Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: andyaston on July 16, 2012, 04:03:56 PM
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Can anyone remember the 2-1 defeat in another cup quarter final against the kit stealers? If I remember well it was a massive Villa following. I also, remember Villa fans having to jump out the front of the terrace to avoid a crush, thankfully there were no fences at Upton Park unlike the Leepings lane end a few months later at Hillsborough.
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I remember that game, David Kelly scored a cracking volley to get the boo boys off his back. We scored near the end of the game
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Platt scored a brilliant overhead kick with 5 minutes left when we were 2 down - I was sat in the seats (£9!) in the top of the stand, with the standing Villa to our right, and saw the crush - a large number ended up on the fence, and I dread to think what would have happened had they had fences. Their idea of segregation in the seats wasn't particularly good either - 2 rows of empty seats, and sharing the same concessionary stands at half time. Jumping up and shouting, 'Come on Villa, you can have these cockney w******' when we scored probably wasn't a good idea under the circumstances.......
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I went on a coach to this one. I sat in the West Stand but moved into the packed South Bank near the end. We had no idea where the coach was but were led there by a WPC and a Police Cadet. Although we went past a couple of pubs full of West Ham, we didn't get any grief off them.
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Amazingly West Ham was one of the few grounds that didn't have fencing. I'm absolutley convinced that if they had we would have been talking about Upton Park rather than Hillsborough.
I remember getting to the ground with about 45 minutes to kick off, it was pretty full then but as time went by it just got fuller and fuller. I spent at least 10 minutes where my feet didn't touch the ground as I was just stuck between people. Eventually we just spilt onto the pitch there was absolutely nothing we could do.
The police shoved us into the area that had been left for segregation and all that seperated us and West Ham was a thin blue line.
I'm sure it was pay on the gate and West Ham got caught out by the numbers we took. That corner couldn't have held much more than 2 1/2k and I'm sure there was nearer 5K
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I remember Kevin Gage & Angy Gray (the other one) left the ball for each other and Ince slipped in and scored, I think we should have won but we went for a long time with WHU as our bogey side.
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I was a bit optimistic with my travel plans for this game. I took the afternoon off but couldn't pick my mate up untill 4 O'Clock from West Bromwich. Didn't think it was a worry, tazed down the M1 to Watford and thought we'll get that London Underground thingy to avoid the M25 rush. Durely arrived at Upton Park at half time ! Obviously didnt get in, so went and had a couple of beers in the Bolyn Arms and watched the last 10 mins in a television outside broadcast van. Tube back to Watford, arriving home at about 3 am. Total waste of time,money and of course we lost.
Never made the same mistake since but have always viewed the underground as unreliable to this day.
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I had a nightmare at West Ham that season. Got into the league game late and missed our two goals then once I had got in they pulled it back to two all and I went down to the cup game on the coach without a match ticket and couldn't get in so spent the game wandering round outside the ground waiting to get the coach back.
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I had a nightmare that night too. Took a wrong turn out of the ground and ended up at the Tube when I was needing the coaches. Cue a frantic blind run around a charming housing estate and somehow saw a Premier Entertainments coach waiting at a red light...and it was mine. A modern day miracle!
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Don't forget the Spink penalty save too.
I still have this somewhere on vhs. I remember when West Ham scored at the end (Kelly), Mountfield had gone AWOL up front, and Keown went crazy at him.
Gutted we lost this match, i thought we played well in what was a difficult season.
Nick
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I was a bit optimistic with my travel plans for this game. I took the afternoon off but couldn't pick my mate up untill 4 O'Clock from West Bromwich. Didn't think it was a worry, tazed down the M1 to Watford and thought we'll get that London Underground thingy to avoid the M25 rush. Durely arrived at Upton Park at half time ! Obviously didnt get in, so went and had a couple of beers in the Bolyn Arms and watched the last 10 mins in a television outside broadcast van. Tube back to Watford, arriving home at about 3 am. Total waste of time,money and of course we lost.
Never made the same mistake since but have always viewed the underground as unreliable to this day.
horrible place to try and get to
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I had a nightmare that night too. Took a wrong turn out of the ground and ended up at the Tube when I was needing the coaches. Cue a frantic blind run around a charming housing estate and somehow saw a Premier Entertainments coach waiting at a red light...and it was mine. A modern day miracle!
I was on one of the Premier coaches. The driver got lost on Barking Road and a few idiots wanted to get out and go in the first pub they saw; having no knowledge of the hostility of the area. We guided the coach into Green Street but had to rely on police to show us where it was parked after the match.
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I'm sure it was pay on the gate and West Ham got caught out by the numbers we took. That corner couldn't have held much more than 2 1/2k and I'm sure there was nearer 5K
It was pay on the gate, I took a London based Notts County mate with me. He was not amused. "Never again" being his parting words.
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The turnstile computers failed and there were far too many fans let in.
When Spink saved the pen I got took off my feet and got crushed for 5 mins until getting onto the pitch. My mate was not so lucky as he had his arm broken in the crush.
Remember their fans coming on in the end and it nearly kicked off.