Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Chico Hamilton III on March 25, 2013, 12:41:13 PM

Title: 24th March 1996
Post by: Chico Hamilton III on March 25, 2013, 12:41:13 PM
17 years ago, eh?

Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Mortimer's Bear on March 25, 2013, 01:12:21 PM
Remember it like it was yesterday, we looked like we belonged there that day.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: willywombat on March 25, 2013, 02:34:15 PM
Jesus, that's scary. My gorgeous, 6 foot tall 16 year old Daughter wasn't even born yet, like Mortimer's Bear I remember it like yesterday. Fantastic day and a great performance but never have I seen so many pissed people in one place!
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: eamonn on March 25, 2013, 03:06:03 PM
A cherished day. It was so easy to love the Villa then.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: LeeB on March 25, 2013, 03:15:59 PM
Jesus, that's scary. My gorgeous, 6 foot tall 16 year old Daughter wasn't even born yet, like Mortimer's Bear I remember it like yesterday. Fantastic day and a great performance but never have I seen so many pissed people in one place!

Not me.

Not a drop passed my lips as I was nursing the worst hangover I've ever had.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Chico Hamilton III on March 25, 2013, 03:20:58 PM
We had a big night in Kings Cross on the night before the game. Lots of messiness.

Most of the pubs were crammed with Leeds, I remember

I can't remember getting to the ground, the game or the goals.

Was it any good?
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: usav on March 25, 2013, 03:33:30 PM
Was it any good?

nah, it was shite.

We couldn't find anywhere to get a drink (that was safe) in central London the day of the game.   The police were encouraging us to hot foot it to Wembley as there had been a bunch of trouble and they were expecting more.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Colhint on March 25, 2013, 03:35:29 PM
I reckon I'll beat you all.

What a stag weekend. Fooking stag at wembley. Had a pal record it for me, so I could watch it proper a few days later when I sobered up
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: The Left Side on March 25, 2013, 03:41:02 PM
Wonderful stuff
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: glasses on March 25, 2013, 03:43:59 PM
I was 10 years old and it was the second time in my lifetime I'd seen us win a major trophy. I thought it was the norm, and had no idea we would be looking back at a blank scorecard 17 years later.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Jon Crofts on March 25, 2013, 04:05:30 PM
My birthday, best birthday I think I've ever had, was living in Holland at the time, came back for a long weekend of debauchery & drunkeness & wasn't disappointed.  Marvellous.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Simon Ward on March 25, 2013, 04:09:57 PM
Send the clip to Mr Lambert!
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: He wears a magic hat on March 25, 2013, 04:48:10 PM
What another great day so soon after the Man U victory. Can't believe we are still waiting for another.

I so wanna experience this with my son (He's 14 now) That Bradford defeat wounded me more than any other I can remember
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Walmley_Villa on March 25, 2013, 05:11:48 PM
Police said after the game that they hadn't seen two sets of more drunken football fans. There was a lot of trouble - no suprise with Leeds I guess.

Great performance having sais that.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: CT on March 25, 2013, 08:27:33 PM
5pm or 5.30pm K.O if I recall.

Our experience was great - went in The Torch, was rammed full of Leeds fans and just a handful of us - they were brilliant, had one of the best sessions ever with them.

Felt we were destined for great things after that game, we were that good.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: PeterWithesShin on March 25, 2013, 10:30:12 PM
Police said after the game that they hadn't seen two sets of more drunken football fans. There was a lot of trouble - no suprise with Leeds I guess.

Great performance having sais that.

Was there? Apart from all the bottle throwing at the Green Man? pub it was pretty quiet I thought. Far worse against the Mancs.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Pat McMahon on March 26, 2013, 12:23:07 AM
I came back from Paris for the weekend and stayed in London from the Friday eve - never saw a spot of trouble at all. I went with a Leeds mate as well who had to put up with me singing all the way back to our mate's house after the game.

Leeds fans on the way back to Wembley tube were as good as gold and were more upset with Wilkinson than bothered about us. Man U in 1994 seemed much lairier.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: shauntealeswife on March 26, 2013, 05:27:25 AM
Me and my Dad ended up getting onto a Tube carriage rammed with racist Leeds fans who were booting a ball around the carriage the whole way up to Wembley.  Made it all the sweeter when we stuffed them.

When I think of Villa, honestly it's this team that I think of...  Great time.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: devilla on March 26, 2013, 07:38:08 AM
17 years, that's scary. I too remember it like it was yesterday. Wonderful day and I don't remember seeing any trouble.

Savo's goal especially lives in my memory.

Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Nev on March 26, 2013, 07:47:07 AM
Among the highlights:

Getting clattered in Solihull on the Friday night and having to be dragged out of bed for the train down to London the next morning, proceeding to carry on drinking for the rest of the weekend without eating apart from a stale pasty on the Sunday lunchtime. Rolling around central London on Saturday afternoon and drinking in that huge pub outside Liverpool St Station (I've seen a picture but have little recollection). Arriving  outside Wembley in the aftermath of the Green Man fun and games, watching Savo score the greatest goal ever seen at Wembley and finishing the night in the hotel lobby with a load of Scandinavian girls doing aerobics.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Damo70 on March 26, 2013, 02:59:59 PM
Possibly not of one the highlights, but didn't two very good aquaintances of ours have a falling out regarding Savo and proceeded to not speak to each other for eleven years afterwards?
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Nev on March 26, 2013, 04:56:33 PM
Possibly not of one the highlights, but didn't two very good aquaintances of ours have a falling out regarding Savo and proceeded to not speak to each other for eleven years afterwards?

Close but not quite.

It all stemmed from an argument outside Filbert St regarding the merits of Big Ron towards the tail end of his "stint in the hot seat", one for, one agin.

Anyway, it just so happened that both were sat near each other at the final, the Big Ron defender still banging on about our ex-manager and carrying a Pannini sticker featuring "the big fella" in his pocket like some love-lorn teenager. "Anti-Ron" had the last laugh though, as his opposite number was in the shithouse when Savo scored and took some merciless stick for the rest of the game.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: dave.woodhall on March 27, 2013, 09:33:10 PM
The only time in my life when we behaved like we belonged on the big stage and regarded winning as a matter of routine rather than an unexpected surprise.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: TopDeck113 on March 27, 2013, 09:45:05 PM
One of the great days.  Like others have said, we bossed that final in a way that would be expected of the usual suspects, but never of the Villa.  Pity that it was yet another false dawn. 

Only thing that spoilt the day was having to change an off-side puncture in an unlit section of the M1 on the way home.   Hairy!

Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Mortimer's Bear on March 27, 2013, 09:46:03 PM
The only time in my life when we behaved like we belonged on the big stage and regarded winning as a matter of routine rather than an unexpected surprise.

A complete contrast to our victory 2 years previous.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: The Man With A Stick on March 27, 2013, 10:04:12 PM
My most vivid memory of that day was looking out of the coach window at the traffic lights, shortly after leaving Wembley, to see the Leeds team bus right next to us.  We game them some stick for a few minutes, poor old Gary McAllister couldn't even look at us.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: dave.woodhall on March 27, 2013, 10:07:11 PM
The only time in my life when we behaved like we belonged on the big stage and regarded winning as a matter of routine rather than an unexpected surprise.

A complete contrast to our victory 2 years previous.

The way we treated, and still treat, 1994 was embarrassing.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Pat McMahon on March 27, 2013, 11:20:37 PM
The only time in my life when we behaved like we belonged on the big stage and regarded winning as a matter of routine rather than an unexpected surprise.

A complete contrast to our victory 2 years previous.

The way we treated, and still treat, 1994 was embarrassing.

I dunno Dave - it was our first Wembley final for 17 years, and we have only ever won 4 finals on the hallowed turf.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Darlo Dave on March 28, 2013, 03:16:34 PM
I vividly remember 4 Leeds fans waiting outside our end at the end of the game. I tried to shepherd my younger brother away from them, expecting the worst, and it turned out they were shaking everyone's hands congratulating us! Fair play to them, I'd have not done that, if rolls were reversed.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: PeterWithesShin on March 28, 2013, 05:29:59 PM
I vividly remember 4 Leeds fans waiting outside our end at the end of the game. I tried to shepherd my younger brother away from them, expecting the worst, and it turned out they were shaking everyone's hands congratulating us! Fair play to them, I'd have not done that, if rolls were reversed.

I saw a number of Leeds fans doing that.

I also felt really sorry for one lot. On the way home our coach went past a minbus of them broken down on the motorway. Last thing you'd want after that result.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Dave Clark Five on April 09, 2013, 12:11:20 PM
That was the day of my 40th birthday. Pre-match drinking was in the old Willesden Railway Club and we had far too many as usual.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: Number-7 on April 17, 2013, 03:39:36 PM
I had a 5 yr old and one due in Oct that year,so my season ticket had gone,but the groundsman(Tony)bowled with my father in law,so i used to get in as a turf squasher (you know those guys on the pitch with forks) and i used to sell Villa lottery tickets.
I couldn`t get a ticket,then i came home to find the main lottery bloke had been round and said i was entitled to a ticket as a lottery ticket seller.To say i was happy is an understatement.I couldn`t really afford it,but as you all know,bollocks to not affording it.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: silhillvilla on April 18, 2013, 07:33:45 PM
Watched the game on ART Sports in Ar Riyadh . Memorable game.
Title: Re: 24th March 1996
Post by: ldavfc4eva on May 30, 2013, 09:07:33 PM
Watched it on TV with my nan, God rest her soul, what a game!
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