The Villa Times - Issue 6

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PRICEExpert Analysis

BENTEKEPlayer of the Month

BARRETTWhere are they Now

Can you be born a Villa fan?

"A Villa fan waiting to happen"

Plus...

Aston Villa do it again, with our youthteam winning the NextGen Series...

EURO CHAMPIONS

The Villa Times meets up with the Irishactor, to talk about his love for VILLA!

RORYKEENAN

Simon Goodyear tells us about one ofVILLA’S all time greats...

GERRY HITCHENS

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Welcome

We Can Do It.....It has been a long and entertaining month on and off the pitch at VillaPark, with a long road ahead to the end of the season. The Villa Timeshas also hit the headlines again, with Worldwide viewing in a recent fea-ture on Sky Sports show, Gillete Soccer Saturday, in a feature on AstonVilla shown before the QPR game.

The latest edition is packed with exclusive interviews. We have formerEngland and Villa legend Tony Morley, Irish actor Rory Keenan, and 50’s Villa player Ken Barrett. We also meet up with former Villa player and Gordon Cowans team mate Gavin Price to get his view of the best games, goals and players in the last month, which all adds up to give a unique perspective.

We also have some great new features – an feature covering the best match of the month a great new feature id “Recent Form” we also cover the last four games, providing match reports, stats and line-up’s with some interesting facts, and once again we have a exclusive interview with Villa ladies star and captain Dani Petrović. If that's not enough, we also look at one of Villa’s favourite stikers of all time, Gerry Hitchens, The Season So Far with Simon Goodyear and a feature the last man to guide Villa to a FA Cup final win, Eric Houghton.

We have had a few movements with the Villa Times teamI would also like to welcome a few new people to the Villa Times team, Jason Connelly, Adam Keeble, Ben McGilloway and James Baylis and to welcome back Andy Evans. I would also like to thank Colin Aboott for his input to the magazine over the past six issues.

Lastly a sincere thanks to my team for making the Villa Times the successful magazine that it is, and in such a short space of time. Well done to all concerned!

Peter Brennan, Editor

4 Issue 6 thevillatimes.com

arch 2013 will no doubt be one of the most crucial months in recent memory forAston Villa Football Club. Already feverishly grasping for grip on the greasy pole thatis premiership survival Villa were pitched against their two relegation rivals in back toback six pointers. Unlucky 5 days earlier to have not held on for a point against titlechasers Manchester City, Villa travelled to the Madejski Stadium knowing only a winwill do. For those in attendance, those in Birmingham and those fans scattered all

around the world our worst fears began to be realised as, one of our own, Nathan Baker turned theball past the hapless Brad Guzan.

They say it’s how one acts in times of trouble that defines them. The confidence busting 3-3 draw to Ever-ton still fresh in the mind and with only one win since the highpoint of the season, a 3-1 win against Liverpool, Villa fanscould be excused for thinking the worst case scenario was upon them come May 19th. As soon as these thoughtsbegan to circulate they were instantly banished. In a rush of guts and determination Villa instantly replied with a ChristianBenteke goal.

Fast forward a week later and as Villa welcomed QPR to Villa Park in a similar must win game who shouldonce again be our saviour? After losing an early goal, Villa dug deep and pulled into the lead with goals from Agbonlahorand Wiemann. As every minute that ticked by felt like an hour for those in the Holte End QPR nicked a goal in the 73rdminute. Memories of all too many points lost from leading positions once again hung heavy around the Villa faithful’sneck. With time ticking on and the all too familiar rollercoaster of hoping for a winner, but not wanting to concede, thatthose at Villa Park have come accustom to hitting full speed, who else should pop up in the 83rd minute and grab his17th goal of the season but Christian Benteke.

Since scoring on his debut against Swansea the towering Belgian international has won over the hearts ofnot only the Villa fans but also those up and down the premiership and even across Europe. Since his £7 Million sum-mer signing from Genk, Benteke has been a breath of fresh air and a vision of hope to the Villa faithful this season.While, as Villa fans, we have witnessed few high points this season, Benteke has been central to them all. Few will for-get his performance against Liverpool in Anfield this past December. While grabbing a brace of goals for himself themain talking point of the match in fanzines, message boards and social media outlets was how he predatorily tormentedthe Liverpool defence. Others will point to his net busting 25 yard strike against West Brom.

While Benteke’s strength and ability to score goals is blatantly obvious to all who watch him play, his abilityto score important winners wearing the claret and blue is proving to be the inflatable life jacket protecting Villa’s season.Crucial Benteke winners at home against Reading at the start of the season and West Ham in February, a game thatgave Villa their first win in 8 games, are two others that spring to mind. Currently on 17 goals for the season the tower-ing Belgian is on track to break through the 20 goals a season ceiling. If he does so he will be the first Villa player to doso since Juan Pablo Angel in 2003-04.

As we quickly approach to what many are labelling as the clubs ‘judgement day’ against Wigan on the finalday of the season such crucial moments and stats, understandably, will be forgotten until fans take stock at the end ofthe season. While Benteke has been a phenomenal servant among Lamberts Lions, in March he kicked into up a gearto a level that few thought he had a point that hasn’t been lost the Villa management. In a recent Paul Lambert notedthat ‘The big guy, over the course of the whole season, has been excellent for someone just 22 years of age.’ While itwould be unfair on the likes of Gabby Agbonlahor, Brad Guzan & Andri Wiemann to suggest that Benteke is a one manclaret and blue crusade for premiership survival, his presence in the last two games alone has transformed Villa’s seasonand provided hope among the clubs faithful. After such a month it’s the least we can do to say he is our player of themonth.

M

Player of the Month

PLAYER

OF THE MONTHThe Villa Times

Irish Lion, Ben McGilloway, gives us his view why ChristianBenteke is the Villa Times player of the month.

arch is usually a month in which Villadon’t get much from and it started on abad note and defeat at home to theChampions Manchester City but takingthe positives from the game, we gave asgood as we got for 90 minutes. Carlos

Tevez’s goal was the difference between the two sidesand enough to see off Paul Lambert’s fighters but theyremained in the drop zone on goal difference – and justfour points off the bottom. The defeat also means thatVilla’s horrendous form against the top four this seasoncontinued – played six, lost six - not good enough andgames against Manchester United and Chelsea comingup soon, things don’t seem likely to get any better.

Next up was a trip to struggling Reading whobefore the game were on a five-game losing streak andhad Manchester United and Arsenal away to follow thevisit of Villa. It was the proverbial “6-pointer” for bothsides and it started well for the hosts who were giftedwith an own-goal in the 32nd minute when NathanBaker embarrassingly sliced the ball into his own net inwhat must be the ‘own-goal of the season’; however,his team-mates helped to spare his blushes, though, asVilla went straight up the other end when Ashley West-

Mwood played in Andreas Weimann with a superb passand his cutback was fired in by that man, Christian Ben-teke with the help of a deflection and Baker’s blusheswere eased. Things got even better for the visitors as onthe stroke of half-time some equally comical Reading de-fending allowed Villa to go in front. A fine period of pos-session and passing ended up with a move that sawBarry Bannan’s effort crash off the post only for GabbyAgbonlahor to rattle in the rebound to make it 2 – 1 athalf-time and there was no way back for Reading. Get-ting in front has not been a problem this season – it’sholding on to a lead that Villa have found tough but thedefense held firm for the second 45 minutes to securethe victory and ease Villa out of the bottom three.

Harry Redknapp’s mind games didn’t stop abumper crowd turning out for what was billed as an-

other ‘6-pointer’ against a rejuvenated QPR side whowere hanging on to their Premier League status by athread coming into the game. However, Villa old-boyJermaine Jenas, of all people, gave QPR the lead after amistake from Joe Bennett, yet another clanger costing usto goal one behind for the second game in a row. Thefirst half was all QPR and it looked like being ‘one ofthose days’ as the home side failed to turn up, except,that is for Brad Guzan who made a string of fine savesyet again saving the day. Against the run of play, GabbyAgbonlahor nodded in a timely equaliser on the strokeof half-time from Matt Lowton’s swirling cross to sendthe home fans into half time with something to cheerabout. Villa started the second half in the ascendancy andBennett and Weimann combined to put Villa in front onthe hour mark when, from a partially cleared corner, theleft-back’s decoy run allowed the Austrian striker to stepinside his marker and clinically drill in his 11th goal of theseason from the edge of the area to send the homecrowd into delirious celebrations. That delirium wasshort lived when Andros Townsend drew QPR levelwith a goal out of nowhere on 73 minutes, clipping in adeflected effort via Ron Vlaar after substitute AdelTaraabt’s introduction lifted the visitors and it was a case

of “here we go again”. However, if Paul Lambert’s sidehas learned anything this season it is never give to up andif anybody sums up the spirit of this Villa side it is AndreasWeimann and his persistence and precision forced thewinner on 81 minutes when he burst on to Charles N’-Zogbia’s pass and bustled to the byline before pickingout Benteke for a potentially priceless winner. This time,Villa held on for the last ten minutes plus injury time forwell-earned victory and the first back-to-back win forover two years.

With an international break interrupting thePremier League season, another home game was wait-ing for Villa and this time it was the visit of Liverpool onEaster Sunday. Having bullied Liverpool with a brilliantbrace the December win at Anfield, Christian Bentekewas at it again during an enterprising first half in front ofthe biggest crowd of the season. The Belgian blasted thehome side in front on 31 minutes when Gabby Agbonla-hor helped on Ashley Westwood’s searching pass andthe big Belgium connected with a volley that Pepe Reinagot a hand to but was unable to keep out. It was Ben-teke’s 18th goal of his debut season at Villa proving whyeveryone at Villa are so keen to keep him at all costsnext season.

However, as with most Villa games this sea-son, nothing is secured until the final whistle and within15 minutes of the restart the visitors turned the gamearound on its head. Jordan Henderson equalised on 47minutes when he calmly dinked the ball over the ad-vancing Guzan after Phillipe Coutinho’s pass split the Villadefense. Another sloppy defensive error saw NathanBaker undermine a battling display by tripping the slip-pery Louis Suarez near the byline on the hour mark fora clear penalty that Stevie Gerrard was never going tomiss. Equally incisive was an acrobatic clearance in thelast few minutes by Gerrard, nodding Benteke’s tower-ing header off the line and the top scorer also having agoal dramatically (and correctly) ruled out for offside atthe death. Weimann also spurned a great chance whenhe fired high into the Holte End. In the end it just wasn’tto be.

The month started with Villa in the bottomthree and ended with the boys in the same positioneven though excellent results saw them climb out of thedrop zone for a couple of weeks. With six or seventeams still in the fight for survival, April will be crucial ifwe are to get out of the relegation dog-fight.

COME ON YOU VILLA BOYS!!


The Season So Far

Barry Bannan’s effort crashoff the post only for GabbyAgbonlahor to rattle in therebound to make it 2 – 1

Top: Villa attacking in the Liverpool area andabove: Gabby Agbonlahor, set up Benteke

ower at Villa Park.

Simon Goodyear looks at the recent matches and the fight ahead

Fan Feature

ike any Villa fan, my son will never forgetthe first game he went to. But unlikemany other fans’ experience, it took place3,500 miles from Villa Park.

As an AVFC fan and formerHolte End season ticket holder exiled in the USA I tookmy family to see Villa on their preseason tour toPhiladelphia in June 2012. We braved a thunderstormto get there from our New York City suburb, but oncewe arrived (and because my kids were wearing some ofmy old Villa shirts which grabbed the attention of aPhiladelphia Union employee on the way in) my sonand daughter were chosen to walk on to the field hold-ing the English flag before the game and stand on thepitch with the Villa team lined up behind them. And ofcourse, then won (Nathan Delfouneso, 1-0).

The atmosphere was strange. Amid an an-nounced crowd of more than 17,000 a hardcore ofVilla fans did the team proud in one corner of the sta-dium, applauding in the 19th minute and singingthroughout. And an impressive, coordinated group ofhome supporters kept things loud behind one of thegoals. But there was a sterile feel to the proceedings.Certainly, the result didn’t matter and Villa had a handfulof players making their debuts which didn’t make for aflowing game. And to be fair, the home supporterswere still getting to know their own team. The Unionwas in a two-year-old stadium and had only been in ex-istence at all since 2008 and playing since 2010. But

while the Union team in their infancy were largely amystery to all football fans at this point, so too wereVilla on this night. The announcer even mispronouncedUSA international Eric Lichaj’s name. I’m not kidding.

AVFC had come off the back of a poor sea-son and replaced their manager with their third choice– and hardly a household name back in England. Thetalk among the fans that night, other than Darren Bentand the Internet chatter that James Collins would soonbe on his way, was pretty indifferent curiousity.

“Who’s that guy? Is heany good?” the fans near

me would ask. “That’s Matthew Low-ton, and… I don’t knowyet.” I would reply.

And while some Major League Soccer(MLS) snobs sneer at the European leagues (and wouldaccuse the European fans of doing the same to MLS)some are, at best, knowledgeable enough of the world

L game to appreciate that Villa are a middling PremierLeague team but… not much more than that. Theglory days of the Premier League era were 20 yearsago. The peak of European glory was 30 years ago.MLS itself has only been playing since 1996.

For argument’s sake, Villa on this night mightas well have been Everton or Fulham – a team with arecognizable name and some American ties (Howard,Donovan from time to time; McBride, Dempsey). Butnot a team any casual sports fans in the USA wouldhave any appreciation of.

Which begs the question, why were Villa inPhiladelphia at all?

Kyle Alm lives in Seattle, Washington andwrites for the American Soccer News blog. While a bigfan of the world game, he admits Villa are largely underhis radar.

“I consider them a middle-of-the-road teamat best,” he says. “I’ve heard them referred to as aworking-class team which seems to me to be reflectedin the way they play: with more enthusiasm and aggres-sion than skill.”

In a country where soccer operates in theshadow of American Football, baseball, basketball andto a lesser extent, even ice hockey, Alm is a long-termfan who has followed the English game since he wasfive. But even given AVFC’s American ties, it doesn’tmake much difference to his level of interest in them.

“I didn’t realize Villa were owned by an

American,” he says. “But it doesn’t matter to me. Iknow Guzan plays there, but I’ve never even heard ofLichaj (a surprise to me – he has eight InternationalCaps although he never made much of a name for him-self as an MLS player). I paid more attention to Fulhambecause of Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey and EddieJohnson who all flourished in MLS before moving to thePremier League. The players matter to me, not theowners.”

“Villa touring the USA was about trying togrow the brand,” says Dr. Scott Rosner, the Director ofthe Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the Universityof Pennsylvania. “A pre-season tour obviously preparesthe players, but it’s an opportunity to maximize thebrand name and make some money through merchan-dise sales and obviously ticket sales which will get yourmore sponsorship.”

In the last seven years or so the coverage ofthe Premier League has not just increased in volume(big Premier League games have been televised in theUSA on regular channels for the first time in the last 12months, and not just on sports channels) but also in so-phistication. The half-time experts include formerplayer Warren Barton (who’s pretty good) alongsideEric Wynalda (former MLS player and US International(also good) and Steve McManaman (who’s certainlyvery excitable) as opposed to the not-so-distant pastwhen soccer games were covered by American guyswho drew the short straw and found themselves talkingabout a topic on which they know very little.

