1962: Dougan double ends 24 years of hurt

It's 20th August 1962 and a Monday night.

Tensions are running high in the divided city of Berlin, Princess Margaret is on the verge of giving birth for the second time and nearly fifty-six thousand people have forgone the delights of watching Bonanza on ATV to head for Villa Park.

Just two days before Villa have started the season in good form with a 3-1 victory over West Ham at Villa Park. With another home game it's a chance to get the season off to a belting start. There's a snag though, we are playing Spurs.

Spurs have just been installed as favourites by the bookies for both the League and the FA Cup, the nucleus of Bill Nicholson's double winning side is there and Spurs never lose to Villa. You have to go back to 1938 to find Villa's last success against the Lilywhites. It's an embarrassment but a record that Joe Mercer's men are keen to put to bed.

In the twenty five post war clashes, we've managed just six draws and since our last win, television has taken off, we've defeated Hitler, had a new Queen and the movies have gone into colour. 1938 seems a lifetime ago.

Mercer's Minors fly out of the traps and batter Spurs for the first twenty minutes. Nicholson's men maybe taken aback with the furiosity with which Villa go about their work but they have the no-nonsense Dave Mackay and the solid Maurice Norman at the back and if we can manage to get past them we face the wall that is Bill Brown in goal.

For all our youthful energy and endeavour we can't find a way through.

Suddenly our failure to capitalise costs us. Jimmy Greaves has been subdued by his standards but suddenly finds himself with an opportunity, Nigel Sims saves but manages to spill the ball into the path of Terry Medwin. The winger accepts the gift with glee and puts Spurs one ahead.

As the game continues it's the Villa defence that looks more secure, manacling Spurs creativity while the Londoners' own back line seems to be having more and more difficulty dealing with the robust nature of wave upon wave of Villa attacks.

Then two minutes that turned the score line on its head.

Firstly, Harry Burrows puts a cross into the box with such force that the up until now seemingly unbeatable Bill Brown can only parry. Derek Dougan manages to leave Maurice Norman standing in the race for the ball and his header snakes in the back of the net.

With Spurs still scratching their heads as to what's just happened, Villa strike again in what will be the move of the match. Jimmy MacEwan goes on a powerful run through the middle, picks out Harry Burrows on the right wing. The speed of the move has left the Spurs defence struggling to get back as Burrows centres for Dougan who unleashes what can only be described as an unstoppable shot.

They call Dougan “Cheyenne” due to his cowboy walk. He's certainly proving to be a sharp-shooter tonight.

Spurs seem deflated after and never really manage to get back into the game. Villa's years of hurt are over. They've beaten Spurs.

Villa's cracking start to the season will continue with an away win at Manchester City the following Saturday but our lording it over Spurs lasts just nine days. In the return game at the White Hart Lane, despite goals from Dougan and Alan Deakin, a brace from Jimmy Greaves helps his team to a 4-2 victory.

At least the Spurs hoodoo has been broken though. Little do we know it'll be over three years before we manage to beat them again.

Aston Villa 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Competition: League Division One
Venue: Villa Park
Attendance: 55,630

Villa: Nigel Sims, Gordon Lee, Charlie Aitken, John Sleeuwenhoek, Vic Crowe, Alan Deakin, Harry Burrows, Bobby Thomson, Jimmy MacEwan, Derek Dougan, Alan Baker

Spurs: Bill Brown, Peter Baker, Ron Henry, Maurice Norman, Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Bobby Smith, Cliff Jones, Terry Medwin, John White, Jimmy Greaves

1995: Bozzie takes out Klinsmann

It's the 25th January 1995. It's also very wintry.

Almost too wintry for my Australian relatives. Quite why Australians choose to come to Arctic Birmingham in the middle of their summer is a puzzler. It turns out that the teenage lad is a decent soccer player and is over here for trials with a few clubs. Sadly, his asthma – only mild and not much of an encumbrance in his native Oz – is flaring up quite badly in the much more polluted and dirty English air. His dreams look like being scuppered.

However they are keen to take in a top flight match while they are here and apparently it's my duty to take them. The midweek match against Spurs suits their timetable so I organise them tickets. It's all season tickets around my seat in the Holte End so I sort them seats in the Witton Lane. This is probably a good idea as I'm unlikely to be on my best “relatives visiting” behaviour while in the emotional throes of a Villa match. I also take the canny step of ensuring that the Aussies are doing the driving.

It's not been that long since Brian Little has taken over the helm at Villa Park and Gerry Francis hasn't had his feet under the table at The Lane for that long either. Gerry's only defeat in the job so far has come against the Villa in a 4-3 thriller, made all the more remarkable by the fact that Villa were between managers at the time.

Personally, I'm still miffed at Big Ron's sacking but Deadly Doug has been canny in getting Villa folk hero Little in to replace him, so I suppose I'm placated. Little's appointment has not been without controversy though it's only been a couple of months since we were welcomed by the regulars of Filbert Street with a mixture of fists and CS gas, pretty much as a consequence of Our Brian's defection from the Foxes.

We arrive at the Aston Social for pre-match drinks and my Aussie uncle makes the novice error of parking at the back of the car park. This will add a good half hour to the journey home, but hey sitting in a freezing cold car listening to the football phone in on the radio is all part of the English match experience.

The Aussies are somewhat taken aback by the Aston Social-on-a-matchday experience, likening it to the Cantina scene in Star Wars. I'm mildly insulted. With a forty thousand crowd expected, the place is packed to the rafters and it takes about three pints before they relax and feel a bit more at home. Then it's time to walk to the ground and they wrap themselves up like Nanook of the North. To be fair to them, it is a bit on the nippy side. They decline the offer of a dirty burger from "Sam and Ella's", which is hardly getting into the spirit of things.

We ponder whether Super Tommy Johnson has been availing himself of the street food on offer outside as he promptly throws up just prior to kick off.

The match gets underway and to be honest it's not a classic, hardly the advert for Premiership football that you want when you've brought along visitors from a foreign land.

