Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Dave Clark Five on March 27, 2007, 06:48:38 PM
-
Nostalgia is a wondeful thing but would you prefer to be back in the early 70s in the Third Division or watching today's dross with a ground devoid of atmosphere half the time?
-
But things had reached rock-bottom by the time Villa were in Division 3. The only way was up so of course it was happy daze.
-
Rose tinted spectacles? If we were in the third division again you would probably long to be back in the Premiership along with its glorious predictability.
-
Some of the away games were fantastic. The look of awe on the faces of 3rd Division regulars as we took over the grounds was something to behold.
I can still remember standing outside PortVales' ground as the Villa hordes marched up the road and joining in with the chants as they got nearer.
Happy days.
-
Some of the away games were fantastic. The look of awe on the faces of 3rd Division regulars as we took over the grounds was something to behold.
I can still remember standing outside PortVales' ground as the Villa hordes marched up the road and joining in with the chants as they got nearer.
Happy days.
We're struggling near the bottom of the table and how many did we take to Fulham the other week? Imaging how many could be going to games (especially if there in the Midlands) when we're challenging for honours.
-
Some of the away games were fantastic. The look of awe on the faces of 3rd Division regulars as we took over the grounds was something to behold.
I can still remember standing outside PortVales' ground as the Villa hordes marched up the road and joining in with the chants as they got nearer.
Happy days.
We're struggling near the bottom of the table and how many did we take to Fulham the other week? Imaging how many could be going to games (especially if there in the Midlands) when we're challenging for honours.
Times are different.
I haven't been to an away game for about 3 years - not because I don't want to, but there are other demands on my finances. I would imagine that the Fulham game was an exception judging from the posts on the forum and more went to that game than any other away game this season. In the 3rd division the numbers going away were unbelievable for a club at that level. You had to be there to fully appreciate it.
Also the question was about watching the team today - we are hardly challenging for honours at the moment!
-
Personally, I would love to go back to those days for the atmosphere, the possibilities that Villa could get back where we belong, the crowds, the away games when we completely took over the grounds, Villa were truly 'on the up' after years in the doldrums, and to a thirteen year old kid it was truly an amazing time.
I used to got to all the away games with my Dad and Brother, I'd love to bring those days back too, my Dad passed away in 1999.
Of course the team today and just about everything is better, but there is'nt the feeling of hope that you had back then that you could get to the top, whoever you were.
For those of you that were not there, Richard Whitehead's superb book 'Children of the Revolution' sums the time up perfectly.
-
I was born when we were in the 3rd division so I wouldn’t know what it was like, but have fond memories of regularly travelling away in the 2nd division season (87/88) and wouldn’t change them for anything if I could despite the Turner/McNeill years which led us there; with the large numbers turning up at places like Bournemouth, Shrewsbury and Barnsley, cheap prices, crappy but new grounds to visit, unpredictability and the overall surreal feeling of it all.
I have to say that I preferred it to the Premiership we have at the moment.
-
The third division was great but I wonder if it's our youth that we're missing more than the football?
-
The third division was great but I wonder if it's our youth that we're missing more than the football?
When we were young nobody died
And nobody got older
The toughest kid in the street
Could always be bought over
And the first time that you loved
You had all your life to give
At least that's what you said...
The first time you got drunk
You drank pernod and dry cider
Smashed a window in as the police came round the corner
You didn't have no time to run
And your dad stood up for you
As the judge said you're a fool
Babies, sex and flagons, shifting women, getting stoned
Robbing cars, bars and pubs, rubber johnnies, poems
Starsky and Hutch gave good TV
And Starsky looked like me...
The first time that you stole
You stole rubber lips and tenners
Bought a radio then ran away for ever
Never felt so good, never felt so good with you
When we were young we had no fear
Of love nor sex nor warnings
Everyone was hanging out, everyone was sorted
When we were young nobody knew
Who you were or what you'd do
Nobody had a past that catches up on you
Babies, sex and flagons, shifting women, getting stoned
Robbing cars, bars and pubs, rubber johnnies, poems
Starsky and Hutch gave good TV
And Starsky looked like me
What might have been
What might have been
What might have been
With a start he was awoken
From the middle of a dream
He's making movies in his head
That never will be seen
He's holding Oscars in his hands
And kissing beauty queens
What might have been
What might have been
When we were young
-
The third division was great but I wonder if it's our youth that we're missing more than the football?
