Villa 2 Santos 1,

Friendly, 21st February 1972.

It may have only been a friendly, but this game was another landmark in the history of the Villa. What other club in the third division could have attracted such a crowd, and in such circumstances?

The miner's strike led to power cuts at the time and meant that Villa had to hire a generator to ensure that the match went ahead. Even then the floodlights were a long way short of full power and this led to complaints from the Brazilians. The game, though, could have been played in darkness for all the supporters cared.

Standing on the Holte was, yet again, a marvellous experience,. In fact, such was the crowd in there on the night that constant appeals were made over the loudspeakers for people to climb down from the floodlights, the scoreboard, everywhere that had been commandeered by supporters anxious to see the legendary Pele. Rarely can an opponent have been given such a reception by a home crowd. His name was chanted before the game, his every touch cheered and he left the pitch to a tremendous ovation.

It was well deserved, because even though the Brazilians were obviously treating the game as a warm-up for their forthcoming season, Pele showed the touches that had made him the greatest player in football.

On such an occasion, the score is unimportant. Villa won but the players would admit that the opposition didn't mind losing. The game itself was an exhibition, although Villa seemed to take things seriously and refused to let the Brazilians display their skills as much as they would have liked - with one exception. Even in a friendly Pele was obviously as competitive as ever, showing the determination that separates the best from the rest. He couldn't stop Villa from taking the lead after six minutes with a Pat McMahon header from a cross by Ray Graydon. Graydon himself made it 2-0 with just under an hour gone, scoring from a penalty after Bruce Rioch had been fouled. In the 72nd minute Edu showed a piece of typical Brazilian genius when pulling a goal back with a brilliant curling free-kick from 25 yards out.

The result didn't really matter. Villa could say that they had beaten arguably the world's best team. 54,437 people could say that they'd seen Pele in the flesh. And the greatest footballer in history could say that he'd played at the game's greatest arena.