The worst Villa games in history

[briny_ear]

48 minutes ago, S-Platt said:

However in hindsight that game was one of the best things that ever happened to us!  The 3 years since have been magnificent and only seem to be getting better! So I don't look back at that game in the same way.

Absolutely. In retrospect, I shudder to think what would have happened if we had won that game and Dr Tony had got his hands on all that Premier League TV money. We may have gone under by now.

[NeilS]

I remember my first real time of feeling the pain of a heavy Villa defeat at Villa Park when tony Woodcock scored five goals for Arsenal in a 6-2 scoreline during 1983. I would have only 7 years old at the time, and my Dad said it made my cry. Nobody started a go fund me page to raise me loads of cash though.

Here is an article I found on the match:-

Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 6 in 1983

In the days when newspaper Pinks and Green-uns dotted the country, bringing news of scores and scorers so close to the final whistle that it was a publishing marvel, there was a headline this month in 1983 that sign-posted what had just gone on between Aston Villa and Arsenal in the First Division.

‘Hot-shot Tony’s super goal spree,’ it said. The hot-shot in question was Tony Woodcock and the dramatic scoreline read: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 6.

Woodcock got five goals for Arsenal, their first five. He started in the fifth minute via a pass from Graham Rix and he stopped after 49 minutes. Had Arsenal been a different, more creative team, Woodcock says, he could have chased down the club’s all-time record of Ted Drake.

In 1983, Arsenal began the day in 12th place, a measure of the team, and soon manager Terry Neill would be gone. So, Woodcock spent 42 minutes not scoring.

‘We did have quite a few good individuals then,’ he says, ‘but we didn’t find a way to make it a successful team. We had lost Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton and were rebuilding.

‘It wasn’t a team who created many chances. In fact Brian Talbot called me “One-chance Woodcock”, because that’s all I’d need and that’s all I’d get.’

‘The first, I got a pass but there was still a lot to do. The second was a header, a placed header. The third was a one-two with Charlie Nicholas that got us into the box where we played another one-two and I scored.’ Tony Morley got one back for Villa but Woodcock added a fourth, on the rebound, before half-time.

‘All the lads were saying, “God, how many have you got?’’

His fifth –— ‘from probably my fifth chance’ — shortly after the interval, made it 5-1. Arsenal did create another chance, but substitute Brian McDermott — later manager of Reading — took it.

‘I remember late on, I think it was Paul Davis who was through and should have put me in — but he didn’t,’ Woodcock adds.

 

I have held a grudge against Tony Woodcock ever since, the git!.

[Pez1974]

Well. That was a fun read.

Now...over to Facebook to see how my ex-wife aged beautifully, won the lottery and become an amazingly thoughtful person.

[withes_shin]

The game that left me feeling completely numb, empty and frustrated was the end of the first premier league season (1992) when we were going for the title with ManU.  Villa drew 0-0 with Coventry, which in itself was a bad game, but at least Utd were losing at home to Sheffield Wednesday when the Villa game finished and we left the ground.  By the time I was walking by the Aston Social a train went over the track above us with Coventry fans hanging out the windows, laughing, singing, waving and having a real good laugh, generally taking the mick out of any Villa fan they could see - strange reaction to a 0-0 draw I thought, until I got back to the car to hear that Utd had won 2-1 in the 9th minute of injury time

[villan_down_under]

Forest (Away) 1986 lost 6-0 - Graham Turner's final game, woeful team/season/day (pissed it down in open ended terrace)

Doncaster (Away) 2005 lost 3 - 0 - Abject O'Leary team

Small Heath (Home) 2004 2 - 2 , worst ever feeling after a game. After Tommy Special should have battered the inbreds

[tomav84]

9 hours ago, MadridVilla said:

With all this optimism around the club at the moment, it got me thinking...

What are some of the worst Villa games you can remember? Games that left you feeling full of frustration, desperate, or just completely numb.

Some recent ones I can think of to start off:

Bolton away 17/18 - a horribly cold day that put the nail in pushing for automatic promotion, having just beaten Wolves the week before.

Southampton away 14/15 - completely crumbling to a 6-1 defeat with that Mane hat-trick in 3 minutes.

