Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Chico Hamilton III on January 14, 2011, 12:58:17 PM
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The Independent
January 19 1989, Thursday
Football: Ince and Kelly scythe down Villa
BYLINE: JOE LOVEJOY
West Ham United ....2
Aston Villa ........1
THE HAMMERS may have rubber heads in the League, but in knock-out competition the sickle comes into play, and Villa went the way of Derby and Liverpool - scythed down and bundled out of the Littlewoods Cup before an ecstatic audience at Upton Park.
West Ham had scored 14 times in three previous rounds. They were in splendid form again last night, claiming their place in today's semi-final draw with two goals from the top drawer by Paul Ince and David Kelly. David Platt's 89th-minute response took the form of a dextrous overhead kick, but came too late to be anything other than an irrelevance.
Their goals apart, West Ham spurned a penalty and struck a post. With better luck, or more precise finishing, they would have had another thumping win to set alongside their emphatic successes against Sunderland, Derby and Liverpool in previous rounds.
The tension of the occasion was too much for Upton Park's second 30,000 crowd of the season, who spilled over a perimeter wall during the first half. It also had its effect on the players, whose nervousness was betrayed after only three minutes when Chris Price needlessly conceded a penalty by bowling over Leroy Rosenior, 15 yards out.
West Ham's regular penalty- taker Ray Stewart, is probably the best around, but the Scot was absent, injured, so the responsibility fell on Liam Brady. His kick was entirely in character, placed rather than driven, but he erred on the side of caution in keeping the ball inside Spink's left-hand upright, and the goalkeeper was able to reach it and save at the expense of a corner.
As if to show how such things should be done, Ince smacked West Ham into the lead after 15 minutes with the sort of goal which is becoming his stock in trade.
Brady had lost possession and was looking for assistance when it arrived in the form of a kind bounce to his midfield apprentice, who rifled the ball in, left- footed, from 20 yards.
Brady, Ince and Kelly all threatened to improve West Ham's advantage before the haven of half time gave the Villa the chance to regroup.
The fitness which is the hallmark of all Graham Taylor's teams served them well after the interval but John Lyall's side dug deep and put in the stronger finish, with Kelly shooting against an upright before removing Villa from contention five minutes from the end.
Receiving Tony Gale's flick-on with his back to goal seven yards out, the Republic of Ireland striker swivelled at blurring speed before shooting into the roof of the net.
West Ham United: McKnight; Potts, Dicks, Gale, Strodder, Devonshire, Brady, Kelly, Rosenior, Dickens (Ward, 53), Ince. Substitute not used: Keen.
Aston Villa: Spink; Price, S Gray, Gage, Mountfield, Keown, A Gray, Platt, McInally, Cowans, Daley (Olney, 45). Substitute not used: Evans.
Referee: J Martin (Alton).
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That's not a bad Villa side - I remember the Platt overhead kick though.
I'm seem to remember Platt also managed to do an overhead kick clearance off the opposition's line - possibly in the same season - possibly against Everton?
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I remember paying £9 for a seat that night - think there were about 4 rows of us, with two empty rows in front with one steward sat there. When Platt scored I was up out of my seat and several large cockneys turned round and moved towards me. In the end we lost the game, but had there been fences it could have been so much worse.
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I'm seem to remember Platt also managed to do an overhead kick clearance off the opposition's line - possibly in the same season - possibly against Everton?
I remember that, was it an Ormandroid header he cleared?
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I use to go to West Ham fairly regulary in the early 90s with my West Ham supporting brother,and hatred tension,and fans spilling onto the pitch seemed a fortnightly occurance.
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I use to go to West Ham fairly regulary in the early 90s with my West Ham supporting brother,and hatred tension,and fans spilling onto the pitch seemed a fortnightly occurance
This one was a full-on "lucky nobody was killed"crush
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That's what I remember most about it. Having my back to the pitch for the entire first half and not being able to turn around I was that crushed. Knowing we'd scored but not seeing the goal because of the crush. If there had have been fences at West ham we could have been in touble because as a precursor to Hillsborough the warning was there. What was it? Something like 5000 Villa fans ina pen designed for about 2000? The excuxe given, as my shaky memory informs me, was that the MET Police were caught unaware by how many of us would be coming down. They must have got the info from West Mids Police/Villa I guess. I'm also assuming it was pay on the door.
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I reckon that team would spank the current mob. Real honest footballing men.
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Platt and Sid would be a problem but would rip that defence apart.
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I remember paying £9 for a seat that night - think there were about 4 rows of us, with two empty rows in front with one steward sat there. When Platt scored I was up out of my seat and several large cockneys turned round and moved towards me. In the end we lost the game, but had there been fences it could have been so much worse.
I was up there as well, assumed we had a "block" of seats until they scored, then found out how few of us there were.
I remember watching the terrace get more and more full as the kick off approached. You could see that there was something wrong, all you could see were peoples faces, many facing upwards as the terrace got more and more compact. Then, a few minutes into the game a solitary fan stepped over the hoarding and sat down. The stewards and police approached him but he just pointed at the terrace and only then did it appear to dawn on the officials that there was a problem. They then cordened off a section of the adjoining terrace and moved a load of fans into this bit, next to the home fans.
To those of us there, and at the crush to get into Ipswich on the first day of the season in '87, Hillsborough was no surprise. The police blamed the failure of a turnstile counter I seem to remember, but one look at the crowd would have indicated that there was a serious problem, but as we know now, the Police were more concerned with the fans causing trouble than their safety.
