1980s football?

[BIG MAN LEON]

I have never experianced football much in the 80`s but would`ve much prefered it then to now. Money is ruining the game it`s turning so many average footballers into miilionaires and class footballers into breedy wankers who always want more.

I would prefer to be in terracing too.

[TopDeck113]

In terms of being just a good laugh with like-minded mates your late teens and early twenties is the best age for going to watch football IMO. So as someone who was 15 years old at the start on the 80s I have to vote for that era. There were lots of things that were horribly wrong with the game in general and, in the middle of the decade, with the Villa in particular, but I have some great memories.

[Mr Med]

Just given up my seat in the Trinity after 15years.
Can't stand the kick-off times changes any more. Too much emphasis on the top 4 clubs.
And as for all the bollox this week over transfers, money & managers walking out the Prem needs to wake-up and smell the coffee.

Yeh sure, football in the 80's had its problems and disasters, but the game was not infected so much by money and television then. You were a real football fan. Someone who stood on open terraces in the pissing rain often getting home just in time to watch Match Of The Day, then the main source of TV football.

Feels a bit like biting your nose off to spite your face having had a season ticket for so many years  and then giving up when things look promising.

The good old 80's. See you at the Saturday 3o'clock games.

[Dave Clark Five]

Money is ruining the game it`s turning so many average footballers into miilionaires.

I was following a car P3 SCH yesterday and spotted it going into an enormous house. Guess who owns that expensive motor. What did he ever do on the football pitch? We all know what he did off the pitch.

[Coopers Injury]

80's
still think my fav ever season for having fun was GT's resurgence from the old Div 2. Did every game and we won 17 away games i think

[ATV]

I don't remember anything about the 1980's. Too young i'm afraid :-

[peter w]

Now. Even though we were very successful at the start of the 80s football is better on every front now. Stadia, pitches, less abandonments, better facilities for players and fans alike, safer environment to watch games for families and individual fans, better healthcare in place for players, players looked after better post football, better standard of football, better TV coverage, better atmospheres (yeah right, we lost it all when we lost standing. 8000 v Southampton suggetsts otherwise, 20 000 v Oxford in the LC semis loike wise).

[Mr Med]

Coopers Injury wrote
still think my fav ever season for having fun was GT's resurgence from the old Div 2. Did every game and we won 17 away games i think

Won 13 Drew 5 and lost only 4 away. Our home form had not been good losing 6 games.

I Remember last game at Swindon when we were promoted. Game was over, we had drawn 0-0 and were waiting for Boro's game at home to Leicester to finish. I had the radio on me walkman and everyone was crowded around like a scrum waiting for the final whistle. Boro lost at home 1-2 and we were up by the skin of our teeth just missing the dreaded play-offs.

[peter w]

After Leicester had also beat Bradford 3-2 away.

[user66]

Coopers Injury wrote
still think my fav ever season for having fun was GT's resurgence from the old Div 2. Did every game and we won 17 away games i think

Won 13 Drew 5 and lost only 4 away. Our home form had not been good losing 6 games.

I Remember last game at Swindon when we were promoted. Game was over, we had drawn 0-0 and were waiting for Boro's game at home to Leicester to finish. I had the radio on me walkman and everyone was crowded around like a scrum waiting for the final whistle. Boro lost at home 1-2 and we were up by the skin of our teeth just missing the dreaded play-offs.

Swindon away....the day of days.
A group of us from Vale / Erdington had paid a chap to drive our minibus on the proviso he stayed sober. After the game (anyone remember the 100-a-side football match on the waste ground), our bus was only one left on the car park (about 5.45 by now). A quick recce around the ground revealed that Eddie the driver, was stood in their social club on about his 8th pint of bitter.

We bowled into the club up some stairs, expecting a knock back at any moment by some steward or commissionaire, but hey presto no-one stopped us and in we went, only to find that this club also doubled up as their players lounge and in were coming all the Villa players.

Abiding memory is of me, Mark Lillis and Spinky standing on a table singing 'we are going up' with a group of Swindon chaps cheering us on !

We left the ground when the players did (about 7.30 ish) and they were giving us cans of beer and sandwiches off the team coach.....then we drove back to Brum (Eddie was not driving !) and got properly wankered - perfect !

[peter w]

Was anyone else at the car park - a service station I think - that turned into a 50 a-side game? I scored the first.

[Dave Cooper please]

Was anyone else at the car park - a service station I think - that turned into a 50 a-side game? I scored the first.

Yeah, but you were a mile offside.

[dave.woodhall]

For me the perfect era was around 1989-92. Post-Hillsborough so we were starting to be treated decently and violence was more or less out of fashion. Pre-Premier League so matches were still invariably on Saturday afternoon and hype-free. Thenalong came Sky to bugger it all up.

[Kingthing]

For me the perfect era was around 1989-92. Post-Hillsborough so we were starting to be treated decently and violence was more or less out of fashion. Pre-Premier League so matches were still invariably on Saturday afternoon and hype-free. Thenalong came Sky to bugger it all up.

Same hear 88 was when I stared going 3-3 at Goodison, couldn't talk for a week.

[TopDeck113]

For me the perfect era was around 1989-92. Post-Hillsborough so we were starting to be treated decently and violence was more or less out of fashion. Pre-Premier League so matches were still invariably on Saturday afternoon and hype-free. Thenalong came Sky to bugger it all up.

I think there's a lot of credence to that arguement. I would also say that the early years of the Premier League were also OK: more money in the game, but not too much (and a lot of it it has to be remembered was used to improve some of the more crappy grounds) and a tolerable number of games moved by Sky.  I think it was Euro 96 that was the moment that football at the top level became a fashion-statement and led ultimately to where we are today.

Putting a Villa angle on it: a golden era starting with Platt's volley against Belgium and ending with Southgate's penalty against Germany.