Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Rich6by7 on November 06, 2013, 07:01:58 PM
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...Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa
Wright for them, Bosnich saves a penalty at 1-0 down, Whittingham and Townsend for us.
...And that was the day I decided to support Aston Villa.
Can anyone else pinpont the exact moment they decided to support Villa? I appreciate that lots were born into it for family reasons; I'm the only Villa supporter in my family (everyone else supports Wolves out of hometown loyalty of Flavour Of The Month FC depending on when they were born) and I don't regret a thing.
A few more trophies would have been nice, but at least I'm not another Staffs red. Or Johnny-come-lately Stoke fan now they're in the Prem, unlike the two Arsenal "fans" I was at school with when this result happened.
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Cannot remember when i first started supporting Villa, but i do know the day i fell in love with our club.
Huddersfield away at there old shithole. Pissed it down all game. Myself and other Cannock Villa " Borrowed" an old Morris Marina to make our way there. Broke down on the motorway, not far from Huddersfield. We decided it was best, and most sensible, to leg it and leave the borrowed car on the hard shoulder.
Up the embankment we went, to find a bus stop with Huddersfield on it. Bus into town, beers, rain, more rain, onto the terrace, rain, solid fucking rain. Funniest thing i have ever seen was all the Villa on the terrace trying to stay under the 6-8 inch shelf by the food stall. You lot in the seats didn't know you were born that day. At least you had some shelter, lucky fuckers ;D.
So, after the game we hitched a ride on a Villa coach, got dropped of at Lichfield junction, walked into Lichfield, rain, rain and more fucking rain.
Bus from Lich to Cannock, another to Hednesford, and we were back in the local, Dancing Bear if memory serves me, before closing time.
That is when i fell in love with our club and have never fell out of love with them. It was just one of those days, days you do not get anymore. UTV.
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Have vague memories of either this game or the one later in the month (we did beat them twice at Highbury in Nov'93, right?). My Dad was/is a Gooner, remember him sheepishly relaying the scoreline after hearing it on the radio.
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Didn't have any choice in the matter. My dad took me for the first time in 1971 - Brian Little's home debut v Torquay Utd. We won 5-1 (I think) and I was hooked from then on.
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Brought up as a Villa fan from an early age by my Dad. Known nothing else. Wouldn't change it for the world, even though I occasionally feel like asking for a divorce.
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Lad I used to knock around with when I was a nipper had a massive poster of gary shaw on his wall and was villa mad.this was about 81 82 I think. He also gave me a villa scarf. Went down a storm with my old man, he's a dingle.
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Being a Villa fan is, if you are lucky, something that is bestowed upon you, there is no choice. To this day I sincerely thank my old man for bestowing it upon me. He told me when I was small that Aston Villa was the most famous football club in the world, it was a creed he believed in until the day he died. I like to think he would be proud that his son is the same.
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Lad I used to knock around with when I was a nipper had a massive poster of gary shaw on his wall and was villa mad.this was about 81 82 I think. He also gave me a villa scarf. Went down a storm with my old man, he's a dingle.
My old man is a nose. He's the only one on his side of the family with an interest in football.
My mom has three brothers, one is a lapsed Albion fan, the other two were, when I was growing up, mental Villa fans. As I was the first grandchild, my uncles made extra special attempts to induct me as a Villa fan, which were successful.
To be fair to my dad, though, he was OK about it, took me to loads of Villa matches, accepted my utter refusal to go to a Blues match with him (except on one occasion) with grace. Even got doused in piss whilst accompanying me to Wembley in 1977 (tickets in Everton end, Everton fans not happy at Villa scarf in evidence, bottle of piss thrown).
To be fair, I think people in his generation, years ago, would often go to Villa one week then Small Heath the next, it was certainly more common than now, so it maybe wasn't that big a deal for him.
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Aye Paulie, the aul' fella used to tell me similar.
Away matches were rarely done until around the 70's, so his B-lose mates would go to the Villa with him when we were at home, and he'd go there the following week.