Where do Aston Villa fit into this new era ofsophisticated exposure? “There are English teams whohave an established following over here,” says Rosner.“Fans here know Manchester United and signing playerslike Tim Howard and Donovan certainly made Evertonmore familiar to American audiences. That is coupledby the increase in coverage, which means fans can actu-ally watch US stars on TV, most likely in real time. ButAston Villa right now are not really part of that group ofteams soccer fans in the USA are going to pay much at-tention to.”

It’s hard to step back and say “how can peo-ple think that about Villa?” when everyone reading thismagazine is blinkered into thinking about AVFC in a cer-tain way – it’s a thing of real significance to us. But really,did any of us become Bari fans when David Platt movedthere - even when we did have the chance to watchhim on Channel 4 every so often? And would RichardBranson buying the Chicago Fire make us fansovernight?

And choosing a team is not as easy as pick-ing one out of a hat. When I moved to New York City,I let myself get chosen by the many sports teams in thearea. I ended up being a fan of the Giants, the Yankees,the Knicks and the Rangers when I could just as easilybeing a fan of the Jets, the Mets, the Nets and the Is-landers. Some were enjoying success, but others wereslumping and mediocre at best. It was just a good fit,and once chosen, you can’t be unchosen.

Forcing a team down someone’s throat isno guarantee fans are going to end up devoting time,effort and money to that team in return. Why are somany casual soccer fans over here seen wearing Man-chester United and Chelsea shirts? Because they win,and winning is something Americans, like most humanbeings, like to be a part of.

Dr. Rosner adds: “If Villa wanted to pushtheir brand more, they could invest in some well-known American players for sure. But there’s only somany of those to go around. Michael Bradley, who wasat Villa for a while on loan, is well known and talentedbut it’s harder to sell a defensive midfield player than afree-scoring flair forward. It’s absolutely diligent to con-tinue with the tours, but winning is the biggest thing Villacould do to promote their name globally. And not on a

short-term level.”“Villa might also consider shifting their focus

away from North America and to the rest of the worldwith a tour or a high-profile signing. But the best strat-egy for any team wanting success and to grow theirbrand name globally and consistently is to invest in goodmanagement, on-field talent and the youth academy.Sustainability is vital,” he says.

Certainly I have found the shift from follow-ing AVFC in person in my 20’s to watching on TV in my30’s far more palatable at a time when information, livegames and colour coverage have never been more ac-cessible. When I first moved to NYC in 1999, I had tofind a soccer bar to watch the Villa games in, when they

were televised at all, and usually pay $20 or so(although that included an English breakfast) forthe privilege. Now I get to watch every top-flightgame of the weekend more often than not overthe course of the weekend.

But wouldn’t it be good if, soonerrather than later, the USA could embrace AstonVilla with the same passion they have other moresuccessful teams based on the merits of theiryoung talented players and their trophy cabinet?It sounds like all it will take is a decade or so ofconsistent success…

By Adam Kimble

A Family of Villa Fans

“I consider them a middle-of-the-road team at best,” he says. “I’ve heardthem referred to as a working-class team which seems to me to be reflected

in the way they play: with more enthusiasm and aggression than skill.”Kyle Alm, American Soccer News blog

Issue 5

Tony MorleyExclusive interview from one of Villa all time greatsTony Morley, to discuss life in football and his love forAston Villa

Ken BarrettWe catch up with the former Villa player to discuss hismost memorable matches, hardest players, funny sto-ries and his time at Villa Park

Rory KeenanWe meet up with Irish Actor Rory Keenan to discussbeing a fan, working with fellow Villa fans, his firstmatch and what would he do if he went on Match ofthe Day.

Gavin PriceExclusive feature with former Aston Villa player TonyPrice as he looks at some of the best goals, games,players and key moments of 2012

Dani PetrovićExclusive Interview with long serving Villa Ladies playerDani Petrović.

Eric HoughtonAdrian Nevett, tells jus more about the life and careerof former Villa and England manager Graham Taylorand the success he had at Villa and the clubs he man-aged in his career as a manager.

History: Gerry HitchensVilla Times writer and author of the Nigel Sims andSeventh Heaven books Simon Goodyear, tells us thestory of one of Villa best ever stikers, Gerry Hitchensand his career at Villa Park.

The Season So FarSimon Goodyear goes throught the hi's and low's ofthe past month, giving his views of the last months ac-tion.

In The Mag

Picture of the MonthThis month we have pictures from Peter Lowe andJoe Merchant

James LeyfieldShowbiz writer James Leyfield goes throught somestories in showbiz connected with Villa..

Match of the Monththis month we take a look at the best match of themonth and travel to Italy for the NextGen Series finalwin over Chelsea, crowning the Villa youth team eu-ropean champions.

Villa Times Player of the MonthWe pick the Aston Villa's player of the month for theVilla Times

Villa Lionslatest news from from some of the Worlds lions clubswith articles from the Cleveland Lions

Villa WorldPictures sent from Villa fans not only from the UK butfrom across the world.

My Villa We interview Villa fan and Cleveland based JeromiRogers about his best moment, match, player and

Features

In The Mag

8

20

30

39

40

18

24

14

6 & 26

37

39

12

44

49

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8

FeaturesNewA Family OfVilla Fans

Match Of The Month

A VillaFan Growing UpBy Andy Davis

Save That Date

16

2431

Picture of the Month

Easter Sunday, 31st March 2013, Aston Villa 1 - 2 Liverpool

Picture shows, Holte enders over looking the Liverpool keeper during the recent 2-1 closedefeat at Villa Park.

Picture of the Month by Joe Merchant

A FULL HOUSE

Mortimer... Shaw... Williams... Prepared toadventure down the left... There’s a goodball played in for Tony Morley.... OH, ITMUST BE.... IT IS!!!!!!!I wasn’t born during Villa’s finest moment in Rotterdam in 1982but the YouTube clip of Peter Withe’s match winning goalagainst German giants, Bayern Munich, still sends shivers downmy spine. My dad has the recording on an old video cassette tucked safelyaway in a cupboard in his house of that special night. The nightthat the Villa made history, the night men such as Withe, NigelSpink, manager Tony Barton and our interviewee Tony Morleymade themselves legends on the Holte End.Tony was born 26 August 1954 in Ormskirk - a market town inWest Lancashire. It is situated 13 miles north of Liverpool citycentre and is famous for its gingerbread!He represented Ormskirk and District Schools and signed as anapprentice with Preston North End in July 1969 before turningprofessional in August 1972. He played alongside World Cupwinners Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles at Deepdale and hit15 goals in 84 games.His form prompted a move across Lancashire and moved toBurnley for £100,000 in 1976 and bagged five goals in 91games at Turf Moor.He was then snapped up by Villa manager Ron Saunders atsigned on at Villa Park for the princely fee £200,000 in June1979. Morley quickly established himself as a cult hero on theclaret and blue side of Birmingham with his dazzling displays onthe wing.Seen as a ‘wayward genius’ by many, his spectacular goals andmazy runs on the flanks resulted in him being feared as one ofthe most dangerous attacking threats that opposing defenderscould face. In fact, his wonder goal at Goodison Park againstEverton was named ‘Goal of the Season’ in 1981-82. Morley amassed 180 appearances in all competitions, scoring34 goals. His honours during his Villa Park tenure included theFirst Division league title in the 1980/81 season and the 1982European Cup and European Super Cup.

Photography By Joe MerchantArticle By Jason Connelly

Exclusive Interview

TONY MORLEY


Exclusive Interview

The Super Cup was played over two legsthen and Villa met Cup Winners Cup hold-ers FC Barcelona, with the first leg being a1-0 defeat in the Nou Camp. Tony startedup front alongside Gordon Cowans. Hepartnered Peter Withe in the second leg atVilla Park in front of a crowd of 31,750 asVilla ran out 3-0 victors in extra time follow-ing a 1-0 lead after 90 minutes to leave thetie deadlocked 1-1 on aggregate. Tony wasreplaced on 76 minutes by Mark Walters.Villa goal scorers were Gary Shaw, GordonCowans and Ken McNaught.

During his period with Villa, Mor-ley earned six caps for England, making hisdebut in the crucial World Cup qualifieragainst Hungary at Wembley in 1981 andwas perhaps unlucky not to earn a call upfor the Finals in Spain the following year.Then manager Ron Greenwood decided totake Arsenal’s Graham Rix instead.

After leaving Villa Park in 1983Morley moved to West Bromwich Albion(33 appearances, 4 goals) and was loanedout to Villa’s bitter city rivals, Birmingham

City in 1984 where he scored 3 goals in 4games. He opted for pastures new for the1985/86 season when he joined up withHong Kong club Seiko Sports Association. Hewas on the move again the following seasonwhen he moved to the Netherlands to plyhis trade with FC Den Haag where henotched 13 goals in 31 appearances andpicked up a runner up medal in the 1987Dutch Cup. He moved back home for an-other spell with Albion (28 appearances, 7goals) before being loaned to Burnley (5 ap-pearances) and then moving on to Americato play for The Tampa Bay Rowdies. Tonyfinished his illustrious career with a final swan-song in the Maltese league with leading clubHamrun Spartans FC and hung up his bootsin 1990 following an 18 year professional ca-reer.

The ‘flying blond winger' is now aprominent member of the Aston Villa FormerPlayers Association and a regular player in the'Aston Villa Old Stars' team. He has also pro-vided match commentary for radio broad-casts on the Official Aston Villa Website.

Questions

What is your most memorable gameyou played and why?Beating Liverpool 2-0 in the European Win-ning season, Liverpool at the time wererated as the best team in the world and webeat them, it gave us great confidence, wejust beat the best team in the world and wewere better than them.

What was your favorite goal youscored and why?Swansea, 1982, it was the Friday night be-fore we were to travel out for the EuropeanCup final.

Who was the most influential Man-ager or coach for you? And why?It has to be Ron Saunders, he was straightas anyone could be, it was black and whitewith him, if you didn’t do the job in a coupleof games you were gone.

Who was the best player you played


with?Got to be Des (Bremner) total professional,hard worker in training all week and everymatch, he always had his professional haton. Great player - great guy!

Who was the hardest player youplayed against?Pat Rice at Arsenal, just for the knowledgeof the game, he could read your next move.

What are the funniest things to hap-pen to you in football and why?Eamon Deacy came on as a sub for his firstgame and Saunders had told him to just kickthe ball, he was so nervous, a Southamptonplayer was bending over to position the ballfor a free kick and Eamon ran over andkicked the ball and the player, it was helari-ous, we got into the dressing room andSaunders went mad at him and asked himfor a reason as to why he did it and he an-swered, “you told me to kick the ball boss”the whole dressing room including Saundersburst in to laughter.

Who did you share with on awaygames and have you any funny sto-ries?David Geddis, I was always nicking isclothes, he was a snappy dresser and heloved his clothes. The one time he wasaway and he asked me to bring his clothesback with me and I went and got them allaltered to fit me, a couple of weeks later Iwent in with them on, it got a good laugh inthe dress room.

I recently interviewed John Gidmanand he said he was heartbroken toleave Villa when he did, how did youfeel?Gutted, I didn’t want to leave, the chairmansold me, I would like to quote by saying the

Villa have still not replaced me on the leftwing after 35 years, and I wasn’t a winger.

What do you think of the currentsquad and manager?Paul Lambert has had a big task this seasonand a lot of pressure from the start at Villa and is developing a squad with little and nomoney, that there was once at Villa. I thinkhe has really turned it round over the lastmonth or so, from the bad form around theChristmas period, I think the main focus isto survive in the premiership this season andto build with what he has and bring in somenew faces. I also think that the young squadhave done well and will only get better inthe future from experience.

What do you think of the recentNext Gen Series Win?Fantastic, it is a great achievement for thelads to win such a prestigious award at ayoung age and great experience for the ladsto win it for themselves and for the club togo all the way and win it.

Villa have still not replaced me on the left

wing after 35 years

Ron Saunders, he was straight as anyone could be, itwas black and white with him, if you didn’t do the job in

a couple of games you were gone.


arch 2013 will no doubt be one of the most crucial months in recent memory forAston Villa Football Club. Already feverishly grasping for grip on the greasy pole thatis premiership survival Villa were pitched against their two relegation rivals in back toback six pointers. Unlucky 5 days earlier to have not held on for a point against titlechasers Manchester City, Villa travelled to the Madejski Stadium knowing only a winwill do. For those in attendance, those in Birmingham and those fans scattered all

around the world our worst fears began to be realised as, one of our own, Nathan Baker turned theball past the hapless Brad Guzan.

They say it’s how one acts in times of trouble that defines them. The confidence busting 3-3 draw to Ever-ton still fresh in the mind and with only one win since the highpoint of the season, a 3-1 win against Liverpool, Villa fanscould be excused for thinking the worst case scenario was upon them come May 19th. As soon as these thoughtsbegan to circulate they were instantly banished. In a rush of guts and determination Villa instantly replied with a ChristianBenteke goal.

Fast forward a week later and as Villa welcomed QPR to Villa Park in a similar must win game who shouldonce again be our saviour? After losing an early goal, Villa dug deep and pulled into the lead with goals from Agbonlahorand Wiemann. As every minute that ticked by felt like an hour for those in the Holte End QPR nicked a goal in the 73rdminute. Memories of all too many points lost from leading positions once again hung heavy around the Villa faithful’sneck. With time ticking on and the all too familiar rollercoaster of hoping for a winner, but not wanting to concede, thatthose at Villa Park have come accustom to hitting full speed, who else should pop up in the 83rd minute and grab his17th goal of the season but Christian Benteke.

Since scoring on his debut against Swansea the towering Belgian international has won over the hearts ofnot only the Villa fans but also those up and down the premiership and even across Europe. Since his £7 Million sum-mer signing from Genk, Benteke has been a breath of fresh air and a vision of hope to the Villa faithful this season.While, as Villa fans, we have witnessed few high points this season, Benteke has been central to them all. Few will for-get his performance against Liverpool in Anfield this past December. While grabbing a brace of goals for himself themain talking point of the match in fanzines, message boards and social media outlets was how he predatorily tormentedthe Liverpool defence. Others will point to his net busting 25 yard strike against West Brom.

While Benteke’s strength and ability to score goals is blatantly obvious to all who watch him play, his abilityto score important winners wearing the claret and blue is proving to be the inflatable life jacket protecting Villa’s season.Crucial Benteke winners at home against Reading at the start of the season and West Ham in February, a game thatgave Villa their first win in 8 games, are two others that spring to mind. Currently on 17 goals for the season the tower-ing Belgian is on track to break through the 20 goals a season ceiling. If he does so he will be the first Villa player to doso since Juan Pablo Angel in 2003-04.

