Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Villa Lew on April 23, 2025, 12:03:24 PM

Title: 23 April 1975
Post by: Villa Lew on April 23, 2025, 12:03:24 PM
50 years ago today I stood on the Hillsborough Kop with many thousands of other Villa fans to watch us thrash Wednesday 4 nil, Sir Brian 2, Ian Ross and Keith Leonard and clinch promotion back to the top flight, after what seemed a very long 8 years.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: Scratchins on April 23, 2025, 12:09:39 PM
Goodness, 50 years! I remember it clearly. What a great memory.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: Bernie on April 23, 2025, 03:22:17 PM
Blimey,  half a century ago! I was there too ,what a night.
What a couple of weeks in fact,  the other occasions that come to mind being the 3-0 win at Blackpool and the oft mentioned home game v Sunderland.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: Godfrey Brian on April 23, 2025, 07:28:01 PM
What a great night long long ago. Our form teacher at school turned a blind eye to the spurious requests for the afternoon off from at least 50% of his class (still grateful five decades on but we'd have gone anyway). Mass Villa support, on the pitch afterwards, pockets full of the historic turf which is possibly still growing in the garden of the house my parents lived in. The football specials were madly overcrowded and slow but we really didn't care. I remember talking with a couple of old boys who told us about their Villa in the top division, I just couldn't comprehend it. So pleased to have been a part of it all.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: Flamingo Lane on April 23, 2025, 10:30:48 PM
I was there too, stood on the Kop, with my dad and sister.  What a night, there must have been about 15,000 of us.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: papa lazarou on April 24, 2025, 07:50:25 AM
I can remember being on the pitch afterwards but nothing about the game itself. It was a wonderful end of season run-in.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: dcdavecollett on April 25, 2025, 12:57:25 AM
Yes, eight wins on the spin, the minimum margin of victory for each game was two goals.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: Flamingo Lane on April 27, 2025, 02:49:35 PM
Long shot, if anyone has the programme for this game and doesn't want it any more, I'd be happy to pay a small sum for it.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: Villa Lew on April 29, 2025, 06:42:05 PM
Starting from the beginning of the year, we only lost 1 match out of the 18 league matches played, winning 15. The Sunderland match was a VP celebration of us clinching promotion, the attendance was over 57,000, with many thousands left outside.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: dcdavecollett on May 01, 2025, 01:28:16 AM
And thousands of fans on the pitch after the game.

The dark days, eh?
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: martin o`who?? on August 05, 2025, 01:08:38 PM
Wasn't that the game where the then England manager Don Revie turned up to watch Brian Little and left early - just before Brian scored a beauty in front of the Holte.
Title: Re: 23 April 1975
Post by: dcdavecollett on August 06, 2025, 01:17:02 AM
I presume you're writing about the Sunderland game.

Brian scored late on in that match, having been hauled down for the first goal, an Ian Ross penalty.
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