42 years.

[Dave Clark Five]

It is now 42 years since the epic 2nd leg of the League Cup semi final against Man. Utd.
Funny how such a game sticks in your mind for so long. I can recall the whirlpool of people trying to get onto the steps at the back of the Holte End at the end of the game and the exhilaration at what we had achieved. Was that the turning point or had we already had that?

[nordenvillain]

I remember that night well, the game had been postponed from the previous week due to bad weather postponing the 1st leg by a week, so explaining why it was played on 23rd December 1970. One of the great nights for atmosphere at VP. We had drawn at OT 2 weeks previously, so this was no 'one-off tie upset'.  I still remember Pat McMahon's 'Salmon like' leap to head past Jimmy Rimmer (And we all know what a part he was to play in our success of a decade or more later) for the winning goal.

FWITW, I think we had reached some kind of turning point the previous season when we had drawn at Southampton in the FA Cup and then beat them on the following Wednesday in front of a 59,000 crowd.

Along with Bournemouth in the Division 3 71/72 season and Barcelona 77/78 EUFA Cup, one of my 3 most memorable days / nights at VP.

[olaftab]

If I remember right it was still a school day and straight after me and my friend headed for VP. It was not far away.  Straight over Cukoo Bridge turn left running all the way. Don't know why but we must have been at VP around 4 with no idea of time. Just knew it was 7.30 kick off. Sat on the steps at Trinity for a little while, walked around to look at Holte End than back to Trinity turnstiles.  Waiting for doors to open. Once we were inside we headed straight for front standing within touching distance of the pitch. We must been there about an hour and half before the ground started filling up. The rest s history.....

[nigel]

Yes, remember it well.
I was up the Witton End with all the Man Utd fans and a fair few Villa too. Can't remember an ounce of trouble either.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

[E I Adio]

Heady days of youth, most of which have been forgotten. Except this.

[Hale]

Personally my all time favourite game at Villa Park - thanks for the thread - now for 3 points at Chelski

[BC54 VFC]

I was thinking increasingly about that, Jon, as today's game wore on; probably clutching at straws thinking it has been a good date for us in the past.

For some strange reason I was in the Upper Trinity for that game, probably the only part of the ground my dad could get tickets for; what a night it was! As nordenvillain has said, the Southampton game was pretty amazing (actually 1968-69 season) - I've always thought the attendance at that match was the most unlikely in all my time of supporting the Villa; only 4th round and midweek after Christmas etc., although Southampton did have some good players in those days.     

[Bernie]

One of my handful of favourite Villa memories- I think about that night on 23rd December every year.

[Steve R]

I'd say there were a few turning points around that time DCF. In my recollection the first was the Boxing day game against Cardiff when over 40,000 showed up on a bitterly cold day. I'd got used to crowds of 12 to 14,000 being the norm. Suddenly we seemed like a big club again.

I'd go with the Southampton game too but would add the 3rd round game against QPR. Both the Baggies and Small Heath played at home that day and had crowds of around 30,000; we got 39,000. Up to that point we had been pretty much next to bottom of the pile out of the 6 local teams in just about everything including crowds.

ManU was special to me in that we genuinely outplayed them. In both legs. The team had finally caught up with the crowd in terms of things to take real pride in. We raised our game of course, just as we had against Southampton. But it didn't feel me to like an act of giant killing, it felt more  that we were playing against and more than matching the kind of opposition we should have been playing.

Then came the Walsall game.

[Dave Clark Five]

Tommy Docherty certainly woke the club up but it ran out of steam. Vic Crowe was a good man to steady the ship again. Both of these two deserve credit for putting us on the road to recovery.