Visits to Wembley and what was your best experience | Vital Football

Visits to Wembley and what was your best experience

T

tarzansbrother

Vital Football Hero
So this Carabao cup final will be my 10th visit watching Villa, to think I would visit Wembley to watch Villa that many times. Without a doubt my best visit was beating Man Utd with big Ron in charge 1994.
 
Same here followed by Leeds with the same score,now I'm thinking what price would I get from bookie's for 3-1 against man city lol
 
My 10th as well with the first being Big Rons league cup. Both that and the 96 final are up there but tying for overall best experience are last seasons play off final and the FA cup semi final under Sherwood.

The Sherwood cup semi was a near perfect day from start to finish and seemed at the time to be a turning around for the club. And after a couple of miserable experiences under MON at Wembley both in terms of day out and performance it was brilliant. Obviously it turned out to be a gigantic false dawn but my god it was glorious.

Last seasons play off final again was perfect from a day out point of view. Got there nice and early. My whole family were there and we got to forget the misery of 12 months previous. Seeing Jack lift that cup will stay with me forever. Of course that day could well go down as another false dawn should we be relegated.

Perhaps its strange that I've placed a semi final and a play off over two proper cup final wins but in 96 I was 10 and couldn't totally appreciate it all. If we somehow beat the blue mancs and their tourist fans that will shoot up to the top spot.
 
Worst is the 2010 league cup. The club booked trains from witton Station were ridiculously late and myself and many others were stuck in the pouring rain till midday. Finally arrived at Wembley and basically had to walk straight into the ground as it was pretty much kick off time.

Vidic not being sent off still pisses me off to this day but the fact is we were bloody rubbish and threw a game we should have won away. Christ we let bloody Owen hobble through and score. At the end of the day it summed up the MON era for me. Never quite good enough to challenge properly.

And to top it off the trains back were late and we had to wait on the platform in a sodding monsoon. God awful day.
 
HAS to be 1994. My first time to Wembley. A team full of premier league talent. Remember seeing Doug at the top of wembley on his VIP balcony and all the villa fans chanting 'deadly'. Got jack Charlton's autograph after my dad jumped a railing where the tv crews were. An amazing performance. Immense atmosphere (as usual) and watching loads of hooligans after the game with the mounted police storming everyone. Amazing day. GOAT villa day out.
 
Under big Ron, magical experience seeing the twin towers and we had no chance, wonderful day and seeing big Ron at the end was priceless. Ron Saunders, big Ron, Graham Taylor, thank you God for blessing me with these great men. My personal favourite is Ron Saunders but that's just because my first game allowed me to witness the mighty villa beat the best league side ever, 1979.
 
No contest for me. 1975 I was 11and it was my first visit to Wembley (I cried when my Dad wouldn't take me in 1971) and Ray Graydon scoring from the rebound at our end.

My Dad was one of 13 and all his brother and sisters were obviously Villa fans which meant a lot of my cousins were as well. We filled a 52 seater coach with mainly family and a few friends . Just a magical day and impossible to forget.
 
Wow 1975, my grandad died before that final, I was only 6. I love watching the video of that game and the Chris Nicholl final. Magic moments. Football is about winning and memories.
 
pvb1968 said:
Wow 1975, my grandad died before that final, I was only 6. I love watching the video of that game and the Chris Nicholl final. Magic moments. Football is about winning and memories.
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Yup. 1975 was the first time I saw us win a trophy.
 
Although thinking on it. The old and new Wembleys are so far apart from.each other that it has to be separated in my opinion.

Best at old Wembley was 1996 . Only other villa game I saw there was cup semi final v Bolton so haven't got a worst.

Worst at new Wembley as above. Best at new Wembley , last years play off final . No contest.
 
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I think I rank the 2010 worse than the 2015 debacle because I actually expected us to win that game whereas after we'd humiliatingly lost our last 2 games of the season I expected nothing but a battering in 2015.
 
94 was absolute magic as a 8 year old on his first visit to Wembley. Half the kids at my school were newly minted man utd fans who had been taking the piss for weeks before.

I remember William and Harry being there with Prince Charles and later hearing a rumour that Harry, a man utd fan, wanted to present the trophy as he thought utd would win and refused to when we won. I wonder if that's why William is a Villa fan.
 
My first trip to Wembley 1971 for a Villa game. So proud of that side even in defeat.
I was 20 years old and stood there like a big schoolgirl with tears running down my face when we did our lap of honour.
Must also mention the "wheres your treble gone" final with Big Fat Ronnie. Great day out.
 
