Fans in seven heaven as West Brom beat Aston Villa...and cold blast
Local derbies can be tight, tense affairs and the crowd at the Villa v Albion clash on Saturday will not expect to see seven goals go in. But that has happened before when the old rivals met at Villa Park – in highly contrasting circumstances.
In 1983, the teams produced a true feast of football which Villa edged 4-3. In 1935, as gales ravaged the country, Albion blew the home side away 7-0. Brian Halford reports.
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MID-October 1935 saw near-hurricane force winds sweep across Britain, causing widespread damage and disruption.
Out in the North Sea, the steamer Pendennis went down but, thankfully, its crew of 22 managed to safely abandon ship.
In Blackpool, dozens of caravans were overturned.
In Coventry, a 125ft-high cooling tower collapsed, three Leeds churches had their rooves blown off, a dustbin lid belonging to Mr S. Gooch, of Norwich, took off and shattered his greenhouse.
And, in Hull, city councillor S.H. Smith was sitting at his desk puffing on his pipe when the chimney crashed through the window. Chaos.
At Villa Park there was a bit of chaos too – in Villa’s defence as Albion tore them to shreds and left them looking like a whirlwind had blown through the back line.
It was the 63rd league meeting between the old rivals and Villa went into it in modest form.
They had yet to keep a clean sheet in ten games that season, which included a 7-2 home thrashing by Middlesbrough. But, at full strength, they were expected to see off an Albion side in no great shape themselves.
Both sides were languishing in the bottom six of Division One. The Baggies had won only two of their ten games and conceded six at Sunderland and five at Liverpool.
The great Billy G Richardson had shown signs of a return to form with goals in the last two games though, so the Albion hordes made the short journey with spirits high. Their spirits were soon getting higher.
