Anderlecht away including crowd disorder

[DeKuip]

Official Villa supporters were in the corner to the right of the trouble. Unofficial ones were behind the goal. Anything from 3-5,000 of us were there.

I'm sure we went further round the side than just the corner – my blurred recollections of the game were that I was nearer to the halfway line.

There was a real fear amongst club officials and the FA that we would be thrown out after the trouble, or at the very least be made to replay the second leg. Anderlecht put in an official complaint to UEFA and Villa went to the hearing fearing the worst. The man we have to thank for ensuring our place in the final was safe was Denis Howell - Villa fan, minister of sport, former referee and highly respected by people within UEFA.
Anderlecht's case was based entirely around the fact that the fan running onto the pitch had come when they were attacking the Villa goal and it had denied them a chance of scoring. Denis Howell stood up at the hearing and asked the question "Where did the referee restart the game from when the pitch was cleared?" - when the answer came back he said something to the affect of "How could that be deemed as a clear scoring chance from there?"
Case won, and all we got was a fine and being made to play our next home European game behind closed doors.
Cheers Denis – top man. RIP

[Holte L2]

I'm going to see Anderlecht v Zulte Waregem on Wednesday! Rather looking forward

[AlexAlexCropley]

My ticket was in the official Villa section but owing to the crowds trying to get in for kick off we were let in any section,hence the behind the goal mellee.Also,we met up with some Molenbeek Skins ina bar on the Tuesday who said they were joining up with the Villa cos they hated Anderlecht.
It was very early on the Tuesday morning when somebody suggested it would be a good idea to find the ground and then climb over the wall.Some balls were found and an impromptu kick-a -bout ensued only to be curtailed when security arrived with alsatians,leading to a mass runaway back over the wall.
The craziest 72 hours of my life,still remembering bits I thought I had forgotten now.

[john e]

it didnt matter much which stand your ticket was for, if you got in early you could walk right round the ground unhindered and stand wherever you wanted.

[Ron Manager]

We went over from London on the train where a small group wiv London accents were quite vocal about the trouble they were going to cause. We got our tickets from a cafe bar adjacent to the stadium (they had a board advertising them for sale) and as it was a sunny day went to sit in the park It was very quiet. We were behind the goal at the opposite end to where the fracas occurred.

Just remember walking back to Brussels and having a couple of drinks with an elderly Belguim who wanted to talk about Duncan MacKenzie who had played for Anderlecht.

The journey back was uneventful.

[lennythekad]

One of the biggest pre match piss ups i can remember in the bars in the streets by the ground beforehand. Plus my Lichfield Villains flag features on the clip by the corner flag on 7mins 40secs when the lad on the pitch is dragged away. (which some bastard pinched off the fence at the end of the final btw).

[Dave Clark Five]

Just looked at my ticket, which I got from Villa Park. It had us in the side, near the corner. I could have sworn we were behind the goal.

[lennythekad]

Must have been quite close to you then Jon. We were in the side, about level with the penalty spot at the end with the trouble.. (Good luck for the GTC on Saturday btw).

[Dave Clark Five]

Must have been quite close to you then Jon. We were in the side, about level with the penalty spot at the end with the trouble.. (Good luck for the GTC on Saturday btw).

Cheers Ken. It has been a tight season. Anything could happen with a near capacity crowd expected.
Best of luck. We'll have a pint some time, whoever wins, and we could both get pipped to the post.

[class_of_82]

all this rubbish about soldiers in there end or non villa supporters is rubbish. they tried to put thousands of us into one tiny corner then some of them came on the pitch with a stolen villa flag. which was quickly reclaimed. then we started going over the tiniest of fences because of the crush. in the end there was a massive mob of us amongst them and they started chanting "argentina" at us because of the falklands war which was like lighting the blue touch paper and all hell broke loose. then there riot police came in amongst us and then some one went on the pitch and the game was stopped. there was a few villa in there end but there was no trouble as i could see it was all amongst us that was in there with the anderlecht fans by our fans. and that is gospel cause i was right in the thick of it

[Sunny Villa]

Perry Bar Pet ,  much as I remembered it , good laugh in the stock exchange ,  midnight shenanigans  , they squashed into the little area between the corner flag and the just outside the penalty area .

Argentina was sung , lots of Villa in the end , they the Villa reacted , bottles were thrown from above into the Villa below ......... off it went , lots of Villa crammed into the Villa end piled over , more Villa came in , 

those who stayed in the original section sang your the scum of Birmingham , as the lads in the end were subjected to multiple attempts to beat the shit of us by three different sets of Police .

despite that we had some banter with the Anderlecht fans mingled in who were loving it , the robo cops came trundling up ,  this fella about my age , said "oh you are in trouble these are very special riot police , army "     

you had to be there to be fair !   

in summary , they gave us a poor allocation for the biggest game in our history , we the lot I was with were in our early 20s , were going come what may ,  3000 for a European Cup Semi ?

some of us were in Berlin .....  when all the happy clappers gave it a miss , for the grace of god and some squaddies we would have been in serious trouble   

high jinks nothing more , the Anderlecht fans after the game mobbed us , not exactly scary were we , they laughed about there OB having to work for a change .


Great trip !         

[Dave Clark Five]

some of us were in Berlin .....  when all the happy clappers gave it a miss , for the grace of god and some squaddies we would have been in serious trouble   

         

Are you referring to the trouble right at the end of the game, outside the ground?

[Sunny Villa]

That was one of the occasions ,   we had trouble before the game , also inside the ground when Morley scored , at the end it was a bunch of bald blokes in black jackets ,,,

 

[Dave Clark Five]

That was one of the occasions ,   we had trouble before the game , also inside the ground when Morley scored , at the end it was a bunch of bald blokes in black jackets ,,,

 

We arrived there by train about 9 in the morning, went straight to a pub near the ground and got steadily pissed on beer that was the equivalent of 25p a pint. I seem to remember swapping ends at some point in the game then saw it kicking off outside the ground as we headed back to the station. I think it was a tight connection and the day visa ran out at midnight.
The surprising time when there was no trouble was immediately after the Final. As we got back to the station, it was all Germans but they were in stunned silence. Things varied from game to game. In Russia they just stared at you. In Iceland, they treated you like a local. It differed a lot over the two seasons in the cup. Juventus is always a grim place as is Besiktas. The Romanians were more interested in black market currency.

[Sunny Villa]

Dave

Ha  we were just to the right of the goal where Morley scored his cracker.

You reminded me off the panic to get back before midnight. there were 5 of us , all wedge heads  well mine was a poor attempt .  the oldest lad was 22 , we stuck out like sore thumbs with our Lois cords Lyle Scott jumpers and kagouls .

I did both besiktas and turn both vary eventful trips one we went from almost getting stabbed to goi g back to some house with some English girls working as nannies in Turin till they ran a red light and tbones a local , which was hairy as the locals were not best pleased .we ended up getting the early morning stopping train back to Nice which was full of excitable anti English Juve fans..
I had already been attacked with a knife in Nice after wandering into the wrong part of town.

Turkey was decent till my stuff got robbed at the hotel and I ended up hitch hiking back taking me 6 weeks , lost my job. and my bird  .  Best thing I went by train which took 5 days out of the 5that left England I was the only one to get to Turkey for various reasons..

Besiktas was the most passionate and intimidating atmosphere I have ever experienced