As we quickly approach to what many are labelling as the clubs ‘judgement day’ against Wigan on the finalday of the season such crucial moments and stats, understandably, will be forgotten until fans take stock at the end ofthe season. While Benteke has been a phenomenal servant among Lamberts Lions, in March he kicked into up a gearto a level that few thought he had a point that hasn’t been lost the Villa management. In a recent Paul Lambert notedthat ‘The big guy, over the course of the whole season, has been excellent for someone just 22 years of age.’ While itwould be unfair on the likes of Gabby Agbonlahor, Brad Guzan & Andri Wiemann to suggest that Benteke is a one manclaret and blue crusade for premiership survival, his presence in the last two games alone has transformed Villa’s seasonand provided hope among the clubs faithful. After such a month it’s the least we can do to say he is our player of themonth.

M

Player of the Month

PLAYER

OF THE MONTHThe Villa Times

Irish Lion, Ben McGilloway, gives us his view why Christian Benteke is the Villa Times player of the month.


arch is usually a month in which Villadon’t get much from and it started on abad note and defeat at home to theChampions Manchester City but takingthe positives from the game, we gave asgood as we got for 90 minutes. Carlos

Tevez’s goal was the difference between the two sidesand enough to see off Paul Lambert’s fighters but theyremained in the drop zone on goal difference – and justfour points off the bottom. The defeat also means thatVilla’s horrendous form against the top four this seasoncontinued – played six, lost six - not good enough andgames against Manchester United and Chelsea comingup soon, things don’t seem likely to get any better.

Next up was a trip to struggling Reading whobefore the game were on a five-game losing streak andhad Manchester United and Arsenal away to follow thevisit of Villa. It was the proverbial “6-pointer” for bothsides and it started well for the hosts who were giftedwith an own-goal in the 32nd minute when NathanBaker embarrassingly sliced the ball into his own net inwhat must be the ‘own-goal of the season’; however,his team-mates helped to spare his blushes, though, asVilla went straight up the other end when Ashley West-

Mwood played in Andreas Weimann with a superb passand his cutback was fired in by that man, Christian Ben-teke with the help of a deflection and Baker’s blusheswere eased. Things got even better for the visitors as onthe stroke of half-time some equally comical Reading de-fending allowed Villa to go in front. A fine period of pos-session and passing ended up with a move that sawBarry Bannan’s effort crash off the post only for GabbyAgbonlahor to rattle in the rebound to make it 2 – 1 athalf-time and there was no way back for Reading. Get-ting in front has not been a problem this season – it’sholding on to a lead that Villa have found tough but thedefense held firm for the second 45 minutes to securethe victory and ease Villa out of the bottom three.

Harry Redknapp’s mind games didn’t stop abumper crowd turning out for what was billed as an-

other ‘6-pointer’ against a rejuvenated QPR side whowere hanging on to their Premier League status by athread coming into the game. However, Villa old-boyJermaine Jenas, of all people, gave QPR the lead after amistake from Joe Bennett, yet another clanger costing usto goal one behind for the second game in a row. Thefirst half was all QPR and it looked like being ‘one ofthose days’ as the home side failed to turn up, except,that is for Brad Guzan who made a string of fine savesyet again saving the day. Against the run of play, GabbyAgbonlahor nodded in a timely equaliser on the strokeof half-time from Matt Lowton’s swirling cross to sendthe home fans into half time with something to cheerabout. Villa started the second half in the ascendancy andBennett and Weimann combined to put Villa in front onthe hour mark when, from a partially cleared corner, theleft-back’s decoy run allowed the Austrian striker to stepinside his marker and clinically drill in his 11th goal of theseason from the edge of the area to send the homecrowd into delirious celebrations. That delirium wasshort lived when Andros Townsend drew QPR levelwith a goal out of nowhere on 73 minutes, clipping in adeflected effort via Ron Vlaar after substitute AdelTaraabt’s introduction lifted the visitors and it was a case


The Season So Far

Barry Bannan’s effort crashoff the post only for GabbyAgbonlahor to rattle in therebound to make it 2 – 1

Simon Goodyear looks at the recent matches and the fight ahead


of “here we go again”. However, if Paul Lambert’s sidehas learned anything this season it is never give to up andif anybody sums up the spirit of this Villa side it is AndreasWeimann and his persistence and precision forced thewinner on 81 minutes when he burst on to Charles N’-Zogbia’s pass and bustled to the byline before pickingout Benteke for a potentially priceless winner. This time,Villa held on for the last ten minutes plus injury time forwell-earned victory and the first back-to-back win forover two years.

With an international break interrupting thePremier League season, another home game was wait-ing for Villa and this time it was the visit of Liverpool onEaster Sunday. Having bullied Liverpool with a brilliantbrace the December win at Anfield, Christian Bentekewas at it again during an enterprising first half in front ofthe biggest crowd of the season. The Belgian blasted thehome side in front on 31 minutes when Gabby Agbonla-hor helped on Ashley Westwood’s searching pass andthe big Belgium connected with a volley that Pepe Reinagot a hand to but was unable to keep out. It was Ben-teke’s 18th goal of his debut season at Villa proving whyeveryone at Villa are so keen to keep him at all costsnext season.

However, as with most Villa games this sea-son, nothing is secured until the final whistle and within15 minutes of the restart the visitors turned the gamearound on its head. Jordan Henderson equalised on 47minutes when he calmly dinked the ball over the ad-vancing Guzan after Phillipe Coutinho’s pass split the Villadefense. Another sloppy defensive error saw NathanBaker undermine a battling display by tripping the slip-pery Louis Suarez near the byline on the hour mark fora clear penalty that Stevie Gerrard was never going tomiss. Equally incisive was an acrobatic clearance in thelast few minutes by Gerrard, nodding Benteke’s tower-ing header off the line and the top scorer also having agoal dramatically (and correctly) ruled out for offside atthe death. Weimann also spurned a great chance whenhe fired high into the Holte End. In the end it just wasn’tto be.

The month started with Villa in the bottomthree and ended with the boys in the same positioneven though excellent results saw them climb out of thedrop zone for a couple of weeks. With six or seventeams still in the fight for survival, April will be crucial ifwe are to get out of the relegation dog-fight.


Top: Villa attacking in the Liverpool area andabove: Gabby Agbonlahor, set up Benteke

ower at Villa Park.


Current first teamers Ciaran Clark, Barry Bannan, EricLichaj, Marc Albrighton, Chris Herd, Gabby Agbonla-hor, Nathan Baker, Gary Gardner and Andi Weimannhave all progressed through the club's impressiveyouth system whilst former players such as last issue'scover star Lee Hendrie, Current England InternationalGary Cahill, Gareth Barry, Darius Vassel and formerGerman International Thomas Hitzlsperger are allgraduates of the Villa Academy system.

Well now the current Academy teamhave a chance to gain invauable experience at Euro-pean level thanks to the NextGen Series. The NextGen Series is an international football tour-nament introduced back in the 2011-12 season. Fea-turing 24 teams from 12 countries, the league givesthe sides to showcase their stars of the future.

Villa had a great run in the Series last year,reaching the Quarter Finals before narrowly missingout to French giants Marseilles. However, this seasonhas seen the young Lions go all the way.

The road to the Finals has seen the youngVillans claim some impressive scalps including victoriesover Scottish giants Celtic (2 - 1), PSV Eindhoven (2 -0) and showed real grit and determination to battleback from a goal down to defeat Dutch giants Ajax intheir own backyard.

The Ajax academy is one of the world'smost famous and successful academy systems, pro-

CHAMPIONSVilla Academy Crowned Champions of Europe

Aston Villa have a proven pedigree of youth development

Champions

ducing the likes of Johan Cruyff, Denis Bergkamp,Frank and Ronald DeBoer, Edgar Davids, ClarenceSeedorf and more recently Dutch stars such as RafaelVan Der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Nigel De Jong.Ajax graduate Johan Cruyff went on to propose theformation of an academy system at Barcelona, in-spired by the system in place at the Dutch giants . TheLa Masia academy has proved just as successful withits alumni including Pep Guardiola, Liverpool's PepeReina and much of the current Barca squad includingMessi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Fabregas, Busquets,Pique, Puyol and Victor Valdes.

As if that wasn't enough, the victory wasmade all the sweeter as it took place under thewatchful gaze of Ajax Academy graduate and currentAjax Manager Frank De Boer.

A Quarter Final meeting with Olympiacosat Villa followed and an early goal by Graham Burkewas enough to send the Villa through to the Semi Fi-nals.

A tough test awaited our young Lions inLake Como as they met Portuguese outfit SportingClube de Portugal. It was left to Semis hero Graham

Burke to open the scoring with an early secondhalf penalty however it didn't take long for Sportingto grab a well deserved equaliser.

The lads in Claret and Blue had to with-stand some serious pressure from the Portugeusebut showed real grit and determination to dig inand force the game in to extra time and were re-warded for their efforts.

Just moments in to the first period ofextra time Callum Robinson found Jack Grealish atthe back post who duly forced a shot past theSporting stopper. The final nail in the coffin camewith a minute of the first period remaining, as cap-tain Samir Carruthers led by example and foundthe back of the net to fire his side into the Final.

The youngsters last challenge was toovercome a strong Chelsea side in an all EnglishFinal. Surviving some serious pressure in the firsthalf the tide turned in the Villa's favour after thebreak. Graham Burke cemented a great Finals,sealing the win with two second half spot kicks tosee the Under 19's crowned Champions of Eu-rope. The fantastic final performance took placeunder the watchful gaze of Paul Lambert and I'msure he, like the rest of the us, could see some fu-ture first teamers in Monday's line up. Just in casehe needs any help we here at The Villa Times aregoing to give him a helping hand!

A Quarter Final meeting withOlympiacos at Villa followed and an

early goal by Graham Burke


Samir Carruthers Carruthers will probably be the most familiar name to Villa fans, having alreadymade a few appearances for the first team under Alex McLeish. The former Ar-senal youth joined the Villa in 2009 and quickly made a name for himself in theAcademy and Reserve sides. Having already captained the Arsenal Under 16'sthe attacking midfielder further demonstrated his leadership skills as he captainedthe Villa side to European glory.

Already capped at Under 19 and Under 21 level for the Republic ofIreland, Carruthers offers an alternative attacking option for Paul Lambert thanksto his great passing ability and a natural eye for goal. Not convinced? Villa and Austria striker Andi Weimann is a fan claiming, "Samir isreally good on the ball and you can see by the way that he plays, he has no fear.I'm sure he will get more chances and he has a really good future."

Jack Grealish Local lad Grealish really shone in the Next Gen Series this year. The highly ratedwinger has put in some fantastic performances for the Academy and Reservesides. Having regularly featured off the bench in last years Next Gen, the Repub-lic of Ireland youngster showed everyone he had arrived tearing defences toshreds. Able to get up and down the wings and provide excellent assists, his Semi Finalstrike against Sporting proved the Birmingham born attacker can score goals justas well as he can help create them.

Brad Watkins Following in the footsteps of Friedel and Guzan, Watkins is the latest Brad tostep between the sticks for Villa. A fantastic first half performance in the Finalagainst Chelsea earned him high praise from his captain, "You have to be able togo and put your body on the line and I thought Brad in goal was absolutely out-standing." Carruthers continued, "If it wasn't for him Chelsea would have scoreda few." Watkins is still very young, especially for a goalkeeper, and sits behind Under 21and reserve 'keepers Benjamin Siegrist and Callum Barrett in the pecking orderyet the performances in Europe set the England Under 17 International in goodstead for the future.

Josh Barton Another exciting winger, this lad from Northern Ireland has been described ashaving "pace reminscent of Gabby Agbnonlahor." A regular fixture in the Acad-emy side, the youngster can tear defences apart with his blistering pace, sendthe ball in with great accuracy and also chip in with a goal or two.

Michael Drennan Described by Academy manager Bryan Jones as a striker that "scores goals forfun", the Irishman finished the competition as leading goal scorer. The Irishmanhas already featured for the Villa Academy, Reserves and in last years NextGenSeries and has found the back of the net for all of them. A Republic of IrelandUnder 16's Player of the Year, Under 17 and Under 19's international, Drennansadly missed the Finals after injuring his foot.

Graham Burke Another Republic of Ireland youth International, Burke first appeared on the Villasupporters horizons thanks to an excellent performance in a 2011-12 pre-sea-son fixture against Walsall. A proven goal-scorer at Academy, FA Youth Cup,Reserve and first team (friendly) level. If anyone feared Villa would struggle to find the net following Drennan's injuryBurke quickly put them to bed scoring the winner in the Quarter Finals, theopener in the Semi and both penalties in the Final. Weimann, Benteke and co need to watch their backs as Burkey will surely besnapping at their heels for a first team place from next season onward. Christened "Little Legends" by Under 19's coach Tony McAndrew, the young-sters will undoubtedly go down in the Villa Academy History Books. Beingcrowned Champions of Europe proves without doubt the calibre of our young-sters and proves the Academy is still one of the strongest around. It remains to be seen whether these lads will follow in the footsteps ofWeimann, Agbonlahor, Clark and Gardner and make the step up into the firstteam but if their impressive European performances are anything to go by I'msure they'll be giving Paul Lambert some selection headaches next season andbeyond.

Some of Villa’s Tournament Hero’s


By James Baylis

Villa Managers

Main Picture: This iconic picture shows Villa’s Peter McParland winning the toss, Right Top:Villa’s FA Cup winning team with the cup, Right: Manager Eric Houghton with Villa coach BillMoore posing with the cup


After a brilliant season in schools football, duringwhich he scored 88 goals, he was recommended toAston Villa by his uncle Cecil Harris. He signed ama-teur forms in August 1927, giving up a bakery job heturned professional a year later. Houghton gainedrapid promotion to the senior side as a left winger,missing a penalty on his debut in January 1930. Hisform didn't go unnoticed by the England selectors,who awarded him seven caps in the early thirties. Intotal he made 392 appearances for the Villa, scoring170 goals, many of them as a result of the free kicksfor which he enjoyed such a fearsome reputation.

No one expected Houghton to excelquite so quickly as he did during the season of 1930-31, in which he scored 30 times as Villa finished asFirst Division runners-up, and he was rewarded by anEngland call-up. He netted in that game, too, a 5-1victory over All Ireland. He was known as a dead-ball specialist, many of the 170 senior goals he nettedbefore leaving Villa Park in 1946 having come frompenalties and free-kicks.

Houghton's new club was lowly Nott’sCounty, for whom he played until 1949 when hetook over as manager. There he led them to theThird Division (South) title in his first campaign as theboss. Three seasons of mediocre consolidation fol-lowed before he took the job closest to his heart,that of managing Aston Villa. He set about revitalisingthe once-great club which had fallen on mediocretimes. He gave youngsters a chance and he spentheavily on well-known recruits, but could not achievehis ambition of mounting a realistic championshipchallenge.