Going back a bit further, I'm fairly certain the big gates ourselves, Olbiyun and even B-lose got back before the 60's owed to the less partisan nature of football (in some respects) back then. Factories would finish on Saturday, and if Villa, Olbiyun or B-lose had a plum fixture, local workers wouldn't think anything of going along, even if it wasn't their team, so to speak.
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That is quite correct. On a smaller scale, many years ago if Villa were away and Walsall were at home I'd go down to watch them. As the cost has risen I no longer go so frequently.
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To be fair, I think people in his generation, years ago, would often go to Villa one week then Small Heath the next, it was certainly more common than now, so it maybe wasn't that big a deal for him.
That's very true Paulie, me and the old man spent a lot of time up there as we lived in Sheldon Nose territory and it was somewhere to go when he couldn't afford to take me to Villa away. Underneath it all was for him, and for me as I got older was a passion for football ( cue laughter from other posters ). We always stood on the Tilton Road end and shouted for the opposition. When I look back it was good fun.
Sadly, we were to go there for a third round cup game against Wigan in January 1978, I'd got us tickets in their main stand so he wouldn't have to stand but he said he didn't feel up to it and he died on the 10th about a week later. The last game we attended together was just before that Christmas, Villa reserves vs I think Man Utd reserves. I miss those days.
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When I was born.
Dad's a Villa fan, Grandad's a Villa fan etc....
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...Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa
Wright for them, Bosnich saves a penalty at 1-0 down, Whittingham and Townsend for us.
...And that was the day I decided to support Aston Villa.
I ran onto the pitch that day when Whittingham scored the equaliser. Not exactly an achievement but as a ten year old schoolboy invading a pitch in London when the Villa scored and getting on Match of the Day gave me a kind of stardom in a small Black Country primary school. Even the headmaster came to me at play-time and told me he'd seen me on the telly.
In answer to the question my Dad took me to my first game in the summer of 1989 against Hibernian in a friendly, the first apperance in a Villa shirt for one Paul McGrath I believe. I remember plenty of games I went to during 89/90 but I think I really started supporting Villa properly the next season after shamefully flirting with Wolves during my first season being interested in football. I saw straight in the end thankfully.
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What a game. We scored both in injury time as I recall.
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I liked the colours, but now I think that Chelsea are more likely to win things so I might start routing for them.
I thought about Arsenal but not sure Wenger will pull it off and I think Chelsea are mare glamorous.
Definitely avoiding Man U now Ferguson has gone.
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I went to the 2-0 win over QPR in 92. Fell in love straight away.
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I just heard the name and thought it sounded a great place for a vacation.
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first game v Portsmouth 74 I think , maybe 4-1 . I thought ' This is the bollox I love it '
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When I was born.
Dad's a Villa fan, Grandad's a Villa fan etc....
Moi, aussi. We go back to the 19th century.
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And us.
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My great-grandad, my grandad, my dad, me and my son - all Villa! In fact one of my lads fondest memories is when Stan Petrov sweated on him in Bulgaria 2008 (photo opportunity of one of my favourite pics)
(http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/breezeblock1966/P1010145.jpg) (http://s226.photobucket.com/user/breezeblock1966/media/P1010145.jpg.html)
He was 14 at the time - he's now 19 and the way he's performing (shagging anything with a heartbeat) it's odds-on i'll have a grandkid of my own to take down Villa Park in the very near future.
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My dad = Liverpool fan
My older brother = Villa fan
... I don't like my dad.
Although I like Liverpool to be honest. I want them to win every game apart from against the Villa.
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Never had any choice in the matter, and wouldn't want it any other way. First games early 70's as a nipper. Can remember Graydon, Phillips, Budgie Nicholl et al. Went to Wembley and the last replay in 77, Was at Highbury and rotterdam. I'm just missing the FA cup before I die, and I will have seen Villa win everything. not many supporters can say that.
Never been easy mind.
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When I was born.
Dad's a Villa fan, Grandad's a Villa fan etc....
