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Author Topic: 030303  (Read 8478 times)

Offline Legion

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030303
« on: March 03, 2022, 10:47:53 PM »
19 years ago now. Horrible series of events.

Offline Exeter 77

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Re: 030303
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2022, 10:51:19 PM »
I think that was the only time I didn’t feel safe at Villa Park. Even in the 80s you knew where any trouble might be but that was something different.

Offline eamonn

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Re: 030303
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2022, 11:21:56 PM »
Ugh, banish talk of this to the Villa Nightmares section.

Offline The Edge

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Re: 030303
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2022, 11:36:03 PM »
I have no idea what this thread is about.

Offline Risso

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Re: 030303
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2022, 11:55:02 PM »
C*** night.

Online JD

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Re: 030303
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2022, 01:50:49 AM »
No idea what happened on that day, my memory has been erased.

Offline Rory

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Re: 030303
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2022, 02:11:56 AM »
I wasn't there, and wasn't on here at that time.

The 3-0 at the Sty was worse for me, because I hadn't realised how many kids at school who supported Man Utd or 'weren't interested in football' were SHA fans.

03/03/03 was just further humiliation, but at a school that was almost entirely Man Utd fans, I was used to it.

Classless wankers, both.

Offline Axl Rose

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Re: 030303
« Reply #7 on: March 04, 2022, 03:11:31 AM »
A horrible night. Not being from Brum, Blues were almost irrelevant to me up until that season.

After being set upon by a gang of their fans outside the Newt after the game back at New Street, I'll forever loathe them.

Offline Chico Hamilton III

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Re: 030303
« Reply #8 on: March 04, 2022, 09:21:48 AM »
My son’s birthday. Strange, because the 1983 battle with Blues - Noel Blake head butt on MacMahon - fell on my birthday

Offline Chris Smith

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Re: 030303
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2022, 11:37:11 AM »
My son’s birthday. Strange, because the 1983 battle with Blues - Noel Blake head butt on MacMahon - fell on my birthday

 My son’s birthday too.

It was a tough night with three kids to look after. From the Lower Holte we could see the outbreaks of violence in the Trinity and Witton Lane stands as Blues fans were outed, then the mob assembling to charge down the side towards the Noses. The whole ground just seemed to be seething with hatred (including Dion).

It was a mistake to play it midweek, the segregation was poorly handled, too many from Small Heath believed their own myths about Villa and the police were very slow in reacting to the situation.


Offline Rory

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Re: 030303
« Reply #10 on: March 04, 2022, 01:26:40 PM »
My son’s birthday. Strange, because the 1983 battle with Blues - Noel Blake head butt on MacMahon - fell on my birthday

too many from Small Heath believed their own myths about Villa

How so?

Offline LeeB

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Re: 030303
« Reply #11 on: March 04, 2022, 04:15:47 PM »
My son’s birthday. Strange, because the 1983 battle with Blues - Noel Blake head butt on MacMahon - fell on my birthday

too many from Small Heath believed their own myths about Villa

How so?

During their wilderness years (1875 - ?) , in the absence of anything normal to be proud about, they'd bulit themselves up as the ultimate fighting machine, which of course meant we were all feeble, bobble-hat wearing softies from the shires.

Unfortunately for a good few of them they'd believed such myths, and thought they could turn up at Villa Park and lord it. Whoops.

I'd been working in Ireland a few weeks previously and met a carpenter onsite who'd hailed from Castle Vale, built like Dolph Lundgren and used to run with the old hooligan firms, he was making a special trip back for the game and told me then that many others were coming out of 'retirement' too.

They generally seemed to be much more subdued in their subsequent visits.

Offline Percy McCarthy

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Re: 030303
« Reply #12 on: March 04, 2022, 11:03:47 PM »
Oh what a night! Some highlights:

Much subterfuge from the firms. My Villa pals wouldn’t tell me where they were drinking in the daytime, thinking I might be with my Blues pals. My Blues pals said they were in the Bull Ring Tavern, but best for me not to land as feelings were running high about some Villa smashing up their club shop (tenners worth of damage etc). Maybe they all just don’t like me? Anyway, had the coppers got my phone that night they’d have thought I was the facilitator.

My Blues mate was in the Villa part of the upper Witton, close to the Holte End with his young son. With Blues winning, he was feeling a hostile vibe from two blokes who were sitting next to him, who were with their missuses. He suspected they had sussed him out and had decided to come clean, to explain that he wasn’t there to cause trouble, just wanted to bring his son to his first derby and it was the only place he could get tickets for. At that point what he suspected to be a fellow Blues fan came tumbling down the steps nearby, and these two blokes jumped up and volleyed him down a few more. My mate decided to keep his mouth shut.

Possible explanation of the tumbler mentioned above, told to me on the bus into town after the game:

After blues’ second goal, some Villa fans argued amongst themselves about the booing of Enkleman, who was being blamed for bottling the challenge with the scorer. Two blokes in particular were going at it, one fervently opposed to the booing of a Villa player, the other just as strongly in favour. One spat in the other’s face, for which he probably deservedly got punched in return. The spitter responded by shouting ‘Blues fan’ and pointing at the puncher, who got set upon by others and kicked down the upper Witton stairs.

Meanwhile in the upper Holte, a real tough guy Blues fan from round our end was sitting with one of his children. He wasn’t so much sussed out as recognised and pointed out to someone (who didn’t know him). That someone sat behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and as he turned, punched him and broke his jaw.

In the lower Holte, a couple near me (husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend), were obvious Blues fans. The woman had a lovely head of curly hair, which I suspect had gone by the next morning as she must have had ten pieces of chewing gum deposited into it before the end of the game.

When we got off the bus in town (about 60/70 of us) an old woman in Lower Bull Street was asking for the score. Every one of us walked past her and nobody said a word.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2022, 11:13:44 PM by Percy McCarthy »

Offline Rory

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Re: 030303
« Reply #13 on: March 05, 2022, 02:48:32 AM »
Sounds a lovely experience.

I don't know why any away fan would go in a home area. Being unable to celebrate sounds shit. I'd rather be sat at home listening on the radio (I never watch Villa live on TV - an old superstition of mine).

Offline Sexual Ealing

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Re: 030303
« Reply #14 on: March 05, 2022, 05:47:32 AM »
I was living in Edinburgh at the time. I just assumed we would win, which made it painful.

 


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