Way before my time I'm afraid. Can anybody sum up in a few words what made him such an heroic figure?
I think Dave encapsulated him perfectly.
The entire club was fighting back at this time from Doug and his mates taking control of the club, Tommy D. revived the club off
the pitch with crowds returning in their droves, as a club we were spending money there was a vibrancy around the place.
Unfortunately that vibrancy in the stands was not met with the performances on the pitch and Tommy was dismissed and Vic Crowe
was appointed, the club and it's fan base then closed in on itself shunning the glare of publicity and Vic signed Andy with 12 games left in
the season, 12 games to save us from the horror of the third division. It's fair to say Andy struggled and we were relegated.
The club was then brought back into the glare of the national press....Aston Villa in Division 3 and 23 other clubs rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a)
Taking on the mighty Aston Villa and b) making a lot of money in gate receipts.
Andy became the player we all fell in love with, took him 6 games to get going with a brace at home to Doncaster but that was it he was off and running.
Much has been said about the third division days as a young 15/16 year old they were brilliant, travelling in our 000's. The league season was nothing to write
home about us finishing 4th with teams battling for every inch and every minute of every game. Andy was needed!!!
It was the League Cup that defined our season that year from memory we had a pretty untroubled passage to the qtr's where we met Bristol Rovers where 2
massive battles occurred and a goal in each game from another unsung hero Pat McMahon got us through to the semi's where we met Man Utd and 2 nights that took
Andy into Villa folklore. Manchester United european champions only 3 years before containing Charlton Law & Best. Andy stunned 49k with equaliser at OT
Back to VP where 58669 showed up 2 days before christmas. Kidd put Utd ahead only for the 'big un' , having the game of his life, to equalise.
Ian Ure another 'hard b-----d' of scottish birth like our Andy cannot have experienced 2 harder games in his long career. The scenes when McMahon got the winner were
incredible.
Worth looking at the teams that night and the gulf in ability.
Villa: Dunn, Bradley, Aitken, Godfrey, Turnbull, Tiler, Gibson, Hamilton, Lochhead, McMahon and Anderson
United : Rimmer, Dunne, Sadler, Ure, Crerand, Fitzpatrick, Morgan, Best, Charlton, Kidd and Law
I somehow had to get home after the chaos of that night...good job school holidays.
I get very nostalgic over these times and the Wembley trip was my first and i daresay many others could say the same.
We dominated Spurs for large parts of the game and Andy could/should have given us the lead. He hit a tame shot towards an apparently
empty net but the little street urchin, Steve Perryman came running round to clear the threat.
Brilliant day, support brilliant i don't think losers have ever achieved such passion from their supporters. When Alan Mullery lifted the cup
there was only one set of fans u could hear.
Andy was even better the following season.....gone on too long...apologies.
RIP Andy i along with 000's of others will remember you. Our number maybe be diminishing as we all get older but you will never be
forgotten.
