Villa - Rangers reaction

[peter w]

[flybo]

Still a Rangers fan and always will be

[b23]

P W.

Were you at this game ?

[Old Kodjia]

That certainly doesn't make comfortable viewing.

As someone who grew up going to football in the 70's, I can relate to what that woman was saying.  Villa Park was probably well down the pecking order for the unenviable claim of living next to the most unruly football ground in England.  There must have been hundreds of families up and down the country whose lives were impacted by marauding supporters every fortnight.

I appreciate that there's a lot of nostalgia (and rightly so), attached to eras that have passed but my personal feeling is that the positives far outweigh the negatives when comparing modern day football to different eras.

I'd like to think (possibly naively) that men do not expose themselves in front of women and young girls these days or that 13 year old boys are safe to visit stadiums without the fear of being chased down railway embankments.

[JD]

I thought there was already a thread about this, with this vid on. I was at this game and it was pretty scary (more so as I was with my Dad who is a Glaswegian and mad Celt. He was itching for a fight with Dirty Rangers).

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

In those days flares inside stadiums were mandatory.

[ADVILLAFAN]

My dad was at this game and is a Glaswegian. The stewards tried to stop him from going in the Villa end as they thought he was a Gers fan.

They're a horrible bunch, I don't like Celtic, but Rangers are far worse.

[PeterWithesShin]

Never ceases to amaze me over the years how many folks i've come across that have slagged off Manure, Liverpool fans etc for being glory hunters/plastics and then claim to be big Rangers or Celtic fans.

[Comrade Blitz]

Terrace menswear? What the fuck is that?

[ADVILLAFAN]

Never ceases to amaze me over the years how many folks i've come across that have slagged off Manure, Liverpool fans etc for being glory hunters/plastics and then claim to be big Rangers or Celtic fans.

I know, when everyone knows that Clyde are the big team up there.

[wittonwarrior]

I wasn't allowed to go the game as my streetwise dad predicted trouble. It was an early kick off as well.  Always hated Scottish football from there on. Not just rangers fans that were scum from Scotland when wales played Scotland at anfield they invaded a school playground and started ripping things up

[class-of-82]

Was there that day total mayhem from start to finish got the bus from by the costermonger oasis market full of rangers fans but they was all ok with us just all singing together then got nearer vp and it seemed like the whole of Ibrox had come down.
It all turned nasty when we went 1-0 up and some Celtic fan in the middle of the witton I was stood next to unfurled a Celtic flag ensue pitch invasion.
After the game there was mass punch up by witton island and a cop car got smashed up more by villa fans than rangers then about 500 of us T least all stayed together on the way back into the city centre.
Can't beat the 70s for fun

[BegbieAV]

Shit myself after our second goal when it all kicked off. I ran all the way to Perry Bar station

[Old Kodjia]

Was there that day total mayhem from start to finish got the bus from by the costermonger oasis market full of rangers fans but they was all ok with us just all singing together then got nearer vp and it seemed like the whole of Ibrox had come down.
It all turned nasty when we went 1-0 up and some Celtic fan in the middle of the witton I was stood next to unfurled a Celtic flag ensue pitch invasion.
After the game there was mass punch up by witton island and a cop car got smashed up more by villa fans than rangers then about 500 of us T least all stayed together on the way back into the city centre.
Can't beat the 70s for fun

I remember the scenes at Witton island that day and the police car getting trashed.  It was total mayhem and I think the police had underestimated the potential for violence that this game would bring.  They certainly seemed to be short on numbers which would be unheard of in this day and age.

The lad with the Celtic flag was quite a well known Villa fan with Irish/Celtic connections.

[class-of-82]

I'm sure it was an old Austin princess wedge shape no windows left in it and I'm sure the door was hanging off remember the coppers following us all into town with truncheons out as it was villa fans and not rangers that trashed it