The Big Match Revisited

[Flamingo Lane]

TBMR is brilliant

Bad Pitches
Bad Fouls
Bad Haircuts
Short Shorts
Crowd swells
Old fashioned stands
Parka’s
Yippi Aye Eh sang a lot slower
No shirt sponsors
Primitively small dug outs
Managers Big leather coats
massive lapels
Passing ball back to goalie
Brian Moore

Fully uniformed police constables diligently patrolling the touchline, and occasionally acting as auxiliary ball boys as and when an opportunity presented itself.

[Cliftonville Villlain]

Brian Moore didn't hold back in the interviews either. Stan Bowles and Charlie George were asked questions more or less why they were acting like twats seeking transfers. Brilliant stuff.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Quite good watching these as I usually don't know the score. Also, I like trying to see which players I know.

[Brazilian Villain]

TBMR is brilliant

Bad Pitches

I know the Baseball Ground was notorious for its bad pitch but there was a Derby game on a few weeks ago that looked like it was at the Somme.

[Tayls_7]

Quite good watching these as I usually don't know the score. Also, I like trying to see which players I know.

To my shame I'm more familiar with the players featuring on TBMR than I am the modern PL squads.

[Exeter 77]

The Big Match was the London area programme so is very London-centric. If they could dig out any Star Soccer recordings there would be far more Villa coverage. I would imagine most of those tapes would have been wiped and re-used though.

[darren woolley]

I love watching The Big Match plenty of nostalgia they brought a DVD out of Aston Villa on The Big Match I have it at home.

[Dick Edwards]

I'll never forget that wolves match when Gray scored against us early on. I was ejected from the ground but as it was such an early goal and fans were still outside the turnstile I paid to get back in.

[sid1964]

In most games you can hear crowds singing “you will never walk alone”

Watch the BMRV every night - loved the Ormsby / Richards flare up, remember being their amongst the thousands of Villa fans

Can’t imagine Ronaldo playing on some of those pitches every week

[john e]

In most games you can hear crowds singing “you will never walk alone”

Watch the BMRV every night - loved the Ormsby / Richards flare up, remember being their amongst the thousands of Villa fans

Can’t imagine Ronaldo playing on some of those pitches every week

Yep we all sang it
I was watching spurs v Chelsea (1975) the other night
relegation battle can you believe
When Alfie Conn got the second the Spurs fans were all singing YNWA
my kids couldn’t believe it

[mr underhill]

the Gary Shaw goal against Wolves was pretty special - as was Andy's miss.

[amfy]

The tackle by Kenny Burns on Ricky Villa in the game before was a shocker! Just a yellow card!

[MplsVilla]

Totally forgot about this. Just looked to record it and the 1st episode that appears from 74-75 is a Div 2 match between Man Utd and the mighty Leyton Orient. I wonder what happened to those two?

[john e]

I saw a bad tackle on TBMR of which there are many to be fair
A player went into a tackle both feet off the ground proper scissored in, took out both legs of the opposing player right off the ground as he was bundled over by the touchline

Ball went out for a throw in
No foul was given, commentator never even mentioned it, opposing player just got up and carried on
This would have been a 100% red card today

I can’t remember that many more injuries back in the day,
I mean some of the tackles are horrendous yet I don’t remember loads of players getting injured all the time or is my memory playing tricks
I mean a famous team won the league by using only 14 players once

[ADVILLAFAN]

Shocking for my generation to see things like handball on the goal line not being even a card (as in Norwich in the League Cup Final 1975 and I think Argentina in the 1978 World Cup).

Also players like Ken Burns, that seemed to have no interest in playing the ball.