Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: gervilla on July 15, 2011, 09:37:36 PM
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When I was a youngster I was brought over to Villa Park by a family member to my first 2 Villa games.
V. Man U in 83-84 (0-3) and V. West Ham 86-87 (4-0).
As I was a kid at the time I have very little memory of both games.
Does anyone have any abiding memories of the above games ?
I do remember Steve Foster being introduced on the pitch before the Man U game and being booed by the Mancs. I also remember seeing Paul McGrath play for the first time.
I remember an air of depression around the place and a small attendance for the West Ham game. Warren Aspinall briefly became my favourite Villa player after this game....briefly.
I would really appreciate anything anyone has to add about these games.
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I remember the West Ham game. Think I went with some sort of youth club and panini stickers 1986 were on swapsies in the North Stand function room.
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I remember the West Ham game. Think I went with some sort of youth club and panini stickers 1986 were on swapsies in the North Stand function room.
Funny you should mention that, I found my full Pannini sticker albums the other day while clearing a load of old stuff out of my my mothers house. 85,86,and 87. Couldn't throw throw out...yet.
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My only memories are Foster's introduction and the stick he got from the United fans (maybe in the corner by the away end wasn't the ideal place to interview him). As for the West Ham game we hadn't been able to buy a goal since Christmas and then score four but we knew it was too little too late.
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We were as good as down already when we beat West Ham - it just delayed the inevitable by a week or so.
Stood in a quarter empty holte end. Depressing times !
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Yes, we were virtually relegated when we beat the hammers 4-0, think we beat Coventry a few weeks ealier both games just delayed the inevitable.
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Wasn't the West Ham game just after someone had put a bet on us winning the last 4 games and staying up and he said he'd split the winnings with the squad?
After twatting West Ham and we failed to win any of the other 3 IIRC?
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I can remember nothing of the ManU home game. The only games that stick out from that season were the one at Old Trafford (we won it, and seemed to have found the next big thing in Paul Rideout) and the Kevin Richardson handball league cup semi games.
The West Ham game was not a bad one to pick. You should have gone more often that season. Actually winning, let alone scoring four and keeping a clean sheet came as such a surprise.
It was somewhere near the end of the season when the wheels had well and truly come off.
A defence that featured Nigel Spink, Tony Dorigo, Gary Williams, Alan Evans, Paul Elliott and Martin Keown managed to concede almost 90 goals that season. Nice one McNeil.
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I can remember nothing of the ManU home game. The only games that stick out from that season were the one at Old Trafford (we won it, and seemed to have found the next big thing in Paul Rideout) and the Kevin Richardson handball league cup semi games.
The West Ham game was not a bad one to pick. You should have gone more often that season. Actually winning, let alone scoring four and keeping a clean sheet came as such a surprise.
It was somewhere near the end of the season when the wheels had well and truly come off.
A defence that featured Nigel Spink, Tony Dorigo, Gary Williams, Alan Evans, Paul Elliott and Martin Keown managed to concede almost 90 goals that season. Nice one McNeil.
Maybe Houllier had studied "How To Defend, The Billy McNeil Method "
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Nearly 30 years later, I finally get to see the goals again from my first trip to Villa Park.
Thank you Youtube.
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I do remember Steve Foster being introduced on the pitch before the Man U game and being booed by the Mancs.
I don't think it was only the Mancs.
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newspaper cutting from the West Ham game from my childhood scrapbook. If I can suss out the insert image option...
(http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt94/notattheparty/AVWHU_0001.jpg~original)
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Was that the season Sid missed through injury?
Our defence did always look dire with Ormsby is defence. That corner said it all: about 4 Villa players marking each other!
You could see Tony Barton was looking to replace players: Rideout - Withe, McMahon - Mortimer, Birch - Bremner. I guess Foster was to replace McNaught.
I wonder who Ron Saunders would have brought into the club had he stayed on. Doug had control of the cookie jar by now though, so probably nothing substantial
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newspaper cutting from the West Ham game from my childhood scrapbook. If I can suss out the insert image option...
(http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt94/notattheparty/AVWHU_0001.jpg~original)
Excellent. Thanks for that.
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I found this from the following season :)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DbTbFaKFtiY
I was in the Holte :)
I'm sure I've seen Villa beat them 3-0 after then, was it around Christmas 89 ?
I think Gage scored ?
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Yes we did and SAF almowt got sacked, Nigel Kennedy came on at HT too.
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Yes we did and SAF almowt got sacked, Nigel Kennedy came on at HT too.
