Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: gervilla on April 25, 2011, 08:15:46 PM
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For the week that's in it.
I don't dislike them half as much as I do SHA as I find them a lot less offensive.
There are countless pricks that have played for SHA and the list grows with each passing season but what about the baggies ?
Is there anyone to challenge Ally Brown for this title ?
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Asa Hartford used to piss me off, but I think Ally Brown probably gets my vote. I'll never forget the audible 'crack' that resounded around the ground when he hit Alex Cropley.
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Ali Brown.
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Brown. No question.
Not forgetting "lost the World Cup" Geoff Astle.
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I think Ally Brown will win but as I never saw him play I'll go Geoff Horsefield or Paul Robinson. Dirty cheating bastards the pair of them.
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Surely Lee Hughes has to be a contender for his driving incident and the attempt to get away with it.
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I've forgotten the specifics of how it started but it's John Wile and Ally Robertson for me. I can recall shouting totally unacceptable, horrendous abuse at those two in the days when there was practically no such thing as totally unacceptable, horrendous abuse.
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I've forgotten the specifics of how it started but it's John Wile and Ally Robertson for me. I can recall shouting totally unacceptable, horrendous abuse at those two in the days when there was practically no such thing as totally unacceptable, horrendous abuse.
Villadawg, that's horrendous and totally unacceptable :)
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I've forgotten the specifics of how it started but it's John Wile and Ally Robertson for me. I can recall shouting totally unacceptable, horrendous abuse at those two in the days when there was practically no such thing as totally unacceptable, horrendous abuse.
Villadawg, that's horrendous and totally unacceptable :)
I know. I feel ashamed, right up until I recall it was those two and then I'm glad ;)
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Robinson was a wanker. Completely useless fullback who flapped his gums and acted the hardman.
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Paul Robinson
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Can we vote everyone who has ever played for the Baggies in that case I will say whoever has donned the stripes is the Prick.
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Al Lofthem
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Can we vote everyone who has ever played for the Baggies in that case I will say whoever has donned the stripes is the Prick.
Can we exempt Tony Morley from that please?
Has to be Ally Brown.
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Giles, Cantello, Robert Hopkins, Douggie Fraser, Sean Flynn, Paul Robinson, Graham Roberts and on and on.
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Can we vote everyone who has ever played for the Baggies in that case I will say whoever has donned the stripes is the Prick.
Cyrille Regis and Ken McNaught are just two Villa players you have called a prick off the top of my head. There are probably more that escape me at the moment. (I will give you Luke Moore though for wasting his talent even after seeing what happened to his older brother).
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Ally Brown and Ronnie Allen are up there but Lee Hughes has to be gold medallist by a long way.
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Gary Owen.........for the perm but Lee Hughes must be favourite
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Ally Brown............wanker
Ally Robertson........animal
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ooh, I forgot Dougie Fraser. Quite right. Him.
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Robert Hopkins
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Robinson was a wanker. Completely useless fullback who flapped his gums and acted the hardman.
... until they got relegated and he broke down in tears on TV, the tosser!
I despise this mob, however many we score on Saturday, it won't be enough.
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Not old enough to remember Brown (though he probably deserves it).
Hughes and Robinson for me though I cannot hate Robinson too much as his continued career enables me to continue to believe that I will make it as a pro footballer.
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Got to be Paul Robinson or Ally Brown for me on this one.
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Lee Hughes, I had to drop him on his arse at the Cheltenham Festival one year.He tried to get me thrown out.Even his so called mates were embarassed by his actions.Him and his mates were told to have an early bath.
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I cant remember which one of their bastards crocked John Woodward for the whole season within weeks of his signing to replace Tony Hateley. But it contributed to our relegation, so I will nominate the whole of their 1966/67 team.
I'm not sure we ever faced him but their has to be inclusion of Willie 'druggy' Johnson. To be so naive as to believe any performance enhancing substance could help Scotland have anything other than their usual complete and utter abject world cup failure was prickness of the first degree.
Peter Barnes. I'm not sure why, I always just hated how he looked with his stupid blond hair and baby face when he was at Man City. When you saw that blond mop and baby face in shitty west brom stripes the prickness was complete.
