Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on May 02, 2014, 06:31:38 PM
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In 5 days it will be 20 years since the Holte's last stand.
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Ah the memories of kids carrying crates to the match
(http://i3.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article7045131.ece/alternates/s1227b/JS35723627.jpg)
Still makes me sad to see this
(http://i3.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article7045124.ece/alternates/s2197/JS35723503.jpg)
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Who are the brick thieves!
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That was a strange day. Through school, exams, first job, girlfriends etc the Holte was a constant. I grew up on that terrace and I had some grit in my eye when I left it for the last time.
Wonderful pictures of a packed Holte End. It must have looked impressive from the pitch.
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Another reason I still have a soft spot for Yorkie, his two goals that day, even though he has since said some very daft things.
Does anyone know why the Holte was rebuilt as a two tier stand?
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Another reason I still have a soft spot for Yorkie, his two goals that day, even though he has since said some very daft things.
Does anyone know why the Holte was rebuilt as a two tier stand?
Because the back of a single tier structure would have been too far away from the Witton End goal for a seated area.
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A social history of Britain...
"Tell me, dad, what were the milk crates for?"
"Tell me, grandad, what are those strange coloured plastic things?"
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God I loved the Holte end in the old days when I went with my dad, certain games stick in my mind, Villa 2 Southampton 1 FA cup 4th round 1969, Villa 2 Man Utd 1 League cup semi final December 1970 and Villa 2 Bourmemouth 1 Division 3 February 1972, the atmosphere on the Holte in those matches was truly amazing, wipes away a tear.
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On the which side was worse forum I have voted for this year
I wonder if the holte could be the reason.
I keep looking back at how much fun we had back then on the old holte or am I looking through rose tinted specs
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The Left Side!
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We are the famous, the famous Holte End!
Who else stayed for ages after the match in an attempt to be the last one on The Holte, and also because you didn't want to leave knowing going down the match would never be the same again?
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I keep looking back at how much fun we had back then on the old holte or am I looking through rose tinted specs
There was much that left a lot to be desired about 70s and 80s terrace culture, but for the most part it was fun, a learning experience and one that I wouldn't have swapped for the world. I consider myself lucky to have been a school boy and a teenager when my team climbed to the top of the tree. And even luckier to have witnessed much of it from arguably the best terraced end in the country.
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The flip side was during the mid 80s when everyone in the ground could have fit in half the Holte, it was a pretty depressing place to watch us be shit. 6-8K in a stand that held over 20K wasn't much fun.
But when it wanted to, The Holte pissed on every stand in the country. The Kop was nothing in comparison.
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A proper Holte and the AV floodlights. Reminds me why I fell in love with club.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1_zps1cef1c49.jpg)
Gives a sense of scale as to just how big it was.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1a_zps587239d0.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1b_zps7d920f14.jpg)
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True, those days were dire, but from a distance of thirty years I have a perverse sense of nostalgia for enduring those seasons on acres of empty concrete.
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Full match, one of my favourite nights as a young Holte Ender.
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That was my last ever game on a terrace.
I am now in a wheelchair.
Had to be there on the Holte`s last day one of my friends did not do that game and i do remind that friend any chance i get. lol
Did not want to leave i think a small part of me and Villa died on that day.
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That was my last ever game on a terrace.
I am now in a wheelchair.
Had to be there on the Holte`s last day one of my friends did not do that game and i do remind that friend any chance i get. lol
Did not want to leave i think a small part of me and Villa died on that day.
Sorry to hear that flybo.
Platt might have turned into a nob of epic proportions, but he was a bloody brilliant player for us. Some of the finest goal celebrations ever involved him - Arsenal at home and that night at Spurs....
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i remember when there was no roof over the holt
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i remember when there was no roof over the holt
So do I. I also remember no floodlights too.
Dave W. Am I correct in saying that the capacity of the Holte was 24,000?
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A proper Holte and the AV floodlights. Reminds me why I fell in love with club.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1_zps1cef1c49.jpg)
Gives a sense of scale as to just how big it was.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1a_zps587239d0.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1b_zps7d920f14.jpg)
These are the days I remember most fondly (the left side. BTW).
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Am I correct in saying that the capacity of the Holte was 24,000?
that's as I remember it, Dave.
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i remember when there was no roof over the holt
So do I. I also remember no floodlights too.
Dave W. Am I correct in saying that the capacity of the Holte was 24,000?
28000 was the max I believe. 19500 when it closed.
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IIRC it was down to about 20K by last day. Before that it was at various times 24K, 28K and over 30K. I'm sure Dave will confirm/rubbish what I remember.