Thought so, thanks :)
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I found this from the following season :)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DbTbFaKFtiY
I was in the Holte :)
I'm sure I've seen Villa beat them 3-0 after then, was it around Christmas 89 ?
I think Gage scored ?
If I remember right we beat United, Arsenal and Chelsea in a week just after Christmas. 3-0, 2-1 and 0-3 I think.
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My dad says that Allan Evans was well past his best at this stage and Elliott was carrying him. Do I gather that H0dge had left by this point?
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I found this from the following season :)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DbTbFaKFtiY
I was in the Holte :)
I'm sure I've seen Villa beat them 3-0 after then, was it around Christmas 89 ?
I think Gage scored ?
If I remember right we beat United, Arsenal and Chelsea in a week just after Christmas. 3-0, 2-1 and 0-3 I think.
Definitely remember the Arsenal game, I think it was Boxing Day, can't remember Chelsea but they weren't such a prize scalp in those days
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Wasn't Chelsea away when Daley scored one of his specials?
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Wasn't Chelsea away when Daley scored one of his specials?
New Year's Day. Wonderful game at a shithole Stamford Bridge.
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Battered them as I vaguely recall.
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Wasn't Chelsea away when Daley scored one of his specials?
New Year's Day. Wonderful game at a shithole Stamford Bridge.
Remember that game well, a freezing cold day and they kept us in for ages after the game.
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I found this from the following season :)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DbTbFaKFtiY
I was in the Holte :)
I'm sure I've seen Villa beat them 3-0 after then, was it around Christmas 89 ?
I think Gage scored ?
If I remember right we beat United, Arsenal and Chelsea in a week just after Christmas. 3-0, 2-1 and 0-3 I think.
Definitely remember the Arsenal game, I think it was Boxing Day, can't remember Chelsea but they weren't such a prize scalp in those days
I thought United was Boxing Day, Chelsea New Years Day and Arsenal in between. I think Gage scored at Chelsea but he might have scored against United as well. There were so many goals flying in around the turn of the year (in the right net, unlike last season) it was hard to keep track.
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Remember the Manure game with great fondness.....took my father to that game...it was 3-0 Olney,Platt & Gage were the scorers...indeed Boxing day, then on 30th we had 'The Arse' who we beat 2-1 with goals from Platt & Mountfield. Crowds of 41247 & 40665 saw both games....the festive spirit getting to us all.
The Chelsea hordes though failed to turn up on New Years day where only 23990 turned up to see Gage,Daley & Platt again saw us win 3-0.
Incidentally these were the first 3 victories in a run of 7 successive wins the other games being Charlton (a) 2-0 Mountfield and an OG from McLaughlin, Southampton (h) 2-1 Daley & Gage, Sheff Wed (H) 1-0 Platt then finally Spurs (A) 2-0 Ormondroyd & Platt. People will especially remember the spoilers of the run Wimbledon coming to Villa Park and leaving with a 3-0 win.
What would we give for a run like that today.
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The Chelsea hordes though failed to turn up on New Years day where only 23990 turned up
Take away a good couple of thousand Villa present at the game and Chelsea's support looks woeful. We saw bigger queues outside Harrods.
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Remember the Manure game with great fondness.....took my father to that game...it was 3-0 Olney,Platt & Gage were the scorers...indeed Boxing day, then on 30th we had 'The Arse' who we beat 2-1 with goals from Platt & Mountfield. Crowds of 41247 & 40665 saw both games....the festive spirit getting to us all.
The Chelsea hordes though failed to turn up on New Years day where only 23990 turned up to see Gage,Daley & Platt again saw us win 3-0.
Incidentally these were the first 3 victories in a run of 7 successive wins the other games being Charlton (a) 2-0 Mountfield and an OG from McLaughlin, Southampton (h) 2-1 Daley & Gage, Sheff Wed (H) 1-0 Platt then finally Spurs (A) 2-0 Ormondroyd & Platt. People will especially remember the spoilers of the run Wimbledon coming to Villa Park and leaving with a 3-0 win.
What would we give for a run like that today.
It's posts like this that keep me logging into this site. Excellent stats that have taken me back to when I was twelve. Cheers PGW.
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Random thoughts from the ManUre/Arse double header over Christmas:
- we absolutely stuffed Man Utd and it could have been 5-0
- the Arsenal game was a lot tighter, but held on and deserved the victory against the then champions
- the queues outside the Holte for the ManUre game were ridiculous
- Derek Mountfield's header against Arsenal seemed to take forever to drop into the goal
- the Man Utd game was probably the last time I ever stood on the Holte with my older brother (the person who first started taking me to games)
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At the Arsenal game I shoved my brother (12 at the time) through the junior turnstile & followed him (I was 21 !) I think it cost me 2.50 instead of a fiver ?
