Villa 1 Bradford City 0,

Division Two, 2nd May 1988.

The first two glorious seasons apart, the eighties were not a good time to be a Villa supporter. A succession of appalling managerial decisions ripped the heart out of the club, the post-Heysel malaise reduced gates to record lows and when the club were relegated at the end of the 1986-87 season there was a real danger that they would fall all the way back to the third division. The appointment of Graham Taylor stopped the rot and he set to work clearing the playing staff. Out went the prima donnas Dorigo and Elliott, to be replaced by no-nonsense pros such as Steve Sims and Stuart Gray who knew what was required to win promotion. Andy Gray jr. was signed to add steel to the midfield, and while Allan MacInally was unable to make an immediate impact through injury his place was more than adequately taken by the arrival of a certain David Platt.

The season got off to a bad start with a 2-0 defeat at home to Blues, and the first home win in the league didn't come until October 21st. Against that, the team's away form was impeccable and the feeling amongst supporters was similar to that of the third division days as we journeyed to outposts such as Huddersfield, Bournemouth and Reading. here seemed to be a genuine rapport between the players and fans that season, as if both were determined to get the club back up and make amends for the wasted years.

Unfortunately, results started to go wrong towards the end of the season and after looking certainties for promotion two months earlier, Villa went into the final home game hoping for no more than a play-off place

It was also an important game for Bradford. Victory would have guaranteed them promotion and they had some six thousand supporters in a crowd of 36,423 , the largest in the second division for several years.

The away supporters might as well not have been in the ground, because there was no way they would ever be heard. The Villa supporters were determined that it would be their side who would be going up and were about to play their part.

At ten to three the most sustained roar I've ever heard at Villa Park was a prelude to two hours of unbroken noise. I've never known a Villa crowd sing for so long and never before or since have so many parts of the ground got involved. All of the Holte were going mental, the whole of the Trinity Road was taking part as was the Witton Lane stand - at one stage I even saw stewards joining in. This was, of course, in the days before being a Villa supporter immediately disqualified you from the job.

As for the game, it took second place to what was going on off the pitch. David Platt scored with a header in the first half and although Bradford piled on the pressure in the later stages they were never going to be allowed to equalise. The supporters wouldn't have allowed it.

At the end of the match they poured onto the pitch to acclaim a great day in which the man of the match award had to be divided by thirty thousand. You just knew at that moment that the play-off were for someone else. We were going straight up.