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The first recorded reference to a sports terrace as "Kop" related to Woolwich Arsenal's Manor Ground in 1904.[2] A local newsman likened the silhouette of fans standing on a newly raised bank of earth to soldiers standing atop the hill at the Battle of Spion Kop. In 1906 Liverpool Echo sports editor Ernest Edwards noted of a new open-air embankment at Anfield: "This huge wall of earth has been termed 'Spion Kop', and no doubt this apt name will always be used in future in referring to this spot". The name was formally consummated in 1928 upon construction of a roof. It is thought to be the first terrace officially named Spion Kop. Many other English football clubs and some Rugby league clubs (such as Wigan's former home Central Park) applied the same name to stands in later years.
Villa Park's old Holte End was historically the largest of all Kop ends, closely followed by the old South Bank at Molineux, both once regularly holding crowds in excess of 30,000. However in the mid-1980s work was completed on Hillsborough's Kop which, with a capacity of around 22,000, became the largest roofed terrace in Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spion_Kop_(stadiums)
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That was my last ever game on a terrace.
I am now in a wheelchair.
Had to be there on the Holte`s last day one of my friends did not do that game and i do remind that friend any chance i get. lol
Did not want to leave i think a small part of me and Villa died on that day.
Sorry to hear that flybo.
Platt might have turned into a nob of epic proportions, but he was a bloody brilliant player for us. Some of the finest goal celebrations ever involved him - Arsenal at home and that night at Spurs....
Still going to games i will haved mist 6 buy end of season do doing man £ity or spuds
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I was lucky to have a couple of seasons on it which included the BFR years. Never been the same since really
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I was a bottom right-er, good days.
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The Stretford End ? The Kop End ? They were seriously tiny compared to
The Holte End.
I have a Holte End brick in the loft. It was'nt stolen. I asked if i could take one.
Left side!!!
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what a magnificent pass by Cowans with his "weaker" foot to Platt for the second. Sat in the Witton for that game pretty much where the away fans would be now.
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Great pictures, particularly the one looking up the stand. Brings it all back. August '86, lower right, Clive Allen destroying us, having to hold on to one of the pillars at the end until my dad and brother found me. Desperate for the next game.
Any other lower-righters remember an older gent and his grown-up son who were both a bit "different" and often ended up having a massive row or hitting each other?
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Got the certificate at my moms house saying I was there that day.
The last day of the holte.
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IIRC it was down to about 20K by last day. Before that it was at various times 24K, 28K and over 30K. I'm sure Dave will confirm/rubbish what I remember.
It was about 28k in the seventies then gradually came down when it was split and after various bits of legislation. I think for the last day it was 19,000-odd
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It was certainly 28k in the 70's, remember the game v Sunderland in second division when 58k in the ground and several more thousand outside the ground from both teams
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When full, the old Holte End was the most awe inspiring sight in British football. The Kop at Anfield, The Stretford End at Man Utd or the North Bank at Arsenal were minnows in comparison.
Bottom right for me, with the lads from the Yenton.
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I started off bottom right when we were in the second division. First season back in the top flight we moved to the bottom left, the corner where it joined the Trinity and I used to hang off the metal fence with some other kids. Then we moved to the side of the left hand side and I used to sit on the wall that trailed all the way up the side of the terrace.
We eventually settled by the pillar towards the back of the left hand side. My dad could never keep still and even during games would wander from place to place before settling down with about 25 minutes left.
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When full, the old Holte End was the most awe inspiring sight in British football. The Kop at Anfield, The Stretford End at Man Utd or the North Bank at Arsenal were minnows in comparison.
Bottom right for me, with the lads from the Yenton.
Aloueta, Yenton aloueta...
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Can't believe it's 20 years ago today. It was also the last game my Dad ever went to.
So many happy memories that I can remember like yesterday. Be nice to add some more today.
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Tarzan
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Remember jumping the turnstiles in 89 to get in game v man united , and 1994 being in there for last game , great days
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As a kid the Tiswas Swap Shop chants were great. The only problem was that I thought the chant was Tiswas Was Was.
The left side. Three quarters of the way back against the centre fence.
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Remember jumping the turnstiles in 89 to get in game v man united , and 1994 being in there for last game , great days
Was the Man U game the Boxing Day one?
The Holte was rammed and I didn't see any of the first half. As people moved at half time for toilet breaks and Bovril, I got a decent spot and saw all three second half goals.
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89-90 was an amazing season to be on the Holte. From about October onwards anyway. Amazing that a year later, we were singing "You've lost that scoring feeling".
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It was certainly 28k in the 70's, remember the game v Sunderland in second division when 58k in the ground and several more thousand outside the ground from both teams
Was there as a 10 year old.
