Villa away to Watford 1985

[Billy Walker]

The season I first went to Villa Park and fell in love with Aston Villa.  A club on a Doug Ellis inspired rapid decline, we actually put in a great performance on the day. 

The memories: Well, rub your eyes as that shocking Henson kit is brought back to life...and observe Andy Gray back for his second spell and on fire.  Look out for Simon Stainrod, too - very much a forgotten man when it comes to Villa.

How on earth did we not come home with the three points?

[Ian.]

I loved that Henson kit.....I was only 10 mind! It aint the best is it?

Two cracking goals from Gray, amazing how that second goal was offside though back in them days.
I wonder how many great goals would have stood today with the new (often confusing) offside rule.

[The Left Side]

How did the linesman see either of those goals as offside, what a clown... we were robbed that day!

[Billy Walker]

 

I loved that Henson kit.....I was only 10 mind! It aint the best is it?

Two cracking goals from Gray, amazing how that second goal was offside though back in them days.
I wonder how many great goals would have stood today with the new (often confusing) offside rule.

I hear the Henson kit is a bit of a collector's item now.  I guess I just associate it with relegation, Steve Hodge and boardroom incompetency! 

This is about the time when all the progress that we had made in becoming League Champs and European Cup winners was being frittered away.  Whilst other clubs were beginning to realise the importance of linking up to profitable kit deals with major suppliers, our Chairman saw fit to go to Iceland and cobble together something that just about resembled a Villa kit.  It was at about this time that the Greg Dyke started mooting the idea of live TV football and the idea of a Big Five club cartel.

That Henson kit just symbolises shambolic, unambitious, destructive leadership for me; opportunities lost due to being handicapped by a man totally out of his depth. Arrrrrgh! It still rankles. 

[Richie]

This was the season when crowds hit an all time low - culminating in the 8500 for a 0-0 with Southampton. I bet we never got crowds over 20000 more than 5 times all season.

I've still got the home shirt up the loft I think !

[peter w]

I remember this clearly. Even then there was uproar that the linesman disallowed the goals. Haven't seen the link, was it 1-1? Anyway, the line at the time was that Stan Matthews would never have been successful if those goals were ruled out. Crazy decisions.

[dave.woodhall]

This is about the time when all the progress that we had made in becoming League Champs and European Cup winners was being frittered away.  Whilst other clubs were beginning to realise the importance of linking up to profitable kit deals with major suppliers, our Chairman saw fit to go to Iceland and cobble together something that just about resembled a Villa kit.  It was at about this time that the Greg Dyke started mooting the idea of live TV football and the idea of a Big Five club cartel.

That Henson kit just symbolises shambolic, unambitious, destructive leadership for me; opportunities lost due to being handicapped by a man totally out of his depth. Arrrrrgh! It still rankles. 

You're a couple of years out there. This was the time when football was on its arse, and nobody wanted to know it. Clubs really didn't have a clue about commercialism, and what we did could have been a good idea at a better time. Spurs did the same with Hummel. Ironically, Tony Stephens, our commercial manager at the time, was the best in the business and ahead of the game. He wanted to do more than Doug would allow him and went off to be a players' agent. For Platt, Shearer, Beckham, Yorke, Owen et al. Henson was typical of Doug - get a good idea and do it half-arsed. 

[peter w]

Was this the 3-0 thinking about it?

[TopDeck113]

I had the Henson shirt and I'll say this for it, the quality of the polyester was better than anything I've ever owned since.

Good point about Tony Stephens, Dave.  With hindsight, both he, and before him, Eric Woodward, realised that the club had to look to more than money at the turnstile, programmes and pies to compete at the highest level. Although I did rather resent the fact that Villa had given him his start in football when he was negotiating Platt's and Yorke's moves away from B6.

[Billy Walker]

Was it Tony Stephens' idea to put advertising hoardings up on the Trinity?  I think it was.  It's interesting what you say Dave, because it seems we had two extremes there behind the scenes at Villa: the ultra dynamic Stephens and Mr. H.D Ellis.  Between the pair of them we got torn asunder.

Peter W - it was, indeed, 1-1.

[dave.woodhall]

Was it Tony Stephens' idea to put advertising hoardings up on the Trinity?  I think it was.  It's interesting what you say Dave, because it seems we had two extremes there behind the scenes at Villa: the ultra dynamic Stephens and Mr. H.D Ellis.  Between the pair of them we got torn asunder.

Peter W - it was, indeed, 1-1.

I don't know whose idea it was but thankfully it didn't last. I think Tony wanted to be CEO at a time when the role didn't exist in football, so he left to be in charge of Wembley. He was as big a loss off the field as Graham Taylor was on it. 

[UsualSuspect]

Football was still on it's arse in 1989/90 when we were runners up under GT Mark 1.

I remember us playing Millwall at home in about April when we still were in with a shout of winning the league and we had 20k there. In fact I bet we only averaged a little over 20k that season.

Back to that henson kit I hated it purely because it just had AVFC written on it on no badge

[The Left Side]

"Back to that henson kit I hated it purely because it just had AVFC written on it on no badge"

Well said, absolutely disgraceful but sums up HDE I suppose.

[eamonn]

Was this the 3-0 thinking about it?

Click the link and see ya lazy sod.

[andyaston]

Football was still on it's arse in 1989/90 when we were runners up under GT Mark 1.

I remember us playing Millwall at home in about April when we still were in with a shout of winning the league and we had 20k there. In fact I bet we only averaged a little over 20k that season.

Back to that henson kit I hated it purely because it just had AVFC written on it on no badge

We averaged just under 26,000