Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Dave Clark Five on January 22, 2012, 07:22:25 PM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqJQmVILc9A&feature=youtube_gdata_player
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqJQmVILc9A&feature=youtube_gdata_player)
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I thnk that's the first time I've seen highlights from that game. I forgot we had some good chances to score. Also watched part 2 but disappointed that the clip didn't get to the end of the game - would have loved to relive the celebrations. I was very close to the fence when Kenny Swain was throwing his socks into the crowd.
The drop ball after the crowd interuption - was according to Denis Howell taken on the half way line - which is what won the arguemnt when Anderlect tried to get us thrown out. Well it was nearer half way than the penalty area so good job they didn't check the video!
I remember getting back to Dover the day after (after a night in Ostend) on a Travellers club coach. Being greeted by headlines in the Sun saying how there had been 3,000 drunken Villa fans in Brussels. I've never bought the Sun since - the majority of Villa fans went on the organised travel and were very well behaved. The trouble was in a home area where a few idiots had got on. Not sure who they were - not Villa fans by all accounts.
Nearly 30 years ago! At least we had a defence who could defend corners!
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The main protagonists were soldiers from a Scottish regiment stationed nearby, nothing to do with Villa.
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I could write a short story from 4pm Tuesday to 11am Thursday morning New Street to Bruselles £23 return. The most amazing journey in my life.
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The main protagonists were soldiers from a Scottish regiment stationed nearby, nothing to do with Villa.
No they weren't. The whole 'Nuffink to do wiv us squire' was a myth.
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The main protagonists were soldiers from a Scottish regiment stationed nearby, nothing to do with Villa.
No they weren't. The whole 'Nuffink to do wiv us squire' was a myth.
Yep the c-crew were heavily involved
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The main protagonists were soldiers from a Scottish regiment stationed nearby, nothing to do with Villa.
No they weren't. The whole 'Nuffink to do wiv us squire' was a myth.
Yep the c-crew were heavily involved
Most definitely they were, Willywombat. An advance posse skipped Southampton away I think and went over to buy 50 - 100 tickets for the section behind the goal with Anderlecht fans- the official Villa section was one half of the side terrace.
They arrived a few days before the sem-final and treated themselves to some high jinks at the training ground on the Monday, playing with equipment and nicking a few souvenirs. There were hundreds of Villa fans around Brussels the night before the game, with the Stock Exchange the main focal point, and you had a feeling there may be trouble as this was the first easily accessible away game of the campaign (in the era before cheap flights - even this jaunt was probably a 9 -10 hour coach journey door to door).
On the night of the game itself there were some well publicised scuffles on the terraces were they were standing, but in reality it was not that serious compared to much stuff at the time. IIRC the fellow who ran on the pitch in front of Jimmy Rimmer - the incident which led to Anderlecht pushing for a replay of the semi or for us to be thrown out of Europe - was a squaddie and had no connection with Villa.
When the police were wading in during the fighting a large number of Villa fans in the official away section were singing "You're the shit of Birmingham" to those behind the goal.
We were drinking in a bar with some Anderlecht fans that night and they were as good as gold, telling us that they had their own hooligans and that it had been a 50:50 blame evening, but I always thought it was mainly the C Crew who started it - reinforced by meeting a few of the ringleaders on the ferry home.
The feeling that night was one of the greatest of my life and the post match celebrations were epic.
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Drove over to this with my Dad, luckily we were in the seats well away from the trouble. All I really remember was saying to the old man at one point that I felt like going home early. Whatever the who and why - it just felt massively embarrassing at that moment compared with the pride I felt when we first made it to Europe and went to Antwerp in 1974. Having said that - you could then contrast it with the Rotterdam final and things such as good natured 100 a side football games with the Bayern fans.
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It seemed to kick off when the Anderlecht fans started chanting Argentina, I made my way to the side to get away from it and everyone I walked through was singing "you're the shit of Birmingham".
My cousin had already been knocked by the over zealous police. He had a flag which came off the bamboo stick and flew over the fence. He climbed up asking for them to pass it back and they sent a squad in to haul him out. There was a picture of him in the paper when we got back with a caption saying something about an iron bar wielding thug, when in fact it was just the bamboo pole from his flag.
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I had a 'discussion' with Gary Newbon when we went into his outside broadcast van.
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I had a 'discussion' with Gary Newbon when we went into his outside broadcast van.
Pray tell - was it an intelligent discussion about tactics and the match, or were you berating him for not having cameras at the famous Villa v Liverpool gamein 1976....?
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I had a 'discussion' with Gary Newbon when we went into his outside broadcast van.
Pray tell - was it an intelligent discussion about tactics and the match, or were you berating him for not having cameras at the famous Villa v Liverpool gamein 1976....?