Thanks for depressing everyone.
-
The third division was great but I wonder if it's our youth that we're missing more than the football?
Thanks for depressing everyone.
Sorry.
Notts County away, Villa fans just kept arriving and we were the majority in three stands. Behind me a young girls said to her dad 'There's millions of 'em' and he replied 'this lot get 20,000 for youth team games.
I was probably the only Villa fan that got chased that day as I lost my mate and his dad and three home fans asked me for my scarf.
-
The third division was great but I wonder if it's our youth that we're missing more than the football?
That's what we miss. Everything was fresh, you were going to parts of the country you'd never been to before feeling like an explorer and crusader.
-
Lets face it things have been pretty stale in the last few years for Villa fans. I wasn't around in those Third division days and only have the Book 'Children of a Revolution' to go by, and although the book made me feel proud of the way our club came back alongside the massive support I would still want our club to be trading punches in the top flight of football, you cannot do that in the third tier, nice piece of History that it is.
-
The game in the 70's had heart and honesty, played by men who valued integrity.
Today the game is all about how much money the players can squeeze out of the clubs and how many free kicks they can con the ref's out of. Getting a fellow pro booked or sent off is a bonus.
It's a shame but there aint no going back.
-
I think we'd look back at the seventies with ond memories whatever division we'd been in. Maybe da yoof will look back on today with the same feelings as they get ready for an away trip to Boston in the 2037 World League.
-
Then, of course, there was 'The Special' to away games. The buzz of excitement as the train disgorged its mob onto the unwary streets of the strange town that we were visiting. Villa, Villa echoing around cavernous stations such as York and Bristol. The mob were running along the platform before the train had even stopped, such was the excitement.
The Football League Review inside the programmes with some pictures of teams in lower leagues (there was one lower than us). I remember one with a picture of the Workington Club Shop. It was just a painted garden shed with people standing around it with scarves tied to their wrists.
The cloud of dust that went up as we jumped up and down at Chesterfield and Shrewsbury. Vic Crowe coming on the pitch to calm us down.
Adrenalin ran high in those days and not just in the sense associated with hooligans, although that was probably how we were perceived.
Getting back to New Street to read The Argus and scanning it to see what it said about our huge away support.
All little things that come to mind when I remember those marvellous days.
-
Sorry, there is no comparison, them day's were very special and can never be replicated........long live the past.
-
There was so little variation in peoples lives - EVERYONE read the Argos, everyone watched Star Soccer and MOTD and Sportsnight, everyone watched the Cup Final, and it mattered . Villa in the 3rd divisiopn was glorious, and so was being young. Yes I miss being that young again but at any age I would still want that football played that way with those crowds and with that atmosphere
-
Aston Villa fans in 'Life on Mars'
-
Looks like us old farts are in the majority here. In all fairness, can anyone say that the atmosphere these days is anywhere like the Third Division days? The fact is that there is no atmosphere in Villa Park now.
The rumble from the Trinity Road that preceded a corner has gone. The Holte were never any good on their own. I know that as I stood there and waited for the rest of the ground to join in.
Away games are now my favourite day out and I cannot see that changing.
General/Lerner/O'Neill. I am sorry but I think you will have a lot to do to get this ground buzzing again. It is like a morgue at the moment.
-
I agree Dave.
The stamping of the feet in the Old Trinity Road stand when a build up of Villa pressure was also loud.
The "Villa, Villa" chant was usually started in the Trinity lower and built around to the Holte, it was so loud it made your ears hurt.
I don't think Villa Park will ever recreate that noise, most of the people around me seem to be at the match to keep getting up every two minutes to get more chips !
Them REALLY were the days.
-
The third division was great but I wonder if it's our youth that we're missing more than the football?
I loved the football in the 70s. Difficult to put into words but to me much as I still love Villa and football in general the game has moved away from me the older I get, and I don't think it's just because I'm getting older.
It's the change from Stan Lynn getting on the same no. 11 bus after the game as me and my mates to the money dominated baby bentley culture that exists at the top today. My dad is 88 and feels the same as me, but reckons that the rate of change from the 30's through to the 70's was nothing as compared to the changes since the formation of the Premiership.
