40 years ago tonight

[Dave Clark Five]

It is the 40th anniversary of the great LCSF victory over Man Utd on 23 December 1970. Doesn't it make you feel old? All those years have past and there has not been much to match that occasion. It may be a view through nostalgia but I have always looked back on that night with great memories.

The headline read 'HEADS IT'S ANDY'.

[E I Adio]

Yes, great, great memories. The feeling of sheer elation when Pat McMahon's goal hit the net has never quite been equalled for me at any match since. We have been involved with many more important and exciting matches over the years, but nothing has ever made me feel quite the same as I did that night on the packed Holte beating a star studded Manchester United team to reach a cup final, after the endless dismal depressing days of the sixties when it was normal to wander into Villa Park at five minutes to three and pick which crush barrier you fancied leaning on.

It's also probably something to do with lost youth.

[Virgil Caine]

Jeez forty years! Thanks DC5 for the prompt, a truly fantastic night at VP and I would argue that it was the best atmosphere i have ever witnessed.

[tonyh]

A night that will never be matched or bettered at Villa park. A heaving Cauldron of Noise

[SteveN]

Ye Gods - 40 years thanks DC5 for reminding me just how old I'm getting!

Sadly I remember more about that night than I do any of the few games I've been to over the past few years.  Wonderful atmosphere and as EIA has said such a contrast to the depressing times that had gone before. 

[villasjf]

Yes great night except being chased by a group of angry manc fans after the match.

[frank]

It ranks with 5-1 Liverpool as one of the great Villa Park nights of my life. I'd failed to get a ticket but on the day before the game I travelled up from Redditch to Birmingham to do Christmas shopping and word spread around the city that Man U had returned some of their tickets. I went straight to Villa Park and queued for a couple of hours to get my ticket. Even 40 years on my memories of the game are still fresh and I'll never forget the Holte going berserk when Pat McMahon scored the winner.

[Captain Trips]

I hugged strangers that night at the end of that match :-)

[maidstonevillain]

My greatest Villa memory. One of possibly three games for which I will take the meories to my grave. The others the second LC replay against Everton and .... the  2-0 loss against Arsenal in '81.

[Oscar Arce]

And still waiting for the DVD...................
Yes what a night that was and I too feel much older, 40 years...jeeez!
Can still see Andy towering above Ian Ure to power in that header.
One of the greatest nights of my life.

[darren woolley]

It's just a pity i was only one at the time but i like to hear stories about matches like the LCSF i would loved to have been old enough to witness it.

[Simba]

Certainly one of my special memories. What an atmosphere. That second goal had my mate pushed to the bottom of the Holte and me somewhere up top.  Madness. And Bobby Charlton writing in an article in "Goal" that Villa were the better team in both legs.  We were too.

Oscar - good question - somebody on here said that a DVD was to be available very soon. That was almost a year ago.

[Bernie]

A fantastic night - certainly the biggest crowd (62,500?) I'd been in up to then, I'd been going to matches for 2 years by then & had been more used to crowds around or less than the 20K mark when, as said by E I Adio , you could pick your spot to stand in. I can to this day see in my mind's eye the ball coming off Andy's head for the equaliser at the Holte End & Pat McMahon's diving header at the Witton. This may have been a Man U side in the slide but they still had the likes of Law, Best & Charlton, so not a bad achievement for a 3rd Division side. Happy Days 

[Dave Clark Five]

[lennythekad]

First game I ever queued up for tickets, aged 14. Got there at 10 o'clock on the Sunday morning they went on sale, to see the back of the queue about 50 yds from the Holte pub down Witton Lane!!. It was three or four wide right down to Witton Island, round the corner, through the side streets and back onto Trinity Road, then along to the old ticket office. Didn't think I stood a chance, but if I recall correctly, I got my tickets about two in the afternoon, as did the hundred or so that joined the queue after me. Happy Days!.