26.5.82: Happy Rotterdam Day

[Steve R]

The Ted Goff one? No idea. The images were available previously. Gone forever now and I no longer have copies. The were sent to me by Tony Barton's son.

That is an absolute bastard of a thing to do.

Brilliant work Exigo.

[Rico]

A few weeks ago it was my birthday, and my wife type person and lovely step daughters gave me some fantastic Villa related presents. One was an excellent replica 1982 European Cup Final shirt. The other was a copy of the Champions of Europe DVD. Now I have a confession to make having watched the glorious match again yesterday.  This was the first time since that night in May 1982 that I have actually watched the whole of the match again.  A few things struck me about that match. Firstly,  how good were we? Absolutely blinkin brilliant is the answer.  Every one of that team was superb,  but Tony Morley was awesome and Peter Withe was a colossus up front.  Special mention also to Nigel Spink.  There were no superstars in that team, but in some ways they were more German than the Germans.  Totally efficient and ruthless.

As I have said earlier it was the first time that I have watched the whole game again since 1982, and a memory of that night is being almost frozen in fear as Byern ripped us to shreads. However,  having watched it again I realised that this was not actually the case. We were by far the better team in the first half, and Spinky had very little to do. Granted they did turn up the pressure in the second half, especially after our goal, but once again the sense of die for the cause ethic instilled in the team shone through. During the commentary, the up coming 1982 World Cup in Spain got briefly mentioned, and to this day I still think it is one of the greatest missed opportunities by the F.A and England management. Can you imagine an England team now that contained none of the previous seasons league champions or the current European Champions? Surely a team containing Rimmer, Swain, Williams, Mortimer, Cowans, Morley, Shaw and Withe would have progressed further and could have won it outright.  After all they were proven winners!

Another thought about that night was where was everyone? I know there had been a problem with hooliganism,  but the attendance was very poor for such an important game.

Finally, the commentary and production was poor in comparison to today's coverage. I'm no fan of sky, but they do know how to put on a show.

Anyway, what a night, what a team! I won't wait another thirty odd years to watch it again.

[Damo70]

I think the attendance looks worse because the cameras are facing the one stand that had far more empty seats than the other three. I agree that when I first watched the whole game after many years I was surprised how well we played first half. There is a tendency to think of it as a ninety minute backs to the wall performance.

[dave shelley]

I've posted before about the reason the ground looked empty and my opinion is that like myself and my mates, we had seats for that area that was unoccupied but, we chose to go and stand behind the goal instead.  Many others had the same idea and, there was no one to stop us.

If you look at the crowd scenes you will notice that there are far more people behind the goal than there should be.  We were packed like sardines.  Great though.

I suspect something similar happened with the German fans too.  All that; gives the illusion that the place was half empty.

[class-of-82]

Me and my mates all had tickets for the upper tier yet when we went up there we thought sod this our tickets had AA on them so we went down to the tier direct behind the goal held our thumb over one of the A and walked straight in past the steward it was packed to the rafters but we would not of had it any different.
I queued up for 10 mins to get 4 litres of lager while game was on tried to get back to my mates with them on cardboard tray  through the crowd as Morley crossed for withe to score and the whole lot I slung in the Air going absolutely mental.
was that the best night of my life oh you bet it was just hope one day it can be repeated so another generation can go through the joy and emotion that everyone who was there that night or watching at home went through

Villa till I die

[Legion]

The only time where it could not be classed as a waste of lager.

[class-of-82]

So true legion so true even the fans I soaked were oblivious to it I reckon

[Damo70]

I was in the front row of the upper tier behind the Peter Withe goal.

[class-of-82]

I was one of the 5 goalies on the feyenoord training  pitch when the game was about 50 a side cause I wS to drunk to run.
Oh happy days

[Pat McMahon]

With a mate I was another of those who got out of the seats in the upper tier and sneaked my way into the standing section - not that hard in reality.

I had booked my ticket on the last day of packages from Villa Park and it was coach and seats or train and standing IIRC. On the day I booked the standing was already sod out.

[class-of-82]

Please god just one more European/champions league journey like that just so I can take my son and daughter on it to show them what it was like even now it seems like last season it happened