Moi, aussi. We go back to the 19th century.
Ditto.
Born in Aston.
Family.
First game? About 1960? Sheffield Utd?
We used to get in free at half time so that's when we went.
Surrounded by The Villa from the day I was born.
20 years ago is a bit vague but I loved it that we were giving it a good go and played with a bit of devil-may-care attitude.
Vert proud of Aston Villa.
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"Very" - sorry.
French is something I ain't.
;-)
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When my mom was pregnant carrying me she used to go down the Villa in the Witton lane stand, only stopping when she was 7 months gone. So I've been going down Villa Park over 50 years now.
She doesn't go now but still loves the Villa and it is a constant source of conversation when I call. She was lucky that despite growing up in Bordesley our Nan's 3 brothers were all Villa fans and made sure my grandad and dad were when they arrived from Ireland.
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I liked the colours, but now I think that Chelsea are more likely to win things so I might start routing for them.
I thought about Arsenal but not sure Wenger will pull it off and I think Chelsea are mare glamorous.
Definitely avoiding Man U now Ferguson has gone.
Is this a windup ? or have we got our very own Bejing red4lyf ?
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As a youngster up until the age of around 10, although I enjoyed playing football, I had no interest in supporting anyone, no allegiance..My dad, born and bred in Leicester, would take me down to Filbert Street or to Meadow Lane to watch Notts County, the club he joined as a YTS after school in the late 1960's. I just remember being cold. Although one memory is seeing Dion Dublin playing against Leicester for Cambridge-around 1992, I believe.
Anyway, my mum, bless her, is a Glamorgan lass and much of my childhood was spent down in South Wales on family holidays-the Gower Peninsula, which is probably the most beautiful coastline in the world, was where I was constantly told by my Grandpa Tom, a Welsh miner,-'Villa Park is the smartest football stadium in the world, the most beautiful etc etc'. It certainly had an affect on me. Around this time, my favourite players were Gazza and funnily enough, Dean Saunders. I remember listening to the match where Villa beat Liverpool on his debut in the car on a trip to the supermarket with my dad. All these little things added up for me. Villa Park sounded insane, so noisy...I was plucking up the courage to ask my dad to take me to a match, a little worried that he would be upset that I didn't want to support Leicester(I was still a child and didn't understand these things.haha)
At school, in my last year of Primary, most of my friends were Liverpool fans, and even back then in 1993, people changed their alliances-they all started supporting Villa because they were challenging Man Utd (and Norwich) for the Premier League title...how fickle they were. Like Blues fans, sometimes I wonder if Liverpool fans hate Man Utd more than they love Liverpool...anyway, sadly, it wasn't meant to be for Villa that season, and all my friends went back to supporting Liverpool. Myself, who had not participated in this mass exodus of support for Villa publicly, had secretly fallen in love with Villa...the colours, the Holte End, the name, Dalian and Deano, the Trinity Road appearance. And every time we would drive along the motorway(the M6, I believe) to Cadburys World, my dad would point out the stadium. 'There it is Nik'....amazing. And then he took me there. I am still very much in love with them now.
That's why I support Villa.
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Never ran in the family, and it was prior to the influx of Irish players to the club in the early '90s so I'm still not sure why. I think it was a combination of the name and the colours. Maybe the Lord McGrath too.
My earliest Villa-related memories are of watching deferred coverage of a game against Luton Town (Irish tv could show Sat afternoon games but with the restriction of the footage being delayed by 20 minutes or so), I think in the season we were both relegation rivals, 88/89, but it's all so vague that I can't pinpoint it for sure as I would have been 4/5 at the time which seems a little young.
Pretty sure I was a fan by the time Italia '90 came round when I would have been aware of David Platt as well as McGrath but sadly I don't have strong memories of my infancy as a Villan and I think my father was too busy raising kids, working and studying to remember how my way into the Villa fold came about either.