All the action considered newsworthy happens within a few first half minutes:

Spurs have the clearest early chance. Barmby's short pass leaves Klinsmann with a clear run on Bozzie but the German uncharacteristically hesitates with his shot and the Australian keeper's legs come to Villa's rescue.

Steve Staunton is revelling in the midfield role handed to him by Little and it is his sweet left footed pass that puts Dean Saunders through, Saunders cuts inside, runs across an oddly tentative Austin, and powers his shot diagonally across the despairing Ian Walker. Saunders is in a rich vein of form, this is his fourth goal in six games.

Villa fans are still celebrating the goal when the match's key talking point occurs

Jurgen Klinsmann, chasing a long ball from Popescu, is clattered outside the penalty area by Bosnich. Properly clattered. It really does look horrendous and now the German is lying motionless on the turf. Jurgen is well known for making the most of situations where he may or not have been fouled, but this is usually accompanied by bouts of histrionics. He's still not moving.

Mark Bosnich surveys his handiwork

As Bosnich would explain “It was unfortunate and a pure accident”

"I was going to head the ball until Paul McGrath got in the way. Otherwise it would have been mine.

"I'm very sorry. and I told Jurgen so when I saw him at half time.”

It looks hideous at the time and concerns for the striker's welfare aren't eased as he has to be stretchered off and will take no further part in the game. We later learn, from the people with transistor radios, that he is suffering from a swollen nose, leading to a string of unsympathetic remarks about how big his hooter was in the first place.

Remarkably, and much to the chagrin of both Gerry Francis and the travelling Spurs contingent, Bozzie doesn't even get booked. He's booed throughout the rest of the match.

In the German's absence, Spurs push the lively Nick Barmby forward and they have a real go at us but it's our Ian Taylor who goes closest to troubling the scoresheet, heading just wide as Holte Enders begin trailing down for a half time pint.

It's a bit to and fro in the second half but we probably deserve our victory on the balance of play.

Paul McGrath forces Ian Walker into a spectacular save at one end while Popescu heads point blank straight at Bosnich at the other.

Somewhat ironically, Bozzie is booked for time wasting towards the end, and it's fairly obvious from the Spurs fans reaction that are in no mood to forgive.

A one-nil Villa victory then but all the talk is of the Bosnich/Klinsmann incident.

We meet back up with Aussies who ask if the atmosphere is always that acrimonious. It would be ungracious of me to point out to them that it was, in fact, an Australian that caused all the bother.

I point it out anyway.

Aston Villa 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Goal: Dean Saunders 18 mins
Referee: Robbie Hart
Competition: Premier League
Venue: Villa Park
Attendance: 40,017

Aston Villa: Bosnich; Barrett, McGrath, Ehiogu, Teale, Yorke (Charles, 89min), Taylor, Townsend, Staunton, Saunders, Johnson (Houghton,78).

Tottenham Hotspur: Walker; Austin, Calderwood, Mabbutt, Edinburgh, Popescu, Barmby, Campbell, Anderton, Klinsmann (Caskey, 26), Sheringham.

Postscript:
We fully expect the media to crucify Bozzie for the challenge on Klinsmann but something remarkable is happening at Selhurst Park which take the media spotlight off our keeper.

Eric Cantona, reacting to taunts from a pillock in the crowd, has launched himself two-footed at the miscreant and all hell has broken loose. The unpredictable Frenchman will fill the front and as well as the back pages, which will spare the young Australian for the full glare of the venomous press.

Gerry Francis is no mood to let the matter drop and bleeds all over the papers for the next few days.

The incident will, however, come back to haunt Bosnich in October 1996 in a match at White Hart Lane. The keeper reacts to Spurs chants of “Klinsmann, Klinsmann” with what he will claim is a Basil Fawlty homage, but what sadly looks far more like a Nazi Salute.

White Hart Lane is not the place to be doing that...

FA Charity Shield 1981: Aston Villa 2 Spurs 2

It's the summer of 1981.

My beloved Aston Villa are League Champions. It's wonderful, fantastic!

But...

Being a dour Brummie, I can, of course, find a downside. Everyone says winning the league is more important and more of an achievement than winning the FA Cup, but with the cup you get the day out at Wembley and the moment of exhilaration when the winning goal goes in and when the captain holds the cup aloft.

It would have been fantastic if we'd won the League in our last home game versus Middlesbrough, but sadly it wasn't to be. For a while, the rumour had gone around the ground that we actually had clinched it that day, a rumour which even reached as far as Jimmy Rimmer but soon, word got out that we hadn't, leading to a terrible feeling of anti-climax, so when we were eventually crowned Champions, it was on the back of an away defeat at Highbury.

The Victoria Square civic reception is a great occasion and no mistake but my boyhood dreams are of lifting a cup aloft at Wembley, not on the Council House steps.

What I'm forgetting about of course is the FA Charity Shield.

I'll be honest, it's not really an event that I've paid much attention to in the past. The only one I can actually remember with anything approaching clarity is the clash between Leeds and Liverpool which saw Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan sent off and walking shirtless and snarling towards the Tunnel End.

It's a trip to Wembley though, a chance for all Villa fans to celebrate on mass from the terraces, and a chance to best the cocky Londoners, Chas 'n Dave 'n all.

Gotta be done.

We decide to go with the official Aston Travellers Club and we're by no means the only ones. The scale of the operation becomes clear as we descend on the Aston Villa Sports and Leisure Centre/Serpentine Car Park which has disappeared under a sea of charabancs. We eventually find ours, coach number 22, towards the Asda. My dad is way back on coach fifty something and I ponder whether coaches with that high a number will even make it out of the car park by kick off time, let alone London.

The journey down the M1 is fairly uneventful, though the road is a sea of claret and blue with scarves seemingly flailing from every other car window. No on-board toilet facilities to speak off so the coach convoy pulls into Toddington services and judging by the length of the queue, it must be the entire convoy. As one wag puts it “Two million on the dole and they all wanna go for a piss at the same time”.

Eventually the convoy snakes its way through the North London Saturday traffic and our coach parks almost in the shadow of the Twin Towers. It becomes clear that with the vast volume of traffic parking up behind us, there will be no tearing hurry to get back on board the coach post match. We'll be going nowhere fast.