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Oasis. July 2009.

The Enemy and Kasabian were supposed to be supporting, but when we got there it said The Enemy couldn't make it so Kasabian would do an extra long set.

Incredible. Was basically a full Kasabian set followed by a full Oasis set. I was dead by the end of it.

As for football, went to old Wembley twice and saw us win both times in 94 and 96. Both were brilliant. I was in the Olympic Gallery for the first one. I was only 14 and it was such an awesome experience.

2 years later I went down on the coach with friends and got pissed on Vodka & Sunny D smuggled on in Sunny D bottles. Again, what a great day that was!

New Wembley had been a completely miserable place for me until last year... defeat after defeat... ( I missed the semi win against Liverpool due to my son being born), so last year was pretty special..... even with the £170 bar tab in Soho afterwards for drinks I didn't end up drinking. lol
 
sirdennis said:
No contest for me. 1975 I was 11and it was my first visit to Wembley (I cried when my Dad wouldn't take me in 1971) and Ray Graydon scoring from the rebound at our end.

My Dad was one of 13 and all his brother and sisters were obviously Villa fans which meant a lot of my cousins were as well. We filled a 52 seater coach with mainly family and a few friends . Just a magical day and impossible to forget.
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. Lots of Wembley memories,good and bad. Dad couldn't get tickets for 1957 against the media darlings from Coronation Street. Dad rented our first TV from, ironically, Granada. Everything going well,2-0 up when Tommy Taylor nets for ManU. Just a few minutes left and this soon to be 9 years old wimps out and off for a walk round the streets of Northfield. Suddenly,a series of roars, l ran home like the wind and dad was sitting,as calm as ever, in his armchair. I stared at dad,he looked pleased enough and he clenched his fist and roared YESSSSSSS. Magic moments and Dad took my brother and l to town to see Johnny Dixon lift that famous trophy for a record seventh time. Thanks Dad. Then our long,painful decline ending up the third division. Tommy Docherty came and went and Villa stalwart,Vic Crowd steadied the ship. A league cup run saw us meet Man U in a two legged semi final. A 1-1 draw at Old Trafford with warhorse Andy Lochhead putting us l up with Brian Kidd hitting a screamer to level the tie. Andy had a perfectly good header disallowed for an alleged foul on Jimmy Rimmer. Second leg at Villa Park and Boss said anyone who slices off will be sacked and/or lose Holiday pay. Nervous night shift at Cadburys,teased by a plastic Scouser but eventual bliss. My first trip to Wembley. Brian Jennings (Winky) organised a coach from the Black Horse in Northfield. Remember getting on the coach and seeind 50 blond Villans with black eyebrows. George Michael has a lot to answer for. A boozy trip to London. Our mate,John Bodington,a bluenose but a closet Villan,had no ticket but came along more in hope than expectation. We met the stereotypical Cockneys flogging tickets and we put together to buy one for "Bod". He shocked us by telling the Cockney that his price was exhorbitant. We all thought that the Beano was Bods limit. Great game,Andy's missed sitter,Chico hitting the bar and matching Spurs all the way. But what we all remember is the passionate support,a Wembley official said that he'd never heard such noise levels. Roared the boys off the pitch and a great night in the "Smoke'. Football in the morning for Inverness villa in tha Nort Birmingham league. Most of us still pissed as we drew 3-3 with the mighty Bradford Bakery. We beat them 6-0 earlier in the season and strolled the league. Moral is don't get pissed and play football unless you are Paul McGrath. Many Wembley visits since, loved the 75 Norwich,94 Man U and of course the Liverpool semi. But perhaps,for my generation,that 72 game signalled that the grand old lady,the impoverished aristocrat was on the way back to the top table. Magic game. Magic day. Magic memories.
 
Charity Shield Vs Spurs. Anyone could get anywhere underneath the stadium. A fight broke out between Spurs and Villa hoolies. I was standing with a load of Villa fans just behind the front line of the battle. We decided to chuck our beers over the fighters. Priceless! I think we drew the game.
 
Liverpool semi.

Last year, yeah, great we won, but don't like the play off set up or getting a cup, (when you finished 5th especially). Great and needed victory obv.

All others, Arsenal especially, pretty miserable.

Even more miserable, I missed 94 and 96 have brain ops!
 
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