It was a very drunken discussion that resulted in him being advised what a c*** he was. Looking back, it was a pathetic thing to do. However, we liked it at the time.
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Crazy game. Went to the final but not this. Don't know anybody first hand that did. Second hand tales at the time were pretty hairy - guns at Brussel Station with forces Villa "fans" . Looks like more than a few 100 Villa fans behind the goal in the troubled area. Where was the Villa section? Was it in the stand with cameras? Not even sure how many made the trip.
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Crazy game. Went to the final but not this. Don't know anybody first hand that did. Second hand tales at the time were pretty hairy - guns at Brussel Station with forces Villa "fans" . Looks like more than a few 100 Villa fans behind the goal in the troubled area. Where was the Villa section? Was it in the stand with cameras? Not even sure how many made the trip.
There were loads of Villa at that match. We were behind the goal at the opposite end to all the trouble.
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Official Villa supporters were in the corner to the right of the trouble. Unofficial ones were behind the goal. Anything from 3-5,000 of us were there.
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Official Villa supporters were in the corner to the right of the trouble. Unofficial ones were behind the goal. Anything from 3-5,000 of us were there.
I'm sure we went further round the side than just the corner – my blurred recollections of the game were that I was nearer to the halfway line.
There was a real fear amongst club officials and the FA that we would be thrown out after the trouble, or at the very least be made to replay the second leg. Anderlecht put in an official complaint to UEFA and Villa went to the hearing fearing the worst. The man we have to thank for ensuring our place in the final was safe was Denis Howell - Villa fan, minister of sport, former referee and highly respected by people within UEFA.
Anderlecht's case was based entirely around the fact that the fan running onto the pitch had come when they were attacking the Villa goal and it had denied them a chance of scoring. Denis Howell stood up at the hearing and asked the question "Where did the referee restart the game from when the pitch was cleared?" - when the answer came back he said something to the affect of "How could that be deemed as a clear scoring chance from there?"
Case won, and all we got was a fine and being made to play our next home European game behind closed doors.
Cheers Denis – top man. RIP
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I'm going to see Anderlecht v Zulte Waregem on Wednesday! Rather looking forward
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My ticket was in the official Villa section but owing to the crowds trying to get in for kick off we were let in any section,hence the behind the goal mellee.Also,we met up with some Molenbeek Skins ina bar on the Tuesday who said they were joining up with the Villa cos they hated Anderlecht.
It was very early on the Tuesday morning when somebody suggested it would be a good idea to find the ground and then climb over the wall.Some balls were found and an impromptu kick-a -bout ensued only to be curtailed when security arrived with alsatians,leading to a mass runaway back over the wall.
The craziest 72 hours of my life,still remembering bits I thought I had forgotten now.
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it didnt matter much which stand your ticket was for, if you got in early you could walk right round the ground unhindered and stand wherever you wanted.
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We went over from London on the train where a small group wiv London accents were quite vocal about the trouble they were going to cause. We got our tickets from a cafe bar adjacent to the stadium (they had a board advertising them for sale) and as it was a sunny day went to sit in the park It was very quiet. We were behind the goal at the opposite end to where the fracas occurred.
Just remember walking back to Brussels and having a couple of drinks with an elderly Belguim who wanted to talk about Duncan MacKenzie who had played for Anderlecht.
The journey back was uneventful.
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One of the biggest pre match piss ups i can remember in the bars in the streets by the ground beforehand. Plus my Lichfield Villains flag features on the clip by the corner flag on 7mins 40secs when the lad on the pitch is dragged away. (which some bastard pinched off the fence at the end of the final btw).
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Just looked at my ticket, which I got from Villa Park. It had us in the side, near the corner. I could have sworn we were behind the goal.
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Must have been quite close to you then Jon. We were in the side, about level with the penalty spot at the end with the trouble.. (Good luck for the GTC on Saturday btw).
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Must have been quite close to you then Jon. We were in the side, about level with the penalty spot at the end with the trouble.. (Good luck for the GTC on Saturday btw).
Cheers Ken. It has been a tight season. Anything could happen with a near capacity crowd expected.
Best of luck. We'll have a pint some time, whoever wins, and we could both get pipped to the post.
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all this rubbish about soldiers in there end or non villa supporters is rubbish. they tried to put thousands of us into one tiny corner then some of them came on the pitch with a stolen villa flag. which was quickly reclaimed. then we started going over the tiniest of fences because of the crush. in the end there was a massive mob of us amongst them and they started chanting "argentina" at us because of the falklands war which was like lighting the blue touch paper and all hell broke loose. then there riot police came in amongst us and then some one went on the pitch and the game was stopped. there was a few villa in there end but there was no trouble as i could see it was all amongst us that was in there with the anderlecht fans by our fans. and that is gospel cause i was right in the thick of it
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Perry Bar Pet , much as I remembered it , good laugh in the stock exchange , midnight shenanigans , they squashed into the little area between the corner flag and the just outside the penalty area .