Sod it - Chris is probably right.
-
Just having a trawl through old threads. There is no doubt that the Third Division days were great. We were singing 'Andy Lochhead in the air' in Portugal.
-
Im glad to have seen the whole range. To be able to go and watch us lose a midweek league game in the third division at torquay in 1972 and just 10 years later to have risen to be crowned the kings of europe is quite a change.
I guess those of us of a certain age look back on the 3rd division with fondness for two reasons.
I was in my carefree happy mid teens and Villa meant so much to me (they still do along with other things) and I was also lucky enough to be able to go to nearly all the games home and away.
But it wasnt just an age thing, there was a feeling the tide was turning for the Villa and the heights we could rise to unlimited (as proved to be the case, see above example period April 1972 - May 26th 1982). My Mom and Dad went to most the games too and always looked on that time at Villa as their favourite, even though they had been watching since before the war and would then have been in their late 40s.
I doubt such an experience would be the same now. The nearest examples of big clubs in the third tier would be Leeds and a few years back Manchester City. Im sure some of their fans will come to look back with affection in years to come but not quite as much as we do. I think it was more special because of the time and what football was like then, and of course we are Aston Villa.
Couldnt find an image of Shoots League ladders for 70-71 or 71-72, but this is another thing showing what football was like then.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TGisiI_dI2E/TA9GVe75cmI/AAAAAAAACvU/seG-WvW1OF8/s1600/1.Shoot+League+Ladders.jpg)
-
I started a thread on the old board about the third division, just wondered where it went , there were some interesting comments on there from various old(ish) villains about away days to The Shay, Saltergate and Vetch Field.
-
I would have liked the chance to have gone to the matches in the Third Division but i was only two at the time, it seems everybody had fun going Home and Away were as now it's just about money. I do like to read about us when we were in the Third and Second Divisions, aswell as the present i like to remember bygone eras.
-
The Third Division days coincided with my most active support in terms of attending games: in 1971/72 I think I only missed 2 games all season.
There was definitely a sense of belonging, of being part of something. The scarf was worn with honour, and would attract plenty of sneers. It was us against the world. Where I grew up in the Selly Oak/Northfield area, there were plenty of Wolves and Albion fans; remember, they were the glamour teams in the First Division. Even Small Heath were more glamorous than us.
If I am honest, the aggro was a part of it too, although this was usually rival groups charging at each other and one or the other running off. You can't imagine "If your proud to a brummie clap your hands" being sung at a game by the Villa fans now, could you? Then again, you can't imagine "Divsion Two Welcomes You, Aston Villa"
being sung with musch gusto either.
DC5's post reminded me of the charms of the "special" trains; by the way, it wasn't just the mob on specials that jumped off trains as they they were pulling in to the platform, most adolescent males seemed to disembark in this dubious fashion, as though it would be effete to do otherwise. Very strange, looking back.
-
Just read this thread from the beginning. Think I must have a speck of dust in my eye.
-
40 years ago? Is it that long. OMG I am old!! I would definitely go back to that time. You had to be there to realise how good that period was.
Wembley where we should have won, Manchester Utd semi-final where we did, Pele, away days, taking over grounds, going away to Shrewsbury after missing out on a six horse accumulator because I could not be bothered to queue at the bookies (800 quid!!), being chased by Tranmere, Liverpool and Everton fans who combined together, Notts County in the old wooden stand which I was sure was going to collapse, Bournemouth at home, the special trains, drinking at the pub at New Street station, Rochdale, where the terracing was sleepers with ashes to stand on. not worrying about the results cos we generally won, have i mentioned Bournemouth :-) the arrival of Sir Brian, Andy Lochead, George Curtis, Brian Tiler, the Bee Gees, the youth cup winners, i could go on all night!
edit, I forgot Bruce Rioch!!!!!
-
Even the fact that in four attempts we couldn't beat Walsall brings a smile to the face now. Thrashed 3-0 at Fellows Park was painful at the time, drawing 1-1 on our second trip wasn't much better - and the two goalless Villa Park meetings with them in front of 45-46,000 were frustrating to say the least.
