New Year's Day 1985: Villa 3 WBA 1

Dek Hogan recounts a particularly hard fought local derby...

It's January 1^st 1985.

I'm sitting on quite possibly the ricketiest Number 11 bus I've ever been on and the driver seems to be contriving to hit every pothole. Every vibration is pounding through my fragile bonce as the words of my dad resonate in my head. “Self inflicted wounds, no sympathy”.

Despite the pounding in my head, I decide that music must be a better option and I turn on my Sanyo personal stereo. I have to turn the volume up high to drown out the noisiness of the diesel engine, the drone of the chattering passengers and the general creakiness of the bus.

“All is quiet on New Year's Day”, wails Bono through the fluorescent orange sponge of my headphones. Quiet? You are having a laugh Bono!

It has taken me far longer than it usually would on a match day to peel myself off my mattress. I clearly overdid the whiskey chasers the night before but the consequence of my later than usual arrival is that I can't get to my usual Holte End spot, near the back of the right side, because it's rammed. The official attendance for this game will be recorded as 31,710 but it certainly feels like there's more than that because my second, third and fourth choices of terrace position seem fairly inaccessible too.

In the end, for the first and - it will turn out – only time, I elect to watch the game from underneath the scoreboard. It ordinarily has always seemed like a pretty dull part of the Holte from which to watch the game, but not today. There are two factors which mean that the atmosphere is good wherever you stand.

Firstly, it's a holiday game, so as well as the hard core that turn up every game, we've got the old school Villa fans who supported Villa man and boy but now only come down twice a year on New Years and Boxing Day but have some great tales to tell from days of yore. Then there's the kiddies that will be the Villa support of the future, brought down by their dads as a Christmas treat and for some of them, it's that very special first game.

Many of them have milk crates to stand on so that they can get some sort of view. If this practice seems a trifle unsafe if you are reading this in the health and safety obsessed 21st century, well it was a bit but not as much as you'd think. We didn't need loads of rules in those days, we looked after each other.

We are making so much noise as kick off approaches that it's impossible to make out the team news on the tannoy and it's not until the players emerge that we can work out who is playing where. There is some consternation around me that Colin Gibson has been selected in midfield ahead of |Gordon Cowans, with some people calling Graham Turner an idiot, but not everyone agrees with the dissenters and I'm one of them.

As it turns out Gibbo will have a decent game.

Things don't start too well though. This particular Albion side has a reputation of being physical and they certainly aren't going to hold back in the rumbustious atmosphere of a local derby. Villa players react in kind and after just thirteen minutes Albion get what was probably an inevitable penalty. Carl Valentine attempts to ghost past Tony Dorigo and the Australian lad's response is robust. Neil Midgley bravely points to the spot to ire of an increasingly lively Holte End and Derek Statham puts the Baggies one up from the spot.

Going a goal down only fuels the Holte into more relentless singing and unbridled rage.

The pace of the game never seems to slow, but the rhythm is constantly disjointed as tackles best described as full-blooded fly in all over the park. For the cultured football purist viewing the game from 2013, it probably sounds horrendous but for a partisan crowd desperate for bragging rights over the opposition it's absolutely bloody great stuff.

It soon becomes clear that Albion are making challenges with such reckless abandon that they are putting themselves in as much danger as they are our lads. Eventually, on the half hour, this catches them out. A wild tackle by Ally Robertson on Paul Rideout sees the Albion centre-half come off the worse. The resulting free kick sees Colin Gibson latch on to Rideout's flick on and score effortlessly past Tony Godden.

Robertson gamely tries to limp on but doesn't emerge for the second half. With only one sub allowed and the game showing no signs of calming down, this is a big plus for us.

With the Baggies forced to rearrange, Villa look more and more the better side with Steve McMahon dominating the midfield, so it's no massive surprise to see his lob setting Paul Birch free to score Villa's second.

Paul Rideout puts the game beyond doubt with an assured finish but even though there will be no more goals, the incident that has everyone talking about is yet to occur.

Allan Evans and aggressive West Brom striker David Cross go up for a header. From my position under the Holte End scoreboard, I clearly see Cross elbow Evans in the face. It looks completely deliberate and very nasty. The reaction of the other Villa players to the incident makes it clear to me that I'm not mistaken. It is fair to say that not everyone around me spots it, but they take little convincing of what has happened when it becomes clear that Villa's captain is out cold.

It doesn't take much to turn the atmosphere at an eighties soccer match and this incident turns the vibe particularly ugly.

There are 38 fouls in the game, 23 of them perpetrated by Albion players.

Villa boss Graham Turner states “You expect local derbies to be a bit physical.” after the game. David Cross and his elbow ensure that attempting to catch the bus home after the match will turn out to be “a bit physical” too.

The game has certainly got the adrenalin flowing, which seems to have cured the New Year hangover.

Just need to find a way through the Witton Lane riot now to get to the bus stop.