But on the 4th May, 1957, at WembleyStadium, in front of just over 99,000 fans, Aston Villaupset the odds to beat newly-crowned Leaguechampions Manchester United in the FA Cup Final,albeit in controversial circumstances after United'sgoalkeeper Ray Wood was seriously injured. Villawinning 2 – 1 against the Busby Babes with both oftheir goals, scored by Peter McParland. Tommy Tay-lor got United's goal. It was Villa's first major trophyfor 37 years. However, hopes that the Wembley vic-tory would inspire a general recovery were dashedand, with his side struggling near the foot of the table,a sad Houghton was sacked in November 1958.

Houghton joined Nottingham Forest aschief scout and bossed non-League Rugby Town inthe early 1960s, before serving Walsall in various ca-pacities, including director. Next he enjoyed a secondreturn to Villa Park, pioneering the club lottery beforetaking a seat on the board for seven years from 1972,and in 1983 was elevated to senior vice-president.On the 1st May 1996, Eric Houghton died at the ageof 85 in Sutton Coldfield. Aston Villa lost one of theirmost loyal servants and an ambassador of immeasur-able worth. Often referred to as, “Mr Aston Villa” inrecognition of his long standing service, and contribu-tion to the club. He was elected to Aston Villas Hallof Fame.

He also played seven first-class matchesas a right-handed batsman and a right-arm bowler forWarwickshire County Cricket Club (1946–1947) andalso minor counties cricket for Lincolnshire CountyCricket Club. His son Neil is the current Chairmanof Warwickshire County Cricket Club and his great-nephew Chris Woods was an England internationalgoalkeeper.

Eric HoughtonThe last time Aston Villa

successfully lifted the FA Cupwas on May 4th 1957.

Adrian Nevett tells us about“Mr Aston Villa” and the man

who signed Gerry Hitchens.


Ken Barrett was a part-time pro withAston Villa during the late ’50s. Hescored twice on his first-team debut andalso bagged one in the following game.The Army, Lincoln City and StourbridgeFC all benefited from his service. In his

own words Ken takes up the story of his short but fasci-nating Aston Villa career…

After an all too brief career in League foot-ball, National Service took me away to the Army. Ini-tially based at Blandford Forum and later Arborfield,Reading but due to my past I was made a P.T.I (PhysicalTraining Instructor) and was packed off to Aldershot fortraining. My work was mostly in the gymnasium and Iwas responsible for taking the runners out. I held myown at sprinting, 100 and 200 yards and turned out forthe Royal Army team but over 4 or 5 miles I wasbloody hopeless. The trouble was they were too fastfor me so I had to keep stopping them and make themdo piggybacks and the like, that way I was ok.

Of course when you go into the Army theyknow all about you, especially if you played football.They remarked, “You played for Aston Villa and Lin-coln, well we’ll have you in the Army side.” I played forthe Army against the pick of the League at Sunderland’sold ground Roker Park. We won 2-1 and I scored theopening goal, Baxter crossed it and I headed it in, I canstill see it now.

You remember these goals, like my firstone at Villa. I couldn’t miss that. It was a cross from Les

Exclusive Interview

Ken BarrettK Smith and I jumped up and headed it down and in it

went, I was more surprised than anybody that I’d actu-ally scored a goal, on my debut and at the Holte End,which made it special for me with being a fan.

Villa Park was the first, First Division groundI ever went to when I was about 10-years-old. Theygot crowds of 70,000 in those days. I was hooked andhave been a fan ever since.Frank Shell, was the clubscout when I was 15-years of age and playing for StokeWorks. He watched me play and asked if I’d like to goand have a trial with the Villa. “YES PLEASE.” I wentalong and played in the sixth team, fifth, fourth andwent straight through the lot – brilliant!

I used to take a bus to Villa Park and thensomebody there would take us by car to where wewere playing.Before playing against Arsenal mid-week inwhat was my third game in the Villa’s first team coloursI’d put a full shift in at the Longbridge plant where I wasan apprentice press toolmaker. Many of my work col-leagues were Villa fans and spent the day telling me,“You’d better bloody score tonight Barrett!” I knockedoff at about 5.30pm and got the bus up. My mates wentto the turnstiles and I made my way to the player’s en-trance.

I remember the game quite well, we gotbeat 2-1 and I had a chance to score about 10 minutesfrom time. Somebody pushed a through ball to me andI hit it. The ball scraped the post and went the wrongside.

I could quite easily have scored five goals in

Main Picture: Ken Barrett, bottom right, turning out for the Villa third team at Halesowen. Above:Ken Barrett at an Aston Villa Former Players Association charity golf day, left to right, Event sponsor,

Ken 'Shunter' Roberts, Ken Barrett and Dave Poutney. Right: Wilkes postcard of Ken.


five games if that one had gone the other side of the postagainst Arsenal. And then there was that chance at EllandRoad. Their goalkeeper was beat; he was miles away andCush who was on the line jumped up and headed theball onto the bar. He was only a little bloke, oh Jesus – ifonly.

I took my mum and dad up in the car to onematch we were playing but I can’t remember which oneto be quite honest. I was late getting there and thecrowds were walking down to the match. There werethat many some of the police were on horseback. Mywindow was down and my mum said, “we’ve got aplayer in here trying to get to the game.” The mountedcopper said, “don’t worry I’ll get you through.” He trot-ted up the middle of the road parting the crowd with mefollowing in my little motor.

On the morning of the Luton Town match atKenilworth Road – which transpired to be my last gamein the Villa first team – I was asleep at home in Broms-grove when the household was woken very early by apoliceman knocking on the door, we looked out of thewindow and he said, “ Don’t be alarmed son but youneed to get your backside up to Villa Park, you’re playingfor Villa today at Luton, so you’d better get a move on!”

When I started playing football and especiallywhen I was playing for the Villa I’d have played for noth-ing. If they’d said, “you can play for us but you’re not get-ting any money,” I’d have said, “fine, no problem, I want

fto play for the Villa.”Ken and his wife Pat live in the same Worces-

tershire town that Ken originates from. He plays golfevery week at his local course and is known by his fellowgolfers as the ‘Greyhound’ for his ability to get round thegreens so quickly. He recently won the club’s prestigious‘open’ and tees off a handicap of 14. He is also a regularat official Aston Villa Former Players Association functions.

QuestionsWhat was it like to make your debut for Aston Villa?I’d played at Villa Park on many occasions over the lastfew seasons as that’s where the Central League sideplayed their home matches, in front of crowds of15,000+ and alongside many first-team lads coming backfrom injury (Vic Crowe, Gordon Lee, Billy Myerscough,Johnny Dixon as well as the fast emerging Alan Deakinand also a certain Ron Atkinson who never played in thefirst-team but would nonetheless go on to make a signifi-cant impact on the game). There were no nerves as suchbut an excitement that you were going to play for theteam you support. As soon as the game started you for-get everything and you’d play as though you were playingfor the reserves or the third-team.

Most memorable game?It’s got to be the Newcastle match. I played in a mid-week reserve match at Manchester City in the week

leading up to the Newcastle game and Eric Houghtonhad come along to watch and I wondered at the timewhy he was there. I’d had a decent game and we stayedovernight before travelling back down. The following dayI went into work (I was a part-time pro at Villa andworked at Longbridge) and in the evening paper it said,‘It looks like Ken Barrett’s going to make his debut inPeter McParland’s absence.’ Eric had gone up to MaineRoad to run the rule over me due to Peter being calledaway on international duty. I received a phone call fromthe club on the Friday to say that I was in.

Favourite player?Jim Baxter, I played alongside him in the Army for twoyears and his ability to control the ball and ghost past op-ponents like they weren’t there was out of this world.And his vision, he could make a pass without actuallylooking at you and it would find you perfectly - everytime. He was a very clever player. For Villa it would haveto be Johnny Dixon. I liked Johnny he was a top classplayer and a super bloke.

Most difficult opponent?Don Howe, he knew just how much rope to give you.He’d stand off you, some players give you too muchroom and others would get too close but he had thatknack of staying just the right distance away. I rate don asthe best full-back I ever played against.

By John J Abbott


Wednesday, 10th ,

Former players Golf DayTHE WARWICKSHIRE GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

Sat 13th April

Fulham matchSunday April 14th

Gerry Hitchens Memorial MatchVillage of Highley, Kick off 1.30pm

Sunday 14th April

L&L v Deacy's Galway XISutton Coldfield FC, Kick off 2.30pm

Sunday 21st April

L&L Midlands Select v MaryStevens Hospice XIStourbridge FC, Kick off 2.30pm

Thursday 25th April

L&L Spring Golf DayAston Wood Golf Club, Sutton Coldfield

Friday 26th April

Shaun Teale NightSunday 28th April

L&L v Childrens Hospice XIHollyfields, Kick off 2.30pm

Mon 29th April

Sunderland - HomeTuesday 30th April

Aston Villa FC Golf DayBrabazon, Belfry, Sutton Coldfield

Sunday 5th May

L&L v Sheldon Old Boys L&L Sheldon, Kick off 11am

Thurs 9th May

Legends night – BromsgroveSlugg and Lettuce, 7.30pm

Sun 12th May

Chelsea - HomeSunday 19th May

L&L v Boldmere Falcons XIBoldmere, Kick off 2.30

SaveThe Date

EVENTS

Villa Events Coming Up

26th May 2013

Steve Staunton Celebrity Golf ClassicThe Stephen Staunton Foundation was founded a year ago by the former Aston Villa stalwart sothat he may give back to a society that gave so much to him during his playing days. The founda-tion has already raised a significant amount of money for local charities. No money is taken bythose involved in the running of the S.S.F. so that every penny raised by its efforts goes to supportworthwhile causes. Significant amounts have already been handed to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, StGiles Hospice Walsall and St. Giles Hospice Lichfield.Having supported the Children with Cancer event in Marbella on the Costa Del Sol, Spain, by pro-viding memorabilia for past events, the C.W.C. team asked if the S.S.F. could help stage a largerevent in the area incorporating Golf. Without hesitation it agreed and the STEPHENSTAUNTON CELEBRITY GOLF CLASSIC was born. The event will be supported by the Lions & Legends Association, so present on the day, along withSteve, will be many more star names from the past. These will include Villa legends GordonCowans, Peter Withe, Ken McNaught, John Gidman and many many more former greats. Alllovely people give a great deal back and are fabulous fun to be around. Should you be able to make the event and help support this wonderful cause, please contact Zoeon 07818 003695 or email [email protected].

Go to www.thevillatimes.com for more Villa dates


28th April 2013

Lions and Legends v B’ham Children’s HospitalThe game being played will be for the Paul Swift (Bez) Memorial Trophy. Bez was a wellloved, popular and generous man from Sutton Coldfield who passed away suddenly and trag-ically on the 20th October 2008 from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, his death shocked andstunned both his family and his many friends. Bez was a massive, massive Villa fan and also awell respected man whose smile would light up every room and occasion that he was at. Theteam to play the “Lions and Legends" will be made up of a group of Bez's friends who arenearly all massive Villa fans themselves and I know that Bez will be kicking every ball with us.The money raised will be going to the Birmingham Childrens Hospital where on the 8thJune 2011 a beautiful little boy Rudy was born to good friends of both ours and Bez's,Jeanette and Rupert. Rudy was born with a Critical Aortic Stenosis of the heart and due tothe facilities and the dedicated staff team at the BCH, as well as Rudy's fighting spirit, Rudywill be 2 this coming June. Rudy will still require ongoing treatment at the hospital and themoney raised from the game will be donated to Wards 11 & 12 which specialise in treatingchildren with heart problems. Tickets for the game are £5 for adults and children under 12are free. Tickets can be bought from Sean McDermott on:Tel; 07512205803 or Email;[email protected]

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www.fansunitedcollege.comthevillatimes.com Issue 6 23

If you ask any Villa fan of a certain age (fans in their late60s or 70s) who their favourite Villa player of all timewas, I bet a large majority would say Gerry Hitchens; in-deed, he was my own late father’s favourite player.

The life of Gerry Hitchens was a real ‘rags-to-riches’ story and something you’d find reading theRoy-of-the-Rovers comic but this was no fairy-tale story.It is fair to say that Gerry didn’t possess the flair or out-standing skills of Roy Race but sometimes in football (andprobably in life in general), natural ability, hard work anddetermination was enough, along with the willingness tolearn and improve; however, to get yourself noticed inthe football world, Gerry Hitchens had a bit extra tooffer than your ‘ordinary, every-day footballer’ – the in-stinct to sniff out half chances and to score goals in abun-dance. Furthermore, everyone who knew Gerry saidthat he was not only a great footballer, but a true gentle-man, something that many of the modern day footballerlacks it has to be said.

Gerry was a born in Rawnsley near Can-nock in Staffordshire, on 8th October 1934 before thefamily moved to Highley in Shropshire when he wasonly 3. Growing up in those dark War years, Gerry wasa Villa fan and he had a dream that one day he wouldplay for England at Wembley, just like every young foot-ball mad kid does. Young Gerry was playing football inbetween his shifts as a miner until the age of 19, whenone day he was playing for the Highley Miners Welfareclub in a cup final at Aggborough and he was spotted bynon-League Kidderminster Harriers and his perform-ance was good enough to earn himself a contract withthe Harriers. It was still a long way from that Wembleydream but it was fast developing. His performances forKidderminster were good enough to be spotted byWest Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa but it was First

“Big, strong, fast and indeedquite brave. He

was a handful fordefenders who do

not like playerswho would make

them turn andkeep coming back

at them. Gerry wasall that.”

Peter McParland

Gerry HitchensVilla’s First Iconic Striker By Simon Goodyear

Division Cardiff City who came in with the money andthe foresight to sign him for £1,500 on a part-time con-tract in January 1955. He was 21 and still had his bestyears ahead of him and Cardiff City took a chance onhim and effectively kept his dream alive. Although hefound it hard to break into the first team, it was at the‘Bluebirds’ that he partnered the ex-Villa legend, TrevorFord and his career seemed to take off and the goalsstarted to flood in. In December 1957, Eric Houghtoncame back in for Gerry and signed his man for (a then)Villa record transfer fee of £22,500 in December 1957.


“One of my favourite footballers and one of the nicest blokes to crossmy path. Gerry was a gentleman on and off the pitch and ‘cool’ before

the word was invented.” England team-mate, Jimmy Greaves

Aston Villa History

Gerry was still a relatively unheard of playerand his Villa career started slowly and he found it hard toadjust to life at Villa Park. The expectations were highand he had come to a Villa side who had won the FACup six months previously and he was now mixing withthe likes of Villa legends Peter McParland, Johnny Dixonand Nigel Sims. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the blondhaired ex-miner as he was on the verge of beingdropped by Joe Mercer (who replaced Houghton in1958) at one stage in 1959, but Mercer persisted withthe 5 foot 11 inch striker and Gerry paid back the man-ager’s faith in him by scoring an incredible 10 goals in thespace of a fortnight, a feat which I don’t think will everbe repeated. Firstly, Gerry scored 5 goals in a post-Warrecord 11 – 1 victory against Charlton on 14th Novem-ber 1959 and that was followed by a hat-trick a weeklater against Bristol City and a brace at home to Scun-thorpe the following week. It seemed to kick-startGerry’s Villa career. It got even better in October 1960when Gerry became the first post-War player to score ahat-trick in a Second-City derby as Villa trashed Birming-ham City 6 – 2 at Villa Park – Gerry Hitchens was sud-denly the darling of B6. It was later in that 1960-1961season which made Gerry into a true Villa icon as hescored an incredible 42 goals in 56 League and Cupgames, including 11 goals in 11 League Cup games asVilla went onto to win the very first League Cup. PeterMcParland once described Gerry as, “Big, strong, fastand indeed quite brave. He was a handful for defenderswho do not like players who would make them turn andkeep coming back at them. Gerry was all that.”