Stoke home 08/09 - conceding two late goals and drawing the game, effectively killed our chances of top 4

Anyone got any others that stand out?

 

those are some great examples. was that bolton game during the beast from the east, in the snow? that game shouldn't have gone ahead. we barely made it home, the discussion of sleeping in the car on the side of the A34 was genuinely considered. awful day

saw us get stuffed at chelsea at least twice...7-0 and 8-0 i think?

more recently southampton away first season back in the prem...convinced we were going down after losing 3-0

that stoke game will always stick out. we would've finished in the top 4, i'm positive of that

[tomav84]

1 hour ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Not the worst, by any means but the one that still seems to annoy me to this day, is the 3-2 defeat to Man United with Macheda scoring in the last minute.

my one and only trip to old trafford. haven't been able to face going back there. definitely an (dis)honourable mention that

[theboyangel]

8 hours ago, Hornso said:

West Ham 4-0 Villa - Marlon Harewood hat trick. 

I was in Rome with the wife on that night and watched the game in a tiny bar.

it took several flagons of local Frascati wine to get over it  

 

[chrisvilla4]

Hard to read this thread without becoming depressed! We've had so many stinkers! 

I'm going with the 3-0 loss to blues first time we played them in the prem, Enkelman having that lapse of concentration. 

I'd had a few too many and wanted to burn my shirt in the back garden, the Mrs sent me to bed.

[mjmooney]

Blackburn away 5-0 (Savo spitting at our own fans). First time I ever left a game before the final whistle. 

[Follyfoot]

1 hour ago, NeilS said:

I remember my first real time of feeling the pain of a heavy Villa defeat at Villa Park when tony Woodcock scored five goals for Arsenal in a 6-2 scoreline during 1983. I would have only 7 years old at the time, and my Dad said it made my cry. Nobody started a go fund me page to raise me loads of cash though.

Here is an article I found on the match:-

Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 6 in 1983

In the days when newspaper Pinks and Green-uns dotted the country, bringing news of scores and scorers so close to the final whistle that it was a publishing marvel, there was a headline this month in 1983 that sign-posted what had just gone on between Aston Villa and Arsenal in the First Division.

‘Hot-shot Tony’s super goal spree,’ it said. The hot-shot in question was Tony Woodcock and the dramatic scoreline read: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 6.

Woodcock got five goals for Arsenal, their first five. He started in the fifth minute via a pass from Graham Rix and he stopped after 49 minutes. Had Arsenal been a different, more creative team, Woodcock says, he could have chased down the club’s all-time record of Ted Drake.

In 1983, Arsenal began the day in 12th place, a measure of the team, and soon manager Terry Neill would be gone. So, Woodcock spent 42 minutes not scoring.

‘We did have quite a few good individuals then,’ he says, ‘but we didn’t find a way to make it a successful team. We had lost Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton and were rebuilding.

‘It wasn’t a team who created many chances. In fact Brian Talbot called me “One-chance Woodcock”, because that’s all I’d need and that’s all I’d get.’

‘The first, I got a pass but there was still a lot to do. The second was a header, a placed header. The third was a one-two with Charlie Nicholas that got us into the box where we played another one-two and I scored.’ Tony Morley got one back for Villa but Woodcock added a fourth, on the rebound, before half-time.

‘All the lads were saying, “God, how many have you got?’’

His fifth –— ‘from probably my fifth chance’ — shortly after the interval, made it 5-1. Arsenal did create another chance, but substitute Brian McDermott — later manager of Reading — took it.

‘I remember late on, I think it was Paul Davis who was through and should have put me in — but he didn’t,’ Woodcock adds.

 

I have held a grudge against Tony Woodcock ever since, the git!.

The 1986 game was worse, we lost 4-1 and there were more Arsenal fans in Villa Park than us in a crowd of just under 11k 

Dark days so soon after hitting the heights,  and we got worse...................

Edited July 6, 2021 by Follyfoot

[blandy]

59 minutes ago, NeilS said:

I remember my first real time of feeling the pain of a heavy Villa defeat at Villa Park when tony Woodcock scored five goals for Arsenal in a 6-2 scoreline during 1983. I would have only 7 years old at the time, and my Dad said it made my cry. Nobody started a go fund me page to raise me loads of cash though.

