Goodbye Graham Taylor – and thank you for the memories
It was a hot day in early May, 1990, and Villa fans were bouncing. Literally bouncing.
The final game of the season had ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw away at Everton and Villa had finished second in the old First Division behind Liverpool.
The away end at Goodison Park was shaking. It was the first time as a teenage fan I had felt a stand move beneath my feet.
I was 18 and giddy with heat, excitement and a few pints at a pub stop just off the M6.
Thousands of Villa fans had made the journey to Merseyside that day and it was the worst kept secret in football that this was Graham Taylor's goodbye to the claret and blue faithful.
We all knew he would be taking over from Bobby Robson after the World Cup in Italy. There was no better candidate.
This is the man who had built Watford and taken them all the way from the Fourth Division to the First in five years and capped it with an an FA Cup final at Wembley.
Villa, meanwhile, had gone the other way. League champions in 1981, European champions in 1982, they had plunged into the Second Division within five years of that glorious night in Rotterdam.
In the darkest of times of his chairmanship, Doug Ellis made his shrewdest ever move, he recruited Taylor. The new manager was then just 42 years of age and walked through the doors of Villa Park and wasted no time describing the club as 'a shambles'.
He was the breath of fresh air we had all craved.
Taylor's first season saw Villa promoted back to the First Division at the first attempt. He brought in David Platt and Alan McInally. Their names are still sung at Villa Park now.
Midfielder Andy Gray came in from Crystal Palace, the more famous Andy Gray went out of the door to neighbours Albion.
Promotion was achieved, just, with one of the most famous nil-nil draws in Villa's history, away at Swindon. Villa were up in second place, having the same goal difference as Middlesbrough in third but having scored more goals.
The following season was a hard readjustment, Villa escaped relegation by a single point. But they survived. And what a season followed.
This was the year Graham Taylor signed God, or to those who prefer his given name, Paul McGrath, from Manchester United. Villa cut a swathe through the First Division, fast-paced powerful football with a classy edge provided by Gordon Cowans (reborn under Taylor) and a rampant Platt.
In the end, Villa ended the season nine points behind champions Liverpool but in truth it was a closer race than that. It was only when Villa lost at Manchester United in mid April that the race was run. (Tony Cascarino fired over from point-blank range at 0-0 and United scored twice, I shall never forgive Cass for that).
But when we boarded that bus to Goodison on May 5, 1990, we knew we were saying goodbye to Taylor as Villa boss. We didn't know then he would return one day for a second spell.
'Graham Taylor's claret and blue army' reverberated around Goodison Park for 90 minutes. Three Villa goals were hardly noticed that day, such was the cacophony and leaping around in the old terrace, many Villa fans missed the fact that we had scored.
The final whistle blew and the players thanked the fans. Taylor applauded the supporters and finally left the pitch.
And then something unforgettable happened.
The Goodison gates opened but not a single Villa fan left.
Announcements were made over the public address but still no-one would leave. 'Graham Taylor's claret and blue army' echoed around the three other sides of a stadium now devoid of Everton fans. And still the Villans refused to budge.
Somehow, the message finally got through that the fans would not leave until Taylor returned one final time.
It must have been 20 minutes after the final whistle when he emerged. Taylor was tough manager, a hard man.
I will never forget his hands clasped together in triumph and thanks.
Never before or since have I experienced such an emotion in a football ground.
Taylor recounted in an interview some years later how that farewell moved him to tears. It remains still my greatest memory as a football fan.
For that Graham, I thank you.
