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Author Topic: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.  (Read 12063 times)

Offline cdbearsfan

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #30 on: October 24, 2019, 08:32:36 AM »
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?

Offline wittonwarrior

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #31 on: October 24, 2019, 11:06:02 AM »
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

Offline usav

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #32 on: October 24, 2019, 08:35:15 PM »
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.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #33 on: October 24, 2019, 08:59:10 PM »
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.

Offline Flamingo Lane

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #34 on: October 24, 2019, 08:59:17 PM »
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.

Offline Brassneck

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #35 on: October 24, 2019, 09:30:00 PM »
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.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #36 on: October 24, 2019, 09:44:16 PM »
Swansea on Boxing Day 1971 had a gate of 24,419 in a season when their average was 6,000-odd.

Offline Flamingo Lane

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #37 on: October 24, 2019, 10:06:54 PM »
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.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #38 on: October 24, 2019, 10:21:56 PM »
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.

Offline Brassneck

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #39 on: October 24, 2019, 11:07:47 PM »
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.

Offline GXVilla

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #40 on: October 25, 2019, 04:42:19 PM »
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.

Online luke95

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #41 on: October 25, 2019, 04:58:52 PM »
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.

Offline Brassneck

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #42 on: October 25, 2019, 06:31:31 PM »
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.

Offline Damo70

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #43 on: October 25, 2019, 06:47:06 PM »
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.

Offline Rudy65

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Re: Largest away following with the Villa - non Wembley.
« Reply #44 on: October 31, 2019, 07:15:16 PM »
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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