One shameful act of treachery is quite vivid to me. Around the time Leeds won the title in 1992, I announced to my Dad that I was going to change teams. He (a Gooner) told me that it didn't work like that and I had already made my choice. A few months later, battling ManUre for the league, and my Mita Copiers shirt (first Villa kit) was the coolest fucking attire in the whole damn school and I was glad I had stuck with them.
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I liked the colours, but now I think that Chelsea are more likely to win things so I might start routing for them.
I thought about Arsenal but not sure Wenger will pull it off and I think Chelsea are mare glamorous.
Definitely avoiding Man U now Ferguson has gone.
Is this a windup ? or have we got our very own Bejing red4lyf ?
Hands up, guilty as charged. I was Man U right, my first football memory was the Shop at the Theatre of dreams, My Moms Boyfriend at the time was from London and a big Man Fan like never missed a game on the TV.Got me a Gigsy shirt any way he dumped my mum for a belly dancer from Rochdale and so I had it with Man U, but still got the Gigsy shirt, classic.
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You dont just change clubs like that mate,Villa til I die and all that,In England people known as glory hunters are despised by real football fans,I guess things are different in the states.Oh well,at least you cannot be accused of being a glory hunter following us at the moment....
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By the way,sorry to hear about your Mum,the Rochdale bit must have hurt.
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By the way,sorry to hear about your Mum,the Rochdale bit must have hurt.
Hey thanks for the sentiment, she had nice tits, the appendicitis scar was a bit of a turn off though.
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Im laughing out loud here ! Is your Mum settled and happy now ?
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Im laughing out loud here ! Is your Mum settled and happy now ?
Yes she now lives with a one legged ex circus performer in a caravan near Minehead .Apparently he got a bit complacent at Tiger feeding time even though he was a trapeze artist. He had trials for Hull but decided to continue the Circus act.
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Now I know you are a wind up artist,he'd have got in at Hull.
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I was born in Kidderminster but my Birmingham claim to fame was living in Erdington briefly growing up so when I got in to football I always was going to support one of the Brum clubs. I became aware of football through the usual things - playground chat, Panini stickers and Match of the Day. My dad was Albion but I went for Villa cos of the name, the colours and we had a pretty nifty team (in Div 2 at least) consisting of Platt, McInally, Daley etc etc. First match was 2-2 at home to Millwall, opening game of 88-89 season and the rest is history.
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1m 37 for the Arsenal game
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If you listened to my bluenose dad and uncles they would tell you I was brainwashed at a very young age by the two teenage lads next door. I think the League Cup win in '77 when I was six was a clincher. Then the neighbours started taking me down from 1979 onwards. The outraged reaction from my uncles was a bonus.
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1968 and I wanted to be a Leeds fan and my Dad said fine, but before you really decide I'll take you to Villa Park.
Grandad, Dad and his 4 brothers all Villa took me to Villa Park Boxing day 1968 2-0 win vs Cardiff....Barrington Hole scored my first Villa goal I never saw.......
my Dad knew I would be hooked....been Villa ever since..
cheers Dad.
UTV
The Doc
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I have a memory of the moment I started supporting Aston Villa but I can't place it with dates and such. I can tell you it was approximately 5 o clock on a Saturday afternoon, the football results were being read out and Villa had won.
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...Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa
Wright for them, Bosnich saves a penalty at 1-0 down, Whittingham and Townsend for us.
...And that was the day I decided to support Aston Villa.
Can anyone else pinpont the exact moment they decided to support Villa? I appreciate that lots were born into it for family reasons; I'm the only Villa supporter in my family (everyone else supports Wolves out of hometown loyalty of Flavour Of The Month FC depending on when they were born) and I don't regret a thing.
A few more trophies would have been nice, but at least I'm not another Staffs red. Or Johnny-come-lately Stoke fan now they're in the Prem, unlike the two Arsenal "fans" I was at school with when this result happened.
They deserve shooting. The former after much public flogging.
In fact the latter should be made to support teams managed by Pullis and TSM for the rest of his days as an alternative to being shot. Purgatory on earth.