But the fact that the mighty Villa, a giant fish splashing around in a very small pond, just couldn't get one over the smallest of our neighbours is how football should be. Just like Leeds losing to Doncaster in the 3rd Division play-off final a few years back.
-
DeKuip, oh how the distant mermories came flooding back to me reading your memories. I was at all 4 of those Walsall games and like you say we could nt beat them. i think i am right in saying we could nt beat Mansfield in 4 matches either. Games against Bristol Rovers and Wrexham were always hard fought to.
-
From memory, I would have to check to be sure. Didnt we win at Mansfield away about April 1972 ? It was a midweek game at Field Mill and we all but mathematically ensured promotion, I'm sure there was a bit of a good natured celebratory pitch invasion at the end.
Wrexham as you say were always good games, including 3 league cup games, 4-3 in the 2nd replay at The Hawthorns ?
And the first time I can remember Ray Graydon was when he was playing for Bristol Rovers against us in the LCQF 70/71. They were amongst the stronger sides along with Notts C, Bournemouth, Brighton.
I still to this day regret missing Plymouth Argyle away in 71/72 for no other reason than I went to the all the other 45 league games that season.
-
I remember the Wrexham games- the one at The Hawthorns was on on 31st August 1971- sticks in my mind as the next day I started my first job.
And now I'm trying for early retiremennt- where did it all go??
-
Even the fact that in four attempts we couldn't beat Walsall brings a smile to the face now. Thrashed 3-0 at Fellows Park was painful at the time, drawing 1-1 on our second trip wasn't much better - and the two goalless Villa Park meetings with them in front of 45-46,000 were frustrating to say the least.
But the fact that the mighty Villa, a giant fish splashing around in a very small pond, just couldn't get one over the smallest of our neighbours is how football should be. Just like Leeds losing to Doncaster in the 3rd Division play-off final a few years back.
The 3-0 at Fellows Park turned out quite well for me, as Villa handed out special vouchers when you bought a ticket for this game and it was this which qualified me for a ticket for Wembley against Sperms. I had stopped buying the program by that season, and if you weren't a season ticket holder, you needed the vouchers contained therein.
-
Hi Andy-Lochhead-in-the-air. Just had a look at our 3rd division results and i was right in saying we never managed to beat Mansfield Town in the 4 games we played against them. We lost the 2 home matches both 1-0, while away we lost 2-0 and drew 1-1. Your right in thinking the 1-1 was a midweek away match and we secured promotion. Not sure,but i seem to remember Mansfield scoring with almost the last kick but as we only needed a point no body was to upset.
-
Was anyone at the Preston away game when we took their club flag down and tore it up..I still have my piece!
-
Anyone?
-
standing at the back of the holte in a crowd of 48.110 against bournmouth with 22 players giving blood sweat and tears, an atmosphere you could cut into slices, no prima donnas, no crap refs, bloody right you can stick your premiership, and your money
-
My dad always said that his favourite time as a Villa fan was when we were in the third division. Beating Man Ure of best, law & charlton, league cup final vs Spurs when for best part of the game we outplayed them.
The next season when we won the title, the big crowds, the feeling of togethernes & the fact that he felt we were on the way back after falling so low.
I was born in 1970 so missed the 3rd div days but would have loved to have been there when football wasnt just about five rich clubs
-
Captain trips:
...."Notts County in the old wooden stand which I was sure was going to collapse,"
It did. Remember if you were in the middle of that stand with us and the bloody barrier broke. We were left holding the cross piece chanting "barrier broke, barrrier broke" and passed it down to the Police. Those metal uprights were lethal and we kept the kids away.
Then the old chap in front of the few County suporters trying to gee them up when Villa had three sides of the ground. Hately getting his boots caught in bog paper in front of us. "shit- shit-shit".
Oh and then somone tried to set fire to the back of that old wooden stand so we chanted. 'fire , fire". doo dah doo dah. siren like.
Won three nil I think.
Oh yes we had some fun. That's what is missing I guess.
-
Was anyone at the Preston away game when we took their club flag down and tore it up..I still have my piece!
Yep, I remember that Andy.
Climbing up floodlight pylons/flag poles seemed to be a fairly regular pastime back then.