As we sit on the steep stairway leading to our allotted turnstiles waiting for them to open (to ensure getting a prime spot on terraces), a group of around a hundred Spurs fans decide to mount an assault on our position. I can only think they are expecting the Villa contingent to run away, but the opposite happens and their faces turn as white as their shirts as hordes of angry Brummies hurtle towards them. They run away at an even faster pace than they had been charging forward and the angry Villa mob erupts into expletive filled song

Soon the gates are open and we position ourselves with the best view we can find. Wembley isn't an ideal place to watch football though. We're at the tunnel end, in the upper section section of terrace and even the goal at our end seems to be an entire football pitch away, thanks to the dog track and provision for Speedway (for which they dig up the wings of the pitch, wrecking it). It's not really about the view here though, it's about the atmosphere. I don't of course know at this stage that this will be my last ever time on Wembley terraces, but I'm savouring every moment anyway.

Tickets are divided between an upper and lower enclosure and it soon becomes clear that quite a lot of the lower people would much rather be with us in upper and the precious process of dragging people up by their arms gets into full swing.

As the players emerge from the tunnel, it's clear there's no Gary Shaw, which is disappointing, though Spurs are missing Garth Crooks with cartilage issues which sort of evens things up. The Crooks-Archibald partnership had rivalled that of Withe-Shaw in effectiveness so it's sad that neither is on display.

Despite Spurs goal scoring prowess and flair filled midfield, they hadn't challenged us for the title due to shakiness at the back and have signed up Liverpool's Ray Clemence to attempt to rectify the situation.

We kick off then and Ozzie “Tottingham” Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle are showing no signs of pre-season rust. We are certainly on the back foot as Tony Galvin and Ricky Villa provide outlets for Ardiles and Hoddle's industry, while Steve Archibald looks dangerous, put through twice by delightful (unless you're a Villa fan) Hoddle flicks.

Villa's answer to Ozzie's artistry is to flatten him with increasing regularity. No one is getting involved in the physicality of the game more than Peter Withe, seemingly at war with Roberts and Miller. A particularly graphic clash between him and Chris Hughton leads to both men going into referee A.W. Grey's book and this seems to calm things down slightly.

David Geddis is doing well in Shaw's absence, denied once by a characteristic charge to the edge of the area by Ray Clemence and then again thwarted, this time by the offside flag after putting a deft pass from Dennis Mortimer into the back of the net. Villa are getting closer though and by the time the Spurs keeper saves an Allan Evans shot from a Kenny Swain free kick, it's clear the

shot-stopper isn't getting the sort of protection he was afforded in his Anfield days.

On the half-hour, joy for Villa but complete embarrassment for keeper Ray. He comes out to claim a Tony Morley cross but the ball goes through his gloves like they are coated with Country Life. The ball lands at Peter Withe's feet and is dispatched into the roof of the net. One nil Villa.

The goal spurs Tottenham on and they regain their Mojo of the earlier exchanges. As half time approaches, neat work between Archibald and Ardiles ends with the ball at Mark Falco's feet, twenty yards out. He tries his luck and despite an athletic dive from Rimmer and it's in. One-one.

Falco, only playing as understudy to the stricken Crooks, is now brimming with confidence and keen to show he can do with his left foot what he can do with his right, he runs on the pass from Tony Galvin and shoots so powerfully that even though Rimmer gets a hand on it, it still goes in. Two-one Spurs.

Mark Falco and David Geddis

With Villa still reeling Falco has another rocket of an effort, rapidly becoming the player of the day, but this time he can't beat our Jimmy.

Things start to look grim for us as captain Dennis Mortimer is forced to limp off and it's down to our sole summer signing, Andy Blair, to fill the breech. Blair's hardly got his second wind when we are back on terms and again Ray Clemence is at the centre of things. Both David Geddis and Peter with have their eyes firmly fixed on a Tony Morley cross, David Geddis takes out Clemence with all the grace of Giant Haystacks and Peter Withe puts the ball into the back of net while the England keeper is still seeing stars and tweeting birds.

From that point, Villa look the team most likely to win, Clemence recovering enough to make saves from Cowans and Des Bremner and we go closest when he can only tip a Bremner drive onto the cross bar.

Gleen Hoddle eventually wakes from his second half slumber late on to set Archibald free but Rimmer is more than capable of dealing with his shot.

Suddenly, it's all over. Honours even. No penalty shoot-outs. The Shield will be shared, which is very nice and all that but not quite the victorious, glory filled end I'd been hoping for.

Still the European adventure is about to start, but before we get to that, there's that long coach journey home. Where are those sarnies me Mom made me?

1966 and all that...Spurs 5 Aston Villa 5

Dek Hogan looks back at a match where despite ten goals being scored, it's a Villa miss that makes the headlines...

England. March 1966. World Cup Willie is everywhere.

No, it's not some sort of hideous STD you pick up from sleeping with footballers, we've not got as far as the Summer of Love yet. Willie is official mascot of the World Cup. The cup in question, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is being used to promote a exhibition for stamp collectors – people have simpler tastes here in 1966 – although just a few short hours after Villa have visited Spurs in a League Division One match, the World will be stunned when the cup is stolen.

If this is the Swinging Sixties, you'd never guess it from the night's television. The highlight of the BBC schedule is The Black and White Minstrel Show while Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson are the star guests on ATV's Morecambe and Wise Show.

Sadly, the goal feast that is about to occur won't be captured for television or posterity. The Match of the Day cameras are at Old Trafford, while ATV London has decided to show Rugby Union instead of Star Soccer. ABC Television, the ITV company providing weekend telly to the Midlands and the North has plumped for Sheffield Wednesday versus Northampton.

For Villa, the trip to London is an opportunity to complete a rare double over Spurs, having won 3-2 at Villa Park back in September. To achieve this, they have to find a way past shovel handed Northern Irish goalkeeper Pat Jennings, while attempting to keep one Jimmy Greaves quiet at the other end. Jimmy is virtually a fixture in Sir Alf's England team and hopes are high that his goals can win the biggest prize of all.