Jeff Astle was a complete and utter prick as well. I say him for no other reason than if some baggies fans come sniffing round the H & V site this week and see us slagging off Astle they will get all uppity.
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Martyn Bennett - dirty bastard
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Ally and Tony Brown.
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Ali Brown
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Paul Robinson takes some beating. I wish he would.
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Ally Brown - I can still hear it now. Bastard.
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As I've said on this esteemed portal on a couple of threads like this before, I found Ally Robertson the most odious, rude billy big bollocks I've ever had the displeasure to meet - this was in a non-football setting in the days when journeymen pros blended into the background. Except him.
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Ronnie Allen for no other reason than if my memory serves me right his late goal sent us down one season.
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Ally Brown - Unforgiveable
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They all just blend in to one vast nothingness to me.
Crap players, crap fans, crap club.
What's that tear jerker they sing about all going down together? Sums them up really, celebrating failure.
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The animal that snapped Cropley's leg thus ending his career - Ally Robertson wasn't it. Dirty Bastard
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People will say that I shouldn't mention it because he's ill, but Geoff Horsfield was a prick.
Also Robinson, who's at Bolton now.
Don't remember Ali Brown, but I know about his 'tackle' on Cropley.
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It was Ally Brown, hence the animosity.
As Hopkins played for them it's probably him although he's more associated with SHA.
As a Boggie through and through i'd go for Lee Hughes - disgusting actions of a complete bellend.
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Wasn't around in the Ali Brown days so cant comment
Geoff Horsfield was a prick and he played for that shit down the road
Lee Hughes though, a fucking complete and utter wanker, should still be locked up, winds up every single football fan and almost started a riot when he went to Wolves, he goes into a list of players who i will always always hate
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So many but Lee Hughes would win it hands down.
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Can we vote everyone who has ever played for the Baggies in that case I will say whoever has donned the stripes is the Prick.
Cyrille Regis and Ken McNaught are just two Villa players you have called a prick off the top of my head. There are probably more that escape me at the moment. (I will give you Luke Moore though for wasting his talent even after seeing what happened to his older brother).
I must clarify my comment I don't mean ex Villa players.
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1. Lee Hughes
2. Ally Brown
3. Robert Hopkins
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Ally Brown closely followed by Lee Hughes
For those who don't know, here is an account of the tackle by Tim Adams (Observer)
One of my indelible sporting memories is not a sight but a sound. I'm watching Aston Villa play West Bromwich Albion one grey day in 1977. The derby is always intense, but today there seems a kind of malevolence to the match, and to the crowd; you would n ot want to be out there. In the Villa midfield is a slight fi gure called Alex Cropley, a Scot who is in the form of his life. The previous season he had inspired Villa to a 5-1 win over Liverpool, the champions , and this afternoon he is making the Albion side - the team of John Wile and Len Cantello, one of the most uncompromising ever to take to a football field - look like park players.
There is nothing of Cropley, he is in that mould of footballer that is quick and wiry, playing in spaces, seeing gaps, but he is fearless, too, never stepping back from a challenge. The Villa fans have a favourite song, through which, in the company of my dad, I tend to mumble, though I appreciate the sentiment: ' Five-foot eight, not much weight, Alex Cropley's fucking great, la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.'
In my memory, I'm half-humming this and straining to see the pitch when a ball falls from the sky exactly between Cropley and an Albion player named Ally Brown , both running at full pace from opposite directions about 10 yards apart; an instant later Cropley meets the ball and Brown meets Cropley with all the force at his will, a force that seems to have built up steadily with each challenge in the match , and is looking for a way to escape. It is then I hear the sound, an other-worldly noise, easily loud enough to silence 35,000 people in a state of high excitement, like the gunshot that starts a race. This is not a start, though; it's an ending of sorts. It is the sound of Alex Cropley's breaking leg, a sharp crack that snaps tibia and fibula and leaves the lower portion of his shin skewed at a vicious angle to the upper part.
