,and we hadn't played them for 10 years!
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Went to Blackpool on the special with my old man.Fantastic.Old Trafford 88/89 was special.
Molineux 76/77 we had the South Bank; don't know how many but must have been around 20k.
Just checked.The match at Wolves was 23 Sept 1975-a Tuesday night match and I'm sure we had the whole South Bank which held over 25k back then.Newly promoted,and we hadn't played them for 10 years!
I was at that Wolves game in 1975, stood on the South Bank, which was completely unsegregated at that time, and my recollection was about 50/50 Wolves/Villa. The attendance at the game was 33,000.
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Went to Blackpool on the special with my old man.Fantastic.Old Trafford 88/89 was special.
Molineux 76/77 we had the South Bank; don't know how many but must have been around 20k.
Just checked.The match at Wolves was 23 Sept 1975-a Tuesday night match and I'm sure we had the whole South Bank which held over 25k back then.Newly promoted,and we hadn't played them for 10 years!
I was at that Wolves game in 1975, stood on the South Bank, which was completely unsegregated at that time, and my recollection was about 50/50 Wolves/Villa. The attendance at the game was 33,000.
Interesting to note Wolves drew a "gate " of just over 13,000 for the visit of Boro that season. So perfectly feasible for us to have +20,000. The Wolves fans from my memory were in the North Bank.
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The only way that works though is if less Wolves fans turned up to watch them play us than did to watch them play Boro which is highly unlikely.
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Given the original criteria in the thread title I would also plump for Arsenal in 1981 and Blues in 1975-76, where we had the whole of the Tilton and a good number of fans in the unsegregated Railway End. I think there were 46k there that day.
The oft overlooked large away following, except by witton warrior above, was the League cup 2nd replay v Palace at Highfield rd. I think there was a gate of 25k - which was higher than Coventry's average home attendance - and Palace probably had a couple of thousand fans maximum.
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Blues away boxing day 82, and Wolves away the year we won the league! obviously Highbury was the ultimate away following for me.
Boxing Day 1982 was a toxic atmosphere. We were behind the goal opposite the railway end. Noel Blake got loads of "Villa reject" chants and stick from the Villa fans and then scored and gave us the V sign. There was a big picture of him doing it in the Evening Mail the next day alongside the headline 'Rejects Revenge". Jimmy Rimmer was dropped and never played for us again after that game. I think Blake got the first goal and Handysides got the third but for the life of me I can't recall who their other goalscorer was that day.
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As a left field option, what about QPR away in 1993? Not the biggest away following in terms of numbers, but must be up there with the greatest villa proportion of an away ground. I remember chants of BFRC&BA coming from all stands during that game. I was in a home stand and everyone around me was villa.
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The only way that works though is if less Wolves fans turned up to watch them play us than did to watch them play Boro which is highly unlikely.
Or it could be that the official attendance announced was a load of bollocks, as often happened in those days, allegedly, as a tax fiddle.
Out of interest, when did you stop being able to just turn up on the day and expect to get in, when did all ticket matches start?
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remenber back in 76 Leicester away the Chris Nicholl game was all ticket. Started to become the norm mid 90’s that to get into the away section needed a ticket up front
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The only way that works though is if less Wolves fans turned up to watch them play us than did to watch them play Boro which is highly unlikely.
Or it could be that the official attendance announced was a load of bollocks, as often happened in those days, allegedly, as a tax fiddle.
Out of interest, when did you stop being able to just turn up on the day and expect to get in, when did all ticket matches start?
As a complete guess, I'm going to say the 90-91 season. I do remember paying to get in for the Xmas Man Utd/Arsenal game in 1989/90 season, so it was definitely after that. Hard for me to say for sure, as I was a season ticket holder from 90-91 onward.
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Games were only all ticket if they were expected to sell out, up to at least the mid nineties. I know for definite I was paying at the turnstiles in 1993/94.
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Those games at Notts County in 1972 and at Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday in 1975 sit comfortably in my top 10 Villa games, so I have done a bit of research.
The official attendance (gate) at Notts County was 34,208. This was for a game between two teams at the top of the table. County's attendances for their two home league games before the Villa game were 12,351 and 12,375. For their next home league game after Villa, a local derby v Chesterfield, the gate was 14,701. From this think it would be fairly safe to say that the Villa support would have numbered reasonably close to 20,000 (I suspect the gates were locked at this game, denying access to casual latecomers who wouldn't have expected away fans in such numbers).
For Sheffield Wednesday on 23 April 1975, a midweek game, Wednesday had been relegated several weeks before this game, they had had a truly woeful season and their home league attendances prior to the Villa game had been 7,444, 7,483, 8,505, 8,171 and 8,492. The gate against Villa was 23,605. From this I think it would be reasonable to conclude that there were around 15,000 Villa at that game.