Jimmy has also formed a deadly partnership with Scotland's Alan Gilzean. Villa's star striker is Tony Hateley, but despite a very impressive goals to games ratio, a section of the Villa crowd have taken against him (the boo-boys prove to be a contributory factor in Hateley leaving Villa for Chelsea in October 1966 and without his goals, Villa will be relegated).

Four goals for Tony Hateley

Any hope of keeping Jimmy quiet disappears from the off. He is in imperious form and Villa players are left trailing in his wake. Almost immediately, he creates Spurs first goal, a short corner to Dave Mackay whose less than convincing shot manges to deflect in off Alan Gilzean. Soon Greaves is on the scoresheet in his own right, a neat one-two with Eddie Clayton and he's away to beat Colin Withers in the Villa goal. Colin will have a very busy afternoon.

Greaves's dummy than sets Jimmy Robertson free of the Villa defence, his cross is nodded down by Gilzean and a grateful Frank Saul steers the ball past the stranded Withers. Fifteen minutes on the clock, three nil Spurs. Oh dear!

Villa are still fighting though and Spurs are helping with some Keystone Cops defending. Pat Jennings makes a terrible error, throwing a ball straight to Alan Deakin, who sadly fails to capitalise; Alan Mullery's lack of control allows Villa's Alan Baker to fire in a low centre which conveniently finds Tony Hateley's knee and Villa have their first goal of the afternoon.

Spurs soon reassert their authority, a string of unchallenged passes leaving Spurs fans wondering if anyone actually fancies having an actual shot. Eventually, centre half Laurie Brown tries his luck and its 4-1 Spurs.

Early in the second half Robertson puts in what looks to be final nail in the Villa's coffin, getting on the end of centre-come-shot from the brilliant Greaves.

We're not dead yet.

Will Hamilton has been working tirelessly all game and starts to see the rewards. As the Spurs defence tire, he's able to create space for Deakin and Hateley to torture the fragile Spurs back line. Deakin soon takes advantage to get Villa's second, while Hateley is grateful for Spurs defensive lethargy as his nets Villa third.

Suddenly Spurs are leaking like a colander at the back and Hateley is dominating the aerial play. With the Londoners on the back foot, Charlie Aitken is free to forage and twice his crosses find the head of Hateley and end up in the back of net.

5-5 then, but can anyone grab a winner? We really, really should do...

Best to let Alan Deakin describe what happens, “I took this pass from Willie Hamilton and took off for goal.

“I went around the goalkeeper and thought-' I've done the hard bit, now I've got the winner' I took the ball a bit too far on, but still thought I must score.

“I sidefooted the ball all right, but it started to bobble on its way in. Next thing, there was Mullery racing across to clear. I couldn't believe it—it was terrible. . . .”

Despite the ten goal thriller, many of the headlines are focused on Deakin's miss. It's a game Villa could and some would say should have won. From a claret and blue perspective, that's a fair point of few, though it's hard to say that Jimmy Greaves' magical first half display wasn't worthy of at least something.

With the World Cup weeks away, England fans will be heartened to see him in such vibrant form...

Tottenham Hotspur 5 Aston Villa 5
Competition: League Division One
Venue: White Hart Lane
Attendance : 28,371

Spurs: Pat Jennings, Cyril Knowles, Laurie Brown, Alan Mullery, Dave Mackay, Frank Saul, Alan Gilzean, Derek Possee, Jimmy Robertson, Eddie Clayton, Jimmy Greaves

Villa: Colin Withers, Mick Wright, Charlie Aitken, John Sleeuwenhoek, Mike Tindall, Alan Deakin, Dave Pountney, Jimmy MacEwan, Tony Hateley, Alan Baker, Willie Hamilton

We won't be mastered...Spurs 2 Aston Villa 5

It's Saturday 4th April 1992 and we're off to London on a away trip. Tottenham here we come.

We're not exactly expecting anything special. Villa are very much a team in transition under the command of Big Ron Atkinson and it's proving a difficult task.

An away win seems quite unlikely, especially as we've not even managed an away league goal since New Year's Day and though we did manage to put Spurs out of the cup in January, this is one of those away jaunts where we're determined to have a good time despite the inconvenience of having to watch the actual match.

North London pubs prove to be very welcoming, so much so that our coach driver eventually resorts to driving off without the majority of us in an attempt to prise us out of the pub. Thanks to the density of London traffic, it doesn't prove that difficult to catch up to him when we finally come out blinking into the daylight. Catching the kick-off maybe more of a challenge.

It seems we're too close to Barnet for comfort and they are at home too, the coach is soon being pelted with coins, which some of the lads gratefully pocket as they ping in through the skylight.

We finally arrive at White Hart Lane with seconds to spare, having livened up the crawl to the stadium by raucously singing local radio jingles. "Stechford Tiles" and "Regency Windows" prove to be incredibly popular. I think we're gonna make the kick-off but I've reckoned without Spurs overzealous stewarding. At the other grounds we just get frisked, this feels more like a full blown medical.

I'm not sure whether the guy searching me is looking for weapons or trying to ascertain whether I'm circumcised. This is almost certainly the wrong ground to make that comment out loud but luckily he lets me in anyway.

We emerge into the busy terrace behind the goal to discover that Spinksy has already had to make three saves. This could be a long afternoon.

Suddenly Gordon Durie hits a powerful shot which is definitely going to beat Spink. It looks as if Shaun Teale can tidy up but Gary Lineker sticks a toe on it, the jug-earred goal hanger. One-nil Spurs.

Jug-earred goal hanger

If Spurs taking the lead so early has dampened the enthusiasm of much of the Villa support, it hasn't stopped our little mob from continuing with the radio jingles from the journey in and many seem perplexed that we keep shouting about “free grout and spreader”. Some attempt to join in with the spirit of the madness, others think the best course of action is to drown it out with proper Villa songs. The point is, the away section is making a lot of noise.

