34 Years ago today

[castlefields_villan]

Villa 3, Barcelona 0  (agg 3-1)

A truly incredible game - Barcelona at their absolute worst.

Although this was really only a prestige game, I was so pleased we won it, after losing to Penarol in the World Club Cup a few weeks earlier.

A tremendous performance by us - a late Gary Shaw goal to level the tie, In extra time, Sid scoring after his penalty was initially saved (and getting assaulted for his troubles) and a bullet header by Ken McNaught to clinch the game.

They had 2 players sent off ?

Any memories folks ?

[aldridgeboy]

Yes, I was at the game. As well as their two sent off, I think we had Alan Evans sent off too?
I was in The North Stand, and you can see my dads head from the back on the TV footage when Cowans scored.

He then got right royally kicked up in the air, when trying to get the ball. For which the keeper got a yellow!!ken Mcnaught then does some shadow booking with one of them in the aftermath.

I think there were calls for Barcelona to be banned from Europe after that match?

[Villan For Life]

I don't think that I've seen a dirtier team at Villa Park. The treatment of Sid after he scored was abysmal and McNaught and Withe stepped in to protect him.

Evans was sent off and missed the home leg of the quarter final against Juve through suspension.

[nick harper]

32,000 there and most of them were in the Holte End. Incredible atmosphere in there that night. The roof nearly lifted when Gary Shaw scored that instinctive, brilliant goal.

[West Derby Villan]

Yeah dirty b******s, especially when things started going wrong for them. How their goalie stayed on after booting Sid I will never understand. But that was typical of Barca in 70s and 80s, thugs

[OzVilla]

My 10th birthday and the old man got us tickets in the Trinity Road, upper tier, right on the halfway line. Unforgettable night.

On the footage look out for Peter Withe break the Barca centre halves nose in the lead up to the first goal.

[castlefields_villan]

Yes a truly unforgettable game - atmosphere was at its best.

Yes, absolutely disgraceful behaviour from Barcleona (although we'd had a warning of what they were like then when we played them in 1978) and there were calls for them to be banned from Europe altogether.

[FrankyH]

Lent my mate a Villa scarf , which he threw on the pitch at the end.
He told me Peter Withe picked it up and wore it.I believed him , but had a nagging doubt he just told me that because I had lost a scarf !

[DesBremner]

Ken McNaught shadow boxing their player after/before the penalty was the stand out for me as a skinny teenager
Its on you tube somewhere
If only I could post a link

[wittonwarrior]

One of the biggest games in my lifetime I missed was in aus. 

[PeterWithesShin]

Highlights

Full game

[PeterWithesShin]

Apart from all the obvious reasons this remains a special game for me as it was the first game I stood on The Holte. I was always in the seats with the family before this.

[Pat McMahon]

Yes a truly unforgettable game - atmosphere was at its best.

Yes, absolutely disgraceful behaviour from Barcleona (although we'd had a warning of what they were like then when we played them in 1978) and there were calls for them to be banned from Europe altogether.

The media had also taken note when they outkicked Spurs in the Cup Winners Cup (?) semi final the previous April (on the night we were at Anderlecht).

[dave shelley]

Great fun that night.  I was down the Witton End in my usual spot.  Ken McNaught truly taking the piss out of them with the shadow boxing.  That,to me, was so much more humiliating to them than us becoming involved in a mass brawl.  We really howled at them during that, after seeing Ken sparring and laughing at them at the same time.

[Charlie8182]

I was on the Holte End, absolute bedlam when Shaw scored with about 10 minutes left of normal time.
We all thought that the Barca defender was play acting when it took a while for the game to restart as he was lying on the turf being attended to, until he got up covered in blood courtesy of Peter Withe's elbow, good job the ref never saw it!
Whenever I hear Men at Work's Down under, I always think of that night.