I haven't done the Blackpool research yet.
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Those games at Notts County in 1972 and at Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday in 1975 sit comfortably in my top 10 Villa games, so I have done a bit of research.
The official attendance (gate) at Notts County was 34,208. This was for a game between two teams at the top of the table. County's attendances for their two home league games before the Villa game were 12,351 and 12,375. For their next home league game after Villa, a local derby v Chesterfield, the gate was 14,701. From this think it would be fairly safe to say that the Villa support would have numbered reasonably close to 20,000 (I suspect the gates were locked at this game, denying access to casual latecomers who wouldn't have expected away fans in such numbers).
For Sheffield Wednesday on 23 April 1975, a midweek game, Wednesday had been relegated several weeks before this game, they had had a truly woeful season and their home league attendances prior to the Villa game had been 7,444, 7,483, 8,505, 8,171 and 8,492. The gate against Villa was 23,605. From this I think it would be reasonable to conclude that there were around 15,000 Villa at that game.
I haven't done the Blackpool research yet.
Have a look at West Brom on Boxing Day 1973. They got around 11,000 the game before and 43,000 against us. Also Wolves on the night game 75-76, 33,000 against us and then 18,000 against West Ham on the Saturday afterwards.
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Swansea on Boxing Day 1971 had a gate of 24,419 in a season when their average was 6,000-odd.
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Boxing Day games and local derbies were always thus. I was at the Albion game on Boxing Day 1973, and I can assure you there weren't 32,000 Villa there, just as I'm sure there won't have been 18,000 Villa at Swansea on Boxing Day 1971. For the Notts County and Sheffield Wednesday games though, I think the pattern of home attendances around the time of those games, plus the circumstances outlined in my post, would present a pretty accurate indication of how many we'd have taken to those two games.
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Notts County would have added a lot of floating support for such an important game and I'm sure a few extra Sheffield football fans would have turned up for the occasion. This was still the days of Villa one week, Blues the next and that was repeated around the country.
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Boxing Day games and local derbies were always thus. I was at the Albion game on Boxing Day 1973, and I can assure you there weren't 32,000 Villa there, just as I'm sure there won't have been 18,000 Villa at Swansea on Boxing Day 1971. For the Notts County and Sheffield Wednesday games though, I think the pattern of home attendances around the time of those games, plus the circumstances outlined in my post, would present a pretty accurate indication of how many we'd have taken to those two games.
There could quite conceivably have been 20,000 Villa at the Hawthorns that day and that is allowing for Albion to have doubled their attendance from the previous game. Likewise the Wolves game where 15,000 Villa would not be unrealistic.
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There weren't far off 20k at the Hawthorns that day as we had all of the Smethwick end and a big contingent in the seats.Plenty of Wolves in the South Bank so probably a few less than 15k there.
Villa were a big draw in those days so home crowds were swelled as well as the huge Villa followings.
Notts Co away still one of my favourite away days.Our support was huge, and very loud that day. Coventry away in 1977 we massively outnumbered the home support. We were everywhere in the ground. Same story for Hillsborough 75.
Some of the followings at the Blues, particularly our relegation year 1970, and 1975-76 were enormous but they shouldn't count.
In terms of numbers divided by miles travelled then Rotterdam and Highbury must win!
Fantastic memories.
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Blues away boxing day 82, and Wolves away the year we won the league! obviously Highbury was the ultimate away following for me.
Boxing Day 1982 was a toxic atmosphere. We were behind the goal opposite the railway end. Noel Blake got loads of "Villa reject" chants and stick from the Villa fans and then scored and gave us the V sign. There was a big picture of him doing it in the Evening Mail the next day alongside the headline 'Rejects Revenge". Jimmy Rimmer was dropped and never played for us again after that game. I think Blake got the first goal and Handysides got the third but for the life of me I can't recall who their other goalscorer was that day.
Mick Ferguson.
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There weren't far off 20k at the Hawthorns that day as we had all of the Smethwick end and a big contingent in the seats.Plenty of Wolves in the South Bank so probably a few less than 15k there.
Villa were a big draw in those days so home crowds were swelled as well as the huge Villa followings.
Notts Co away still one of my favourite away days.Our support was huge, and very loud that day. Coventry away in 1977 we massively outnumbered the home support. We were everywhere in the ground. Same story for Hillsborough 75.
Some of the followings at the Blues, particularly our relegation year 1970, and 1975-76 were enormous but they shouldn't count.