Gerry Hitchens was suddenly the name oneveryone’s lips and England was calling. Incredibly, thedream that Gerry had back in the 1930s when he was anipper was becoming reality as Gerry was called up by

Walter Winterbottom to play for his country in May1961 and he didn’t disappoint, scoring within 90 sec-onds of his debut in an 8 – 0 win against Mexico atWembley. It was the next game a fortnight later whichalerted Gerry Hitchens to the world as he scored abrace against a strong Italian side in Rome and suddenly,top clubs in Spain and Italy were chasing the striker.Gerry never looked back after that day and was soonsnapped up by Italian giants Inter Milan in the summer of1961 for a record transfer deal worth £85,000 to Villa.Suddenly, Villa fans hearts were broken as they had losttheir hero, only to be replaced by Derek Dougan.

Gerry also played in the 1962 World Cup fi-nals for England and scored against Brazil. However, hisshort England career was halted when Alf Ramsey tookover as England manager after the World Cup as Ram-sey preferred to pick home-based players and as Gerrywas playing in Italy, he was discarded, never to play forhis country again. His goal to game ratio wasn’t bad – 5goals in 7 appearances. Gerry’s England team-mate,Jimmy Greaves described him as, “One of my favouritefootballers and one of the nicest blokes to cross mypath. Gerry was a gentleman on and off the pitch and‘cool’ before the word was invented.”

Together with his beautiful wife Meriel thecouple were the ‘Posh and Becks’ of the day and wereadored by the paparazzi and followed everywhere theywent in Italy. Gerry went on to spend eight years inSerie A, playing for four clubs including Inter Milan,Torino, Atalanta and Cagliari (a record which still standsin the Guinness Book of Records). The family returnedto the UK in 1969 and he played out his career forWorcester City and Merthyr Tydfil and later settled inNorth Wales. Gerry continued to play in charitymatches for several years until he collapsed and died

playing the game he loved in 1983 during another char-ity match in Mold, North Wales. He was only 48 buthe’d lived the dream, the dream he had when he was achild and that was to play football for England at Wemb-ley and not many people can say that.

The Gerry Hitchens Story – From Mine to Milan’ written by Simon Goodyear is still available at Amazon in

paperback or e-book.


Picture of the Month

1st March 2013, Aston Villa 0-1 Manchester City

Picture shows, the Aston Villa and Manchester City teams line up before kick off with theirmatch mascots.

Picture of the Month by Joe Merchant

PREPARING FOR BATTLE

ike any Villa fan, my son will never forgetthe first game he went to. But unlikemany other fans’ experience, it took place3,500 miles from Villa Park.

As an AVFC fan and formerHolte End season ticket holder exiled in the USA I tookmy family to see Villa on their preseason tour toPhiladelphia in June 2012. We braved a thunderstormto get there from our New York City suburb, but oncewe arrived (and because my kids were wearing some ofmy old Villa shirts which grabbed the attention of aPhiladelphia Union employee on the way in) my sonand daughter were chosen to walk on to the field hold-ing the English flag before the game and stand on thepitch with the Villa team lined up behind them. And ofcourse, then won (Nathan Delfouneso, 1-0).

The atmosphere was strange. Amid an an-nounced crowd of more than 17,000 a hardcore ofVilla fans did the team proud in one corner of the sta-dium, applauding in the 19th minute and singingthroughout. And an impressive, coordinated group ofhome supporters kept things loud behind one of thegoals. But there was a sterile feel to the proceedings.Certainly, the result didn’t matter and Villa had a handfulof players making their debuts which didn’t make for aflowing game. And to be fair, the home supporterswere still getting to know their own team. The Unionwas in a two-year-old stadium and had only been in ex-istence at all since 2008 and playing since 2010. But

while the Union team in their infancy were largely amystery to all football fans at this point, so too wereVilla on this night. The announcer even mispronouncedUSA international Eric Lichaj’s name. I’m not kidding.

AVFC had come off the back of a poor sea-son and replaced their manager with their third choice– and hardly a household name back in England. Thetalk among the fans that night, other than Darren Bentand the Internet chatter that James Collins would soonbe on his way, was pretty indifferent curiousity.

“Who’s that guy? Is heany good?” the fans near

me would ask. “That’s Matthew Low-ton, and… I don’t know

yet.” I would reply.And while some Major League Soccer

(MLS) snobs sneer at the European leagues (and wouldaccuse the European fans of doing the same to MLS)some are, at best, knowledgeable enough of the world

L game to appreciate that Villa are a middling PremierLeague team but… not much more than that. Theglory days of the Premier League era were 20 yearsago. The peak of European glory was 30 years ago.MLS itself has only been playing since 1996.

For argument’s sake, Villa on this night mightas well have been Everton or Fulham – a team with arecognizable name and some American ties (Howard,Donovan from time to time; McBride, Dempsey). Butnot a team any casual sports fans in the USA wouldhave any appreciation of.

Which begs the question, why were Villa inPhiladelphia at all?

Kyle Alm lives in Seattle, Washington andwrites for the American Soccer News blog. While a bigfan of the world game, he admits Villa are largely underhis radar.

“I consider them a middle-of-the-road teamat best,” he says. “I’ve heard them referred to as aworking-class team which seems to me to be reflectedin the way they play: with more enthusiasm and aggres-sion than skill.”

In a country where soccer operates in theshadow of American Football, baseball, basketball andto a lesser extent, even ice hockey, Alm is a long-termfan who has followed the English game since he wasfive. But even given AVFC’s American ties, it doesn’tmake much difference to his level of interest in them.

“I didn’t realize Villa were owned by an

A Family of Villa Fans

“I consider them a middle-of-the-road team at best,” he says. “I’ve heardthem referred to as a working-class team which seems to me to be reflected

in the way they play: with more enthusiasm and aggression than skill.”Kyle Alm, American Soccer News blog


Fan Feature

American,” he says. “But it doesn’t matter to me. Iknow Guzan plays there, but I’ve never even heard ofLichaj (a surprise to me – he has eight InternationalCaps although he never made much of a name for him-self as an MLS player). I paid more attention to Fulhambecause of Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey and EddieJohnson who all flourished in MLS before moving to thePremier League. The players matter to me, not theowners.”

“Villa touring the USA was about trying togrow the brand,” says Dr. Scott Rosner, the Director ofthe Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the Universityof Pennsylvania. “A pre-season tour obviously preparesthe players, but it’s an opportunity to maximize thebrand name and make some money through merchan-dise sales and obviously ticket sales which will get yourmore sponsorship.”

In the last seven years or so the coverage ofthe Premier League has not just increased in volume(big Premier League games have been televised in theUSA on regular channels for the first time in the last 12months, and not just on sports channels) but also in so-phistication. The half-time experts include formerplayer Warren Barton (who’s pretty good) alongsideEric Wynalda (former MLS player and US International(also good) and Steve McManaman (who’s certainlyvery excitable) as opposed to the not-so-distant pastwhen soccer games were covered by American guyswho drew the short straw and found themselves talkingabout a topic on which they know very little.

Where do Aston Villa fit into this new era ofsophisticated exposure? “There are English teams whohave an established following over here,” says Rosner.“Fans here know Manchester United and signing playerslike Tim Howard and Donovan certainly made Evertonmore familiar to American audiences. That is coupledby the increase in coverage, which means fans can actu-ally watch US stars on TV, most likely in real time. ButAston Villa right now are not really part of that group ofteams soccer fans in the USA are going to pay much at-tention to.”

It’s hard to step back and say “how can peo-ple think that about Villa?” when everyone reading thismagazine is blinkered into thinking about AVFC in a cer-tain way – it’s a thing of real significance to us. But really,did any of us become Bari fans when David Platt movedthere - even when we did have the chance to watchhim on Channel 4 every so often? And would RichardBranson buying the Chicago Fire make us fansovernight?

And choosing a team is not as easy as pick-ing one out of a hat. When I moved to New York City,I let myself get chosen by the many sports teams in thearea. I ended up being a fan of the Giants, the Yankees,the Knicks and the Rangers when I could just as easilybeing a fan of the Jets, the Mets, the Nets and the Is-landers. Some were enjoying success, but others wereslumping and mediocre at best. It was just a good fit,and once chosen, you can’t be unchosen.

Forcing a team down someone’s throat isno guarantee fans are going to end up devoting time,effort and money to that team in return. Why are somany casual soccer fans over here seen wearing Man-chester United and Chelsea shirts? Because they win,and winning is something Americans, like most humanbeings, like to be a part of.

Dr. Rosner adds: “If Villa wanted to pushtheir brand more, they could invest in some well-known American players for sure. But there’s only somany of those to go around. Michael Bradley, who wasat Villa for a while on loan, is well known and talentedbut it’s harder to sell a defensive midfield player than afree-scoring flair forward. It’s absolutely diligent to con-tinue with the tours, but winning is the biggest thing Villacould do to promote their name globally. And not on a

short-term level.”“Villa might also consider shifting their focus

away from North America and to the rest of the worldwith a tour or a high-profile signing. But the best strat-egy for any team wanting success and to grow theirbrand name globally and consistently is to invest in goodmanagement, on-field talent and the youth academy.Sustainability is vital,” he says.

Certainly I have found the shift from follow-ing AVFC in person in my 20’s to watching on TV in my30’s far more palatable at a time when information, livegames and colour coverage have never been more ac-cessible. When I first moved to NYC in 1999, I had tofind a soccer bar to watch the Villa games in, when they

were televised at all, and usually pay $20 or so(although that included an English breakfast) forthe privilege. Now I get to watch every top-flightgame of the weekend more often than not overthe course of the weekend.

But wouldn’t it be good if, soonerrather than later, the USA could embrace AstonVilla with the same passion they have other moresuccessful teams based on the merits of theiryoung talented players and their trophy cabinet?It sounds like all it will take is a decade or so ofconsistent success…

By Adam Keeble


His CV boasts on screen roles with worldrenowned actors Christian Bale, Matthew Mc-Conaughey and Gerard Butler in the 2002 film‘Reign Of Fire’ as well as working alongsideIrish compatriot, Colin Farrell, in ‘Intermis-sion’ from 2003.

The impressive array doesn’t end there,however, as Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle and AnneHathaway are also included in an ever growing list ofco-stars.

He is best known for his television roles asKevin King in On Home Ground (2001-2002) and asMichael in The Clinic, in 2003 and is a graduate of theBA degree course in Drama and Theatre Studies inTrinity College, Dublin. Rory attended both the CoffeeSchool of Drama and Young People's Theatre Group.

Theatre credits include Six Characters inSearch of an Author and She Stoops to Folly at theAbbey Theatre, A Christmas Carol at the Gate The-atre, Monged (Fishamble), The Sound of Music andThe Wizard of Oz in the Olympia Theatre, Carousel atthe Tivoli, Picnic in the Focus, How He Lied to HerHusband at Bewley's Cafe Theatre and Sonnets For anOld Century at the Project.

Rory appeared in the title role of TheDrunkard, a new adaptation by Tom Murphy forB*spoke Theatre Company and the Galway Arts Festi-val, directed by Lynne Parker which transferred to theOlympia Theatre. He appeared in the title role of Sec-ond Age's production of Hamlet directed by Alan Stan-ford.

Rory appeared as Captain Molyneaux inThe Shaughran directed by John McColgan at theAbbey Theatre which transferred to the Albery The-atre, London.

He also appeared as Salvador Dali in Hyste-ria directed by Loveday Ingram at the Project Arts Cen-tre for b*spoke Theatre company and in Level Land, aplay by Rich Hall at the Assembly Rooms for Edinburgh2006, directed by Guy Masterson.

He took on the role of Michael in Festendirected by Selina Cartmell at the Gate Theatre for theDublin Theatre Festival, 2006 and went on playCharles Surface in The School for Scandal, directed byJimmy Fay, at the Abbey Theatre.

Rory appeared in Don Carlos directed byLynne Parker for Rough Magic Theatre Company atthe Project Arts Centre, and appeared as Fred in Ed-ward Bond's Saved directed by Jimmy Fay at the Pea-cock Theatre, Dublin.

You may recognise this month’s Villa Times celebrity fan interviewee, Rory Keenan, from his many film and television appearances.

He also appeared as Ronan in Last Days ofthe Celtic Tiger by Paul Howard, directed by JimmyFay for Landmark Productions at the Olympia theatre,Dublin for which he won the Irish Times TheatreAward for Best Supporting Actor 2007.

Rory also played the title role of Macbeth inSelina Cartmell's acclaimed production at the EmptySpace.

As well as being a sought after voiceoverartist, Rory's radio credits include Parenting, The PiedPiper of Hamlyn, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Chil-dren of No Importance, The Dead School, The Tem-pest, The Big Chapel, The Merchant of Venice andWuthering Heights all for RTE Radio.

TV and film credits include The Clinic (Par-allel Films/RTE), Aristocrats (BBC), Dear Dilemma(RTE), a leading role in two seasons of On HomeGround (RTE), Intermission (Company of Wolves), EllaEnchanted (Miramax), Reign Of Fire (Disney), Close,Gun, How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate, Fleshand Blood and Benedict Arnold (ABC TV).

Rory appeared in a leading role (Keith) inShowbands, a two part TV movie for RTE, directed byIan Fitzgibbon and produced by Parallel Films.

Rory also appeared in The Guard, a featurefilm written and directed by John McDonagh and star-ring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle for ElementFilms. He also appeared in The Big Fellah directed byMax Stafford Clarke for Out of Joint Productions ontour across the UK and at the Lyric, Hammersmith.

Watch out for Rory on your screens in thevery near future as he appears in Law & Order on ITVin May and will also be performing in The NationalTheatre throughout the summer. Rory lists countymanPaul McGrath as his favourite Villain with Martin O’Neillhis favourite gaffer... Read on below for his exclusive in-terview with The Villa Times.

QuestionsDo you believe in the Villa fans saying that youare "born a Villa fan"?There was no previous history of Villa fans in my family,so it was a choice for me when I was very young. Somaybe I "grew up" a Villa fan.

What is the earliest match your remember?I remember watching endless replays of Dalian Atkin-son's wonder goal against Wimbledon in the early 90s.Its nice to see it feature on the opening credits of Matchof The Day

Who is your all time favourite Villa Player?Paul McGrath. Who else.

Who was your favourite Villa manager?Martin O'Neill

Have you ever visited Villa Park for any games?If so, which game was it?A few times. The first time is always the best. My dadbrought me over from Dublin to watch Villa beat Liver-pool.

