Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dave.woodhall on June 08, 2022, 12:38:36 PM

Title: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: dave.woodhall on June 08, 2022, 12:38:36 PM
Dave Collett writes about the end of an era that was far too brief.

https://heroesandvillains.info/2022/06/08/the-end-of-the-line/
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Nelly on June 08, 2022, 03:38:17 PM
Enjoyed this, thank you. I wish I was there for that chant. I've heard about it a few times now.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: AV82EC on June 08, 2022, 03:43:24 PM
Enjoyed this, thank you. I wish I was there for that chant. I've heard about it a few times now.

I worked with Evertonians through the 90s and they always used to go in about it.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Nelly on June 08, 2022, 03:53:19 PM
Enjoyed this, thank you. I wish I was there for that chant. I've heard about it a few times now.

I worked with Evertonians through the 90s and they always used to go in about it.

The fact that they remembered it is pretty impressive. And that we're talking about it this many years on!
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: eamonn on June 08, 2022, 04:28:55 PM
Pity most Toffees are whining feckers.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Chris Harte on June 08, 2022, 04:53:40 PM
I was at this game and haven't seen/heard anything like it before or since. I seem to recall Villa had two-thirds filled the top tier of Everton's three tier stand.

I recall David Platt missed his only game of the season that day because he'd been involved in an vehicle collision with a pedestrian.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: eamonn on June 08, 2022, 05:01:47 PM
Had he been available to play and score that day, would he have been our only 20 league goal a season man since Withe and now?
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Drummond on June 08, 2022, 05:19:32 PM
Had he been available to play and score that day, would he have been our only 20 league goal a season man since Withe and now?

Apart from Abraham.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Chris Harte on June 08, 2022, 05:27:29 PM
Had he been available to play and score that day, would he have been our only 20 league goal a season man since Withe and now?

Apart from Abraham.
That's remarkable, isn't it? No 20+ striker in the top flight in over 40 years. Platt got 19 league goals in 1989-90 & 1990-91.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Nev on June 08, 2022, 05:52:09 PM
The older I get the more I realise a day like that is unlikely to be repeated.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Villan For Life on June 08, 2022, 06:35:24 PM
What a day, what a season!

RIP Sir Graham, forever a Villa legend.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Des Little on June 08, 2022, 10:05:54 PM
The older I get the more I realise a day like that is unlikely to be repeated.

I thought the very same as I read the piece. I wonder just how many of us that were there still say it’s their best away game?
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Exeter 77 on June 08, 2022, 10:14:34 PM
That entire season has a retrospective magical feel to it because sustained league challenge was so unexpected. Just watching Sid, Paul McGrath and Platt warm up together seemed special.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: dave.woodhall on June 08, 2022, 10:27:10 PM
The older I get the more I realise a day like that is unlikely to be repeated.

I thought the very same as I read the piece. I wonder just how many of us that were there still say it’s their best away game?

Just about everyone.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: tomd2103 on June 09, 2022, 05:00:46 AM
One of the biggest 'what if' questions during my time supporting the club is what we might have gone on to achieve had Graham Taylor not taken the England job at that point. 

Will always wonder just what he might have been able to build over those next few years.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: London Villan on June 09, 2022, 06:59:51 AM
I’m sure SGT would have similar thoughts too.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Rico on June 09, 2022, 07:01:05 AM
Yep, still the best away game I've ever been to. Superb support, and Sid Cowans goal was a thing of beauty. It's been said that Graham Taylor recommended to HDE that Ron Atkinson should be his successor,  but Doug being Doug knew better and appointed Venglos instead. That worked out well. Not!
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: LeeB on June 09, 2022, 09:40:56 AM
Sid's free kick is the best I've seen live and it's the most Sid goal ever, pure nonchelance and class.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: dave.woodhall on June 09, 2022, 12:05:21 PM
Yep, still the best away game I've ever been to. Superb support, and Sid Cowans goal was a thing of beauty. It's been said that Graham Taylor recommended to HDE that Ron Atkinson should be his successor,  but Doug being Doug knew better and appointed Venglos instead. That worked out well. Not!

