22 years agio this week. The crush at Upton Park

[DeKuip]

It was pretty tight in there I remember.  Never used to think twice about the safety side of things back then but looking back now at that night and at places like the Anny Road End, and the Smerrick End at Albion, and when we used to stand behind the goal at Ipswich it was pretty dangerous. I remember losing my footing coming down the stairs at Liverpool on the way out once and being squashed against the side wall trying to get up, that was a tad scary.
Just over 30,000 at West Ham, they had 26k previous round v Lpool and 24k for semi.

[bertlambshank]

I was at the 3 games mentioned and yet I would still love safe standing area's.

[cdbearsfan]

What's the formation? Was Stuart Gray on the wing or were we playing two left backs?

[usav]

Gray played left-side of midfield sometimes during that period.

[The Left Side]

Was that the game I think Kevin Gage and the Black Andy Gray left the ball for one another on the edge of the box and Ince nipped in and scored? We should have won that game if my memory is correct?

[Dave Summers]

I was at this game as well and like other people have said it was awful.  I remember standing with my mate and then in the crush losing him, I looked up on to the pitch and he was standing in the penalty area.  I managed to get to the far side of the pen after a few mins, by some kind of wall of a cabin I seem to remember and it wasn't quite as bad then. 

Just glad I got out of there and home in one piece to be truthful.

Also the game at Swindon in the promotion year was no picnic either.

[Charlie8182]

My first ever visit to Upton Park, as a 16 year old and I don't think I've been in a more hostile atmosphere (outside of the Sty) before or since.
Even though it’s 22 years ago I still remember most things about that night clearly.  Me and my dad got there late (due to the London traffic) and missed the kick off, and there were still hundreds of Villa fans outside the ground and desperate to get in.  We heard the Villa fans inside celebrating and we all thought we had scored- not knowing that Brady had his penalty saved. 
I got in- it cost £4.50 for the terraces; I remember that as I paid a fiver and they didn’t have any change- 50p was significant then in my YTS days.  And as soon as they let my dad in after, they closed the turnstiles leaving loads left outside.  The top of the gangway was jammed and I really don't know how we managed to force our way onto the terrace and see the pitch although my feet never touched the ground all night it was that packed, in fact everyone in the ground appeared to be shoehorned- and up for it!
As we all know, our fans ended up on the touchline, and spammers in very close proximity hurled abuse throughout; was it really worse than this in the 1980 FA Cup tie?
I remember a cracking goal from ex-Walsall player David Kelly to effectively knock us out, but an even better one from David Platt but too late.  And a confrontational pitch invasion from West Ham at full time, like at the Sty recently but without flares being thrown.  Some Villa fans in the seats in the upper tier in turn starting throwing missiles onto the spammers below.
Getting away from the ground was fun as well,  all Villa fans were directed towards the Tube but we were parked the other way but the Police didn’t allow us to go there, so my dad had to plead with the Superintendent to get through.   The trick now was to smile to avoid a kicking, the Boleyn Arms near the ground was absolutely jumping- you could see the windows bouncing outwards and feel the pavement vibrating.

We went to a much more peaceful game at Forest 3 days later, but got a soaking in a 4-0 defeat; happy times!!

[gerags]

I was up in the seats with my brother and watched this unfold as the game went on.

There was no segregation and we were sat next to West Ham fans.

As has been said earlier, when the police realised that there was no getting the Villa fans back into the terrace they moved the Spam fans across their terrace and put our lot in there with just one line of police between the fans.
At the end of the match, when they invaded the pitch at the end and realised they weren't going to get at us they turned towards the seats and encoursged theirs to have a go at us.

Coins started to come down, the fella next to us turned to me and said "I think you'd better get out of here". At which point we made a sharp exit.

[andyaston]

Thank God I didnt go to this away game sounds like a typical 80s horror show.