Memories of the 1975 League Cup Final
Born in South Birmingham, I have been supporting the Villa for over sixty years and moved to Australia four years ago, but in the sixties and seventies was working in the Theatre and TV professionally.
In 74/75 I was appearing at The Victoria Palace Theatre in London with Max Bygraves (another Villa connection as he was also a supporter due to his close friendship with Harry Parkes).
Max, knowing of my support, asked, one day, if I fancied going with him to Wembley for the LCF against Norwich. (Harry P would not be going (!) and we could have his tickets).
There was only one problem! We had two shows to do on a Saturday and as the first one was at 6 o/clock we would have to leave before the final whistle, he would arrange, however, for his driver to be waiting right outside Wembley to rush us to Victoria.
Needless to say the seats were great, right next to the Royal Box, but the game was not the greatest. (I had memories of 1971 and the disappointment at seeing us lose to Spurs). It was still 0-0 when we had to leave.
We got outside the stadium and there was a big roar which quickly died (obviously not a goal), all quiet for a few moments then chanting which then died down (no idea which fans were cheering), then a huge oooh, a moments quiet and a huge roar.
Frustratingly for us not a clue as to what had happened! Just then the car arrived and the driver was able to tell us that Villa had a penalty, Ray Graydon had hit the post but had scored from the rebound. (Suddenly the above made sense!).
Needless to say the shows that night were performed on a real high, (Max gave us a great mention at the end of both shows), although I had to wait till the next day to actually see the goal.
UTV (always).