in defence of Doug (not a thing I've often said), Wednesday had just been relegated and Ron wanted the chance to get them back up. As he put it, "Under no cirucmstances could I leave then".
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Chico Hamilton III on June 09, 2022, 12:21:10 PM
That day at Goodison we had the best away following I’ve ever seen. The fact that it was 32 years ago is depressing and frightening at the same time. For perspective, 32 years before that we were just about still the FA cup holders.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: dave.woodhall on June 09, 2022, 12:30:36 PM
The older I get the more I realise a day like that is unlikely to be repeated.

It never could be. For a start it would be on a Sunday, so you wouldn't have such a good day out. We wouldn't get as many tickets, it would be live on Tv and everything's just too downright serious these days. I firmly believe that the brief window from 1989-92, post-Hillsborough and pre-Premier League, was as good as it got. There was a sense of freedom; we were away from the 'treat supporters as hooligans' mentality but rampant commercialism hadn't kicked in. Then you had the sheer pleasure of doing something totally unexpected as well as being the end of a horrible chapter in our history.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Bad English on June 09, 2022, 01:05:26 PM
I couldn't get to Everton but I was at another much-discussed away game that season: Oldham Athletic in the FA Cup.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Drummond on June 09, 2022, 01:43:38 PM
I can hear that chant ringing in my ears. Beautiful moment.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: eamonn on June 09, 2022, 05:43:06 PM
The older I get the more I realise a day like that is unlikely to be repeated.

It never could be. For a start it would be on a Sunday, so you wouldn't have such a good day out. We wouldn't get as many tickets, it would be live on Tv and everything's just too downright serious these days. I firmly believe that the brief window from 1989-92, post-Hillsborough and pre-Premier League, was as good as it got. There was a sense of freedom; we were away from the 'treat supporters as hooligans' mentality but rampant commercialism hadn't kicked in. Then you had the sheer pleasure of doing something totally unexpected as well as being the end of a horrible chapter in our history.

And everyone involved was much younger and care-free  ;)
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Lastfootstamper on June 09, 2022, 06:53:47 PM
I know it was only a little over a year after Hillsborough, but weren't the fences still up?
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Chris Harte on June 09, 2022, 07:05:26 PM
I know it was only a little over a year after Hillsborough, but weren't the fences still up?
The fences had gone.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Lastfootstamper on June 09, 2022, 08:41:54 PM
I know it was only a little over a year after Hillsborough, but weren't the fences still up?
The fences had gone.



Thanks for the video, it was a wonderful day. Maybe it was all those previous years of being behind fences that makes memories of those times generally appear as if viewed through mesh.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Exeter 77 on June 09, 2022, 09:29:41 PM
I think the fences were still up on the terracing at Villa Park but with the gates open. That's as I remember it for that season anyway.

Edit: This is the 6-2 home game v Everton and the fences were still in place but I think they were removed in the summer of 1990.
https://youtu.be/e0YC38zjhD8
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: Rudy Can't Fail on June 09, 2022, 09:39:45 PM
I know it was only a little over a year after Hillsborough, but weren't the fences still up?
The fences had gone.


Cheers, Chris, never seen that before. Always loved our trips to  Goodison, the Morley game being the highlight but this one was my last one there and certainly recharged the Villa batteries for years of disappointment later down the road. It was a perfect day despite not winning. I've always said our support is brilliant but this was something else. We were back and it was all down to one man.
Title: Re: The end of the line - Graham Taylor
Post by: PeterWithe on June 10, 2022, 06:46:20 AM
I was at this game and haven't seen/heard anything like it before or since. I seem to recall Villa had two-thirds filled the top tier of Everton's three tier stand.

Yup, I was up there and was very impressed that there were escalators to get you up to the top tier.
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