"Oh, it must be. It is. Peter Withe!" The description could hardly have been more simple, but it encompassed the most glorious moment in Aston Villa's history.

Thousands made the journey to Rotterdam for the 1982 European Cup final, while countless others were glued to their TVs and heard commentator Brian Moore utter the wonderful words which proclaimed Withe's 69th minute winner against German giants Bayern Munich.

The players' story is recorded in Rob Bishop's superb book The Road to Rotterdam, but what do the fans recall about that unforgettable night...?

The final was a busman's holiday - or maybe that should be re-phrased a policeman's holiday - for RICHARD SCOTT.
As a Police Inspector, Richard resigned himself to not being able to go to Rotterdam - until he discovered off-duty policemen were being assigned by the club to each of the supporters' coaches to curb any hooligan elements.
He immediately volunteered his services before persuading his boss to allow him to take three days off from his regular police duties. "I was handed tickets for everyone on my coach," he said. "I advised people that the tickets would not be issued to anybody until we arrived outside the ground in Rotterdam - and that anyone drunk or causing trouble would not get a ticket. That might have been hard to enforce, but suffice to say everyone behaved impeccably. Inside the stadium, the noise from the fans around me made for one of the most exciting atmospheres I have known.
"When Withe scored, everybody took off. We all started watching the big clock at the far end of the ground - and I'm sure it went backwards at one stage! Bayern had an effort disallowed, then the final whistle blew. The next thing I knew, a young fan had thrown his arms around me and was kissing me and everyone around him. I suddenly realised that a few months earlier I had arrested him for burglary! He didn't recognise me, so I didn't spoil his night by bringing up the subject."

It should have been the first football match of MATTHEW HOLT's young life.
He had travelled to Rotterdam, a ticket had been purchased for him and he was about to enter the stadium. Then his mum decided he couldn't attend the European Cup final. Judy Holt's decision was not altogether surprising - because Matthew was just six months old!
Two decades on, Matthew would love to be able to say he was the youngest supporter to witness Villa's finest achievement, even if he would not have remembered anything about it.
"It would have been great to say I was there when Villa won the European Cup. But the fact I was in Rotterdam is something to treasure. I'm sure no other Villa fan of my age can say that."
Matthew, from Tamworth, had been taken to Holland by Judy and her husband Frank on the plane carrying Villa's players and officials. "We obviously couldn't leave him behind, so we took him with us," said Frank, a lifelong Villa supporter. "We even had VIP treatment at the airport. We were called to the departure gate and allowed to board the plane before the players and directors because we had a baby with us.
"But standing outside the stadium, Judy started to have second thoughts about taking him inside and at the last moment she decided it wasn't a good idea. She went back to the hotel, put Matthew to bed, and watched the game on TV with a group of Germans!"
It wasn't long before baby Matthew attended his first Villa match, though. While he was still a toddler, he had his first season ticket, and he has been a claret and blue devotee ever since. He's also quite an authority on Villa matters - but don't ask him what happened in Rotterdam!

The first chance many supporters toasted Villa's triumph was on French soil - as dawn broke on the day after the final! Those supporters who travelled to the match by road were whisked from Rotterdam to Calais, only to discover they faced a wait of several hours before a ferry was due to leave. Thankfully, there was some consolation, as JOE JINKS recalls.
Joe, a Villa Park commissionaire, was a senior steward at the time, and travelled to Holland as a steward on one of the coaches. "When we arrived at Calais in three o'clock in the morning, we were told there wasn't a ferry leaving until 9.00am," he said. "No-one was very happy about that, and as the other coaches rolled in, people were getting more and more agitated.
"But after a while, the fisherman started to come into the harbour with their night's catch, and the cafes and bars along the quay started to open. The Villa fans started chanting - enjoying a few drinks before completing the journey!"

Villa's victory resulted in a bouncing baby in one Midland household - quite literally. PHIL SMITH explains:
"I sent my wife out for the night and put my two-year-old son to bed, but my 11-month-old daughter was with me on the sofa as I watched the match on television. Although she started crying just after the kick-off, I got her back to sleep. But when the goal went in I jumped up and when I landed back on the sofa, she bounced off and fell on to the floor."

"The night of 26th May, 1982 cemented my boyhood support for the famous claret and blue," says TED SPARREY, then a wide-eyed 13-year-old.
"From the moment Nigel Spink replaced Jimmy Rimmer until the final whistle, I was glued to the TV screen. "I'll never forget Morley's mesmerising run, turning left, right and left again before rolling the ball across the six-yard box for Withe to score off the inside of the post. Fantastic!"

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