Longer Standing Villa fans than me Question

[wittonwarrior]

I missed out on the third division have had so many stories on and off the pitch of the two seasons a case of wish I was there - my era 73 onwards has in the main been for most clubs a success. I agree we could and should have been better given the potential support, the location and the underpinning work done by vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.  Not sure how much the ego of Doug ellis contributed to us failing to become one of the big four.  The issue we have had is from relegation in the 80's we have never kicked on like the man ures of the world did following their blip in the 70's.  I know we will recover from where we are now but my regret is that I will never see another Highbury or Rotterdam

[anton hillman]

My first home game was in April 1967 when we lost to Burnley. My first away game was at Sheffield United in August 1968 which we also lost. Their ground was a strange place then as it also doubled up as a cricket pitch. Another memory of this time is that we were routinely beaten by Small Heath, sometimes heavily. One exception to this was when we beat them 2-0 at St Andrews in March 1970. This was our only away win in the season that saw relegation to the third division. The game featured a cracking goal from Bruce Rioch. Although Tommy Docherty was sacked during that season, he managed to bring the crowds back to Villa Park. In lots of ways that period was very similar to the last few years, although I believe that the players back then were far preferable in attitude to the recent bunch.

[tony scott]

First game I was nine 1959 against Cardiff city in the old second division we won 2-0 I think Gerry Hitchens scored one of the goals both teams were promoted that season.  We were poor in the sixties, however I remember a night game against The Spurs cup winning side which we won 2 0 Dereck Dougan scoring twice, also we beat Man U 4 0 with Denis Law sent off for kicking Alan Deaken in the head whilst he was he lay on the ground.  Although the decade was very poor for us ,we had a centre forward who was the best header of a ball I've ever seen that was Tony Hatley ,downside dreadfully with his feet. We got relegated around 67 which was bitter pill made worse by the fact that the blues had their best post war team ouch!

[Ron Manager]

First game I was nine 1959 against Cardiff city in the old second division we won 2-0 I think Gerry Hitchens scored one of the goals both teams were promoted that season.  We were poor in the sixties, however I remember a night game against The Spurs cup winning side which we won 2 0 Dereck Dougan scoring twice, also we beat Man U 4 0 with Denis Law sent off for kicking Alan Deaken in the head whilst he was he lay on the ground.  Although the decade was very poor for us ,we had a centre forward who was the best header of a ball I've ever seen that was Tony Hatley ,downside dreadfully with his feet. We got relegated around 67 which was bitter pill made worse by the fact that the blues had their best post war team ouch!

Anybody would think Big Tone had trouble standing up.You may be surprised to learn that despite his pheonomal heading ability well over half his goals were scored at ground level.

[SirSteveUK]

First game I was nine 1959 against Cardiff city in the old second division we won 2-0 I think Gerry Hitchens scored one of the goals both teams were promoted that season.  We were poor in the sixties, however I remember a night game against The Spurs cup winning side which we won 2 0 Dereck Dougan scoring twice, also we beat Man U 4 0 with Denis Law sent off for kicking Alan Deaken in the head whilst he was he lay on the ground.  Although the decade was very poor for us ,we had a centre forward who was the best header of a ball I've ever seen that was Tony Hatley ,downside dreadfully with his feet. We got relegated around 67 which was bitter pill made worse by the fact that the blues had their best post war team ouch!

I was also at that match for my first visit- I was 10 ! - just before Xmas 1959

[Ron Manager]

Interesting read this. Anyone recommened a decent book that covers all this period?

War and Peace.

[brian green]

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

[Ron Manager]

Nobody has mentioned the ornate Witton Lane Stand that was still standing until 64/65.It was replaced for the Word Cup games. That stand had been there since the beginning and had reached the end of its life span but was much loved.W e did indeed have some very good players in the sixties.Hateley,Woosnam,Johnny MacLeod,Harry Burrows ad Colin Withers to name a few but never enough at any given time.We improved when the Doc brought in Chico ,Bruce Rioch and Pat McMahon and their like.Ex Villa wing half Vic Crowe then took it further and made a team of them and got us to Wembley in 1971.Vic Crowe was a very good manager.

[ktvillan]

My first season was 70/71. My dad used to go down the Witton end on the mud at the back and we used to run down the hill at the end. I loved watching Villa back then and being in the third division didn't matter. Players like Andy Lockhead Chico Hamilton and Pat McMahon were gods to me. I thought we were brilliant. Switched to the Holte end in 74. Possibly my favourite player of all time Keith Lenard and promotion back to Div 1 are high lights. Great bosses too. Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders. Fantastic days to be a young Villa fan

My first season, too.
First game Chesterfield.
Second game Bristol Rovers. They had this player called Graydon.

I remember winning the youth floodlit cup with the likes of Little, Brian & Alan, Gidman, Findley and, like yourself Allan, one of my favourites, Keith Leonard.
If I recall we had almost 30,000 for our leg of the final. 30,000 for a youth game!!!
I'm sure Dave Woodhall could supply attendance

The semi-finals were well attended, unsurprisingly - against Blues & Francis?  The number 9 was Tony Betts, surely,  not Leonard

Stand corrected if that's the case, mate. Long time ago 😊

EDIT: Quite correct, Steve, I wondered if any one would spot the deliberate mistake 😀

Yes I spotted ti too, I remember Tony Betts at centre forward being quite skillful but not very big for a CF.   I believe we signed Leonard around the time Andy Lochead retired or moved on, from a local-ish non-league team - Kidderminster possibly?  (just googled it and he played for Kiddie but I think we signed him from Highgate United).  I was a big fan of Leonard, in the Withe mould, big lad, hard as nails and a great header of the ball but with foot skills as well.  Shame Terry Mancini clogged him out of the game.

