Yes I'm Back, In Glorious Black & White, It's The Return of:

You Can't Keep A Good Villain Down, Just Ask Doug.

This site is dedicated to my heroes of 30 years plus of worshiping Aston Villa FC

I've seen it all, glory glory glory down to the depths of sheer despair.

 The First Game

My First Match, Aston Villa 1 Rotherham United 2. Saturday 9th October 1971. Football League Division 3,Scorer Andy Lochead. I'd seen Villa park on the tv and pictures in newspapers but my first reaction was: it's not very big is it? I'll never forget that, the irony of course that at the time Villa park was one of the biggest grounds in the country with a 60,000 capacity, the Police safety limits were not yet in force so you could squeeze 'em into the Holte and the Witton End terraces . terrifying when you think of it today. 

Only 30,249 at Villa Park on this day, not bad for a 3rd division game, Andy Lochead scored his usual headed goal, I think I only saw him score with his foot once, and that was a miss-hit but he soared through the air with the greatest of ease. I knew about Chico (Ian Hamilton) He was the star of our League Cup final defeat against Spurs, they won 2-0 thanks to goals from England centre forward Martin Chivers but the score flattered them, our Chico ran rings around them and rattled the woodwork a couple of times.  This team introduced me to lots of heroes who would serve Villa well in the quest to return to premiership football, Willie Anderson, Bruce Rioch, Ray Graydon, Chris Nichol, and Ian Ross these are just a few of my heroes from the first season, the first of many more to come.

My Hero

My First hero, Bruce Rioch former club captain and owner of the the famous "Rioch's Rocket" left foot. Bruce was born an Englishman of Scottish parents and seemed a natural for an England cap however, English team selection at the time would never consider picking a player from the lower divisions and we missed our chance. Bruce went on to give Scotland sterling service much to the embarrassment of the English. Bruce along with his brother Neil were signed by then Villa manager Tommy Docherty for an amazing (at the time) 100,000 UKP from Luton Town, while Bruce went on to greater heights, Neil became a reserve team regular and never broke through to the first team. While Villa were stagnating in the second division it was only a matter of time before the first division clubs started to show an interest, Bruce was very loyal to the Villa but the time came to move on, I was devastated when he moved to Derby County who went on to great things under a young manager by the name of Brian Clough. 

More Villa Heroes will appear in The Swansea Villan's Hall Of Fame.

Villa Park

This is how Villa Park looked in 1966 during the World Cup. The place didn't change that much up to 1971 apart from the addition of a couple of thousand cheap, nasty and very uncomfortable seats in the Trinity Road Enclosure. So this is a good guide to how VP would have looked on my first visit in 1971. Ground Capacity: around 58,000