I can still hear it now, that crack that seemed to echo in an absolute chill quiet . I don't remember any of the goals of that game, or of that season, but I'll never forget that sound; it was the first moment in my life as a spectator, I suppose, when sport suddenly seemed like mortality. Major injuries always announce themselves immediately; teammates know the worst has happened, so do fans, so does the player. The suspension of disbelief that surrounds the match is punctured, the injury allows a different, messier register of understanding back into a stadium. What has seemed play, suddenly is real; where all before was speed and recklessness, now all is care and slowness.
Cropley, who was 26 , played a few times more, but not with any of his previous grace and pace; what had once looked wiry about him and his legs now looked as if it would easily snap. The more heartless Albion fans developed a chant about the incident : 'Alex, Alex Crippley.' Cropley drifted out of the game; he had played for Scotland twice ; he now drives taxis in Edinburgh.
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1. Lee Hughes
2. Ally Brown
3. Robert Hopkins
about right
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Well done to Robert Hopkins as he was very near the top of the " Biggest Prick to play for SHA" thread a few years back ( Only beaten by Paul Tait IIRC )
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Steve Bull - what's my prize?
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I cant remember which one of their bastards crocked John Woodward for the whole season within weeks of his signing to replace Tony Hateley. But it contributed to our relegation, so I will nominate the whole of their 1966/67 team.
I'm not sure we ever faced him but their has to be inclusion of Willie 'druggy' Johnson. To be so naive as to believe any performance enhancing substance could help Scotland have anything other than their usual complete and utter abject world cup failure was prickness of the first degree.
Peter Barnes. I'm not sure why, I always just hated how he looked with his stupid blond hair and baby face when he was at Man City. When you saw that blond mop and baby face in shitty west brom stripes the prickness was complete.
Jeff Astle was a complete and utter prick as well. I say him for no other reason than if some baggies fans come sniffing round the H & V site this week and see us slagging off Astle they will get all uppity.
Don't forget his miss in front of an open goal v Brazil in Mexico in 1970. He never bothered me though because when I was a nipper he basically never played against us.
Martyn Bennett for me was incredibly easy to dislike - maybe because a couple of my schoolmates in Aldridge knew him and he sounded really arrogant.
Easy one for my Grandad though - Ronnie Allen by a mile. His last minute goal to relegate us in 1959 (?) brought my grandad to tears. In the days when violence was unheard of my grandad took his coat off to confront gloating Albion fans. To be fair to Ronnie Allen he apparently was remorseful after his goal. My grandad would still have chinned him had he met him though.
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Another one for Ally Brown. If I were Cropley i'd run the fucker over with my taxi - see how he likes it.
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Did Len Cantello not put Ray Graydon out on a night match against them
He missed a large number of matches and came back at old trafford, it was either a
semi final or final replay against Everton if my memory serves me correct!
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Cyril Regis according to Big Ron !
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Sean Flynn.
Head so far up his own arse it's unbelievable.
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I cant remember which one of their bastards crocked John Woodward for the whole season within weeks of his signing to replace Tony Hateley. But it contributed to our relegation, so I will nominate the whole of their 1966/67 team.
I'm not sure we ever faced him but their has to be inclusion of Willie 'druggy' Johnson. To be so naive as to believe any performance enhancing substance could help Scotland have anything other than their usual complete and utter abject world cup failure was prickness of the first degree.
Peter Barnes. I'm not sure why, I always just hated how he looked with his stupid blond hair and baby face when he was at Man City. When you saw that blond mop and baby face in shitty west brom stripes the prickness was complete.
Jeff Astle was a complete and utter prick as well. I say him for no other reason than if some baggies fans come sniffing round the H & V site this week and see us slagging off Astle they will get all uppity.
Don't forget his miss in front of an open goal v Brazil in Mexico in 1970. He never bothered me though because when I was a nipper he basically never played against us.
Martyn Bennett for me was incredibly easy to dislike - maybe because a couple of my schoolmates in Aldridge knew him and he sounded really arrogant.
Easy one for my Grandad though - Ronnie Allen by a mile. His last minute goal to relegate us in 1959 (?) brought my grandad to tears. In the days when violence was unheard of my grandad took his coat off to confront gloating Albion fans. To be fair to Ronnie Allen he apparently was remorseful after his goal. My grandad would still have chinned him had he met him though.
Didn't he do a lap of honour to celebrate sending us down?