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I was at that match. Well scary! It was like being on a rubber cross. You had absolutely no control over where you ended up. West Ham got a pen early on and the resulting crowd surge ended with the perimeter fence collapsing and several hundred villa on the pitch. It was so nearly a hillsborough type disaster, that every villa fan I know who went to that game can have some empathy with what happened at sheffield. Then to rub salt into the wounds tens of thousands of donkeys invaded the pitch at the end and wanted
to kick it off. Crazy night. Glad to get away alive!
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That was the night Clough thumped the two lads who went on the pitch. I can't help thinking that if he hadn't, the problems at West Ham might have got a bit more coverage and someone in authority at Hillsborough a few weeks later might have behaved just a bit differently.
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That was the night Clough thumped the two lads who went on the pitch. I can't help thinking that if he hadn't, the problems at West Ham might have got a bit more coverage and someone in authority at Hillsborough a few weeks later might have behaved just a bit differently.
I doubt it Dave, it was par for the course around then. I remember a situation at Mould Trafford as well a couple of years later - when the capacities on the terraces were supposedly reduced.
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That was the night Clough thumped the two lads who went on the pitch. I can't help thinking that if he hadn't, the problems at West Ham might have got a bit more coverage and someone in authority at Hillsborough a few weeks later might have behaved just a bit differently.
I doubt it Dave, it was par for the course around then. I remember a situation at Mould Trafford as well a couple of years later - when the capacities on the terraces were supposedly reduced.
I got caught in that one at Old Trafford in 91-92. The coaches were late arriving and they didn't delay the kick offs, I got caught on a crush barrier just after coming through that tunnel under the stand and was seriosuly panciking for a few minutes that this might be it. Scary.
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Yes it was pay on the door.
I went and got to the ground about 20 minutes before kick off. I spotted a mate walking away from the queue who told me to forget it and "Someone's going to get killed in there, it's fucking heaving." (Or words to that effect). He'd paid, tried to force his way into the pen and gave up.
We went to the pub.
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It was pretty tight in there I remember. Never used to think twice about the safety side of things back then but looking back now at that night and at places like the Anny Road End, and the Smerrick End at Albion, and when we used to stand behind the goal at Ipswich it was pretty dangerous. I remember losing my footing coming down the stairs at Liverpool on the way out once and being squashed against the side wall trying to get up, that was a tad scary.
Just over 30,000 at West Ham, they had 26k previous round v Lpool and 24k for semi.
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I was at the 3 games mentioned and yet I would still love safe standing area's.
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What's the formation? Was Stuart Gray on the wing or were we playing two left backs?
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Gray played left-side of midfield sometimes during that period.
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Was that the game I think Kevin Gage and the Black Andy Gray left the ball for one another on the edge of the box and Ince nipped in and scored? We should have won that game if my memory is correct?
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I was at this game as well and like other people have said it was awful. I remember standing with my mate and then in the crush losing him, I looked up on to the pitch and he was standing in the penalty area. I managed to get to the far side of the pen after a few mins, by some kind of wall of a cabin I seem to remember and it wasn't quite as bad then.
Just glad I got out of there and home in one piece to be truthful.
Also the game at Swindon in the promotion year was no picnic either.
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My first ever visit to Upton Park, as a 16 year old and I don't think I've been in a more hostile atmosphere (outside of the Sty) before or since.
Even though it’s 22 years ago I still remember most things about that night clearly. Me and my dad got there late (due to the London traffic) and missed the kick off, and there were still hundreds of Villa fans outside the ground and desperate to get in. We heard the Villa fans inside celebrating and we all thought we had scored- not knowing that Brady had his penalty saved.
I got in- it cost £4.50 for the terraces; I remember that as I paid a fiver and they didn’t have any change- 50p was significant then in my YTS days. And as soon as they let my dad in after, they closed the turnstiles leaving loads left outside. The top of the gangway was jammed and I really don't know how we managed to force our way onto the terrace and see the pitch although my feet never touched the ground all night it was that packed, in fact everyone in the ground appeared to be shoehorned- and up for it!
As we all know, our fans ended up on the touchline, and spammers in very close proximity hurled abuse throughout; was it really worse than this in the 1980 FA Cup tie?
I remember a cracking goal from ex-Walsall player David Kelly to effectively knock us out, but an even better one from David Platt but too late. And a confrontational pitch invasion from West Ham at full time, like at the Sty recently but without flares being thrown. Some Villa fans in the seats in the upper tier in turn starting throwing missiles onto the spammers below.
Getting away from the ground was fun as well, all Villa fans were directed towards the Tube but we were parked the other way but the Police didn’t allow us to go there, so my dad had to plead with the Superintendent to get through. The trick now was to smile to avoid a kicking, the Boleyn Arms near the ground was absolutely jumping- you could see the windows bouncing outwards and feel the pavement vibrating.
We went to a much more peaceful game at Forest 3 days later, but got a soaking in a 4-0 defeat; happy times!!
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I was up in the seats with my brother and watched this unfold as the game went on.
There was no segregation and we were sat next to West Ham fans.
As has been said earlier, when the police realised that there was no getting the Villa fans back into the terrace they moved the Spam fans across their terrace and put our lot in there with just one line of police between the fans.
At the end of the match, when they invaded the pitch at the end and realised they weren't going to get at us they turned towards the seats and encoursged theirs to have a go at us.
Coins started to come down, the fella next to us turned to me and said "I think you'd better get out of here". At which point we made a sharp exit.
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Thank God I didnt go to this away game sounds like a typical 80s horror show.