1987 - Graham Taylor arrives

[LeeB]

You're right from memory, and IIRC there were extended highlights of the game on Central the next day.

My memories from being at the game are the same as Charlie8182. We were battered with Saunders and Goddard missing chances. My memories from the highlights were Derek Mountfield getting away with a defensive mistake and doing a gun to the head gesture of relief.

1-0? Platt goal? didn't Phil Gee also miss a few that day? Or is that another Derby game?

Platt yes.  And 'Sticks' in the return game at the Baseball Ground, when we were packed like sardines in searing heat in the away end.

Yes it was hot. Yes it was packed. Cacarino's debut and a brief reappearance from Nigel Callaghan.

Derby seemed to have it's own micro climate at this point, every time we went it was hot, even the midweek cup game in February was unseasonably warm.

[LTA]

Still one of the bravest acts by a manager I've seen was at the end of his second stint with us when he came on the pitch after the last game of a bad season to address the crowd.The crowd we're a lot less reasonable then he deserved.

I think a lot less reasonable is putting it mildly.  The way he was treated by some people around me in the Lower Trinity that day was disgraceful.  For a man who'd done so much for the club and saved it from the abyss to be treated like that incensed me.

[el león Benidorm]

His first stint is my most memorable as an attending fan.
Is was 15 when he signed and got to see my first live match the following year when we played Liverpool at home and it was a 1-1 draw. I never looked back from that moment.
The first season was a roller coaster to say the very least. Highlights being smashing small heath three times in as many weeks. Beating Arsenal 3-2 at Highbury, and Daley's scissor kick against Everton. Then the slide where we almost went down.
The following close season I thought he had lost the plot when he signed McGrath.
Losing 3-0 to QPR with a Beelzebub hattrick still makes me shudder, but then the turnaround and what a turnaround it was.
The Christmas period where we took them all on and beat them. That night at Tottenham when we went top... with a game in hand no less!!
It was an awesome time for a villa fan. Even the end of the season when it slipped from our grasp.
3-3 against Norwich. For a neutral is was great but for us, it meant it was all over.
The following week at Everton where almost everyone in Liverpool had a brummie accent that day. Another 3-3. Sadly the great man wasn't there to take his swansong so Uncie Herb decided to take to the pitch.
It should have been the start of something almost Fergusonesq, but it wasn't to be.
My favourite three seasons as a villa fan.

[Damo70]

It was 1-3 against QPR not 0-3 wasn't it? Although I'm buggered f I can remember who got our goal. Coming out of White Hart Lane that night after the 0-2 I was convinced we were going to win the league.

[LeeB]

It was 1-3 against QPR not 0-3 wasn't it? Although I'm buggered f I can remember who got our goal. Coming out of White Hart Lane that night after the 0-2 I was convinced we were going to win the league.

"Hand it over
Hand it over,
Hand it over, Arsenal"

[PeterWithe]

How is SGT these days?  I heard he wasn't too well last year?

He was a guest on the Jeremey Vine show on R2 earlier in the year, sounded in good form although, naturally, aging. He had some very entertaining stories albeit, mostly about Watford.

[el león Benidorm]

It was 1-3 against QPR not 0-3 wasn't it? Although I'm buggered f I can remember who got our goal. Coming out of White Hart Lane that night after the 0-2 I was convinced we were going to win the league.

Yes you may be right about the score against QPR. I was so hacked off I must have forgotten that we had scored.

[peter w]

His first stint is my most memorable as an attending fan.
Is was 15 when he signed and got to see my first live match the following year when we played Liverpool at home and it was a 1-1 draw. I never looked back from that moment.
The first season was a roller coaster to say the very least. Highlights being smashing small heath three times in as many weeks. Beating Arsenal 3-2 at Highbury, and Daley's scissor kick against Everton. Then the slide where we almost went down.
The following close season I thought he had lost the plot when he signed McGrath.
Losing 3-0 to QPR with a Beelzebub hattrick still makes me shudder, but then the turnaround and what a turnaround it was.
The Christmas period where we took them all on and beat them. That night at Tottenham when we went top... with a game in hand no less!!
It was an awesome time for a villa fan. Even the end of the season when it slipped from our grasp.
3-3 against Norwich. For a neutral is was great but for us, it meant it was all over.
The following week at Everton where almost everyone in Liverpool had a brummie accent that day. Another 3-3. Sadly the great man wasn't there to take his swansong so Uncie Herb decided to take to the pitch.
It should have been the start of something almost Fergusonesq, but it wasn't to be.
My favourite three seasons as a villa fan.

Just to point out that SGT was there at Everton. After Ellis and when it had become patently clear that we weren't going anyway until he came out he eventually did.