boxing day and other misadventures

Boxing Day has always been one of the highlights of the football season - the once a year when armchair fans fill themselves full of festive spirit and try to remember what it used to be like to go and watch a game. This season we're bound to get a capacity crowd to watch Vialli, Zola and the rest of Chelsea's team of all-stars and Denis Wise.

But in the past, the size of the crowd and their expectations haven't always been matched by the football. There have, though, been a few memorable matches. One of the most notable Boxing Day encounters took place in 1975. Newly promoted Villa took on West Ham at Villa Park and won 4-1 with John Deehan scoring twice. Chico Hamilton and Andy Gray getting the others. This game is worth remembering for a couple of reasons. The attendance, 51,300, hasn't been bettered since, while making his debut for the Villa was Dennis Mortimer, signed from Coventry City a few days earlier for a then-club record fee of £175,000. The true significance of the moment would have passed unnoticed by everyone in the crowd, but this was the first time that one of the European Cup winning team played for the club.

The next couple of Boxing Day games were fairly unremarkable events, a 1-1 draw at home to Coventry in 1977 and a further draw, this time against Leeds, the following season, John Gregory scored both goals in this game, the last to be played at Villa Park until March 3rd the next year due to one of the longest and hardest winters ever.

Boxing Day 1979 saw another significant milestone, Jimmy Rimmer's run of consecutive appearances came to a halt through injury and into the goalkeepers role stepped Nigel Spink, who contrary to many a quiz question didn't make his debut in a slightly more important match two seasons later. Spink had a good debut, but was unable to prevent a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the team who were then European Champions.

Championships were also being talked about in 1980 when Villa were at home to Stoke City on December 26th. 34,658 saw a fairly unmemorable encounter won by a single goal from Peter Withe, but that season every one counted.

The following year we didn't have a game on Boxing Day, and the year after that we didn't have one on December 26th either. What we did have was some sort of match on the 27th, but I've forgotten about it. Incidentally, when Small Heath supporters talk about their massive crowd-pulling potential, you may care to remind them that the gate of 43,864 that day was one of their fifteen highest of all time. Impressive, yes? Not really.

1983-84 saw a 3-2 defeat at Watford in front of just 18,226, which we might have thought was pitiful at the time, but we didn't know what was around the corner. Mark Walters and Alan Curbishley scored for the Villa,

The following year saw us gain one of the most undeserved points ever, as Sheffield Wednesday battered the Villa senseless for ninety minutes yet Paul Rideout's first half goal gave us a point at Hillsborough.

1985-86 was another blank December 26th, but the year after was best forgotten except for the scoreline. Billy McNeill had arrived and put together a very, extremely brief revival which had caused us to think, foolishly, that we might avoid the relegation spot we had earmarked for us since the opening day of the season. A crowd of just 16,692 endured a game against fellow strugglers Charlton that was partially livened up by two late goals from Paul Birch and Tony Daley. It was as depressing as everything else we experienced that season, but any hopes that we might have been able to stay up were gradually killed off as we won just two more games all season.

Our second division sojourn took us back to Sheffield for Boxing Day 1987, this time to Bramall Lane where a Garry Thompson goal which should have been disallowed for handball earned us a point in a 1-1 draw.

Back up in 1988, and a 1-0 victory at home to Queens Park Rangers. Alan MacInally scored, as he was doing in almost every game at this time, but this match was probably the summit of his Villa career and he was to score just twice more that season as we slumped in the New Year and struggled against relegation

Boxing Day 1989 was a strange one. I was there, as were 41,247 of us in total, and I can distinctly remember thousands of Manchester United supporters singing "Fergie on the dole" as Platt, Gage and Olney gave Villa a 3-0 victory. However, not a single one of those United supporters who were in such good voice in the Witton End can ever be found, while those who admit that they were at the game must have all suffered a sudden attack of deafness because none of them heard such a song. Most peculiar.

As was Platt's contribution to the 1990 game at Everton - a superb clearance when he somehow hooked a certain goal over his shoulder and off the line. The problem was that it was from a Kent Nielsen header and would have given us the equaliser in a 1-0 defeat. Then again, I don't suppose he meant it. Although after what he later said about what his main ambition was that season, you can't be certain.

1991-92 saw a routine 3-1 victory over a West Ham side that by then were on their way to relegation. Richardson, Daley and Yorke scored, 31,959 were at Villa Park.

1992-93 was probably the worst Boxing Day performance of all, as a 3-0 defeat at Highfield Road saw our championship hopes severely knocked. The game kicked off at 12 o'clock in front of a capacity crowd of 24,245, none of whom would have been able to see a thing had the match been scheduled for a normal kick-off time as heavy fog came down while proceedings staggered to a close.

And the last time we had a game on Boxing Day was at Arsenal in 1994. 34,452 were unfortunate enough to see this, possibly the worst game of football ever played between two major clubs We were battling against relegation, they were just a typical Arsenal side at the end of George Graham's reign of terror, But as we said at the time, such an awful match provided us with the point that ultimately kept us up that season, and so it was worth the suffering,

Last season should have provided a memorable occasion, with Liverpool due to have been the opposition. However, Villa's regular tendency to forget that it sometimes gets cold in December meant the match was postponed and gave Liverpool supporters a chance to do what they like doing best.

We've finally got undersoil heating so the Chelsea match should go ahead with no problems. Then again, this is Aston Villa we're talking about so be prepared for the classified results to include "Aston Villa versus Chelsea match abandoned due to plague of locusts"

Dave Woodhall