“The black Andy Gray” is playing for Spurs, he was a bit a fan favourite in the Taylor era but quickly loses our sympathy when he puts a tantalising cross in the box. Our sympathies are with one Shaun Teale who somehow contrives to beat Spink and stick the ball in his own net. We're two down now, it's still really early in the first half, but we're still singing.

The team are not being overawed though and Kevin Richardson is orchestrating the midfield beautifully so it's quite fitting that he should get us back into the game. A Dwight Yorke cross leaves him with a just a tap in, and he slots home with the sort of composure tap-in expert Lineker would have been proud of.

It's clear our Kev is having one of his better days a few minutes later when his free kick finds Ian Olney and the Spurs defence unexpectedly turn into statues leaving him with a simple finish and we're level.

We're now having a proper party in the away end and even a gilt-edged chance for Lineker to put Spurs ahead can't dampen our mood. He misses it, but then it wasn't a tap-in, so no surprise there.

God is playing My Lord, Number Five

Spurs have a proper go in the second half but we are defending in numbers and defending well. Them, not so much. On the hour, their entire defence decide to surround Big Cyrille but still can't stop him passing to Dwight Yorke, whose blistering shot cannons off the post and rebounds in.

We're winning away and Dwight's beaming smile is warmer than Trinidad and Tobago.

It gets funnier. Paul McGrath, not having one of his better days,manages to haul down Paul Walsh and Gary Lineker takes the resultant penalty. He goes to Spink's right. So does Nigel.

Saved!

We're not done either. Tony Daley comes on for Matthias Breitkreutz and beats two Spurs defenders with a trademark run before slotting past Ian Walker, so we're already in dreamland by the time Big Cyrille sees off the challenge of Jason Cundy to score Villa's fifth.

It's a truly glorious afternoon. Big Ron's Villa has truly made a statement.

Let the good times roll...

If you've got a story you'd like to share, send it to editor@villamad.co.uk 

Pele at Villa: The night Santos came to town...

The programme

February 1972.

The nation is enjoying the ambiance of candlelight more often than it would like as the miners who provide the coal that keeps the country's lights on decide not to, though the three day week is still nearly two years away.

Aston Villa are languishing in the third tier of English football. Well, I say languishing, the team is actually doing rather well and Villa's massive travelling army is providing bigger than usual attendances for Third Division teams around the nation (though the vast majority are based in the north) and having a wonderful time in the process.

The lions have awoken.

Pele is a massive name in world football, having won his third World Cup in Mexico in 1970 and everyone wants to see him in the flesh...and his Santos team are coming to Aston Villa for an “International Friendly”. The world and his wife wants to be there.

Santos will also be playing Sheffield Wednesday on their mini-tour and fear of the dreaded power outages wrecking their big night causes that game to be shunted into the daytime, and a midweek daytime match will inevitably have an impact on the gate, though as one Owls fanatic is famously reported to have to told his son, “If I find out you've been to school and NOT been to see Pele, they'll be serious trouble”.

Villa beat the power cuts with a £5000 generator

Villa's board has a different plan, and knowing that Pele's appearance will guarantee a bulging Villa Park, has invested what is a King's Ransom of £5,000 on a generator that will power, a least in part, the stadium's footlights. While five grand is a lot of money in 1972, the papers on the morning are full of Villa's £70,000 bid for First Division Liverpool's Ian Ross, so that sort of puts things into perspective. Ross will make his Aston Villa debut the following Saturday.

Rumours are also circulating that Santos have decided to up their match fee at last minute or they won't select Pele. With over fifty thousand fans descending on Aston to see the great man, this could easily cause a riot. Whether there's any truth in that story who knows, but Pele does start, so perhaps we've coughed up.

Villa's last home game has been a top of the table clash with Bournemouth and the free scoring Ted McDougall, which has seen over 48,000 packed into Villa Park. On this night they somehow find space for over 6,000 more. The attendance on the night is 54,437 with fans scaling floodlight pylons or clambering onto the ABCD scoreboards to get a decent view.

Gate receipts dwarf those of the previous season's League Cup semi against Manchester United. Meaningless friendly? No. This is a massive deal.

Pele's every touch might be being greeted with enthusiastic cheers, but hey, this is Villa Park and we're Aston Villa. We take the lead just a few minutes in, a Ray Graydon corner finding Charlie Aitken's head. Charlie flicks the ball goalwards and Pat McMahon nods the ball home. One nothing!


We're actually doing all right here. It seems that some that Santos's silky skills aren't entirely suited to the Villa Park February mud. Keeper Cejas has to make a full length save from a rasping Bruce Rioch shot while Pat McMahon has two decent chances to add his tally.

Eventually though there are signs of the Pele magic everyone has come to see, lovely touch with both feet, fantastic dribbling skills, accurate visionary passing and even a cheeky back heel at one stage. It's actually quite annoying when our players close him down because you just want to drink in his mesmerising skill.

We're in for a cracking second half then. Or are we?

Pele and Jack Taylor talk floodlights

Santos keeper Cejas is concerned that configuration of the emergency generator fuelled floodlights has changed during the interval. A pylon that was lit is now in darkness and one that was switched off is now illuminated. He's refusing to play on and his team mates are with him. As the Santos players troop off, Jack Taylor is left stroking his chin and trying to sort something out with Villa officials. The somewhat odd solution is to play the second half with even less light than the first and we get back under way.

The second half isn't that old when Santos defender Leo hacks down Bruce Rioch and Ray Graydon duly obliges from the penalty spot.

By now, a good time is being had by all and when Edu pulls one back for the visitors eighteen minutes from time – a beautiful bending free-kick earned after Pele is hacked down – his goal is met with rapturous applause.

The silky skills of the Latin-Americans have done as much to light up Villa Park as a five grand generator and yet we still run out winners.

A night to savour.

Port Vale are due to visit on the Saturday. They must be terrified.