You recently starred with fellow Villa fan Bren-dan Gleeson and Hollywood star Don Cheadle,what was the experience like to star alongsidethem and any funny stories during filming?It was great to work with them, particularly Brendan.The severe Irish weather we had to deal with waspretty comical.

You have starred in some great TV series likePrimeval and Law and Order UK, what do wehope to see you on soon?Ill be appearing in Law and Order UK on ITV inMay/June, and then ill be performing in The NationalTheatre through the summer.

There is a large number of Villa Lions clubs inIreland, the largest being in Dublin. Do youever go down to Murrays Bar, O'Connell St(Irish Lions base) when you get a chance? I haven't been unfortunately.

What do you think of the current team andmanager and how they are doing?I think the resilience shown recently against QPR andReading has been fantastic. Benteke has been invaluableand Brad Guzan has consistently kept relegation at bay.I like Lambert and I hope he is afforded the time tobuild on what is starting to look like a dynamic andfiercely competitive first 11.

Do you hope to visit Villa Park soon for a match?I really hope so. I live in London now, so it's an easiercommute than from Dublin.

Do you know any other actors that are Villa fans?Brendan Gleeson, whom you mentioned, his sonDomhnall, Pauline McGlynn, and Sean McKenziewhom I worked with on the BBC series Birdsong

Have you ever met any Villa Players?Unfortunately not.

Interview By Jason Connolly

Exclusive Interview


By Jason Connelly

For all the latest news, follow Rory on Twitter - @rory_keenan.


LEGEND

SA NIGHT WITH

ANNIVERSARY EVENING

9TH OF MAY 2013 | TICKETS £10 | FREE BUFFETT AND PRIZE DRAWSLUG & LETTUCE BROMSGROVE

GUEST APPERANCEKEN McNAUGHTTONY MORLEYGARY SHAWNIGEL SPINK

KENNY SWAIN

Well, let’s begin at the beginning, shall we? I’m AndyEvans – a 34-year-old Villa fan currently living inBletchley in Milton Keynes, but I was born with claretand blue blood. Growing up in Sutton Coldfield –Streetly, to be precise – there was going to be noother team for me; plus, my family had been Villa sup-porters since the turn of the century, so even if I’dwanted to support another team they wouldn’t havelet me. Thankfully, I had better sense than that.After falling in love with football following the 1986Mexico World Cup, I quickly became obsessed withall things Villa related, and eagerly awaited the1986/87 campaign where I could cheer on my newlydiscovered team. Little was I to know that the seasonwould be one of the worst in Villa’s history. I shouldhave suspected something when I went to my firstgame against Norwich on 20th September and sawVilla capitulate to a 4-1 defeat. In less time than it tookSimon Stainrod to grow his tremendous mullet (possi-bly), Villa had gone from European Champions to rel-egation fodder, and it was no surprise when theyfinished bottom at the end of the season.

Bizarrely, though, I look upon that seasonas a blessing. As a football fan, you need to learn asquickly as possible that things will rarely go your way –if ever – and that times will often be tough. The worstseason that Villa have ever had during my time as asupporter was my first season, so it was a horrible butnecessary baptism of fire – and surely things couldonly get better after that…

The answer to that of course is yes, but it

came a bit close at times. In fact, being a Villa sup-porter in the ten years between 1986 and 1996meant that you spent most of the time on the edge ofyour seat. I mean, just look at what happened to Villaduring that time: relegated in 1987, promoted in1988, nearly relegated in 1989, nearly champions in1990, nearly relegated in 1991, nearly champions in

Heart of a Lion1993, League Cup winners in 1994, nearly relegated in1995 and League Cup winners in 1996. Throw in a fewEuropean campaigns (Inter Milan in 1990 springs tomind for some reason), one or two extraordinary re-sults (6-2 against Everton in 1989 and 5-2 at White HartLane on the day of the 1992 Grand National) and thefact that those years coincided with my childhood, andyou have an eventful and evocative decade in which tohave been a supporter.

Since then, I have been to University in Pre-ston, lived briefly in Manchester (the least said aboutthat, the better) and moved back to Streetly, before re-locating to Bletchley in 2006 where I now work as afreelance writer and editor. But my love for the Villa hasremained as strong as ever. I might not be able to go toas many games as I used to (geography and financetends to get in the way of such things) but I make sure Iget to Villa Park at least once a season to cheer themon. After all, once a Villa fan, always a Villa fan.

But the memories of that decade betweenthe mid 80s and 90s remain as strong as ever, so lastyear I decided to write a book about those halcyondays. The book is called Heart of a Lion, which seemsto say it all really, and it looks at what it was like to be afootball fan – and particularly a Villa fan – during thattime, looking at 20 games which cover the period. Sofar I am 20,000 words into the book, so it is still ongo-ing. This monthly column will therefore be a progressreport into how the book is going, as well as being anostalgic trip into a time which is still remembered bymany Villa fans. I hope you will enjoy it.

Following the 1986 MexicoWorld Cup, I quickly becameobsessed with all things Villa

related.

By Andy EvansBeing a Villa supporter in the ten years between 1986 and 1996 meant

that you spent most of the time on the edge of your seat

A Fan Growing Up



arrow Road has been steadily rede-veloped since the late 1970's, with allfour sides of the ground having newstands. The newest of these is theJarrold South Stand at one side of thepitch which was opened in 2004. It is

an impressive looking cantilever, single tier, allseated stand, that can house up to 8,000 sup-porters. It is unusual in having not one, butthree separate television gantries suspendedbeneath its largely perspex roof. This stand wasfurther extended in 2005 and now surroundsthe corner of the ground where it joins theNorwich & Peterborough Stand, 'filling in' thatarea. The rest of the ground is also all seatedand all stands are covered. Both ends look par-ticularly smart, being large two tiered affairs,complete with a row of executive boxes anddistinctive pairs of large floodlight pylons pro-truding from their roofs. The first of these to bebuilt was the River End in 1979 (it was later re-named the Norwich & Peterborough Stand),

CThe Club I found to be particularly friendly and relaxed. I certainly would rate it as one of the better away days, eventhough it seems an eternity to get there.

Sat 4th May 2013, Carrow Rd, Norwich City

AWAY TRAVEL

is the Geoffrey Watling City Stand. Named aftera former club president and opened in 1986,this single tiered stand is smaller than both endsand houses amongst other things the DirectorsBox and Press Area. This stand extends aroundto meet the ends at both corners, giving theground an enclosed look on that side. In onecorner in-between the Barclay End and JarroldSouth Stand, the stadium is overlooked by asizeable Holiday Inn Hotel. David Westgateadds; 'The corner in-fill between the BarclayStand and the Geoffrey Watling City Stand is af-fectionately known to Norwich fans as the"Snake Pit!"Away fans are housed on one side of the newSouth Stand, on one side of the ground. As youwould expect from a new stand the facilitiesand view of the playing action are good. Thenormal allocation in this area is 2,500 fans al-though this can be increased further for cupgames. If you are located at the very back ofthis stand then you can enjoy some fine views

across the city, including Norwich Cathe-dral. The Club I found to be particularlyfriendly and relaxed. I certainly would rateit as one of the better away days, eventhough it seems an eternity to get there.As Delia Smith is on the board of NorwichCity, the food available within the groundhas been spruced up a fair bit and is verygood. The Club even bake their own pieswhich not only include the usual arraysuch as steak & kidney, chicken & mush-room, but also a number of 'matchdayspecials' (which change from game togame) such as beef in red wine gravy &cheese, mushroom and garlic.

Where To Drink?The main pub for away fans is the 'Com-pleat Angler', which is located oppositethe railway station. It is situated on a riverbank and has a nice outside terrace out-side overlooking the river. The pub itselfis a bit basic but offers food and is awayfan friendly. It is a about a ten minute walkaway from Carrow Road. Otherwise Nor-wich has a number of pubs located in itscentre, in fact on one visit I found a num-ber of good pubs situated in-between thetrain station and the ground, that werefriendly. In fact I almost ended up being apub crawl before the match had begun!


Sun 19th May, DW Stadium, Wigan

The DW Stadium was opened in 1999 after the Club moved from itsformer home of Springfield Park, where it had been in residence sincethe Club's formation in 1932. The DW is a functional stadium butoverall it has somewhat of a bland look. In fact I would say that itlooks more interesting from the outside from a distance than it doeswithin.The four separate stands are of roughly the same height and are all singletiered. They are also quite steep meaning that fans are sat quite close to theplaying action, although this is mitigated a little by the fact that the stands them-selves are set back a fair distance from the pitch perimeter.Both the side stands have large supporting steel frameworks visible above theirroofs, whilst oddly both ends are different, having the steel framework locatedbelow the roof line. Unusually for a modern stadium, it does seem to be lackingin the number of corporate areas and executive boxes. There is an electricscoreboard above the Boston (East) Stand, on one side of the ground. The stadium was originally named the JJB Stadium under a sponsorship dealwas lasted for 10 years. This was replaced by a new deal in August 2009, whichsaw the stadium being renamed the DW Stadium in partnership with DWSports Fitness. The stadium is also shared with Wigan Warriors Rugby Leagueclub.Of interest outside the ground is Robins Park, where Wigan play their reservegames and athletics meetings are held. There is quite a sizeable stand on oneside of the Park, which was better than a lot that I have seen at other groundsaround the country.Away fans are located in the North Stand at one end of the stadium, where upto 5,400 visiting supporters can be accommodated. The stadium is functionaland the facilities adequate, but it just seems to lack something, to give it thatmemorable feeling. The view of the playing action and leg room are generallyadequate. To the left of the away section is where the singing Wigan fans tendto congregate, who are aided by a drummer. On the concourse alcohol is avail-able in the form of Tetleys and Carling. To try and bring some the order, thereis a queuing system in force which is overseen by the stewards (plus if I remem-ber correctly you could only buy two beers per person). Apart from the beer, Idid enjoy one of the best meat and potato pies that I have had in a long time.

Where to Drink?Otherwise in the centre of town is a Wetherspoons outlet called the 'Moon UnderWater' which was popular with away supporters. Also worth a visit is the awardwinning 'Anvil' pub, which is located next to the bus station. Both these pubs arelisted in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. Also worth a mention is the Berkeley onWallgate (near the railway station). This fair sized pub, had a good mix of homeand away supporters on my last visit, serves five ever changing real ales and showsSky Sports on a huge screen. Otherwise alcohol is available inside the stadium.The Swan and Railway pub opposite North Western railway station was very wel-coming. They encouraged us to put our flag up in the window and were verypleasant to us all.

“The Swan and Railway pub op-posite North Western railwaystation was very welcoming.They encouraged us to put ourflag up in the window and werevery pleasant to us all”

Matchday ParkingLive Music Friday, Saturday&, SundaySunday Lunch for only£4.95Smoking Shelters with TVsand BarLive Sports on 5 screens

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Club, Grange Rd, Aston, Birmingham, B6 6LA, Tel: 0121 241 1724

Now taking memberships for next season, call 0121 241 1724 for more infomation


JLeyfieldames

V i l l a S h o w b i z N e w s

Mad Villa fan James is TV Editorat showbiz news agency BANGShowbiz, who he joined asshowbiz reporter in 2011. Hisdiverse music taste – rangingfrom Slipknot to Taylor Swift,with a bit of N-Dubz thrown in– is the envy of his colleagues.When he's not stalking CarolineFlack, he's reading about whatTulisa and Taylor have been upto and longing for the day N-Dubz and B*Witched get backtogether. Follow him on Twitter@JamesJourn

Prince William is worried about the drop – but notthe type his wife Duchess Catherine is expecting.The 30-year-old royal is said to be concernedabout the Villa getting relegated and the pregnantbrunette – who was known as Kate Middleton be-fore they married – has similar concerns about lifein the Championship for her beloved Reading.Fortunately for Wills, it looks as though Kate – whosuffered a bad bout of morning sickness during theearly stages of her pregnancy - has much more toworry about on the drop front than our future kingafter Villa's 2-1 win at the Madejski Stadium inMarch kick-started some decent form for Lambert'sLions.One of their pals told the Sunday Telegraph news-paper: “It is an anxious time, especially for William,who is a dedicated Villa fan."I think he is more anxious about his team now thatKate has got over her early pregnancy difficulties."The duchess knows a lot more than people realiseabout football. I don’t know what the tension is likebetween her and William over their teams, but, if itis anything like Scrabble, it will be tense.”The couple are known to enjoy a bit of husbandand wife rivalry when it comes to playing Scrabble,as Kate – whose parents are friends with Readingchairman and former owner Sir John Madejski –recently revealed to Olympic boxer AnthonyOgogo.Recalling a conversation he had with the duchesson documentary 'Our Queen', the fighter said:"When William and Kate play Scrabble they don'tusually finish it - because one of them slams itshut."While Wills and Kate can't do a lot about Villa andReading's fortunes this season, I would like to thinkthey settle their footballing differences on footballgame Fifa after taking some tips from Prince Harry.The flame-haired royal is known to have a pen-chant for playing the title and recently admitted heoften "thrashes" his army colleagues when he takesthem on.The Arsenal fan said: "I'm one of those people wholoves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with mythumbs I like to think that I'm probably quite useful."You can ask the guys, I thrash them at Fifa thewhole time."

Wills and Kate worried about drop

He may not be too generous to PremierLeague defenders, but Gabby Agbonlahorhas shown he has the gift of the Gab offthe pitch when it comes to charity.Villa's speed demon recently helpedBirmingham-based children's hospiceAcorns raise a staggering total of morethan £195,000 on Acorns Day, and the26-year-old star – who has really uppedhis game lately – used the occasion topraise the generosity of the Villa faithfulfor sticking by the team this season.Speaking during a visit to Acorns' Worces-ter hospice, he told the Birmingham Mailnewspaper: “The Villa fans have stuckwith the players and that’s great to see.There have been a lot of changes aroundthe squad and around the whole face ofthe club really.“They’ve bought into that from the wayyou hear them on the terraces and theway they’ve stuck with the squad duringsome bad results.“They’ve kept behind us in games we’venot got the results we should have andthey’ve stayed on our side. The past cou-ple of months especially have shownwe’re grafting out those results.”As well as Gabby – who is an Acorns am-bassador - Villa chairman Randy Lernershowed his kindness by matching the£97,000 raised by fans, players and stafffor the charity. It is a fantastic gesturefrom our US owner, and let's hope it hasinspired him to get his cheque book outin the summer to bring in some new re-cruits!

Even if you're not playing like a Premiership team all the time, it's nice to look the part.Villa have ensured they will do just that when they turn up at matches from now on afteran agreement with Harvey Nichols.The big-time department store chain has supplied the players with some navy blue PaulSmith outfits – which are thought to cost around £1,000 - to wear as the club's officialteam suits when they rock up to games.While Paul Lambert is a fan of donning a tracksuit in the dugout during games, he hasalso backed the smart new additions to the squad.He said: "It’s important that, in representing the club, players and staff look smart, stylishand ready for business.”The luxury suits have come courtesy of Harvey Nichols in Birmingham city centre's Mail-box and Richard Vickery, General Manager at the Brum branch, is delighted the store isable to help the club off the pitch.He told the Birmingham Mail newspaper: “We havebeen working closely with Aston Villa, supplying their official team suits for the last sevenyears, and are delighted to continue this important partnership through 2013.“The suits will guarantee a stylish arrival at matches.”

