Away Ipswich - F.A.Cup 1975

[Richie]

Found this on you tube. Typical Villa in the F.A.Cup, managing to grab defeat from the jaws of victory !

Apart from this though, the season couldn't have gone much better.

Any memories ? Looks like a lot of Villa fans are behind the goal when Alun Evans puts the second goal in.

[Bernie]

I was there. It was in the middle of the successful promotion push & League Cup run so about the only thing that went wrong at that time, though could have been a blessing in disguise. Ipswich had a good side at the time so despite the sickener of throwing away a 2 goal lead the day wasn't considered a disaster by any means.
A lot of Villa fans there as you say. Ipswich fans were chanting "IRA, Ipswich Republican Army" - this a few months after the B'ham pub bombings didn't go down too well with us & a a bit of bother resulted.

[nick harper]

Smart away kit. Simple, classy.

[SarkGrime]

Alun Evans's only start under Ron. I remember me and my mates being very surprised when the team was announced and he was in it. He had also come on as a sub at Hartlepool in the LC. Oddly enough he was sub at Wembley too (I think).

[darren woolley]

I've never seen that before pity about the result seemed a good game cheers Richie.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I was at that, 5th round game from memory. I remember we found a very nice pub a few mile short of Ipswich to sample a couple of pints of Tolly Cobbold. A pint that went down exceedingly easily so we had more than a couple and just about made kick off. Ipswich were run by the Cobbold family and I remember reading some good stories from Bobby Robson about his chairmans antics who was more than a little partial himself to the product that made the family fortune.

[pooligan]

Great to see highlights of that game again even though we ended up losing. Was at the game and can remember thinking even  at 2-0 up would be happy for a replay as Ipswich were no mugs. Can remember all the aggro outside the Villa end after the game and also on the way home at St Neots there was a big mob waiting for unsuspecting villa fans stopping off for a bite to eat or a drink. Some people said they were spurs fans,others said they were west ham,whoever they were ,they sure caused some trouble!

[frank]

I went to this one. We had a poor record against Ipswich and they were in a higher divison, yet we went 2-0 up, which was about as unlikely as going 2-0 up at the Emirates recently. The turning point was when Bryan Hamilton came off the bench. He dominated the game in the second half and scored 2 goals. Perhaps it was just as well we got knocked out of the cup: with only the league to concentrate on, we lost just one more game, drew 2 and won 12 as we secured promotion.

[Pat McMahon]

IIRC this defeat and a defeat away to Orient in March were our only losses after the turn of the year. As Frank says, this defeat may well have been a blessing in disguise, allowing us to focus on the getting back to Division 1.

[Steve R]

Blessing in disguise my arse. We'd have won the treble if it weren't for Trevor Whymark's handball.

Two goals from a talentless dobbin like Bryan Hamilton.

It still grates.

[Flamingo Lane]

That was a damn good Ipswich team that beat us, and they needed to be.  In round 4 of the cup we had destroyed a very good 1st division Sheffield United, 4-1.

I don't believe it at all fanciful to think we could also have won the FA Cup that year, had we got past Ipswich.

On the Tuesday afer that Ipswich game we won 3-2 at Portsmouth, on the Saturday after we beat Man Utd 2-0 at home and on the Saturday after that we won the league cup final v Norwich.

[lennythekad]

IIRC we took three trainloads to this, and were all in the ground by about 1pm for the 3pm ko, as the coppers frogmarched us straight to the ground.

[pooligan]

Yeah if i remember correctly the station is just at the top of the road from the ground,must be the nearest station to a ground i have ever used.

[Mister E]

I was there; travelled on one of the trani specials. It was the game where we were chanting "Beattie wants his mummy" because the England CB Kevin Beattie had left an England training camp to be with his mum! Silly, but very bitchy; probably upset his game a little (not enough re the 3rd goal, however!).

Keith Leonard! - great player.

Great day out; still remember it well.

[Oscar Arce]

Agree with everyone...classic away kit (my favourite Villa shirt) and Keith Leonard was a wonderful player, but for injury was destined for big things.
Remember the game well, we were on a roll then that was never going to stop.