40 Years ago today

[barrysleftfoot]

  I was there, i always thought it was 64k gate.

  I was 9, and my main memory was Dere Dougan sitting behind me, and loads of people coming up asking for his autograph.

 Don't remember much about the game tbh.

[Dave Clark Five]

I feared that I wouldn't get in at one stage. I took my brother and we got crushed in the queues outside the Holte End. We had almost given up but we managed to get in and sneaked through into the Trinity Road Enclosure. In those days, there was an atmosphere about the place that you really had to be there to appreciate.

[trog]

i had the program from this match with pele's autograph on the front cover but i gave it to my nephew. "wish i still had it ". he was a villa fan but i dont know if he still has it i have not seen him in years.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Went with my faithful Villa mate Dave....in the Holte End and loving it!

[Legion]

Not a patch on Cruyff, Maradona or Messi as far as I'm concerned.

Oh dear. Its a generational thing. For me Cruyff is the only one who can be compared to Pele. Messi has only just started. Maradona doesnt deserve it.

I'd go with that.

[darren woolley]

I wished I could have been there thanks for the post.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

i had the program from this match with pele's autograph on the front cover but i gave it to my nephew. "wish i still had it ". he was a villa fan but i dont know if he still has it i have not seen him in years.

I got my programme signed by the great man, and its safely stored away.
My main memory of the game was actually the Santos goal, scored by Edu, a unstoppable bending free kick at the Witton End.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Not a patch on Cruyff, Maradona or Messi as far as I'm concerned.

Oh dear. Its a generational thing. For me Cruyff is the only one who can be compared to Pele. Messi has only just started. Maradona doesnt deserve it.

I'd go with that.

A total 1281 goals in 1363 games. That includes the even more impressive statistic of 77 goals in 92 appearances for Brazil.
Three World Cup Winners Medals in 1958, 1962, and 1970. Brazil may not have won any of those tournaments without Pele there. If he had been afforded 10% of the protection modern day players get - instead of being kicked off the park by the Bulgarians and Portugese in the group stages - who is to say he may not have won them the 1966 tournament too ?
All of this achieved with a style which screamed out the phrase `The beautiful game`.   

[Flamingo Lane]

I was at the game, in our usual place in the old Trinity Road stand.  Oddly, I recall Santos also played at Plymouth Argyle on that mini-tour of games, not sure which other team they played against (if any).

[BC54 VFC]

I was at the game, in our usual place in the old Trinity Road stand.  Oddly, I recall Santos also played at Plymouth Argyle on that mini-tour of games, not sure which other team they played against (if any).

Sheffield Wednesday two days later; Santos won 2-0.

[DeKuip]

Just been speaking to my dad about this game (I went to it with him as I was just 12). The thing he remembered was someone in the offices at Villa telling him some time after that Santos had been told about (or had seen) the size of the crowd and demanded even more money (in cash) or they wouldn't come out the dressing room to play. Villa had no choice but to give in to the blackmail. It probably wasn't the only time Santos pulled this stunt.
They were the Harlem Globetrotters of football, playing as a many exhibition/friendly games as league games.

[ktvillan]

An 11 year old me was sat in the Trinity for this game.  Pele wasn't anything special on the the night to be honest but we saw a bit of Brazilian magic from Edu.

I think writing off Pele on the basis of one (or even a few) friendly games is a bit steep.  The bloke played a major part in winning Brazil a World Cup when he was 17, then twice more.  He proved time and time again he could do it when it mattered, on the world's biggest stage.

[PeterWithesShin]

That 1970 Brazil side could have won the World Cup with me in the number 10 shirt. And I was only a few months old at the time.

[ClarrieBlue]

I was there but never got in. Trinity Road was completely rammed with people. The police announced by megaphone that if you were on the pavement you were in the queue, If you were on the road you had to go to the back of the queue. I was on the pavement but of course everybody from the road was now trying to get on the pavement signalling a massive suffocating crush against the Holte End wall. Someone in front of me fainted and my mate jumped over him to the turnstile and got in. I am 6ft tall but at this point my feet aren't touching the ground and all around me folks are starting to have panic attacks as none of us can move or get out even if we want to. At this point the police drove horses into the queue to split it up into sections thus worsening the crush. So there I am with a huge police horse breathing it's foul breath straight into my face and head butting me to boot as it neighed and shook it's head as horses do. Well that was it, I'd had enough and managed eventually to get out of the queue even though I was only about 2 feet from the turnstile. I can laugh now but at the time it was absolutely terrifying.

[The Left Side]

I love that footage, thanks for posting and I wish I could say I was there but I wasn't around then.