Villa dressto impress

Gab's big gift


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PriceGavinExpert Analysis with the former Villa player

Former Villa player andGordon Cowans teammate Gavin Price, giveshis expert analysis onpresent Villa form exclu-sively for the Villa Times.

Best game?Best game must be Stoke as it is normallya really hard place to get a result.Noteven the so called big boys of the leaguerelish going there.To see four villa playersin the Stoke box for Benteke’s goal in thedying minutes of the game and not onesingle Stoke outfield player to be seenshows that we are really going for it.

Best performance of a player?Benteke for me has been immense formost of the season.He has the lot.height,pace,strength and touch and playsvery maturely for a young player.Couldarguably play for any of the top 6 in thepremier league sides.Fingers crossed thathe is enjoying Paul Lamberts honest andattacking way of playing that he stays withus.

Best save?Regarding our keeper,Brad Guzan,I thinkhe has kept us in many games this seasonand has been one of our few consistentplayers.He has made too many excellentsaves to pick on any one of them.Defi-nitely no1 keeper at the club although it’sstill great to have Shay Given as your no2!!!

Best player of the month?Player of the month.out of loyalty I amgoing for Gabby as he is Villa through andthrough and it’s nice to see him amongstthe goals again.

Memorable moment?Most memorable moment.No surprisesthere as Matthew Lawton has hit the goalof the season against Stoke.

Lets hope we can get the points weneed asap and enjoy the last few gameswithout having to worry about any otherscores.As I live 7 miles from Cardiff Cityit would be great to be able to see themplaying each other next season in thePremiership!

“Benteke for me has been immense formost of the season.He has the lot.

height,pace,strength and touch and playsvery maturely for a young player”

What was it like to sign for Aston Villa ?Great to sign for AVFC, always been a big name in womens foot-ball and a great club.

Was it a ambition of yours to play for AstonVilla?Wasnt an ambition, but I'm very proud to be an AVFC playerand captain.

How has Aston Villa progress with in Ladiesfootball since you have joined?I've been here nearly 6years now and it's progressedmassively...the backing from avfc is really good, we are in thesecond highest tier of womens football...soon to be first nextyear hopefully joining the womens super league. We are mostdefinantly heading in the right direction.

PetrovićDani

Dani Petrovic is the club's captainand a superb leader.The 29-year-old from Telford com-mands respect in the dressingroom and out on the pitch withher all-action displays.

As skipper, she's also not afraidto let her thoughts be known ei-ther. Dani is a centre-back bytrade - strong, aggressive andsomeone who reads the gamewell.

Team Captain - Aston Vi l la Ladies

Quick Questions

Favourite Villa Player?Stan Petrov

Favourite Music?Anything with a beat!

Favourite Food?Thai

Favourite Movies?Comedy's

Favourite Holiday destination?Anywhere hot that serves

cocktails!

Favourite Pass time?Socialising with friends

and family.

A Interview With

What is your most proudest moment ofbeing a Aston Villa player?Proudest moment at AVLFC got to be winning the league2010-2011. We were down the by bottom the bottom ofthe league at Christmas, not playing great football...thenwe went on a 16 game unbeaten run - from Xmas to thelast game of the season where we clinched the title - amaz-ing!

Favourite Aston Villa player?My all time favorite villa player was Juan Pablo angel, I justloved the way he played.My current favourite villa player would have to be Benteke,at times he is unplayable

What is your memorable game you haveplayed in?Most memorable game ever would have to be when Iplayed in the states in the national NAIA final, for villa gotto be the game where we clinched the title in 2010-2011.

Do you and your team mate hang outtogether? Yeah we have a good mixture of youth and experience andas a whole we all get on really well. Away journeys arenever dull!

You have played in the USA, what was that expe-rience like and what is the game like in the states?Playing in the USA was amazing, probably the best 3 yearsof my footballing career. Technically the game over hereis better...but they are ahead of us in so many ways, phys-ical fitness, professionalism to name acouple. It was adream, training every day...playing all over America.

Petrov in action

Dani in action

Dani with team mates


RECENT FORM

THE MONTH IN STATS 80,631 people through the Villa Park turnstiles

4 MATCHES

3VICTORY

19CORNERS

45FOULS

8YELLOW CARDS

20SHOTS ON TARGET

9GOALS

3SCORERS

4BENTEKE GOALS

MATCH REPORTS | LINE UPS | QUOTESthevillatimes.com Issue 6 41

Match of the Month

he NextGen Final took place thisevening in the valleys of Lake Como -an all English battle with Aston Villa tak-ing on Chelsea. With both teams pro-ducing spectacular comebacks in theSemi-Finals, it had been a hard, but de-

served journey to the final match of the season.Chelsea made the one change - Nditi's

strong challenge in the Semi-Finals put him oncrutches, so Nathan Ake was called in as a replace-ment. Aston Villa also kept their team much thesame. A straight swap of defender Jordon Lyden withRiccardo Calder was the only change required bymanager Tony McAndrew.

The match started with purpose and in-tensity. Chelsea came out blazing and some earlydelicate passing produced the first shot at goal withinthe opening minute. Fast paced and fluid, the ball wasbeing worked well on both sides of the pitch.Chelsea's Boga and Feruz linked up brilliantly puttingkeeper Watkins in a tough position from early on; thepowerful low shot was well saved. Chelsea easedinto the game gaining confidence with each minutethat passed, out-playing Villa with some simple but ef-

Aston Villa 2Chelsea 0

Burke 49' (p), 90' (p)

T fective one touch passing.Baker and Kiwoyma caused problems

throughout the first half with shots coming from bothsides. Chelsea put their foot on the gas and createdsome wonderful football doing everything but puttingthe ball in the back of the net.

The pace of the Chelsea forwards wastoo much for the Aston Villa back four leading tomore attacks. A Baker corner created anotherscreamer from Kiwoyma, forcing the keeper to pushthe ball wide, fortunately into the path of an offsideChelsea forward.

It wasn't all Chelsea though. Villa CaptainCarruthers managed to wangle his way round his op-posite player and get a surprising shot from an awk-ward angle. The surprised keeper could do little butfumble the ball, which gave Chelsea a scare beforehe retrieved it moments later.

With most of the first half in Chelsea'spossession, the Villa players were becoming slowlyfrustrated. This came to light when a late tackle byCarruthers on Nathan Ake produced the first yellowcard of the match. Shots by Baker, Ake, and Ki-womya were all well developed, but the finishing

needed improvement if Chelsea were going to lift thetrophy. The closest attempt coming in the 43rdminute from Ake; a fortunate nut-neg of the keepersaw the ball roll towards the goal only to be clearedoff the line by defender Riccardo Calder.

The second half took an interesting turnas an early counter attack by Villa saw Robinsonfouled in the box by Chelsea defender Davey in theopening minutes. Burke stepped up to take thepenalty and calmly sent the keeper the wrong way asthe ball was driven low and hard in to bottom left ofthe goal, putting Villa up 1-0 in the 47th minute.

Moments later Chelsea tried to level thescore through Kiwomya. However, after losing theball in the Aston Villa box he was then tackled by the'air' a second later which only earned him the secondyellow card of the match.

Callum Robinson had a great game downthe left flank and caused issues for Abramovichs'boys, weaving through the defence well. Regrettably,his commitment rarely had support in the box andtaking on all the defence proved too much for theyoung striker.

Slowly the build up from Villa arrived and

Line up: Watkins, Webb, Kinsella, Calder, Donacien, Lewis, Barton, Carruthers, Robinson, Burke, GrealishSubs: Bateman, Grant,Toner,Crooks, Lyden, Abdo, Crowley

Line up: Beeney, Christiensen, Davey (75), Pappoe, Wright, Ake, Kiwomya, Loftus-Cheek (70), Feruz, Baker,Boga Subs: Musonda, Killip, Swift, Conroy, Dabo, Colkett (75), Hunte (70)

Venue: Giuseppe Sinigaglia, 01 Apr 2013, 6pm

Cha42 Issue 6 thevillatimes.com

skilful play from Grealish and Carruthers forced a Villacorner. A cracking shot by Joshua Barton outside thebox almost defeated the keeper, save for the crowd-pleasing full stretch dive to the top left of the goal. Chelsea were forced to make an early substitutiontaking off Davey for Colkett to deal with the unstop-pable Robinson.

The second half had definitely shiftedVilla's way. Their defensive unit was much stronger

and their passing became more precise. The gamewas more about midfield awareness and composurewhich frustrated Chelsea as the time rolled on in Vil-las favour.

It took a moment of class from NathanAke to spur Cheslea on in the 85th minute. Chelseapushed too hard however as Kiwoyma went in for aharsh challenge on the half way line and was greetedby a second yellow putting Chelsea down to 10 men

at a time when they least needed it.Villa played for the corners to run down

time and an unlikely late penalty gave Burke the op-portunity to deny Chelsea the honour of lifting thetrophy for another year. He did so in style, firing theball beyond the keepers reach on the right hand side.The full whistle blew and Villa celebrated as deservedwinners of the NextGen Championship for 2013.

Well Done you young Villains

mpionsthevillatimes.com Issue 6 43


Reading 1 -2 Aston Vi l laBaker 32′ (og) Benteke 33′ Agbonlahor 45′

Aston Villa climbed out of the Pre-mier League relegation zone thanksto a 2-1 victory against fellow strug-glers Reading at the Madejski Sta-dium.Reading's opener on 32 minutes will beconsigned to the blooper reel as Bakerwas left red-faced by his bumbling gen-erosity. There appeared little danger, de-spite Hope Akpan helping McAnuff's lowcross on, but defending close to his lineBaker horribly rushed his clearance. Itmeant he completely missed the ball andwatched on as it bounced off his standingleg and over the line.Reading's lead lasted barely two minutesthough as they showed why they haveconceded more goals than any other clubin the top flight this term.The industrious Andreas Weimann wasgiven acres of space down the right but in-stead of marking Benteke the home de-fenders rushed to the goal-line. TheBelgian astutely sat back for the pass andlashed in a shot that took a deflection offStephen Kelly to ensure Stuart Taylor was

Reading

TaylorPearce

MariappaHarteKelly

LeigertwoodMcAnuff

Robson-KanuAkpan

Le FondreHunt Booked

Substitutes

HenlyShorey

MorrisonKaracanGuthrie

McClearyBlackman

Aston Villa

GuzanVlaarClarkBaker Lowton WestwoodSyllaBannan AgbonlahorBenteke Weimann

Substitutes

GivenBennettN'ZogbiaDawkinsCarruthersHolmanBowery

The Madejski Stadium09 Mar 2013 KO 15:00

Barclays Premier LeagueAttendance: 24,102

Aston Vi l la 3-2 QPRGabriel Agbonlahor 45+3

Andreas Weimann 59, Christian Benteke 81

Queens Park Rangers

Julio CesarSambaHillBosingwaFabio Park Ji-sung JenasTownsendM'bia BookedRemyZamora

Substitutes

MurphyOnuohaTaarabtWright-PhillipsGraneroHoilettMackie

Aston Villa

GuzanVlaarClarkBaker

LowtonWestwood

Sylla Bannan

AgbonlahorBenteke

Weimann

Substitutes

GivenBennett

N'ZogbiaDawkins

CarruthersHolmanBowery

Villa Park16 March 2013 KO 15:00Barclays Premier League

Attendance: 38,594

Christian Benteke's late goalearned Aston Villa a priceless 3-2win over fellow strugglers QueensPark Rangers after a thrilling en-counter at Villa ParkAfter a nervous start from both sides QPRwent close to breaking the deadlock afterten minutes only to be denied by a stun-ning save from Brad Guzan. Chris Sambagot on the end of a free-kick and hisheader looked destined for the far corner,only for Guzan to produce a flying save toclaw the ball out from under his owncrossbar.Seconds later Samba was again denied byGuzan as the ball dropped to the big de-fender inside the box and he fired in ashot which the American keeper again didwell to tip over the crossbar.QPR hit the front on 23 minutes withJenas coming back to haunt his old clubwith his second goal in a week. Joe Ben-nett gave the ball away to Jenas and heplayed in Bobby Zamora down the leftand, after his shot was kept out by the feet

Jermaine Jenas 23Andros Townsend 73

beaten.It got worse for the Royals, however, asthey conceded in first-half injury time forthe second successive game at home.Again the goal looked preventable as firstKelly failed to properly clear following apatient build-up by Villa. Lowton headedthe ball across the six-yard box and whileBarry Bannan's deft touch rebounded offthe post Taylor could only help the looseball to Agbonlahor to thump home.Reading thought they were level 10 min-utes after the re-start only for a marginaloffside call to go against them. Noel Huntpoked home at close range but if he wasnot offside Le Fondre, who was just infront of him, appeared to have juststrayed.Victory was just Villa's second in theirpast 12 league games and moved themthree points clear of danger. Reading'sdefeat - their second in succession athome against a relegation rival after theylost 3-0 to Wigan a fortnight ago - leftthem above last-placed QPR on goalsscored only.

of Guzan, Jenas was on hand to slidehome the rebound.Villa capitalised on the escape andequalised deep into stoppage-time at theend of the first half with Agbonlahorheading home Matt Lowton's cross frominside the six-yard box with their onlynoteworthy effort of the opening 45 min-utes.Villa looked a different team after thebreak and they turned the game on itshead just before the hour mark whenWeimann drilled home from the edge ofthe box after QPR failed to clear theirlines from a corner.QPR hit back and drew level on 73 min-utes when Townsend saw his deflectedshot from the edge of the box find thebottom corner after he was teed up byPark Ji-sung.Villa grabbed the winner nine minutesfrom time when the impressive Weimanngot to the byline before Julio Cesar andcut the ball back to Benteke to smash theball home into the unguarded net.