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Ali Brown. Was there. Heard it. Saw it. Will never forgive it. Brown was not a prick, he was a murderous bastard.
Pricks?
Ronnie Allen Derek Kevan Jeff Astle They were pricks. Run of the mill yam yam heroes.
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Ali Brown. Was there. Heard it. Saw it. Will never forgive it. Brown was not a prick, he was a murderous bastard.
Pricks?
Ronnie Allen Derek Kevan Jeff Astle They were pricks. Run of the mill yam yam heroes.
Was it deliberate or accidental?
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I deliberately called them pricks Leeg. Ronnie Allen was such a prick he used to ask me which dogs to back at Hall Green.
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I know that. I meant the actual challenge. Deliberate or accidental?
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I cant remember which one of their bastards crocked John Woodward for the whole season within weeks of his signing to replace Tony Hateley. But it contributed to our relegation, so I will nominate the whole of their 1966/67 team.
I'm not sure we ever faced him but their has to be inclusion of Willie 'druggy' Johnson. To be so naive as to believe any performance enhancing substance could help Scotland have anything other than their usual complete and utter abject world cup failure was prickness of the first degree.
Peter Barnes. I'm not sure why, I always just hated how he looked with his stupid blond hair and baby face when he was at Man City. When you saw that blond mop and baby face in shitty west brom stripes the prickness was complete.
Jeff Astle was a complete and utter prick as well. I say him for no other reason than if some baggies fans come sniffing round the H & V site this week and see us slagging off Astle they will get all uppity.
We must be of the same vintage as I was going to post the very same thing - was it Stan Smith ?
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I put it this way. The crippling of Alex Cropley was as accidental as the sinking of the Belgrano.
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I know that. I meant the actual challenge. Deliberate or accidental?
It wasn't the first foul of the game, and was barely the worst.
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Steve Bull - what's my prize?
He's a good man Steve Bull. I like him and have a lot of respect for the fella.
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Lee Hughes by a mile.
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Ally Brown, complete tosser.
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Martyn, spotty faced future England Captain, Bennett.
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I cant remember which one of their bastards crocked John Woodward for the whole season within weeks of his signing to replace Tony Hateley. But it contributed to our relegation, so I will nominate the whole of their 1966/67 team.
I'm not sure we ever faced him but their has to be inclusion of Willie 'druggy' Johnson. To be so naive as to believe any performance enhancing substance could help Scotland have anything other than their usual complete and utter abject world cup failure was prickness of the first degree.
Peter Barnes. I'm not sure why, I always just hated how he looked with his stupid blond hair and baby face when he was at Man City. When you saw that blond mop and baby face in shitty west brom stripes the prickness was complete.
Jeff Astle was a complete and utter prick as well. I say him for no other reason than if some baggies fans come sniffing round the H & V site this week and see us slagging off Astle they will get all uppity.
Don't forget his miss in front of an open goal v Brazil in Mexico in 1970. He never bothered me though because when I was a nipper he basically never played against us.
Martyn Bennett for me was incredibly easy to dislike - maybe because a couple of my schoolmates in Aldridge knew him and he sounded really arrogant.
Easy one for my Grandad though - Ronnie Allen by a mile. His last minute goal to relegate us in 1959 (?) brought my grandad to tears. In the days when violence was unheard of my grandad took his coat off to confront gloating Albion fans. To be fair to Ronnie Allen he apparently was remorseful after his goal. My grandad would still have chinned him had he met him though.
Didn't he do a lap of honour to celebrate sending us down?
I have no access to all my old memorabilia here (I think the family have kept said stuff as lining in the rabbit hutch anyway) but I have a memory of a quote along the above lines (Ronnie Allen being immediately remorseful, that is) in Peter Morris’ excellent book Aston Villa, The First 100 Years.
Your info re attendances in the Bournemouth thread show that my memory ain’t foolproof though Andy….
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Did Len Cantello not put Ray Graydon out on a night match against them
He missed a large number of matches and came back at old trafford, it was either a
semi final or final replay against Everton if my memory serves me correct!
I am fairly certain it was the away game in the 1976-77 season (around October half term IIRC) and resulted in increased appearances for John Deehan.