When English Football Ruled Europe

[Nelly]

A beautiful, moving watch. For someone who wasn't around during this era it's strange because everything went our way! When did that change?

[four fornicholl]

  :(1983.

[eamonn]

If you follow Villa Boy on Facebook he puts up Villa vids every day, think he's uploaded these two.

[billhicks]

There was a load of dust getting in my eyes watching last night. Glad to have been a villa fan then because I fear we will never reach those heights again sadly

[Damo70]

A beautiful, moving watch. For someone who wasn't around during this era it's strange because everything went our way! When did that change?

I'm not sure everything went our way. I was at the final but before that remember two tough ties behind the iron curtain, the Saunders' walk out, inconsistent league form, sweating on whether we would have to replay the semi final or be kicked out and our place go to Anderlecht (there was a big Sun newspaper back page declaring 'Villa Out Of Final' one day, which caused panic until you realised the final was the FA Cup final and the 'Villa' was Ricky due to the Falklands. Then we had one of Europe's most underrated keepers go off injured and replaced by a rookie. If you class that as everything going our way I would hate to think how bad it would have been if fate had really had it in for us!

[PeterWithesShin]

I assume he meant we won things instead of choking.

[Dinas_Caerdydd]

life and football was so different back then

can never understand why the big clubs moan and groan and i include AV fans when there clubs don't get instant success these days

i,ve only ever tasted dungeon football for most of my life supporting cardiff and i always admire people who support there local teams like rochdale , bury , hartlepool etc . i,m enjoying the ride this year for sure but know it can all come crumbling down again with a few bad results . the big club fans get no sympathy from me . sky and btsports have killed the traditional game not english football

[Legion]

Of course it went our way. We won it.

[Damo70]

Of course it went our way. We won it.

We don't mention it much. Certainly not as much as Small Heath mention us mentioning it. They mention us supposedly mentioning it so much that we don't really need to mention it.

[Damo70]

life and football was so different back then

can never understand why the big clubs moan and groan and i include AV fans when there clubs don't get instant success these days

i,ve only ever tasted dungeon football for most of my life supporting cardiff and i always admire people who support there local teams like rochdale , bury , hartlepool etc . i,m enjoying the ride this year for sure but know it can all come crumbling down again with a few bad results . the big club fans get no sympathy from me . sky and btsports have killed the traditional game not english football

To be fair to Cardiff when I first started following football in the late seventies they were a struggling second division club who then in subsequent years dropped all the way down to the fourth division. For the last decade or more I have always though of them as a second tier side and they have had a year in the top flight too. With a (relatively) new ground and a decent fan base I would imagine they will be a competitve Championship side and possible even a Premier  League side in the forseeable future.

[PeterWithesShin]

Every set of of fans in the world has expectations of their club. They also know when their club is massively below where it should be. And it has been that way since long before Sky was even thought of. It doesn't matter if it's a 'big' club, a middle of the road club or a 'small' club. Whether it's fans of Barcelona or Bromsgrove, all have expectations and will complain when it's obvious they are below where they should be. Cardiff fans would have been no different when struggling to pull 3K and not to become a non league club.

[Flamingo Lane]

I was lucky enough to be at the final in Rotterdam, and thought the ITV4 programme was really nicely done.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a good deal of photographic footage of Rotterdam generally out there.  There are just one or two long range shots of the Villa end to be found on the web, and I search for me and my cap (to no avail) amongst the thousands - I recall roughly where I was stood. 

[wittonwarrior]

Some great shots. Terry weir on the runway.  Heathy one of the lads with the flag in Russia. Tony Morley being tony Morley   Didn’t know spinksey didn’t have a clue about rimmer’s injury

[PeterWithesShin]

Not the greatest quality as I was taking pics of photos my dad took, but at least they're rarely seen!

[Damo70]

Some great shots. Terry weir on the runway.  Heathy one of the lads with the flag in Russia. Tony Morley being tony Morley   Didn’t know spinksey didn’t have a clue about rimmer’s injury

I have heard over the years that Jimmy Rimmer was always strapped up or on the treatment table but still played on match days. So if he was seriously struggling I'm guessing the majority of the squad just thought it was business as usual.