If I remember rightly ? Platt scored the 2nd by beating their offside trap before Donkey Adams pulled one back. I've probably got it on VHS somewhere.
Where can I get old seasons highlights on DVD ?
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Random thoughts from the ManUre/Arse double header over Christmas:
- we absolutely stuffed Man Utd and it could have been 5-0
- the Arsenal game was a lot tighter, but held on and deserved the victory against the then champions
- the queues outside the Holte for the ManUre game were ridiculous
- Derek Mountfield's header against Arsenal seemed to take forever to drop into the goal
- the Man Utd game was probably the last time I ever stood on the Holte with my older brother (the person who first started taking me to games)
Wasn't Mountfield's header from a position where he was in no mans land because the famous Arsenal back four were all half way up the pitch with their hands up for offside? I seem to remember Gorgeous George being a tad grumpy about it after the game.
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Random thoughts from the ManUre/Arse double header over Christmas:
- we absolutely stuffed Man Utd and it could have been 5-0
- the Arsenal game was a lot tighter, but held on and deserved the victory against the then champions
- the queues outside the Holte for the ManUre game were ridiculous
- Derek Mountfield's header against Arsenal seemed to take forever to drop into the goal
- the Man Utd game was probably the last time I ever stood on the Holte with my older brother (the person who first started taking me to games)
That was a great christmas.
If I remember correctly, we serenaded Ferguson with "Fergie Fergie on the dole". Didn't turn out quite that way.
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If I remember rightly ? Platt scored the 2nd by beating their offside trap before Donkey Adams pulled one back. I've probably got it on VHS somewhere.
Hmmm, I just looked it up and I think you are right. It was Platt's header that won it in the second half - that was the goal that seemed to take forever to loop into the net.
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Platt scored the first (great takedown and smashed it past Lukic), followed by Mountfield's header in the 2nd half from a Tony Daley cross....somewhat muted celebrations for a couple of seconds as he looked yards offside......
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If I remember rightly ? Platt scored the 2nd by beating their offside trap before Donkey Adams pulled one back. I've probably got it on VHS somewhere.
Hmmm, I just looked it up and I think you are right. It was Platt's header that won it in the second half - that was the goal that seemed to take forever to loop into the net.
Platty got the first in front of the Holte in the first half. 2 Arsenal Centre halfs (O'Leary being one of them) turned their backs as he looked like he was going to shoot. Knocked it in between the 2 of them and poked it past Lukic.
Fantastic goal and mayhem on the Holte.
Mountfield got the header for number 2 in the second half with Arsenal appealing for offside.
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Ok, so I was right all along. Everyone else was confusing me. :-)
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Random thoughts from the ManUre/Arse double header over Christmas:
- we absolutely stuffed Man Utd and it could have been 5-0
- the Arsenal game was a lot tighter, but held on and deserved the victory against the then champions
- the queues outside the Holte for the ManUre game were ridiculous
- Derek Mountfield's header against Arsenal seemed to take forever to drop into the goal
- the Man Utd game was probably the last time I ever stood on the Holte with my older brother (the person who first started taking me to games)
That was a great christmas.
If I remember correctly, we serenaded Ferguson with "Fergie Fergie on the dole". Didn't turn out quite that way.
You are probably right Paulie but in my head it was their fans singing Fergie on the dole.
IIRC there wasn't too much in the way of public transport that Boxing Day and I was back from Paris for xmas and stayed with my mom who had somehow moved to Billesley. I got a lift into town from my brother in law who was working as a copper in Smethwick and had to spend about 3 hours in MacDonalds at the top of the ramp waiting for the time to go to VP. It was either that or walk all the way from Billesley. Well worth it though.
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I was also wondering whether the Arsenal game was the one where Tony Adams had just been sent down and we were singing "are you watching in your cell?"
Wrong year, though.
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As well as the Fergie songs, there was also the "thank you very much for Paul McGrath" song, which was both topical and factual all at the same time.
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As well as the Fergie songs, there was also the "thank you very much for Paul McGrath" song, which was both topical and factual all at the same time.
I seem to remember that being sung long and loud. As for chants about Fergie's job, I think both ends of the ground were singing songs about that.
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The Arsenal game was live on Irish T.V.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.