I think people were sitting around the edge of the pitch as the game went on, as it was so packed.
Ian Ross penalty and Brian Little......I think
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Watching the naughty boys tying an away team scarf around the roof beams at the back and setting fire to it!
The Barcelona super cup game, one of the most incredible atmospheres ever.
Brilliant memories.
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Really can't believe that's 20 years ago.
We used stand about half way back on the left side, roughly in line with the left goal post.
I took a stripey and Wolves fan to the Inter game. I'll never forget the stripey's response as we game up the steps onto the terrace.
"What the fuck is this, it's huge."
"Yeah, we can probably get the whole of your piss pot hovel in here."
After Kent scored I didn't see the Wolves fan again until full time - he'd ended up about 20 feet away as we all went mental.
The thing I miss most, is that although you can still sit by the same strangers game after game, I just didn't get the same sense of camaraderie, when I could still go regularly.
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One word.
Tranmere.
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One word.
Tranmere.
The game v Liverpool was a sentimental farewell to an old flame. Tranmere was the last mind blowing shag you had with her.
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Well put sir.
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Holte End v Sunderland Div 2 was amazing atmosphere on The Holte. I remember seeing people who had fainted etc unconsciously crowd surfing down to the pitch for First Aid.
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I took a stripey and Wolves fan to the Inter game. I'll never forget the stripey's response as we game up the steps onto the terrace.
"What the fuck is this, it's huge."
"Yeah, we can probably get the whole of your piss pot hovel in here."
In 92/93 me and my best mate (an Albion fan) agreed we'd go to a game with each other at the other's ground. They were Div 3 at the time and we went to their game against Burnley. We went in the Brummie Road and I commented, in a non piss take way just factual, that I was surprised how small it was. He wasn't overly impressed. He came to THAT Cov game, the 0-0, and grudgingly admitted The Holte was huge. And it was rammed that day.
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One word.
Tranmere.
The game v Liverpool was a sentimental farewell to an old flame. Tranmere was the last mind blowing shag you had with her.
Yep an excellent summation.
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Twenty years, bloody hell. I grew up on the Holte, so many memories reawakened reading through this. The stand might have gone but it seems the spirit lives on in many of us. You'll never take the Holte End.
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One word.
Tranmere.
I'll take your Tranmere and raise you a Chester in the '75 League Cup Semi.
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One word.
Tranmere.
I'll take your Tranmere and raise you a Chester in the '75 League Cup Semi.
About 15 years ago I was on a residential course through work and one of the other lads was a Chester fan and we got talking about that game and he said how he had never, before or since, seen anything like the Holte in full flow.
I also recall being at a reserve game against Sunderland a few years back and hearing a Mackem sat behind me telling his mate about that promotion game in the 70s and looking across and waxing lyrical about the magnificence of the Holte. On the way home I was chatting to my son about it and telling him how there were thousands locked out, and about a couple of my mates from school who watched from the park, along with hundreds of others, just picking up what was going on from the crowd reaction.
Need a bit of that old spirit today.
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The game v Liverpool was a sentimental farewell to an old flame. Tranmere was the last mind blowing shag you had with her.
Marvellous!
Left side next to the floodlight pylon by the way.
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Lower right.
Most memorable moments: trashing Manchester United (64?), League Cup semi QPR.
Worst: all of the Div 2 relegation season.
Strangest: West Germany vs Spain 1966, standing on the Holte surrounded by Germans with their air horns and "Heraus!"
Scariest: carried hither and thither by Forest fans in their cup 2nd replay against Swindon
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The left side.
I really want this model, dated the year of my birth.
http://footballmodels.moonfruit.com/#/villa-park/4516743837
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It used to be in the Trinity reception, not sure where it is now?
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The Left Side.
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Look out for the scenes in the Holte, especially the 3rd goal. Mayhem!
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Look out for the scenes in the Holte, especially the 3rd goal. Mayhem!
My first game at Villa Park.
"Are all the games like that Dad?"
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Another view:
http://www.regista-blog.com/2014/02/five-legendary-old-terraces/
Quote:
" 1. Holte End, Villa Park
To finish, a genuine monster of a stand.
This one I was able to see with my own eyes a couple of years before it was pulled down,
but from the opposite end of the stadium.
It was so deep the crowd seemed to disappear into the vanishing point.
When Villa scored the whole thing erupted into noise and motion, surging and roaring.
I spent most of the match staring at it.
In its prime the Holte End could hold around 30,000 fans on its own.
That, friends, is a terrace."
Yes. it was.