Aston Villa 2 Santos 1
Competition: International Friendly
Date: Monday 21st February 1972
Venue: Villa Park
Attendance: 54,437
Referee: J.K. Taylor (Wolverhampton)

Goals: McMahon, Graydon, Edu

Aston Villa: Cumbes, Wright, Aitken, Rioch, Curtis, Turnbull, Graydon, McMahon, Lockhead, Hamilton, Martin

Santos: Cejas, Paulo, Ze Carlos, Orlando, Leo, Oberda, Monoel Maria, Nene, Edu, Pele, Ferreria

The "Ian Wright, where's your final gone?" Kerfuffle

Dek Hogan recalls how a Holte End taunt aimed at Arsenal's Ian Wright went horribly wrong

It's Saturday 23rd April in the year of our lord 1994.

Barely a month has gone by since Aston Villa's glorious defeat of Alec Ferguson's mighty Manchester United at Wembley Stadium and the Holte End is still buzzing. These are the very last days of the famous massive terrace and we are making the most of them.

The League Cup victory means that there is far less tension concerning results. With a trophy in the cabinet and European football assured, it's just a matter of wallowing in the glory until the end of season.

George Graham's Arsenal are in town and on a bit of a high having reached the final of the European Cup Winner's Cup. Well, most of the team are on a high, one player not so much.

The fateful challenge that kills Ian Wright's cup final dream

During the second leg of the semi-final against Paris St-Germain, Danish referee Peter Mikkelsen had seen fit to hand a yellow card to Gunners' goal machine Ian Wright (Wright Wright) for a clumsy but fairly innocuous tackle on Alain Roche. Roche's decision to roll over several times and grasp his shin in mock agony probably didn't help the Arsenal man's cause.

Wrighty was always one to wear his heart on his sleeve and sank to his knees sobbing as the enormity of the booking's consequences hit home. The North Londoners' talismanic striker would be suspended for the final.

Wrighty has had eleven days to get used to the idea that he is going to miss a cup final by the time he arrives at Villa Park, but a gleeful, glowing Holte End is in end-of-term mood and in no frame of mind to let the England star off the hook lightly.

“Ian Wright, where's your final gone?” becomes the song of the day and even people not given to joining in with some of the more robust Holte End classics are singing along. This is the grand old terrace in full party mode and not hiding it's collective delight at Ian Wright's despair.

Ian Wright doesn't like it.

Now back in these highly adversarial days, giving a player “a lashing” isn't at all rare, is considered part of the game and supporters know full well that full-on verbal volleys can have an effect on the form of even the most seasoned of players.

However, we've picked the wrong man in Ian Wright. His reaction is to play brilliantly.

He is buzzing and a thorn in Villa's side all afternoon. Quite a few Villa fans get annoyed - the sort to get aggressive if you have the temerity to applaud a high quality opposition goal – but others, myself included, are in admiration at the way he's taken a negative and turned it into a proper positive, using the banter as the spur to boost his performance.

Ugo gets stuck in

He might be wearing an Arsenal shirt and terrorising the defence of my beloved Aston Villa, but he is showing that he is a man's man. One of the lads. He's letting his football do his talking and it's the perfect response.

Despite Wrighty's man of the match style performance, Arsenal seem intent on winning via a penalty and have three appeals dismissed out of hand by referee Keith A. Cooper, all of which probably have more merit than the fourth one which he puzzlingly succumbs to, Neil Cox harshly adjudged to have fouled Wright in what seems to my lager glazed eyes to be a perfectly fair challenge. Wright smashes the penalty home with venom.

Milking it

To say he milks his celebration is an understatement

Now, despite this game being all about the Arsenal man, Villa aren't playing that badly at all. This will be one of those games that make us think that Graham Fenton is going to turn out to be a special player and he's impressing in Deano's absence. Ray Houghton grabs a Villa equaliser with a lovely lob while Dalian Atkinson could easily have bagged two if David Seaman wasn't being so heroic.

It is always going to be Wright's day though. Kevin Campbell puts him through and he finishes clinically to ram our song back down our throats.

You're not supposed to enjoy defeats are you? Sorry, but I still smile when I remember this one. This was a classic Holte End afternoon and there'd only ever be one more to savour. Then the terrace would be brought to rubble and going to Villa Park would never be quite the same again.

The last word should go to the man himself though, "I'm choked enough about missing the final, so I didn't need all that. I showed them in the end. I love it when people have a go. It fired me up."

The Wrightless Arsenal go onto win the Cup Winners Cup by a single Alan Smith goal, but the final's not half as much fun as it would have been had he played.

Aston Villa 1 - 2 Arsenal

Goals: Ian Wright 29, 30 Ray Houghton 57

Villa: Nigel Spink, Neil Cox, Earl Barrett, Shaun Teale, Ugo Ehiogu, Ray Houghton, Dave Farrell, Kevin Richardson, Andy Townsend, Dalian Atkinson, Graham Fenton

Arsenal: David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Andy Linighan, Martin Keown, Steve Morrow, Paul Davis, Mark Flatts, Alan Smith,Kevin Campbell,Ian Wright

Referee: Keith A Cooper
Competition: Premier League
Venue: Villa Park
Attendance:  31,580

100th Birmingham County FA Senior Cup 1985

Dek Hogan recalls Dennis Mortimer raising a trophy for Villa that may have been forgotten

I recently wrote about the Bradford Fire in 1985 and the subsequent charity game featuring the late, great George Best.

Now, as you'll appreciate, that game took place over twenty eight years ago, so although the bulk of the piece came from memory, with such a long gap, I thought it well worth trawling my archives to check out the facts.

Dragging out the mid-eighties stuff, I came across two pieces of A4 paper that were in fact, the official programme of the 100th Birmingham County FA Senior Cup Final, a game which I attended.

This game was treated very much in the same way as a Central League Match and Bill Shorthouse's charges didn't play that well on the night, but did enough to claim the cup, so this is a perhaps forgotten piece of Villa achievement.

Though Dean Glover was reserve team captain, Dennis Mortimer - making one of his last ever appearances in a Villa shirt - was allowed to pick up the trophy.

Like the George Best match which would follow just a few days later, there seemed to be little to no information about this small piece of Aston Villa history on the web, so I've scanned in some pics, wrestled the villamad.co.uk Twitter account off the news minions and shone a light on it.

