23 April 1975

[Villa Lew]

50 years ago today I stood on the Hillsborough Kop with many thousands of other Villa fans to watch us thrash Wednesday 4 nil, Sir Brian 2, Ian Ross and Keith Leonard and clinch promotion back to the top flight, after what seemed a very long 8 years.

[Scratchins]

Goodness, 50 years! I remember it clearly. What a great memory.

[Bernie]

Blimey,  half a century ago! I was there too ,what a night.
What a couple of weeks in fact,  the other occasions that come to mind being the 3-0 win at Blackpool and the oft mentioned home game v Sunderland.

[Godfrey Brian]

What a great night long long ago. Our form teacher at school turned a blind eye to the spurious requests for the afternoon off from at least 50% of his class (still grateful five decades on but we'd have gone anyway). Mass Villa support, on the pitch afterwards, pockets full of the historic turf which is possibly still growing in the garden of the house my parents lived in. The football specials were madly overcrowded and slow but we really didn't care. I remember talking with a couple of old boys who told us about their Villa in the top division, I just couldn't comprehend it. So pleased to have been a part of it all.

[Flamingo Lane]

I was there too, stood on the Kop, with my dad and sister.  What a night, there must have been about 15,000 of us.

[papa lazarou]

I can remember being on the pitch afterwards but nothing about the game itself. It was a wonderful end of season run-in.

[dcdavecollett]

Yes, eight wins on the spin, the minimum margin of victory for each game was two goals.

[Flamingo Lane]

Long shot, if anyone has the programme for this game and doesn't want it any more, I'd be happy to pay a small sum for it.

[Villa Lew]

Starting from the beginning of the year, we only lost 1 match out of the 18 league matches played, winning 15. The Sunderland match was a VP celebration of us clinching promotion, the attendance was over 57,000, with many thousands left outside.

[dcdavecollett]

And thousands of fans on the pitch after the game.

The dark days, eh?

[martin o`who??]

Wasn't that the game where the then England manager Don Revie turned up to watch Brian Little and left early - just before Brian scored a beauty in front of the Holte.

[dcdavecollett]

I presume you're writing about the Sunderland game.

Brian scored late on in that match, having been hauled down for the first goal, an Ian Ross penalty.

[steamer]

Blackpool away the previous game was my 19th  birthday
Congas down the beachfront, We thought we had made it.
I think I was still pissed on Wednesday for the Wednesday game, although some wiser ,older guys took me to the game.
Saturday 57,000 at Villa Park to demolish Sunderland and confirm promotion. What a day, what a week
I must have Knacked or broke or both as I never went to Norwich for the last midweek game

[dcdavecollett]

Great, exciting times.

Promotion was confirmed with the 4-0 win at Hillsborough. Sunderland needed to beat us to keep up their hopes of promotion but we beat them 2-0.

The funniest thing was the following midweek when we went to Carrow Road to play Norwich. They had just clinched promotion and wanted revenge for the League Cup Final defeat. We were without two red-hot strikers in Little and Graydon, put John Gidman up front -and stuffed them 4-1 in front of a big crowd. I recall Charlie Aitken saying how fed up he was at the goal we conceded -the only one in the last six games!!

[dave shelley]

I'm still trying to get home from it, fucking traffic.