Longer Standing Villa fans than me Question

[frank]

I go back with the Villa to 1972 - during that time I have seen up to now mostly more highs  than lows up to  last season, okay I only know all  to well the relegation back in the 80's but to me we were in a  far superior state of health  even then.

My question is prior to Vic Crowe how poor were the Villa in the 60's/early 70's?

Last season takes some beating for sheer awfulness!  But the end of the 60's was truly dire, despite the brief resurgence when Docherty arrived.  We scored less than half a goal a game during the three seasons in the 2nd division. The board and the manager (Tommy Cummings) were out of  their depth and there was a feeling of stagnation and decay about the place. After we were relegated to the 3rd division, however, the revival began almost immediately. Those two seasons were tremendously exciting (Man U, Bournemouth, Wembley etc - what memories!) and although Vic Crowe and Ron Wylie ultimately got the sack they laid the foundations of a team which would be European Champions a few years later.

Apologies if it's already been recommended, but Children of the Revolution by Richard Whitehead  covers the period and is an excellent read

[Flamingo Lane]

My earliest vivid memory of Villa Park in the '60s was the home game v Preston circa 1968 when the fans started to revolt - 12000 in the ground, and I can still feel the sound of stamping feet in the old (wooden floor of) the Trinity Road stand.

In those days, as a child going to the game with my dad, I'd never enter the ground through a turnstile, I'd crawl under it - as my dad would slip the turnstile operator the price of a pint of beer, and down on my hands and knees I'd go.

[Pat McMahon]

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.

Great post GB, echoing many of my own feelings.

[martin o`who??]

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

"Aston Villa - the First One Hundred years" was published in 1974 and although a hefty magazine type publication rather than a book, is well worth a read if you can get hold of it, some great photographs too. It covers the period right up to the appointment of some bloke called Ron Saunders - but that's another story.