Christian Benteke 31

Liverpool

ReinaJohnsonJose EnriqueAggerCarragherGerrard BookedPhillippe Coutinho HendersonDowningLucasSuarez

Substitutes

JonesCoatesSkrtelSterlingShelveySturridgeSuso

Aston Villa

GuzanVlaar

BennettBaker

LowtonWestwood

Sylla Bannan

AgbonlahorBenteke

Weimann

Substitutes

GivenLichaj

El AhmadiN'Zogbia

DelphDawkinsBowery

Villa Park31 March 2013 KO 13:30Barclays Premier League

Attendance: 42,037

Villa posed plenty of problems forLiverpool in the first half andGabriel Agbonlahor should have putthe hosts ahead after 17 minutesbut fired his close-range shotstraight at Pepe Reina.Benteke had scored twice in the 3-1 winat Anfield earlier in the season and after31 minutes he put Villa ahead.Ashley Westwood's long ball was turnedback by Agbonlahor to Benteke whodrilled a fierce shot past Reina who got ahand on the ball but could not keep it outof the net. It was the 18th goal of the sea-son from the Belgian international.Liverpool failed to level before the breakbut did so soon after when PhilippeCoutinho's defence-splitting pass wasseized on by Henderson who flicked theball over Guzan into the corner of the netfor his fourth goal of the season.With Liverpool on the front foot and pres-sure building it came as no surprise whenthe lively Suarez was needlessly broughtdown in the box by Nathan Baker and the

Jordan Henderson 47Steven Gerrard 60 (pen)

Stoke Ci t y 1 -3 Aston Vi l la

Two goals in the final three minuteshanded Aston Villa's survival bid awelcome boost as they overcameStoke City 3-1 at the Britannia Sta-dium to clamber out of the dropzone.Villa bossed the early exchanges, but itcould have been different had the hostsbeen awarded the penalty they wantedafter barely two minutes when JonathanWalters smashed the ball into NathanBaker's arm from close range.Referee Mark Clattenburg deemed thecontact unintentional, much to Pottersboss Tony Pulis' obvious disgust on thesidelines. Whether awarding a spot-kick ornot might have been harsh on Baker, itwas still a let-off for the defender, whoseshaky start continued as Kenwyne Jonesmuscled past only to blaze over.Stoke looked up for the fight at that pointbut their optimism was pierced after justnine minutes as Lowton and Jordan Bow-ery combined from a throw-in to cutthrough the home defence. Lowton

Stoke City

BegovicCameron

HuthWilson

Shawcross Shotton Nzonzi

WhiteheadEtherington

JonesWalters

Substitutes

SorensenWilkinson

AdamKightlyOwen

CrouchJerome

Aston Villa

GuzanVlaarBennettBakerLowtonWestwoodDelphAgbonlahor Booked BentekeBowery Weimann

Substitutes

GivenLichajEl AhmadiN'ZogbiaHolmanSyllaBent

Britannia Stadium6 April 2013 KO 15:00

Barclays Premier LeagueAttendance: 27,544

Aston Vi l la 2 -1 L iverpool

Michael Kightly 80 Gabriel Agbonlahor 9, Matthew Lowton 87,Christian Benteke 90+1

resulting spot-kick was converted by Ger-rard.Andreas Weimann could have made it 2-2but scooped his shot over the bar from 10yards and Gerrard then reacted well at theother end to head Benteke's header off theline at full stretch from a corner.But Liverpool had succeeded in taking muchof the sting out of Villa's attacking threat andquietening the Holte End, who had their latecelebrations cut short after Benteke's injurytime effort was ruled out for offside.Lambert did not think there was much be-tween the sides but was left to lament two"poor goals".He said: "I thought first half we were excel-lent - I really did. There was Gabby's (Agbon-lahor's) chance which if he mis-kicks it, itprobably goes in but the keeper (Pepe Reina)did well and stood up to it."There wasn't much in it in the second halfbut we never had the fluency which we didhave in the first half, but you can't give awaygoals like we did. It was a definite penalty, I'vejust seen it."

reached the byline all too easily and pulledback for Agbonlahor in front of goal and thestriker rolled in at the second attempt afterhis initial effort was blocked.The goal came against the run of play but itcompletely changed the game's momentumand Stoke had an escape when RobertHuth backed off and Bowery fired into theside-netting. Stoke were, however, soon toenjoy their best spell of the game and, withconfidence growing, Walters raced awaydown the left. He fed inside to CharlieAdam, who had been on the field just amatter of minutes, and he in turn teed uphalf-time substitute Kightly to stab home.But it was not to last as Lowton dramaticallyswung the game back in Villa's favour with asuperb volley three minutes from time. Thedefender chested down an attempted clear-ance from a corner outside the box andfired back into the top corner.Home hopes were deflated and, as thegame ran towards injury time, Bentekeraced through and calmly stroked the ballpast Begovic for the third.


Ian Abrahams "The Moose" popped into the Chairmansmeeting last pre Q.P.R. to meet the lads and talk about allthings Claret n Blue....West Ham was soon shoved firmly off the agenda whenwe all had goodhearted banter in the boardroom. Hemade a presentation to Bromsgrove Lions for SupportersClub of the month for February, with Phil Gardner takingpossession of a pair of new Macron trainers. Moose wasalso treated to a Devon Pasty freshly delivered all the wayfrom the South West which he thoroughly enjoyed at TalkSport Towers the next day! A good laugh was had by all,and the Moose claims to have seen Villa win the last six vis-its to Villa Park - Long may it continue!

Talksports Moose Drops In To Lions Club

A brand new Lions Club branch is just opening for all Villafans living in the Shrewsbury area, headed by Toby Hol-croft.Shrewsbury Lions will be Branch number 168 in theworldwide network of Aston Villa Officially recognisedsupporters Clubs across the globe.Although the Branch is in the infancy stage at the moment,Toby is currently putting together a plan for regular meet-ings and getting to Villla Park together as a supportersgroup.Being part of a Lions Club Branch has many benefits andToby will be working hard to bring these to his new mem-bers. For More details please [email protected] to the Villa family...

A brand new Lions branch

Lions Clubs International Lions


Peter Stanisstreet a member of the North WestLions sadly passed away recently and everyone atAston Villa would like to send their condolences toPeters family and friends at this time.

Pete Stanisstreet supported and remained faithful toAston Villa for 55 years and has left his mark on“Paver 29” at Villa Park.

Pete was born on December 15th 1947 in Dudley,West Midlands. When he was ten years old hisgrandfather took him and his cousin Tom to theirfirst football match when Aston Villa played againstWolverhampton Wanderers. Tom and his grandfa-ther were Wolves supporters but Pete had an AstonVilla scarf. He subsequently acquired 10 differentVilla scarves, 30+ Villa tops, Villa pillow cases, Villalabrador dog tag – I could go on and on, such is thedevotion to the claret and blues.

February 2004 he was presented with an Aston Villateam shirt signed by all the team members at thattime, as a gift from his men when as a traffic policeinspector he retired from the Greater ManchesterPolice force.

His passion for the Villa has seen certainly seen somehighlights such as their appearance at Wembley in2010, when he was so proud of his team. They losttheir match but the fact they had made it to Wemb-ley was “magic” as he put it at the time.

He was a member of the North West Supporters’Club and thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie of likeminded fans. When the team won a match hewould always go to the local shops the next day andbuy as many tabloid papers as possible in order toread about and bask in the glory attributed to histeam.

Sadly, Pete battled with cancer for the past 14months and was not able to use his season ticketvery often On February 27th 2013 he died, but I canstill hear him shouting, “Villa forever”.

R.I.P. PeterStanisstreet

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The Northern Ireland lions Aston villa supporters clubare delighted to be hosting this prestigious event thatsees villa fans worldwide descend on a venue for theweekend to reward villa fans from the excitement andstresses of another pressure filled season. We are ex-pecting 300-500 villa fans from across Europe for anaction packed weekend that kicks off on the Fridaywith a mini 5 a side tournament and sight seeing tourof the world famous Carrick castle from medievaltimes followed by an evening with Shaun Teale.The Saturday is the main day starting with the uniquecharity football match that kicks off at 1pm that is in aidof leukemia on behalf of our captain Stan Petrov. Thegame will be held at local stadium Taylor's avenuewhere fans play alongside ex players where an Irishlions team take on a rest of the world team. The twosquads consist of 19 players with every player having19 Petrov on their back. The Irish lions have this sea-sons home kit and the rest of the world team will havethis seasons glow in the dark away kit which will all bekeep sakes for the lucky person playing. You can applyto play in match by contacting NI lions chairman paulMcCusker. Shaun Teale is managing a team and we al-ready have league and European cup winners TonyMorley and Ken McNaught playing with two ex pre-mier league villa players very close to being confirmed.The real fun begins after the game when we descendto the Ni lions meeting place the brown cow inn. Wehave a large beer garden and marquee as well as apool table bar and restaurant exclusively for the event.The award ceremony will be followed by a barbecuethen the villa players and guests participating in a q anda with live entertainment and villa karaoke with drinkspromotions to keep the costs of the weekend downand a late licenseAston villas tv station avtv will be in attendance along

Weekend 2013The Northern Ireland lions Aston Villa supportersclub are delighted to be hosting this prestigious

with the Ni lions club patron and villas award winninghead groundsman jonny calderwood.We have got a discounted deal for carrickfergus fanci-est hotel the clarion which is renowned for its cookedbreakfasts where the former villa players and majorityof guests will be staying. The best part of the deal isyou book now as it is filling at a fast rate and pay on ar-rival. All details are on our website www.northernire-landlions.co.uk which has details of the towns otherhotels as well.

The Sunday will be a more relaxed atmosphere wewill have a lunchtime Barbecue back at the brown cowand you will have a chance to have a drink and a chatwith the former players who will be attending untilaround 5 pm when the majority of people will be leav-ing for the airports. We have been very lucky with theprice of flights as the usual plane over on the Fridaymorning returning on a Sunday night was rising to 130return when the flights where nearly sold out buteasyjet and flybe put extra flights on and at time ofprinting this you can get a return flight for 65.The purpose of the weekend is for villa fans to socialisehave a bit of fun and raise money for a great causewhen doing it and showing the world the class of villafans especially when we are going through a roughtime

Shaun Teale is managing ateam and we already have

league and European cup win-ners Tony Morley and Ken Mc-

Naught playing

48 | www.thevillatimes.com www.thevillatimes.com | 48

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Villa WorldS e n d U s Y o u r P h o t o t o i n f o @ t h e v i l l a t i m e s . c o m

Come On You Villa..........David Wagstaff, Birmingham, Holding his coloursRob Gough with friends in

Portland, USA

Courtney Micklewright,with Villa Legend Petrov

Mitko Bonev, from the Bulgaria Lions on tour

Ciaran Rowe Vi l l a f an f rom b i rm-

ingham but now l i ves in minehead.

Matty Nellins, with Villa Legend

Gary Shaw

Aaron and Mark with

Villa Ladies, Natalie Gibson

Send UsYour

Picture forNext Monthand be inwith a

chance ofwinningthe new

home shirt

Us Villa fans are everywhere this month,Brum, Jamaica, Australia, USA, Irelandand yes Villa Park

Sutton Coldf ield Vi l la Lions in Varteks. September 2001

We at the Villa Times would like to thank you all for sending in your picture, UTV thevillatimes.com Issue 6 49

My Villa

What was your first memoryof watching Villa/ Do you re-member the first game yousaw/ Who did we play andwhat was the score/ Is thisgame that started your lovefor Villa ?My first Villa game was a homegame against Swansea City in theold Third Division back in April 1971at the age of 7. I remember sitting inthe Old Witton Lane Stand on thefront row and I will never forgetlooking up at the Holte End in aweof how big it was and how far back itwent. Villa won 3-0 and the gamewas also featured on Star Soccer thefollowing day.To be honest I never really wentdown the Villa in my younger yearsuntil the 1974/75 Season when Iwas lucky enough to be one of 100fans who were given a FREE SeasonTicket in celebration of Villa’s Cente-nary.We played against Leeds United inthat game and as I walked throughthe turnstiles in the Holte End I wasgiven a voucher which explainedthat I had won a Season Ticket forthe coming season.That was when my love affair withthe Club really began and to top itoff we got promoted and won theLeague Cup that season.I remember the last home game ofthe season against Sunderland whenwe queued for ages to get in andwhen we got near to the front theyclosed the gates and would only letSeason Ticket Holders in, but myDad wouldn’t let me go in on myown so we gave my voucher awayto another bloke, and we went andstood on the bank by Aston Hall andwatched from up there.You could see about 25% of thepitch, although you couldn’t see ei-ther goal!!

Favourite GamesOver the years I have been privi-leged to see some fantastic gamesinvolving The Villa.The game at Highbury when wewon the league (which was morefor the occasion than the actualgame as we didn’t play particularly

Mark GoodwinMark has been a Season Ticket Holder since 1979 andcurrently sit in the Trinity Road Upper along with hisDad and Brother.Mark has also been running the Sutton Coldfield Lionssince 1992 organising trips all around the country andEurope as well.Mark has followed Villa as far as Hong Kong, the USA,and all over Europe to watch his beloved Aston Villaand has been married for 25 years to what must surelybe the ultimate Football Widow!!


well that day), both Semi Finalgames against Anderlecht and ofcourse the Final against Bayern Mu-nich in the European Cup. TheSuper Cup matches againstBarcelona, the home game beingespecially exciting and no one willever forget the Coca-Cola SemiFinal against Tranmere Rovers in1994. A win over Birmingham is al-ways one to savour as well !!But my most memorable game hasto be the 4-4 draw with Chelsea atStamford Bridge on Boxing Day2007.That game had everything. Wewere 2-0 up thanks to goals fromShaun Maloney going into half time,then Zat Knight got sent off andShevchenko pulled a goal back fromthe spot.He then equalised early in the 2ndhalf and when Alex put them 3-2 Ithought that was it !Then against the run of play with 10men Martin Laursen equalised and10 mins later Carvalho was sent offto level the teams up.Just as the game seemed to beheading for a draw Ballack firedhome from the edge of the box tomake it 4-3 to Chelsea and it lookedlike game over.Then in injury time Villa forced acorner and in a scramble in the boxAshley Cole handled on the line andgot sent off giving Villa the chance toequalise.Incredibly, Gareth Barry fired homethe penalty to send the Villa fans intoraptures and rescue a dramatic pointwith virtually the last touch!!

Favourite XIOver the years there have beensome great players in the Claret andBlue shirt and I am forever changingmy Favourite XI but currently this ishow it stands.Bosnich; Gidman,Staunton,Mell-berg,McGrath,Mortimer,Barry,Platt,Gray(A),Cowans,Walters. Subs:Rimmer,Milner,Laursen,Swain,Little.

Current Villa Park Set-UpI am a fan of Paul Lambert and feelgiven time and some proper invest-ment he really could turn our for-

tunes around. I’m not sure we needto spend the Millions that MartinO’Neil spent to make us into a Pre-miership force again, and I’m notsure we’ll ever get to the promisedland of the Champions League, butthere is no reason why a Club ofAston Villa stature and presence inthe game should not be regularlypushing for a Europa League place(as long as we take it seriously) andenjoying the odd Cup success.I’m not a particular fan of the Board,but until somebody else comes for-ward with the right investment Ithink we’re better off sticking with

twhat we’ve got. Better the Devil youknow and all that!! I do believe weneed Managerial stability and if weever change Manager again I hopethe Board appoint a man who plays asimilar style to Paul Lambert. The last4 Managers have had totally differentstyles of play and have not had thepersonnel to impose their style on theteam. I only have to look up the roadat WBA who, even though they’vechanged Managers a few times overthe past 4 Seasons, haven’t changedthe way they play, and hence no bigupheavals on the playing staff and nostupid transfer fees.

5. Current Favourite Player

My current Favourite player is

Mark in Moscow Feb 2009and below in Iceland at FH Hafnarfjordur in August 2008

The Villa Times - Issue 6

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