-
Yeah i remember that to Andy. My friend and i watched that game from their main stand enclosure and the locals were not best pleased to put it lightly.
-
;)
Well I am pleased I was not alone! Such behaviour eh lads!!
Happy days!!
-
Thanks for bringing back some happy memories.
The one abiding memory is the "We're all in this together" (I've heard that phrase elsewhere recently) attitude that ran throughout the club during that period.
Something we could do with in the coming season. So how about when AM walks out for the first home game we give him a standing ovation and then sing our hearts out for the full ninety minutes?
It'd certainly upset the gathered media vultures.
-
Thanks for bringing back some happy memories.
The one abiding memory is the "We're all in this together" (I've heard that phrase elsewhere recently) attitude that ran throughout the club during that period.
Something we could do with in the coming season. So how about when AM walks out for the first home game we give him a standing ovation and then sing our hearts out for the full ninety minutes?
It'd certainly upset the gathered media vultures.
Great point. This is how I have always felt about the Villa. "All Together!" It is what is missing sure enough and has a lot to do with the cult of the individual IMHO.
My lad and I will be at the Blackburn game and will give Alex a proper Villa Park welcome.
-
At a time when a new book about our days in Division Three is launched, the thread is resurrected.
-
Didn't we win the FA Youth Cup for the first time in about 1972 as well?
-
I started going late 80s and even those days I would go back to like a shot. Just watching some of the old games from the Ron Atkinson era is enough to make me weep. As I type this I am wearing the 90-92 Mita Copiers shirt. Nostalgia may often be seen with rose tinted glasses but by McGrath football was so much better then.
-
My first ever game was in 1967, my first away game was man ure away in the league cup semi aged 10 I can still recall ted mcdougall with his flying header for Bournemouth at vp in the 3rd div a game that was the first ever 3rd div game ever on motd. Such magical times I would only go back to if a Steve perrymann never kicked Chico Hamiltons shot off the line( what was our support like that day).
I remember walking down witton lane with my grandad after we had been relegated to the 3rd and he said "we will be back".
Just over 11-12 years time I wonder where we might be.
-
The evening games in those days took on an almost magical atmosphere for me..The AV floodlights. .looking up at the holte as I walked up the trinity road with my dad..The programme sellers...that's why I still love this club even though the bastards are making it hard at the moment..!
-
Not the Third Division but the feel and pure tribalism of being Villa in a heartbeat...
-
My first ever game was in 1967, my first away game was man ure away in the league cup semi aged 10 I can still recall ted mcdougall with his flying header for Bournemouth at vp in the 3rd div a game that was the first ever 3rd div game ever on motd. Such magical times I would only go back to if a Steve perrymann never kicked Chico Hamiltons shot off the line( what was our support like that day).
I remember walking down witton lane with my grandad after we had been relegated to the 3rd and he said "we will be back".
Just over 11-12 years time I wonder where we might be.
Great post but Perryman cleared Andy Lochhead's shot off the line. Chico scraped the bar with one effort. Is your granddad still around? Did he get to see his prophecy come true?
-
I'll never miss standing in shitholes like Rochdale (although glad to see them promoted) or Halifax. Some of those places were dire. Nostalgia, like hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I knew from the moment we won our fist game in the 3rd division against Chesterfield we were on our way back but, never in my wildest dreams did I dare to imagine it would end up in glory that night in Rotterdam when you actually had to be a champion to contest it.
-
Sadly my grandfather is not around now but he was on that magical night in Rotterdam. He was at home cheering us on but I was there and when the final whistle went I looked up at the sky amongst all the mayhem and said "you was right grandad".
We need the same support against hull Dave Clark five
-
I'll never miss standing in shitholes like Rochdale (although glad to see them promoted) or Halifax. Some of those places were dire. Nostalgia, like hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I knew from the moment we won our fist game in the 3rd division against Chesterfield we were on our way back but, never in my wildest dreams did I dare to imagine it would end up in glory that night in Rotterdam when you actually had to be a champion to contest it.