[in exile]

Yes - we signed Keith from Highgate United

[dcdavecollett]

I saw him make his debut v Forest reserves in April '72, as part of a trial from Highgate.

Dead slow, not particularly good in the air for a big lad, but a great first touch and lay-off to quicker players, eg. Messrs Graydon and Little!!

[Godfrey Brian]

We were poor in the mid to late '60s- the great thing for me was I didn't notice! I started going regularly as a kid in 1968 and thought that it was always like that and loved it. In Doc's only pre season with us I genuinely believed we were going to storm to promotion in the season to come and even with disaster that year became,still believed we would repeat our relegation escape of the previous year right up until the morning after we didn't. I vividly remember coming out of the Holte after losing at home 3-5 to Portsmouth during the winter and explaining to my mates that now we could score three goals in a game we would easily move up the table.  The optimism of youth!

What followed is well documented but I always consider myself lucky to have started supporting Villa at the age I did and also at that point in the club's history. I suspect though that, had I been my current age back then the late sixties side would have got the same grief as I gave last year's.

[SuttonColdfield1874]

My first game was 1960 and I rarely missed one for the next forty years. In those early years as a pre-teen and thereafter a teen supporter it was irrelevant if we were in the first or third division, every game was exciting to me and would be looked forward to. I remember missing my first game in years when about ten years old with chickenpox and I was inconsolable. I was somewhat spoilt in as much as my father was involved at boardroom level when I was growing up and so I guess would be classed as one of the prawn sandwich brigade these days, but at my age it just made it all the more exciting as my close involvement with the players and staff was all magical to a young football fanatical boy.
A number of the players became close friends towards my later teens and twenties and there was a genuine connection between supporters and players back then, the polar opposite of now and being entirely due to the greed that has enveloped the game. It is simply not the same anymore and although I have retained my season ticket for the past fifty five years I derive little satisfaction and certainly the excitement has long gone.
I would gladly take the old Villa Park back, it was part of the magic for me, a proper football stadium. The smell of the pipe smoke and Bovril, the wooden seats were way more comfortable, or am I imagining that as my legs barely touched the floor. The new Villa Park is nothing special to me, even the atmosphere does not come anywhere near that of the early years. The noise would give me goose-bumps as the fans got behind the team, the football seemed better, even when we were absolutely awful falling down the leagues, it was surely better than the complete dross we are experiencing now. The game has become overly technical in my mind, no player just goes out to play their own game anymore, natural talent is stifled.
Doubtless I will still be down there until the body or mind gives up the fight, goodness knows why, it somehow is in the blood, but alas it will never be the same.     

[DeKuip]

My first season was 70/71. My dad used to go down the Witton end on the mud at the back and we used to run down the hill at the end. I loved watching Villa back then and being in the third division didn't matter. Players like Andy Lockhead Chico Hamilton and Pat McMahon were gods to me. I thought we were brilliant. Switched to the Holte end in 74. Possibly my favourite player of all time Keith Lenard and promotion back to Div 1 are high lights. Great bosses too. Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders. Fantastic days to be a young Villa fan

My first season, too.
First game Chesterfield.
Second game Bristol Rovers. They had this player called Graydon.

I remember winning the youth floodlit cup with the likes of Little, Brian & Alan, Gidman, Findley and, like yourself Allan, one of my favourites, Keith Leonard.
If I recall we had almost 30,000 for our leg of the final. 30,000 for a youth game!!!
I'm sure Dave Woodhall could supply attendance

The semi-finals were well attended, unsurprisingly - against Blues & Francis?  The number 9 was Tony Betts, surely,  not Leonard

Stand corrected if that's the case, mate. Long time ago 😊

EDIT: Quite correct, Steve, I wondered if any one would spot the deliberate mistake 😀

Sorry to come in here, but attendances do get exaggerated over time!
The biggest crowd in the Youth Cup that season was for our game at St Andrews which was 21,000, a couple of thousand more than saw the replay at Viila Park. That was a 4th round tie and Trevor Francis (20 first team goals already by then) was the big attraction but another future European Cup winner with Forest, Kenny Burns, was also in that team. We, of course had future superstars Brian Little & John Gidman, as well as Bobby McDonald, but Jimmy Brown was our first-teamer in the squad.
After that we beat Chelsea after a replay 3-0 at Villa Park in the QF and then had a 14,500 crowd for the SF win over Arsenal (1-0 Bobby Mac). For the final the attendances were "only" 16,500 at both Villa Park and Anfield.
The Liverpool team had Phil Thompson in and a 16 year old Liam Brady was in Arsenal's side for the semi.

[cumbriavilla]

Having just passed 50 years of age it's nice to look back over some of the great Villa games I have been privileged to have witnessed back in the 70's. My earliest memory is probably watching Andy Lochead at Villa Park - must have been near the end of his Villa career - I was around 7 years old.

My earliest 'full game' recollection would be the '75 final against Norwich - age 9. I was also lucky to go to all of the 1977 League Cup Final matches against Everton - Wembley, Hillsborough and the final one at Old Trafford where we won 3-2 - Magic. Football as an occasion is not what it used to be. The magic of standing on the Holte End on my plywood topped polystyrene box - painted claret & blue, made by my Dad, was unforgettable. I remember going to Filbert Street on said box and it was absolutely packed and I kept losing my box under my feet as the crowd moved left and right in 10 foot movements, with me being held up by the people next to me...my feet dangling a foot above the terracing...

The thing that I miss is the sheer volume of support for the team - especially, when the other team had scored - we were the ones making the most noise, encouraging the lads to get back into the game. Villa Park really was a fortress. Stirring stuff!