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Only County Visit:	Wednesday 25th October 1995
Competition:	Coca-Cola Cup – (Round 3)
Result:	Aston Villa 2 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	17,679
Away Trip:	72
Away Day:	311
County Line-up	1 Neil Edwards; 2 Sean Connelly; 3 Lee Todd; 4 Tom Bennett (12 Michael Oliver); 5 Mike Flynn; 6 Jim Gannon; 7 Chris Beaumont; 8 Paul Ware (14 Jeff Eckhardt); 9 Marc Lloyd-Williams (13 Richard Landon); 10 Alun Armstrong; 11 Martyn Chalk
Manager:	Dave Jones
County Visits:	1

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THE M6 WINS AGAIN

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We’d been to Old Trafford, (although, of course, that was nominally a home game); Anfield and Maine Road, (another ‘home’ game!!).  The trip to the Baseball Ground was after they had fallen out of the top tier, so the last away trip to a Premier League ground had been to Nottingham Forest three years before the win at Ipswich gave us a Coca-Cola 3^rd Round tie at Villa Park.

There won’t have been many, if indeed any, County fans who travelled to what is euphemistically called the “Second City” that evening who had seen the previous encounter with Villa.  That had been 58 years previously, in late 1937, when a 7-1 defeat was one of 22 in a season which saw us relegated at the first time of asking after promotion 12 months previously.

And after an exit from the Coca-Cola Cup we haven’t met them again.  But we could have.  A scoreless draw at Gillingham in the 2^nd Round of the FA Cup in November 2008, brought a replay at EP ten days later.  By that time, we knew that the winners would face Villa, in a home game, and it had already been announced that the tie would be on national TV.  A ready-made opportunity to cash in.  There followed that evening one of the most bizarre performances it has been my misfortune to witness. 

I think that it’s fair to say that most County fans would regard Jim Gannon as someone who wears his heart on his sleeve and is more than animated on the touchline.  But the rumour mill at EP, had been in overdrive with all sorts of suggestions that Gannon and the Board were not seeing eye to eye. (By then the club was owned by the Trust, and was under the leadership of Norman Beverley, nominally, but as everyone knew the reality was that Mark Maguire was the one really pulling the strings). 

That evening, with so much to play for, we just capitulated to a 2-1 defeat after going into the lead.  This was a team which had done reasonably well after promotion the previous season, (standing in 8^th place in League 1), losing to a team a Division lower. 

Gannon, normally so animated, spent the game leaning against the pitch-side fence, and played no part in motivating his team; shouting instructions, or handing out the bollockings we are so familiar with.  It is the only time I have seen him like this and was noticed by all in the Main Stand.  It was almost as if he had gone on strike.  Whether there had been a row about the use of the TV and gate money from the potential Villa game I have no idea.  But it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Maguire et al had told him that he wouldn’t be getting any use of the cash.  The Club finances must have been in a perilous state.  Within 3 months the fatal loan from David Farms, negotiated by Maguire, had come to haunt us.  We were in administration.  Four years later it was regional football. 

Turning to the game, or at least that part that we saw.  The M6 was its usual self.  On the Fingerpost Flyer that late afternoon we got down to Stafford in good time, at which point traffic ground to a halt, and having halted, we then didn’t move for well over an hour.  The clock was ticking around to 6.45pm, (with kick-off an hour off), and we were still well over 40 miles away.  All sorts of chat went around the coach, centring on whether the match would be delayed.  I couldn’t see that as in any way possible and the news on the radio confirmed this to be the case.  Finally, there was movement, and we sped down the M6, past the Bescot Stadium, onto the Aston Expressway, and parked up.  The coach disgorged its occupants and there was a dash for the turnstiles.  The game had already been underway for 15 minutes.  (it was the only time I’ve missed that much at the start of game until a sorry trip to Huish Park, Yeovil 14 years later).

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Villa Park at the time of my first visit in 1975, and the view that I had from the Witton End

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It wasn’t my first visit to Villa Park.  Back in 1976, my brother, then 16, badgered me to take him to see Manchester United in a league game.  The ground that I saw in 1995 had changed immensely.  I stood on the Witton End for the first trip. A huge open terrace, (although nowhere near as big as the Holte End).  Concrete terracing for the most part, but more just a rough slope at the top.  It rained constantly through the game – a most unpleasant experience. 