Here is an article I found on the match:-

I went to that too. It was dreadful.

That season we also got thrashed at home by Forest (we got thrashed by loads of teams), and I can remember when we'd let in 4 or 5 that we started ironically pretending to support Forest.

A couple of years later, maybe 3, we thrashed Forest and the Forest fans started ironically pretending to support Villa, which was a nice reference back.

In more recent times, in Jan 2014, losing at home in the FA Cup to Sheffield United (then in the third tier). I remember thinking to myself "I have absolutely no idea why I bothered coming to this, I don't want to be here". It was utter dross, and confirmation that I wasn't going to bother any more. I think I went to one more game that season, gave up my season ticket for a few years and just went to the odd game. Thank God for Deano. Though even under him getting beat 3-0 at Wigan was horrible. Dreadful performance. 

[villarule123]

The City game in our first season back in the Prem was horrific too. I left after 42 minutes when we were 0-4 down and I can't even remember what the final score was. 

Look at the progress we've made since! 

[rjw63]

Losing 0-5 to Bradford and a pre-Villa Ian Ormondroyd in the Full Members/Simod Cup was rather enlightening.

I doubt many of you lot saw it though, there were only about 17 fans in attendance.

OK it was about 4000 but you know what I mean.

[withes_shin]

Another game that springs to mind is when we lost at home to QPR, can't remember if it was 3-1 or 3-0, but Trevor Francis scored a brilliant hat trick for them.  He was player manager at the time and must have arranged for himself to be substituted and went over to the Witton Lane stand so that he had to walk the entire width of the pitch to get off, at snails pace, whilst applauding the QPR fans.  Think there was only 14,000ish fans in the ground that day - felt like I'd got the Holte End to myself.

[pintpotvilla]

03/03/03 Absolutely horrendous Enough said

[mole86]

Seen a lot of mention of the 8-0 at Chelsea. The 7-1 against them in the O’Neill years was more demoralising for me as it just confirmed how far away we were from really challenging.

[sparrow1988]

1 hour ago, theboyangel said:

I was in Rome with the wife on that night and watched the game in a tiny bar.

it took several flagons of local Frascati wine to get over it  

 

Of which you were never going to drink in any case. Definitely just becasue of the defeat.

[rjw63]

24 minutes ago, withes_shin said:

Another game that springs to mind is when we lost at home to QPR, can't remember if it was 3-1 or 3-0, but Trevor Francis scored a brilliant hat trick for them.  He was player manager at the time and must have arranged for himself to be substituted and went over to the Witton Lane stand so that he had to walk the entire width of the pitch to get off, at snails pace, whilst applauding the QPR fans.  Think there was only 14,000ish fans in the ground that day - felt like I'd got the Holte End to myself.

Yeah I was there for that - wanted to get on the pitch and kick his adenoidal face off the field. Diving word removed.

[NeilS]

35 minutes ago, blandy said:

I went to that too. It was dreadful.

That season we also got thrashed at home by Forest (we got thrashed by loads of teams), and I can remember when we'd let in 4 or 5 that we started ironically pretending to support Forest.

A couple of years later, maybe 3, we thrashed Forest and the Forest fans started ironically pretending to support Villa, which was a nice reference back.

In more recent times, in Jan 2014, losing at home in the FA Cup to Sheffield United (then in the third tier). I remember thinking to myself "I have absolutely no idea why I bothered coming to this, I don't want to be here". It was utter dross, and confirmation that I wasn't going to bother any more. I think I went to one more game that season, gave up my season ticket for a few years and just went to the odd game. Thank God for Deano. Though even under him getting beat 3-0 at Wigan was horrible. Dreadful performance. 

There were some bad times during those years in the mid eighties. I must admit that I never envisaged it ever being as bad as that again, then came the class of 2015/16 which taught me never to assume things can't get any worse.

Thankfully NSWE and Deano and co have put us on the right path again, and we should enjoy these days because we have had some real awful days along the way.