In terms of numbers divided by miles travelled then Rotterdam and Highbury must win!
Fantastic memories.
I think there was around 20,000 at the Hawthorns that day. The Smethwick end was rammed with scant regard to maximum capacity. I was in there from the time that the gates first opened and there were constant streams of Villa fans being escorted from the Brummie Road end to add further to the crush.
I'd also suggest that there were around 15,000 at Wolves. This was a night game and you tend to get less fair weather supporters coming out for night games. Coventry in 77, as you say, we had big numbers (on the back of the League cup win on the Wednesday), probably around 15,000 again.
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Blues away boxing day 82, and Wolves away the year we won the league! obviously Highbury was the ultimate away following for me.
Boxing Day 1982 was a toxic atmosphere. We were behind the goal opposite the railway end. Noel Blake got loads of "Villa reject" chants and stick from the Villa fans and then scored and gave us the V sign. There was a big picture of him doing it in the Evening Mail the next day alongside the headline 'Rejects Revenge". Jimmy Rimmer was dropped and never played for us again after that game. I think Blake got the first goal and Handysides got the third but for the life of me I can't recall who their other goalscorer was that day.
Mick Ferguson.
I should have remembered that. Mick Ferguson became my favourite ever Small Heath player after he went on loan to Coventry and scored the goal that sent his parent club Small Heath down.
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I was one of the million at Highbury and Rotterdam. The Highbury game was my greatest experience of following the Villa...ever! Just beats Rotterdam. It was a day when I'm sure I experienced most human emotions all rolled up together in the space of an hour and a half. I never, ever thought I would see my beloved Villa win the first division title and just ten years earlier we'd been in the third division. A tremendous, wonderful day. The joy of being with tens of thousands of Villa fans both at Highbury and on foreign shores at Rotterdam has never been surpassed.
Agree with this. I was at both as a 16 and 17 year old. Magical days
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I was one of the million at Highbury and Rotterdam. The Highbury game was my greatest experience of following the Villa...ever! Just beats Rotterdam. It was a day when I'm sure I experienced most human emotions all rolled up together in the space of an hour and a half. I never, ever thought I would see my beloved Villa win the first division title and just ten years earlier we'd been in the third division. A tremendous, wonderful day. The joy of being with tens of thousands of Villa fans both at Highbury and on foreign shores at Rotterdam has never been surpassed.
Agree with this. I was at both as a 16 and 17 year old. Magical days
I wasn't at Highbury, I was following the game on BRMB. But as an eleven year old I was in Rotterdam in the front row of the top tier behind the goal we scored in. Does anyone have a reasonably accurate attendance for how many Villa fans were at each occasion? Apparently Arsenal's highest home attendance in 1980/1981 was against Spurs at the beginning of the season (54,045). The total attendance in Rotterdam was a nice round figure of 46,000.
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This (https://www.11v11.com/matches/arsenal-v-aston-villa-02-may-1981-85773/)Damo, this is what I always thought the attendance at Highbury was, I also heard the figure 59k bandied about too.
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Pretty sure most estimates have it as around 10k Villa fans in Rotterdam.
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My recollection is that numbers In the press varied between 10-13k.
I was among the last to buy my coach and match ticket as I rushed back from university in Sheffield to beat the deadline ( if I recall it was the Friday of the Swansea game). I asked the ticket office how many had been sold and they told me 11.5 - 12k ( remember this was pre. Computers so not completely accurate. ).
A neighbour worked at Villa Park and that weekend he told me the head of security (John Hood?) told him the club knew of fans who had gone over and had already bought tickets in Rotterdam. Given the shenanigans in Anderlecht it was amazing that the police and UEFA did not clamp down on this.
I met a number of people in the Double Diamond in Rotterdam on the day of the game who had bought tickets locally. There were a few big Dutch blokes stood next to me in the game too and they had just bought tickets from Feyenoord and said they had sold a few that afternoon to Villa fans,
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My recollection is that numbers In the press varied between 10-13k.
I was among the last to buy my coach and match ticket as I rushed back from university in Sheffield to beat the deadline ( if I recall it was the Friday of the Swansea game). I asked the ticket office how many had been sold and they told me 11.5 - 12k ( remember this was pre. Computers so not completely accurate. ).
A neighbour worked at Villa Park and that weekend he told me the head of security (John Hood?) told him the club knew of fans who had gone over and had already bought tickets in Rotterdam. Given the shenanigans in Anderlecht it was amazing that the police and UEFA did not clamp down on this.