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Aston Villa 2 : Manchester United 1. Second round Football League Cup 1970. Never seen anything like it. A privilege to be there amongst it. Remember that Dad? RIP.
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Thanks to all for the pictures above - I felt more excited looking at them than I did going to the game today.
I was originally a left side in the very back section but flirted with nutters corner in the early 80s before returning to my roots. I still prefer to head back to the top left when I can but have to take whatever tickets I can get these days.
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This thread is bringing back some memories. In the picture that shows the 2 guys doing demolition work in front of one of the exits, the two barriers lying on the floor is where I used to go.
When I first started going there I would get there early to get a spot to lean on the bar. After getting squished a few times I realised the place to stand was with my back to it just in front. Perfect!
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The left side. Three quarters of the way back against the centre fence.
That was me, too.
So many great memories. That final Liverpool game being one of them.
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Started on the right side for a few years near theftont by the C Crew before defecting to the left for a change of scenery.
Moved about a bit there too depending on my mood. Mostly 2/3 back and halfway across but also saw some great games at that side bit underneath the old Meaning Evil sign.
Bradford, Inter Milan and Tranmere being my stand out memories.
Loved the Holte.
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The Sunderland game for promotion was my first Villa game at age 15 - that feeling of our being Villa has stayed with me to this day.
Over the years I have taken many fans of other teams onto the Holte because most of them did not believe what it was like from my descriptions - all came away in awe and several were genuinely frightened. We took one lad, a Man City fan, to a League Cup match in '76, after the first goal celebrations had swept him away in a tide of human joy we had to convince to stay after retrieving him from the concourse.
I am looking forward to a report from a Hull fan I know about his first visit yesterday
We are the famous, the famous Holte End.
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Tranmere as a 13 year old, on my own, was terrifying. I had to be taken to the first aid room following Teale's goal as I got a bit crushed. I missed the Aldridge penalty whilst in there. I begged them to let me back in for the second half though.
Probably most best Holte End memory. Despite the fact, that at the time, I thought I was going to die.
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v Middlesboro' last home game of the '81 League Championship season. Peeing down with rain , three up and The Holte decided to party. And a properly deserved lap of honour afterwards. It was one of the stand out, happiest afternoons of my football suuporting life.
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A proper Holte and the AV floodlights. Reminds me why I fell in love with club.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1_zps1cef1c49.jpg)
Gives a sense of scale as to just how big it was.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1a_zps587239d0.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/1b_zps7d920f14.jpg)
Which is exactly why, looking at the top picture, could The Shit ever emulate us. Even if they became 'successful'. Because they would never be able to fill a stand like that.
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One of my earliest memories circa 1974 - being right behind the goal the night we knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup after the replay when Bob Wilson got Sammy Morgan sent off in the first game at Highbury, Morgan appealed - which meant he could play in the replay and scored the first right in front of me - the place went ballistic, Alun Evans got the second and Bob wilson - who was widely suspected of getting Morgan sent off in the first game, was given an absolute fucking mullering by the Holte, he hated Villa from that night on. but me, i walked out of Villa Park a 15 year old disciple.
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Another view:
http://www.regista-blog.com/2014/02/five-legendary-old-terraces/
Quote:
" 1. Holte End, Villa Park
To finish, a genuine monster of a stand.
This one I was able to see with my own eyes a couple of years before it was pulled down,
but from the opposite end of the stadium.
It was so deep the crowd seemed to disappear into the vanishing point.
When Villa scored the whole thing erupted into noise and motion, surging and roaring.
I spent most of the match staring at it.
In its prime the Holte End could hold around 30,000 fans on its own.
That, friends, is a terrace."
Yes. it was.
Thanks for the link, I enjoyed reading that.
I remember travelling up with an Arsenal supporting friend, late 80s / early 90s. It was 0-0 I think, but I remember him being in awe at the Holte.
The new one surprises people I've been with as well. Whereas they're fully prepared to be impressed by Liverpool's Kop etc, the Holte takes them more unawares I think.
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Twenty years, bloody hell. I grew up on the Holte, so many memories reawakened reading through this. The stand might have gone but it seems the spirit lives on in many of us. You'll never take the Holte End.
Unfortunately, about 20,000 pissed up Glaswegians thought otherwise.
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20 years ago the Holte End had its last game.
It was a bittersweet day happy to be there but sad to see it go.
Holtenders in the sky.
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Dave Chance's last stand more like
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Any good pictures from the Holte in the early 90's? That to me is always how I remember Villa, Mita Copiers, Deano, Daley and Atkinson, Teales tache and the "Stan always take the corners" Muller adverts in the programme.
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You could try "The Holte's Last Stand" thread about ten down.....good pics in there.