Argentina was sung , lots of Villa in the end , they the Villa reacted , bottles were thrown from above into the Villa below ......... off it went , lots of Villa crammed into the Villa end piled over , more Villa came in ,
those who stayed in the original section sang your the scum of Birmingham , as the lads in the end were subjected to multiple attempts to beat the shit of us by three different sets of Police .
despite that we had some banter with the Anderlecht fans mingled in who were loving it , the robo cops came trundling up , this fella about my age , said "oh you are in trouble these are very special riot police , army "
you had to be there to be fair !
in summary , they gave us a poor allocation for the biggest game in our history , we the lot I was with were in our early 20s , were going come what may , 3000 for a European Cup Semi ?
some of us were in Berlin ..... when all the happy clappers gave it a miss , for the grace of god and some squaddies we would have been in serious trouble
high jinks nothing more , the Anderlecht fans after the game mobbed us , not exactly scary were we , they laughed about there OB having to work for a change .
Great trip !
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some of us were in Berlin ..... when all the happy clappers gave it a miss , for the grace of god and some squaddies we would have been in serious trouble
Are you referring to the trouble right at the end of the game, outside the ground?
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That was one of the occasions , we had trouble before the game , also inside the ground when Morley scored , at the end it was a bunch of bald blokes in black jackets ,,,
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That was one of the occasions , we had trouble before the game , also inside the ground when Morley scored , at the end it was a bunch of bald blokes in black jackets ,,,
We arrived there by train about 9 in the morning, went straight to a pub near the ground and got steadily pissed on beer that was the equivalent of 25p a pint. I seem to remember swapping ends at some point in the game then saw it kicking off outside the ground as we headed back to the station. I think it was a tight connection and the day visa ran out at midnight.
The surprising time when there was no trouble was immediately after the Final. As we got back to the station, it was all Germans but they were in stunned silence. Things varied from game to game. In Russia they just stared at you. In Iceland, they treated you like a local. It differed a lot over the two seasons in the cup. Juventus is always a grim place as is Besiktas. The Romanians were more interested in black market currency.
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Dave
Ha we were just to the right of the goal where Morley scored his cracker.
You reminded me off the panic to get back before midnight. there were 5 of us , all wedge heads well mine was a poor attempt . the oldest lad was 22 , we stuck out like sore thumbs with our Lois cords Lyle Scott jumpers and kagouls .
I did both besiktas and turn both vary eventful trips one we went from almost getting stabbed to goi g back to some house with some English girls working as nannies in Turin till they ran a red light and tbones a local , which was hairy as the locals were not best pleased .we ended up getting the early morning stopping train back to Nice which was full of excitable anti English Juve fans..
I had already been attacked with a knife in Nice after wandering into the wrong part of town.
Turkey was decent till my stuff got robbed at the hotel and I ended up hitch hiking back taking me 6 weeks , lost my job. and my bird . Best thing I went by train which took 5 days out of the 5that left England I was the only one to get to Turkey for various reasons..
Besiktas was the most passionate and intimidating atmosphere I have ever experienced
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sunny villa i cant remember if it was the stock exchange we was at before the game but the road we was on was like the old broad street on a friday night. we did a interail journey round europe 4 weeks before the game with my villa flag being pictured in cannes marseilles paris copenhagen stockholm and oslo then back to brussels. remember being in a shopping centre and watched from a bar above as the villa coaches rolled in amazing. you just cant ever stop telling theses stories about the most magical time in our history.
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Oh yes, remember it like yesterday, i think the whole package, Ferry/rail/match ticket cost was £28, what a bargain that was, i remember a Belgian kid abusing all the Villa fans as he went past in a car, car gets stuck at lights, gets the fuck kicked out of him, driver let off a fire extinguisher in a Villa fans face, Villa fan went down like he`d been shot. We were in the end where all the trouble was, with the Villa fans on the other side singing that we were the scum of Birmingham (Thanks Fellas), we played like prospective European champ`s that night, superb performance. Then the riot police decided "hey ho time for a baton charge". The Anderlecht lot tried to get the match replayed because of the Kid on the pitch, enter the late, great Dennis Howell, outflanked `em completely at the appeal hearing, Dennis, legend mate. ("remind us, where was the match restarted from"?) was the seemingly innocent yet incredibly loaded question. Appeal over.
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We were in the corner which was packed before Kick Off. Anderlect fans were helping Villa fans over the small fence into their section us included. We spent the whole game in their section behind the goal stood side by side with them no problems. The only trouble we had was when the Belgian Army with their Alsatians decided on a baton charge. I still have my Anderlect scarf & hat that I exchanged for my Villa ones behind the goal. I remember drinking in bars around a small roundabout near the ground that was just Villa fans.