The trophy is actually very nice, far nicer than that thing the size of a coffee mug that they handed to Paul Merson when we "won the Intertoto"...but that's another story....

Those tweets are here. Enjoy.

Blast from the Past: "Programme" from the 1985 Birmingham Senior Cup Final. Charged 15p for 2 sheets of A4 #avfc pic.twitter.com/1FaokCzPjA
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Blast from the Past: Teams from the 1985 Birmingham Senior Cup Final: #avfc pic.twitter.com/MzRaTTl82C
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Blast from the Past: Dennis Mortimer accepts the 1985 Birmingham Senior Cup as #avfcbeat Wednesfield Social 3-1 pic.twitter.com/81JdTwpC6A
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Blast from the Past: The Villa team celebrate winning the 100th Birmingham Senior Cup in 1985 #avfc pic.twitter.com/duDBzsfGN0
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Although Bernie Gallacher was listed in the programme for the Senior Cup win, a Brian Little shot in a 5-a-side broke his wrist...
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

...and Matthew Hellin played instead...
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

For the record, Villa ran out 3-1 winners, Dean Glover, Ray Walker & Dennis Mortimer getting our goals. Dave Morrison scored for Wednesfield
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Despite missing the final, Bernie -who had played in every other round - was still awarded a medal
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

It was the 19th time that Villa had won the Birmingham Senior Cup...
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

When George Best played for Aston Villa

Dek Hogan recalls the night George Best played for the Villa and the tragedy that brought it about.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

In 1985, the sport of football was not what you could call in good shape. A combination of escalating terrace violence, economic malaise, and frankly, poor quality football played in decaying stadiums had left the national game in deep trouble. Attendance figures were dropping through the floor.

May 1985 would see the situation get even worse but in the true spirit of the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining” tragic events in Yorkshire would lead to a true one-off.

George Best would play football for Aston Villa.

As Villa's 1984-85 season petered out into mid-table mediocrity, there was little to shout about. We'd lost our last home league game of the season to Luton Town by a single goal and were playing away at a Liverpool with one eye on The European Cup Final on the last Saturday of the league season. Not being that bothered about the game and with Dennis Mortimer's Testimonial looming on the Tuesday, I'd decided not to go.

Saturday afternoon would be spent glued to the radio.

11th May 1985

We didn't have Jeff Stelling back in those days, so I was taking part in the tradition of the time, switching between George Gavin on BRMB and whoever was in charge of the goals klaxon on Radio WM (probably Tim Russon) and tellingly on this day, Sport on 2 because they always mentioned Villa a lot more if were playing the red half of Merseyside. The telly was switched to the Oracle teletext service to keep up with the latest scores.

Fire halts the Bradford-Lincoln game

Towards the end of first half, a Radio 2 reporter announced that there appeared to be smoke and a few flames coming from the stand at Bradford and the game against Lincoln had been halted. It was fairly unusual for the BBC to mention Bradford at all, so it must, I reasoned, be a significant happening. As it was just before the interval I was, as a matter of course, turning off the teletext to catch the half time reports on the BBC's Grandstand and ITV's World of Sport. Yorkshire TV's cameras were at Valley Parade and World of Sport quickly abandoned their half time reports sequence to show the unfolding scene.

There only seemed to be a few flames at first, but just as commentator John Helm said that it looked serious, the small fire became a major conflagration. As fans began streaming onto the pitch, the roof caught a blaze. In less time than it takes to make a soft boiled egg, the whole of the roof was ablaze, raining fiery debris down on those making their escape. Helm put into the words the terrible thoughts of those us around the country witnessing agape as the tragedy unfolded and people began to emerge from the stand, some white with burns and even, in some cases, still on fire.

Valley Parade - the whole stand went up in minutes

The speed and fury with which the fire claimed the stand and with it the lives of dozens who had just gone out to cheer on their football team was truly frightening. Bradford had just gained promotion and this was supposed to be a day of celebration. The joy had turned to abject horror in little more than the blink of an eye.

For us football fans, used to standing or sitting in many ramshackle stands no better or safer than the one whose destruction we were gaping at, there was a real feeling of “there but for the grace of god go I”. 

It really hit home.

It was devastating. Horrible. Gruesome. Tragic. And one more word. Avoidable.

Yes avoidable and anyone who knew anything about how football was being run and fans were being treated knew it only too well. If we'd been cattle the RSPCA would never have stood for it.

Villa lost 2-1 at Anfield that day but I'd never been less interested in how my team had got on in my life.

As the extent of the afternoon's events began to become clear, the football family was dealt another kick in the teeth. A twelve foot wall had collapsed during severe crowd trouble between Birmingham City and Leeds United and a 15 year old boy had died as a consequence.

It's probably difficult for those who weren't around at the time to understand just how dire things had become for the game but it really felt at the time as if football was dying too. The events of that horrible day felt like nails in the coffin.

This was of course the era of Band Aid and so the reflex response of a shocked public to the fire was to start fund raising. Gerry Marsden would resurrect his hit “You'll Never Walk Alone”. The football world responded with benefit matches, but it seemed such a game featuring Villa would be unlikely.

With Villa Park booked for Dennis's game in midweek and with many potential opponents still having League fixtures to fulfil, it seemed we wouldn't be getting a game at all. The Express and Star had other ideas and it seems to have been their drive that got the game to happen. Saturday was a no-no as this was FA Cup Final day and the cup was treated with the utmost respect in those days. It was still the jewel in the crown of the football calendar. 

14th May 1985

The Mortimer testimonial took place on the Tuesday. Many of us were of the opinion that these sort of friendlies were all rigged and a high-scoring draw was on the cards. Wrong!

With so many England regulars playing for their clubs that week though, the England XI of fringe players must have seen it as an opportunity and took the game seriously and we got thumped 4-1, Peter Withe getting ours and our very own Paul Rideout scoring against us! Garry “Bruno” Thompson found the net twice with Sunderland's Nick Pickering getting the other one. A crowd of 5,451 turned up to see it and word started to get round that we were playing a game for the Bradford fire fund after all, against West Bromwich Albion and that one George Best was going to turn out for us.

