Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: castlefields_villan on December 10, 2019, 08:36:20 AM
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Villa 3, WBA 0. Kicked off the park, played them off the park and one brilliant Villa player's career sadly ended. Anybody else there that day ?
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Yes I was on the Holte and heard the crack of Alex Cropley's leg like everyone else-sickening.
Typical dirty Baggies, but they paid the price as the Villa players and crowd were absolutely incensed by Brown's shocking tackle. Seem to remember we even went down to 10 but still stuffed them.
Remember Alex Cropley!
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Yes, I was there. We were magnificent. They were the dirtiest team I have seen at Villa Park and we ran rings round them even with 10 men.
Edit: obviously we didn't go down to ten men when Cropley was carried off, though at that time he was at the absolute peak of the powers that his slight frame belied, and was worth two of most players.
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I was there that day and my overriding memory is of a mass brawl that took place on the concourse of the Holte at half time, Villa v Villa. Everyone was angry and frustrated and the atmosphere down there was toxic. In the end, everyone turned on the police and I think a couple of them got quite badly hurt. I have no idea what kicked it all off and I didn't hang around down there (I was only about 13). I've never seen anything like it before or since.
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I was up the Holte that day - with my mom who loved going down the Villa - and I remember old timers around me telling that beating the Villa was all the Albion cared about. We lived in Great Barr and the Albion was as big a game as the Blues back then and the atmosphere was very tribal.
I recall Barry Davies commenting on MOTD saying a few minutes before half time that the the match was so dirty that the ref should blow early. And then we scored.....
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I was there that day and my overriding memory is of a mass brawl that took place on the concourse of the Holte at half time, Villa v Villa. Everyone was angry and frustrated and the atmosphere down there was toxic. In the end, everyone turned on the police and I think a couple of them got quite badly hurt. I have no idea what kicked it all off and I didn't hang around down there (I was only about 13). I've never seen anything like it before or since.
Yes, it was evil down there. I remember seeing a couple of the Steamers start shoving the coppers who were trying to get in amongst the crowd and that was when it get really nasty.
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Thanks for your memories folks,
Obviously, we all remember this was the game that effectively ended Alex Cropley's career, but (back in the days when it was only one substitue) didn't we also lose John Gidman top one of their many dubious tackles and ended the game with 10 players ?
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I believe it was Ken McNaught who was forced off first, due to a bad tackle.
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I believe it was Ken McNaught who was forced off first, due to a bad tackle.
Oh right - so we had to replace Big Ken first, with subsutitute Gordon Cowans and then having Alex Cropley carried off we then had to play with 10 men - I'm sure all that happenned in the first half as well ?
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I was also there and attest to the sickening sound of Jaws leg breaking.
As said the atmosphere was very toxic, the trouble in the concourse started when the police tried to arrest someone for being exuberant, One of our HITS members tried to intervene and it then all kicked off, fueled by the general feeling of anger.
Quite a brawl under the bridge by Witton station too ,if I remember clearly.
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The thing that gets me is that they were very much the darlings of the media at the time Yea whatever with the likes of John wake, brown etc. Enough to rival burns and Gallagher