April 21st 1982

[Chico Hamilton III]

Anderlecht, away.

30 years ago!

Thanks to Pat "memory" McMahon for the reminder .

Frightening to think that there are Villa fans as old as 30 for whom this is just a chapter in a history book.

[Charlie8182]

The game wasn't shown live in those days (unthinkable now), so me and my dad were following it on Tony Butler's show on BRMB with his prayer mats and commentary from George Gavin in Belgium.  A lot of pain, heartache and uncertainty (not even to mention the crowd trouble) but we got there!

[Pat McMahon]

I was at the game so obvioulsy saw no TV - too busy celebrating near the main square in Brussels, but IIRC from friends the midweek highlights programme showed Barca v Spurs from the Cup Winners Cup rather than our game in the EC semi final.

This is the equivalent today of a Chumps League game involving an English team playing second fiddle to a Europa league game, notwithstanding the fact they now play on different nights, but you get my point.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

[Simon Ward]

I was in France so was trying to get the news of the match on the BBC world service. In the end I think I gave up and phoned home!

[neil strevens]

We were on a supporters bus on an official Villa trip and the bus stopped suddenly outside the ground. I could see lads lying in the road and thought there had been fighting or an accident. No, they were pissed & couldn't get up. We were in the seats in the corner at the other end from the fighting and we had a few flares chucked at us. Epic night.