Great times to be a Villa fan helped by the fact it was a single period,no yo-yo, and it felt we were progressing most of the time which was something a lot of us hadn't experienced before . Loved the symmetry of those two seasons - started and ended with odd goal wins against Chesterfield, out of the FA cup in the FIRST round both years and ,as you say Dave, exactly 10 years to the month of our final Div three fixture we were european champions - that's special. That final game at Villa Park against Chesterfield was one of my favorites-it took place on a Friday night because of the FA cup final and the players kicked plastic footballs into the crowd. No chance if you were towards the back of the Holte..................until one Jimmy Cumbes stepped forward - biggest kicker of his time-problem solved!
-
What also makes a difference is that football generally was better to follow in the 1970's. It wasn't until later in the decade that even competition disappeared and whilst hooliganism had started to be significant in the 60's, it wasn't until well into the 70's that aggressive policing really kicked in.
45,000+ at the Chesterfield game, great goal from Ian Ross. From memory our average gate that season was circa 33,000. Given there were so few away fans then that is probably about the same in terms of Villa supporters as today. We really did miss out on the Premier League boom.
-
The evening games in those days took on an almost magical atmosphere for me..The AV floodlights. .looking up at the holte as I walked up the trinity road with my dad..The programme sellers...that's why I still love this club even though the bastards are making it hard at the moment..!
seeing the glow of the floodlights as I came down Brookvale Road or Aston Lane was - correction - IS one of the most vivid memories of my life - always slightly late and rushing up the Holte stairs to stand on tiptoe at the back of the terracing -waiting for a pause in the game to find a better view...
Being at Man Uni - I got to a few away games in the NW - and losing 3-1 to Bury in front of 5609 was the nadir - but the best was the LC at OT - i was on my own in the area next to the Stretford End.....magic.
I totally concur that being part of the Villa away following was amazing in the 3rd division days...
-
(http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s532/villajk/2014-03/dfe50b9daeedf04b66e648213ecf4229_zps1eccfd6e.jpg)
Do you remember the Man City mob chasing us around the ground waving bike chains?
-
Thing is those great days of the seventies were geared up to getting us back where we are now. That football has changed doesn't mean we should be having too many more seasons of dull vapid football. Get that improved and we'll have days getting closer to big, voiceful (I think I've just invented a great new word) crowds more regularly.
-
(http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s532/villajk/2014-03/dfe50b9daeedf04b66e648213ecf4229_zps1eccfd6e.jpg)
Do you remember the Man City mob chasing us around the ground waving bike chains?
I was at that match and never saw that. I remember sitting in their main stand. I don't know why because I was permanently skint and can't for the life of me know where I got the money from for that sort of hoi-poloi.
-
seeing the glow of the floodlights as I came down Brookvale Road or Aston Lane was - correction - IS one of the most vivid memories of my life
Funny that. Whenever I think of home games in the Third Division era, it is often impressions of things outside the ground I remember most. I was 14 in 1972. We lived in Lichfield in those days and we would either go in my old man's car and park up on Holte Road or somewhere round there, or I would go on the train to Aston station. Not many 14 year olds are let out of the house these days, let alone go alone to evening matches. If I shut my eyes I can see the two or three blokes selling rosettes and scarfs and stuff, down by Aston church. I can smell the cigarette smoke in the air. I can smell the beer as you passed the pubs at the Holte or in Witton. But it's that AV floodlight glow that I will always remember.
-
Brilliant thread and thanks to so many contributors for bringing back so many happy memories.
The best short summary of the Vic Crowe/third division years that I've ever heard came from super Bruce Rioch who, recalling those times, simply said, "Progress, progress, progress."
-
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. On the face of it, being in the third division was an embarrassment for a club of Villa's pedigree but the fans and club were united and we know now that the march back to glory had started, albeit from a lowly position. It's amazing to think we went from the third division to champions of Europe in ten years. I took it all in my stride as a youngster, thinking this was how football was and how it would always be. It could never happen nowadays, sadly, unless the club was taken over by a sheikh, and football is all the worse for it.
-
I was there when we beat Bournemouth. Feb 1972.
What a match. What a build up in the Mail, as well.
We couldn't compete with the Bournemouths of this world.
-
I was there when we beat Bournemouth. Feb 1972.
What a match. What a build up in the Mail, as well.
We couldn't compete with the Bournemouths of this world.
It was a great game. I really hated Bournemouth, largely because they had the beta release of Harry Redknapp managing them, John Bond.