I have only one real memory of the game.  It marked the debut of Peter Coyne, who had been a schoolboy prodigy for Manchester Boys, with a phenomenal goalscoring record.  He didn’t score that day, but did in his only other United appearance,  Little did I know that within 12 months I would be watching him play for Ashton United, and seeing him regularly in Ashton pubs on a Friday evening.  Not drinking, but as one of those ‘pub to pub’ seafood vendors.  He was doing that as part of a deal with a company which backed Ashton United at the time.  He did of course move onto League football, hitting the net over 80 times for Crewe and Swindon.  But all that is an aside.

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The terraced Witton End by 1995 had been replaced by a two-tier construction and renamed as the North Stand.  We were allocated the bottom of it.  Given that it was a fairly recent construction, (late 70’s), the design was appalling.  Entering through the turnstiles, we were confronted by a relatively narrow passageway, which was rendered even more difficult to pass through by programme and refreshment kiosks.  It led to the seating, which had initially been a standing terrace onto which seats had been bolted.  There was no depth, and the view was beyond poor.  Not much higher than pitch level, even at the back of this seating, there was no real opportunity to see the action at the far end, with absolutely no meaningful perspective on the game.  My research tells me that the construction of this stand had been bedded in controversy with various investigations into the provenance of the architect which resulted suspended sentences.  Villa had also been overcharged for the job, and there had been attempts to obtain money by deception from the Football Ground Improvement Trust.  (In later years the installation of a new PA system at EP was cast under a similar cloud….)

Down at the far end was the Holte End.  On my first visit it had been a magnificent terrace, (holding 20,000 even as late as 1994), very impressive, and I can only imagine the atmosphere when filled to capacity.  By 1995 a large structure was there, but now it was a two-tiered affair, all seated of course, but still impressive.  Even today, when viewed from the M6, there’s a real impression of the size of it.  Even after the new stand was built, (and had been completed in the space of 8 months), it held just short of 14,000.  Putting things in perspective, the Cheadle End at EP dwarves the rest of the ground.  The Holte End was nearly three times as big!

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The Holte End seen from the North Stand visitors accommodation, and that’s just about the perspective we had that night. It didn’t make for the best viewing.

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On our left as we looked down the pitch was the Witton Lane Stand.  Yet another new construction, (as Villa Park prepared to host ties in the Euro 96 competition), it had been opened about 12 months or so before we visited.  Like the North Stand and Holte End, it was two tiered, as was the Trinity Road Stand to our right.  Later developments have filled in the corner between the Holte End and Trinity Road Stand so the ground we see on TV today is slightly changed from the one we played at in 1995.

I’m a great critic of some of the developments at grounds.  Character can be removed in the pursuit of uniformity.  Not so at Villa Park – to my eye anyway.  Up until that point my experiences of away grounds had, in general, been at the smaller provincial lower league clubs.  Seeing County play at an arena like Villa Park was an experience.  It was a ground which had seen some of the great occasions, being a regular selection for FA Cup semi-finals; a venue for games in the 1966 World Cup, and also, a few months after we visited, for Euro 96.  It’s one of the joys of watching an unfashionable club that Cup competitions provide this kind of chance. 

As we look to recover from Covid-19 I wonder if these will be further marginalised?  Semi-finals at Wembley; no replays; clubs being exempted as throw themselves on the altar of the Champions League.  Football will undoubtedly change as a result of the pandemic; sadly, it was already changing, for the worse, beforehand.  In the page on Home Games in 2020 I have reflected in more detail as to how I believe that English football should develop in order to preserve not only its integrity, but also to reframe itself and return to being the ‘game of the people’.

By the way we lost the game 2-0!!  The nearest I’ve been to Villa Park since then is to pass it as I drive along the Aston Expressway on the way to Rob’s house.  I’d like to go again – maybe an FA Cup run, and a favourable draw will provide the opportunity!!

June 2020

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Wed	25/10/95	Coca-Cola Cup	Round 3	Aston Villa	L	0	2	17,679	311

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – PORTMAN ROAD Next stop – GOODISON PARK