Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: He wears a magic hat on February 20, 2013, 03:53:59 PM
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August 1991
Sheffield Wed2 Aston Villa 3
Has to be one of my favourite away days, Opening day of the season and Big Rons return to Sheffield after leaving them in the summer
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That was a great win. Heralded the start of a fine period in recent Villa history.
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What a fantastic day.
They don't make 'em like that anymore, a boiling hot saturday afternoon and a massive away following for the first game.
Cigars all round after that one on the coach on the way back.
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Marvelous day out. Big Ron's style of football summed up in 90 minutes
Was that the game where they had to open extra sections of the old terrace in the corner of leppings lane to fit all the Villa fans in?
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What a fantastic day.
They don't make 'em like that anymore, a boiling hot saturday afternoon and a massive away following for the first game.
Cigars all round after that one on the coach on the way back.
Definately one of the greatest ever away days. From the fixture itself to the way the game panned out you couldn't have written a better script. I remember the pre match deal about brandys and cigars all round in honour of BFR in the pub when we got back. As a lager drinker and non smoker my throat and head were f***ed the next day. Actually the throat might have been to do with the singing and shouting as well as the cigars.
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As others have said - one of the best away days ever. Red hot, loads of villa - and a comeback !
My niece was born that morning too - so a memorable day all round. Don't think my Sister was too amused that my Dad came the match with me rather than going to visit his first grandchild, until the day after.
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I could only get a ticket in the home stand to the left of the Villa fans. When the third went in I went berserk and had to leg it out under the stand before I got lynched.
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What a great season opener that was!
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Didn't realise Francis was the manager at that time. Even better!
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Awesome match, great following, brilliant atmosphere and the start of a golden era (albeit too brief) under BFR.
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What a day
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Marvelous day out. Big Ron's style of football summed up in 90 minutes
Was that the game where they had to open extra sections of the old terrace in the corner of leppings lane to fit all the Villa fans in?
I was on that corner terrace. We were on the football special from New St that was delayed approaching Sheffield due to one failure or another and we reached Wadsley Bridge station after kickoff. There was a platoon of West Yorks Police waiting for us as our escort and they had to run to keep up as everyone legged it to the ground, the one filming us gave up after he fell over and 'nearly took his eye out'. Shame its not on youtube. Everyone had tickets for the seats but they wouldnt let us in and put us all on the corner terrace, we were two down when we arrived. When we were stuck on the train and not going anywhere in a goods yard the floodlights of the stadium built for the 'youth olympics'? were visible in the distance. Some lads jumped off and ran across the tracks towards the floodlights thinking it was Hillsborough. They were waving for everyone to join them and we were waving back saying theyd got it wrong, but they didnt hear, it must have looked like we were all waving goodbye to each other. I dont know what time they got to the match.
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One of the most enjoyable days watching Villa I've ever had.
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Remember it well. Stood at the front of Leppings Lane stand near the corner flag seeing Big Ron get all sorts of stick from the home fans. He had the final laugh though. Absolutely brilliant day in the sunshine. All our 3 goal scorers made their debut that day. Has that ever happened before or since?
Big Ron's teams played the best football I've ever seen at the Villa. Will we ever see the likes again? We can hope!
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Agreed. Got to be my favourite away day ever.
The buzz of the opening game of the season, a lovely Sunny day, a full house with one of the best travelling support I have ever witnessed, the Big Ron against his former club factor and coming back from the dead after 20 minutes to win.
The elation when Stan put in the winner was unbelievable.
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"Trevor's army will show them" - lol.
Top day made all the more sweeter by the fact that if I'd not missed the coach I should have been on I'd never have seen the game.
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Remember it well....had to go to a family wedding whilst all the lads had the best day out since Everton '90. Listened to it on a car radio in the car park and was delighted and really gutted at the same time!
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Des - in my opinion this was even better than Everton 90. Although both were absolute cracking days that will live long in the memory.
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The match was far better than Everton but I reckon the Everton game was the better atmoshphere
"Graham Taylor's Claret and Blue Army" seemed to go on from the kick off through to the second half. What a send off
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Got their early, and i remember the initial attempts at fitting Atkinsons name into the "Claret and blue army" song.Started off as Atkinsons Claret and Blue army, then morphed into Ron Atkinsons Claret and Blue army, the some bright spark came up with " Big Fat Rons Claret and Blue army".Much laughter, and it stuck, a long rendition, 20-30 mins before kick off, and throughout half time if i remember.
Start of an era, we had arrived, and the optimism that BFRs appointment was fantastic.He used to get a standing ovation before every home game when he came out the tunnel for most of his 1st season.
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My son asked me last week what were my favourite ever Villa matches and this came up! It was a fine day out, I was at the ground as the team coach arrived and there was quite a reception for Atkinson from both sides, the cheers negated the abuse.
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Best away day ever without a doubt, I was on that Special out of New Street that got delayed and remember the guys legging it off the train, chased by an over eager rozzer, towards the Don Valley Stadium!!! The guys did make it to the game, I think they got there just in time for the second half after a friendly taxi driver gave them a lift to Hillsbrough. Fantastic memories.....
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This and the Tranmere Semi are the two best Villa games i've ever been to. They both had everything.
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The Dean Saunders game at Anfirld was another top away game in that era. I've seen us thumped a few times at Anfield but we've won quite a few up there as well.
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'Big fat Ron's claret and blue army' always reminds me of Grimsby away in the cup a few weeks after Hillsborough. If my memory is correct the entire away end sang it all the way through the half time break.
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Great day. Also memorable for a philosophical question only a football fan could ask in the gents before the match.
"If grounds have to be all seater now, how come I still have to stand up to have a piss?"
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That was a great win. Heralded the start of a fine period in recent Villa history.
When you say fine period you mean 3 years - actually thats quite a sustained period in our lumpy history.
It was a great team, who know what would have happened if they could have won that first premier league.
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The game had everything you'd ever want, from the weather, some great pre-match beers and a Villa invasion to witness a brilliant start to the season. Certainly right up there with the greatest away days in recent history.
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I doubt you could get official figures on tickets sold but we were everywhere that day.
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'Big fat Ron's claret and blue army' always reminds me of Grimsby away in the cup a few weeks after Hillsborough. If my memory is correct the entire away end sang it all the way through the half time break.
Yep, we also had a rendition of Big Fat Rons barking army, woof woof woof woof.
Away end was very packed that day.
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Remember it well. What a start to the season and a new era under BFR. Fantastic support and bloody hot!
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Brilliant day out, remember it so clearly still.
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Great day, seemed to be a lot of duplicated tickets as quite a few latecomers turned up to find someone in their seat holding a tickit for it.
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Unfortunately I was too young to attend, I was 7. But I do recall getting stuck at Junction 6 on the M6 on the Monday for Man Utd at home. Belting atmosphere. I've just purhcased original 1991/1992 and 1992-1993 home shirts from ebay.
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I remember sporting my brand new claret Addidas Gazelle, a mass kickabout at Woodhall Services, getting spat on walking down to the ground, and a game that had everything.
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The match was far better than Everton but I reckon the Everton game was the better atmoshphere
"Graham Taylor's Claret and Blue Army" seemed to go on from the kick off through to the second half. What a send off
I was totally pissed at that game and slept through all of that legendary chanting in the Upper Tier of the old away end.
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Did you miss Cascarino's own goal as well?