What is it with West Ham figures taking a pop at us all the time? Malcolm Allison was a twat too.
-
I was there when we beat Bournemouth. Feb 1972.
What a match. What a build up in the Mail, as well.
We couldn't compete with the Bournemouths of this world.
It was a great game. I really hated Bournemouth, largely because they had the beta release of Harry Redknapp managing them, John Bond.
What is it with West Ham figures taking a pop at us all the time? Malcolm Allison was a twat too.
Did Malcolm Allison manage West Ham? I can barely recall their managers over the years - they just seem to be a blend of nonentities.
-
I was there when we beat Bournemouth. Feb 1972.
What a match. What a build up in the Mail, as well.
We couldn't compete with the Bournemouths of this world.
Ted McDougall's diving header was an appropriately spectacular goal for the occasion. I admit that I applauded it, but only in the absolutely certain knowledge that we'd win the game.
-
I was there when we beat Bournemouth. Feb 1972.
What a match. What a build up in the Mail, as well.
We couldn't compete with the Bournemouths of this world.
It was a great game. I really hated Bournemouth, largely because they had the beta release of Harry Redknapp managing them, John Bond.
What is it with West Ham figures taking a pop at us all the time? Malcolm Allison was a twat too.
Did Malcolm Allison manage West Ham? I can barely recall their managers over the years - they just seem to be a blend of nonentities.
I believe Malcolm Allison played for West Ham as a centre half along with John Bond. I think he had a big influence on Bobby Moore's development. He had to finish playing because he had a lung removed and went into coaching at Bath and then had great success as Joe Mercer's assistant at Man City. He then managed Palace and returned to City as manager. The only time I recall him having a pop at us was when we played his Bristol Rovers team in the cup in the BFR years. I think he was just milking his last days in the spotlight. Everything in this post is what I think I can remember from reading a biography of him a few years back. I think the general summing up of him is that he was an innovative coach but not the best judge when it came to getting the chequebook out and buying players.
-
I was there when we beat Bournemouth. Feb 1972.
What a match. What a build up in the Mail, as well.
We couldn't compete with the Bournemouths of this world.
It was a great game. I really hated Bournemouth, largely because they had the beta release of Harry Redknapp managing them, John Bond.
What is it with West Ham figures taking a pop at us all the time? Malcolm Allison was a twat too.
Did Malcolm Allison manage West Ham? I can barely recall their managers over the years - they just seem to be a blend of nonentities.
I believe Malcolm Allison played for West Ham as a centre half along with John Bond. I think he had a big influence on Bobby Moore's development. He had to finish playing because he had a lung removed and went into coaching at Bath and then had great success as Joe Mercer's assistant at Man City. He then managed Palace and returned to City as manager. The only time I recall him having a pop at us was when we played his Bristol Rovers team in the cup in the BFR years. I think he was just milking his last days in the spotlight. Everything in this post is what I think I can remember from reading a biography of him a few years back. I think the general summing up of him is that he was an innovative coach but not the best judge when it came to getting the chequebook out and buying players.
Cheers Damo. I remember him at Man City (fedora wearing Big Mal), at Palace and having a pop at us whilst manager of the Gas, but was unaware of his W Ham links.
Probably an innovative coach but also full of his own self importance - at least in front of the press anyway.
-
Pretty much as Damo says - Allison played for West Ham and was never slow to claim to be an influence on the young Bobby Moore or to push himself as a graduate of the great academy (c). He (Allison, not Damo :) ) was always a grade A gobshite.
He was pretty dismissive of Villa after Man City beat us in the charity shield, 'just a practice game to us' and the like. Allison was also pretty scathing about Joe Mercer at City and was instrumental in getting him the sack. Mercer's departure from the club made Tony Barton's treatment look like a kiss on the arse.
With Allison running things by himself, Man City went downhill pretty quickly. Shame.
-
My greatest Malcolm Allison moment (there's only been one admittedly). Fenerbache v Villa UEFA cup mid 70s in Istanbul. 10 minutes in, most of the supporters stop watching the match and applaud him in. Big hat, big cigar, glamorous young lady on his arm . He does the royal wave and everyone goes back to watching the game. I think he was managing the other Istanbul team at the time. He left 20 mins before the end -same ritual.