"Yeah. Right" was the reaction of many of us.

At this stage of his life, George had managed to pick up a reputation for being less than reliable and for being three sheets to the wind on TV chat shows so most of us took George's potential involvement with a pinch of salt. Mister Dependable he wasn't.

17th May 1985

The attendance at the Mortimer match probably influenced the decision not to open the Holte End and so it was that on Friday 17th May 1985, most of us in the crowd of 5,663 were packed into Trinity Road Stand. Despite its beautiful brick façade, much of the Trinity's structure was wooden, an irony that wasn't lost on us on the night.

So hastily had the game been organised that there had been no time to print a proper programme so a four page newspaper type document from the Express and Star provided the pre-match reading material. Players who weren't taking part in the game were mingling around the refreshments stands and I clearly remember really struggling to decipher Tony Morley's thick accent. By this point, Tony was plying his trade for the opposition.

Then came the team news: Kevin Poole in goal, full backs Gary Williams and Tony Dorigo, Evans and Ormsby at the heart of defence, Ray Walker, Stevie McMahon and Sid in midfield, Peter Withe alongside Paul Rideout up front and in the number eleven shirt...oh yes! George Best!

Yep!

George in a Villa shirt!

Nicky Cross dazzled by George's brilliance

Legend has it that the only stipulation George made was that Villa provide the footwear. Incredibly, one of the most skilful players ever to grace the planet no longer owned a pair of football boots!

It is absolutely true to say that George wasn't in prime physical fitness, being just shy of his 39th birthday at the time, but all the skill was there and his every touch was greeted with yelps of delight from the assembled Trinity Road throng. The first half may have been goalless, but it was joy to watch the ball control, brilliance and cheeky back heel passes of a true maestro at work.

He made Albion's awestruck players look ordinary, which probably didn't do much for their self esteem.

I was certainly awestruck, so much so that I couldn't find it in my heart to sing the old classic "Georgie Best. Superstar. Looks like a woman and he wears a bra." Mind you, the emerging middle-aged spread and the full beard made the song somewhat redundant anyway.

Tony Godden keeps Peter Withe at bay

In the second half, we even got some goals to cheer. Paul Rideout combined well with Steve McMahon who put Villa one up as a consequence before a corner from Mister Georgie Best himself found Allan Evans and we were coasting.

Or at least I thought we were.

Albion stormed back into it, Steve Mackenzie scoring a penalty before Tony Grealish levelled it. Garry Thompson continued his week of being a thorn in Villa's side by putting the Baggies ahead.

George managed an hour in a Villa shirt and what a wonderful hour it was, but it was the player who came on for him, Didier Six, that netted Villa's equaliser. The game finished 3-3. We'd got the high scoring draw we'd expected on the Tuesday.

Didier Six fires home Villa's equaliser

It was a true honour to witness a player of George's calibre wearing a Villa shirt and the night would also prove to be the last chance of seeing Peter Withe, Paul Rideout and Didier Six in their Villa colours.

The local press reckoned we raised about £10,000 for the disaster fund on the night.

It was a special night, one to treasure, but we should never forget the reason we were there... and if football people thought things couldn't any worse, the Heysel Stadium disaster was less than two weeks away.

56 people died in the fire at Valley Parade:

ACKROYD, John Douglas 32 Baildon
ANDERTON, Edmund 68 Bingley
BAINES, Alexander Shaw 70 Bradford
BAMFORD, Herbert 72 Bradford
BULMER, Christopher James 11 Burley-in-Wharfedale
COXON, Jack Leo 76 Bradford
COXON, Leo Anthony 44 Halifax
CRABTREE, David James 30 Bradford
CRABTREE, Harry 76 Bradford
DEMPSEY, Derek 46 Morley
FIRTH, Muriel 56 Baildon
FIRTH, Samuel 86 Bradford
FLETCHER, Andrew 11 East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire
FLETCHER, Edmond 63 Pudsey
FLETCHER, John 34 East Bridgford, Nottingham
FLETCHER, Peter 32 Gildersome
FORSTER, Nellie 64 Bradford
GREENWOOD, Felix Winspear 13 Denholme
GREENWOOD, Peter 46 Denholme
GREENWOOD, Rupert Benedict 11 Denholme
HALL, Norman 71 Bradford
HALLIDAY, Peter Anthony 34 Bradford
HARTLEY, Arthur 79 Bradford
HINDLE, Edith 79 Bradford
HINDLE, Frederick 76 Bradford
HODGSON, Moira Helen 15 Oakenshaw
HUDSON, Eric 72 Bingley
HUGHES, John 64 Bradford
HUTTON, John 74 Bradford
KERR, Walter 76 Bradford
LOVELL, Peter Charles 43 Bradford
LUDLAM, Jack 55 Bradford
McPHERSON, Gordon Stuart 39 Bradford
McPHERSON, Irene 28 Bradford
MASON, Roy 74 Silsden
MIDDLETON, Frederick Norman 84 Bradford
MITCHELL, Harold 79 Bradford
MUHL, Elizabeth 21 Leeds
NORMINGTON, Ernest 74 Shipley
ORMONDROYD, Gerald Priestley 40 Bingley
ORMONDROYD, Richard John 12 Bingley
ORMONDROYD, Robert Ian 12 Bingley
POLLARD, Sylvia Lund 69 Bradford
PRICE, Herbert 78 Shipley
ROBERTS, Amanda Jayne 20 Bradford
SAMPSON, Jane 18 Leeds
STACEY, William 72 Sleaford, Lincolnshire
STOCKMAN, Craig Albert 14 Bradford
STOCKMAN, Jane Ashley 16 Bradford
STOCKMAN, Trevor John 38 Brighouse
TURNER, Howard Malcolm 41 Bingley
TURNER, Sarah Elizabeth 16 Bingley
WARD, Simon Neil 18 Shipley
WEDGEWORTH, Robert 72 Guiseley
WEST, William James 78 North Hykeham, Lincoln
WRIGHT, Adrian Mark 11 Bradford.