Villa Park as I know it

[wittonwarrior]

Four stands:

Holte End
Witton Lane
Trinity Road
Witton End

The Chippy on Witton Lane

K and L blocks on the Holte

Singing the players names as they come out.

Last game of the season and the customary pitch invasion.

Serpentine coach park

Aston Tavern not the retro brick build that stands there now.

Saunders programme notes 110%.

The balloons

Witton Lane after the match

Rangers /Celtic  chants  - substituted by the names of the FA Teams in the final Man Utd/Liverpool at the QPR game the evening before.

The £10 junior season ticket

[barossavilla]

Oh! the memories, to think back 45 years, the highlight following a great win was fish & chips at "The Witton Chippy" and eat them on the Midland Red special back to Bromsgrove, vr y special days indeed.

[brian green]

The holes in the roof of the Witton Lane stand caused by German bombs. The thousands of bikes in the gardens of Witton Lane, the crush to get in the pissoir opposite the Holte pub, the smoke from the trains drifting across from Witton station, the pigeons flying out of the Trinity stand pigeon loft taking news of a goal to Corporation St, being pushed off the top of the Witton End slag heap, being lifted over the turnstiles by your big brothers, soldiers, sailors and airmen in uniform in the crowd in their hundreds, everybody wearing a cap, everybody smoking. I miss those days so much.

[castlefields_villan]

The Trinity Road Stand.

[Deano's Mullet]

A V Floodlights.

Still had fencing when I started going.

We Will Rock You Played just after team runs on pitch. None of this line up and shake hands bollocks.

Sports Argus Paper.

[conman]

the red IMI sign

[usav]

The smell of onions and grease walking up from Lichfield Rd towards the ground.

Milk crates in the holte end.

Peter Withe throwing his wristbands into the Holte

Walking out afterwards and looking back up towards the ground and seeing what looked like a million people heading home.

Also walking down towards the fly-over bridge and hearing a roar behind you and not knowing whether to run for your life.

[The Laughing Policeman]

Anybody remember the Ansells poster from the seventies of a packed Holte End with Ansells Bitter Men You Can't Beat Them underneath?
I always called it Aston Villa Men You Can't Beat Them.

[dave shelley]

The gravel at the top of the Witton End and the mud bank behind it and the cavalry charge down said mud bank at the end of the game.  All followed by a bottle neck to get out of the big gate.

The spiked railings surrounding the pitch perimiters, painted white and, in a later life, blue.

The mascot that handed out chewing gum to the players prior to kick-off as they entered the field.

The crush on big match days.

The noise on big match days.

Bovril.

[castlefields_villan]

The smell of onions and grease walking up from Lichfield Rd towards the ground.

Milk crates in the holte end.

Peter With throwing his wristbands into the Holte

Walking out afterwards and looking back up towards the ground and seeing what looked like a million people heading home.

Also walking down towards the fly-over bridge and hearing a roar behind you and not knowing whether to run for your life.

and getting his bag of sweets ? from a fan at the front of the old Witton Lane stand about level with the Holte End penalty area.

[aj2k77]

AV floodlights.
The clock on the Witton Lane.
Goalscorers sponsored by someone or other.
The scoreboards when they had the funny little animations when we'd get a corner or score.

[castlefields_villan]

When the electronic scoreboards used to read "ALF TIME SCORES"

[brian green]

The big plastic orange perched on the top of the Witton End selling Brit Vic or Mason's Jaffarade can't remember which. Tall coppers who smiled. Chips in newspaper from the three whores who ran the "chip shop" opposite the Holte pub. The Three Degrees my brother who was a military medic called them from the three stages of syphilis infection. The black guy in The Sycamore who would eat anything for two bob. His replacement Butty Sugrue who would have a paving slab broken on his head for half a quid. Bus conductors attempting to throw Villa fans off the bus for smoking on the lower deck.

[class-of-82]

Being able to stand where ever you wanted

[four fornicholl]

winning two games on the trot regularly
whilst smoking