I met a number of people in the Double Diamond in Rotterdam on the day of the game who had bought tickets locally. There were a few big Dutch blokes stood next to me in the game too and they had just bought tickets from Feyenoord and said they had sold a few that afternoon to Villa fans,
Yeah there were a fair few Dutch fans in our end. When I asked them why they said they supported anyone playing against the Germans
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I was in Amsterdam from the Monday. Most people who bought tickets from Feyenoord caught trains from Amsterdam to Rotterdam to buy tickets on the Monday and/or Tuesday. They then returned to Amsterdam.
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I travelled with a fair few from the London lions we all began and ended up in Amsterdam- due to a cancellation of the boat train at Harwich we all jumped the commuter train back to Liverpool Street - some of the looks we got
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There was a fair few of us at the Milk Cup semi away to Everton in 84.
Highbury was c22,000 to 25,000
Rotterdam was c13,000
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There was a fair few of us at the Milk Cup semi away to Everton in 84.
Highbury was c22,000 to 25,000
Rotterdam was c13,000
My mum stopped me from going to the semi final at Goodison. I was thirteen but had the measles. I wasn't happy.
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I was one of the million at Highbury and Rotterdam. The Highbury game was my greatest experience of following the Villa...ever! Just beats Rotterdam. It was a day when I'm sure I experienced most human emotions all rolled up together in the space of an hour and a half. I never, ever thought I would see my beloved Villa win the first division title and just ten years earlier we'd been in the third division. A tremendous, wonderful day. The joy of being with tens of thousands of Villa fans both at Highbury and on foreign shores at Rotterdam has never been surpassed.
Agree with this. I was at both as a 16 and 17 year old. Magical days
A tad younger but fully agree. Hillsborough 75 was up there too. Old Trafford 88 was more fun than anything, Norwich three times in a week with the 3rd a away trip midweek in the cup was crazy. One of those days when you thought you were one of the Chosen Few and thousands turned up.
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There was a fair few of us at the Milk Cup semi away to Everton in 84.
Highbury was c22,000 to 25,000
Rotterdam was c13,000
My mum stopped me from going to the semi final at Goodison. I was thirteen but had the measles. I wasn't happy.
Not our greatest moment. Possibly the angriest I've seen Villa fans away from home.
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I remember going to Wolves on Boxing Day in the early 1960s. I think we had a lot there ,we won 1 0 it was also the day they signed Ken Wagstaff .
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Shouldn't that be Dave Wagstaffe?
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For me it was the cup replay at Coventry vs palace. But plenty of other games where we pushing the 20k mark
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There was a fair few of us at the Milk Cup semi away to Everton in 84.
Highbury was c22,000 to 25,000
Rotterdam was c13,000
My mum stopped me from going to the semi final at Goodison. I was thirteen but had the measles. I wasn't happy.
Not our greatest moment. Possibly the angriest I've seen Villa fans away from home.
Think it was the police horse in the blue house after the brawl that did it for me
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dont know the years but -
Highbury (nuetral ground) Villa v QPR league cup semi final (Little hat trick)
Hillsborough - Villa v Everton League cup final (if it counts)
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I've heard it said in the past that Villa's following to Highbury in 81 was a record for the largest amount of away fans at an English league match. I've heard figures of 27,000 mentioned in the past, and although that seems a touch high, I think it's safe to say that due to the size of the Clock End at Highbury and Villa fans being in other parts of the ground that there was at least 20,000 Villa at the game. One thing is for sure is that with the advent of all seater stadia it's almost impossible to imagine a scenario where any club will ever have such a large following away from home ever again.
I was at Old Trafford for that Bonfire night match in 88, and it was surreal the amount of Villa that turned up, for what was really a run of the mill league game with nothing hanging on the outcome of the game. They just kept on coming and coming, and the police had to move the Utd fans (Brummie Reds) and open another section up for the Villa. I'd estimate 6,000 to 8,000.
We always took loads to all Small Heath, Albion and Coventry back in the 80s and 90s. Probably as many Villa as home fans in all honesty.
Sheffield Wednesday for Big Ron's first match was mental. I ended up standing in the corner of the Leppings Lane end even though it was technically an all seater stadium by that point, but that corner was still terracing for some strange reason. I think the police had no option but to let us stand there as there were thousands of people who were unable to get to their seats because they were already occupied. I'd estimate about 6,000 at that match.
It's one of the things that I miss about old school footy, is the ability to take thousands to away games. What's the most that you can take now to a premier league game? 3000?
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With the crush to get into the ground and the crush on the terraces it felt like we had about 10,000 in one corner of the ground at Swindon on the last day in 1988. I think there were some moody tickets going around too.
Official attendance 10,959. It felt like all of those were stood around me in that corner.
There was a big crush at Portman Road for the first game of the season at Ipswich too.