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It's a family thing, and growing up in Erdington for me. Although there was never any pressure, when your whole family and most of your mates at school, and all their families support Villa, why would you bother supporting anyone else? When I go back home, the first topic of conversation with anyone I know is usually how the Villa are getting on. It's just in the blood.
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1m 37 for the Arsenal game
I cannot believe that was 20 years ago!
What a turn around that was, great result. I remember getting hoisted into the air and then at Roker Park in the cup.
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I went to that game and while returning to meet my Arsenal supporting mate and got a thump for my troubles.
Great days.
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I first started supporting Villa when I was ten or eleven which was about the 00-01 season. I didn't like football until I was 8 and decided to tell everyone I supported Man Utd like every other kid at the time. Although I was bored of them winning all the time and wanted to be different. I didn't want to support my home team Swansea as they were in division 3 at the time and you couldn't be as them on Fifa. So I randomly chose villa and stuck with them ever since. I think we finished 8th that season and beat Chelsea away 3-1 I believe?
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My very earliest memory of Villa is standing on Trinity Road, watching my Dad walking back towards us shaking his head sadly at the floor.
I remember going to school on the Monday and telling my classmates that I supported a football team called Aston Villa and they were the best. I was 5.
It was only years later I realised the reason my Dad was shaking his head was that we'd just been relegated to Division 3!
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October 1966 Dad took us to Villa v Leeds, we won 3-0.
My only recollection is the smell of Bovril and cigarette smoke under the Witton Lane stand, and Jack Charlton in a white shirt for them. ( I recognised him from a certain game on the telly a few months earlier).
As we walked around the big muddy puddles of the Serpentine after, Dad asked "Did you enjoy that, do you want to go and see the Villa again?"
"Yeh ! Lets come to all the games !" I said.
Didn't miss a home game from that first one for about 20 years.
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I was around 5 years old when an uncle took me off to The Hawthorns. I believe that he had some official capacity there, so I can remember sitting in the seats near the halfway line. I don't think I enjoyed it very much, although the truth is I don't think I liked my uncle very much.
Anyway, even though times were hard and he couldn't really afford to, it was the cue for my Villa supporting father to start to take me to Villa Park occasionally. I can remember standing at the front of the Witton Lane stand and seeing greats like Stanley Mathews, Tom Finney and John Charles at close quarters. Then when I was 10 we won the FA cup. Even though all my mates were Baggies fans, there was never any doubt.
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my dad took me to london to see his sister and bro. in law (spurs fan) in 1962 ? villa played spurs there in the fa cup and lost 2-0,went with them 2,dad a villa fan and never looked back....love them
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...Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa
Wright for them, Bosnich saves a penalty at 1-0 down, Whittingham and Townsend for us.
...And that was the day I decided to support Aston Villa.
Can anyone else pinpont the exact moment they decided to support Villa? I appreciate that lots were born into it for family reasons; I'm the only Villa supporter in my family (everyone else supports Wolves out of hometown loyalty of Flavour Of The Month FC depending on when they were born) and I don't regret a thing.
A few more trophies would have been nice, but at least I'm not another Staffs red. Or Johnny-come-lately Stoke fan now they're in the Prem, unlike the two Arsenal "fans" I was at school with when this result happened.
I was at that match, sitting among the Arsenal fans, and could not help leaping to my feet when we scored the undeserved winner.
The 1977 League Cup marathon versus Everton got me hooked on the Villa.
1st match was with my Dad: April 29 1978, Villa 6 Ipswich 1 !! (They were taking it easy the week before their only FA Cup Final - Roger Osborne 1 Arsenal 0, then he fainted.)
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The day I went round my mate's house in Rowley (we were 11). His brother was one of the Rowley scooter boys (suedes then) and ran a ska disco on Saturday evenings. He was also Villa mad. Him and his mates allowed us two scrotes into the front room where he was running through his set for the night and, between skanking with the big boys and girls, we were regaled with "Life On The Holte End" - I was in love from that moment in 1971...
Who was the infamous Bovver Bird of the Holte who laid about her with a brolly?