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unusual facts about Aston Villa



1923–24 in English football

On 11 November 1923, Aston Villa centre-half Tommy Ball was shot dead by his neighbour, thus becoming the only Football League player to have been murdered.

1957–58 Stoke City F.C. season

Stoke made in-roads in the FA Cup overcoming Aston Villa in a 2nd replay and then Middlesbrough to reach the fifth round where they came up against a powerful Bolton Wanderers side who with the help of Nat Lofthouse beat Stoke 3–1 as they went on to lift the cup.

1993–94 Chelsea F.C. season

Hoddle bolstered his squad for 1994-95 by signing David Rocastle from Manchester City in a bid to strengthen the midfield following Andy Townsend's mid-season move to Aston Villa.

Abercynon

Vic Crowe, Welsh international footballer, who played for and later managed Aston Villa was born in Abercynon.

Al Saunders

Saunders was born in the north London suburb of Hendon as part of a sporting family; his great-uncle, Ron Saunders, played soccer for a number of teams in The Football League and later became a manager, winning honours with Norwich City and Aston Villa.

Alan McInally

After the end of the season, despite the efforts of new manager Billy McNeil to persuade the club's main strikers to stay, all three left Celtic – Mo Johnston to Nantes in France, Brian McClair to Manchester United and McInally joined Aston Villa in the Second Division.

Andreas Weimann

He remained there for three years, before being signed by English Premier League club Aston Villa, joining the club alongside fellow Austrian Dominik Hofbauer (now of SC Wiener Neustadt).

Ange Pacomé Dogba Gnagbo

Dogba has impressed a number of other top football people, including Paul Hart, Ian Woan and Paul Montgomery (Chief Scout of Aston Villa), Juande Ramos (former Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid manager), Harry Redknapp.

Barrie Lynch

Born in Northfield, Birmingham, Lynch played youth football for Rubery Hill School and Cross Castle, before playing professionally in England and the United States for Aston Villa, Oldham Athletic, the Atlanta Chiefs and the Portland Timbers.

Benjamin Siegrist

Benjamin Kevin "Benji" Siegrist (born 31 January 1992 in Therwil) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays for Burton Albion on loan from Aston Villa as a goalkeeper.

Charles C. Krulak

Following the takeover of English football club Aston Villa by MBNA Chairman Randy Lerner in August 2006 and as of September 19, 2006, General Krulak joined the board of Aston Villa as non-executive director, where he quickly earned the approval of the fans by taking the time to post on various Aston Villa messageboards.

Chris Herd

Born in Perth, Western Australia, Herd signed for Aston Villa from Australian club Bayswater City SC in February 2005, along with fellow Australian Shane Lowry, initially in a deal that was made up of a two-year Youth Training Scheme followed by him signing a one-year professional contract with the club.

Cotwall End Primary School

Teaching Assistant Karen Pearce is the wife of former Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers footballer Dennis Pearce.

Danny Fox

Fox was born in Winsford, Cheshire and learnt his trade at his boyhood club Everton's youth system but the closest he came to a first team appearance was as an 18-year-old being named on the bench for Everton's home match against Aston Villa in October 2004.

Dariusz Kubicki

He played for a few clubs, including Stal Mielec, Legia Warsaw, he then went to England and played for Aston Villa, Sunderland, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United and Darlington.

Darren Bradley

Darren Michael Bradley (born 24 November 1965 in Kings Norton, England) is a former English professional footballer, who played as a midfielder for Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Walsall.

Don Dorman

Dorman left Birmingham when Ron Saunders arrived as manager and took up the post of chief scout at Aston Villa.

English football bribery scandal

It centred around the accusations that Manchester City player Billy Meredith had been offered bribes to purposely lose their final league match of the season against Aston Villa.

Eric Avila

In December 2008, Avila traveled to England with fellow FC Dallas teammates Bruno Guarda, Josh Lambo, and Anthony Wallace along with other Generation Adidas players for friendlies against the reserve squads of Chelsea, Reading, and Aston Villa.

Eric Binns

Binns eventually made his first-team debut for the Lancashire club on 15 November 1952, deputising for the injured Jock Aird at right-back in the 1–0 home win over Aston Villa.

Fernando Nélson

After producing three final solid seasons, where he amassed nearly 100 league appearances and scored one goal apiece, he joined Premier League team Aston Villa in the 1996 summer, under manager Brian Little.

Futera

Futera held Official Trading Card Licences in the '90s/early 2000s for UK Premier League clubs Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Leeds, Aston Villa, West Ham and Scottish Premier League club Celtic plus Newcastle, Derby County, Middlesbrough and Manchester City.

Halesowen Town F.C.

On October 18, former Manchester United and Aston Villa manager Ron Atkinson was appointed as a consultant to the new manager.

Harry Devey

He was one of five brothers who all played professional football, Ted and Will for Small Heath and Jack, Harry and Bob for Aston Villa.

History of Aston Villa F.C.

2006 was a year of change at Villa as Martin O'Neill was brought in and after 23 years as chairman and single biggest shareholder, Doug Ellis sold his stake in Aston Villa to Randy Lerner.

Ian Culverhouse

On 5 July 2012, it was confirmed that Culverhouse and Gary Karsa would be joining Paul Lambert at Aston Villa, following him from Norwich City.

Jack Horton

He appeared in the 1895 FA Cup Final at Crystal Palace, and unsuccessfully battled with Aston Villa's John Devey in a goalmouth scramble just some 30 seconds into the game; despite this, the goal was credited to Bob Chatt.

Jim Leighton

His erratic form in the league was particularly evident when United suffered a 5–1 demolition to neighbours City (then newly promoted), a 3–0 hammering by Aston Villa on Boxing Day and were crushed 4–0 by Nottingham Forest in the penultimate league game of the season.

Joshua Dugdale

Dugdale is the son of former Aston Villa chairman Sir William Dugdale, and cousin of current Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron.

Kingshurst

Gary Shaw, the former Aston Villa footballer, was born at a house on Meriden Drive in January 1961 and lived there until the 1980s, by which time he was established as a key player at Villa.

Middleton Lakes RSPB reserve

Vehicular access for visitors is from Bodymoor Heath Lane, alongside Aston Villa's Bodymoor Heath Training Ground, some distance south of the reserve.

Premier League Manager of the Month

Four other managers have won an award with two or more clubs: Martin O'Neill with Leicester City, Aston Villa and Sunderland, Brendan Rodgers with Swansea City and Liverpool, Stuart Pearce with Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, and Gordon Strachan with Coventry City and Southampton.

Samir Carruthers

On 1 April 2013, Carruthers captained Aston Villa's youth squad to the final of the NextGen Series where they beat Chelsea 2–0, at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, in Como, Italy.

Sarah-Jane Mee

The show was later given its original name of Central Soccer Night after Hancock departed, and Mee hosted the show into 2007, along with former Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Leicester striker Stan Collymore.

Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet

His eldest daughter Cecilia Mary (born 1931) married Sir William Dugdale, Warwickshire landowner and former chairman of Aston Villa football club, and is the mother of the documentary filmmaker Joshua Dugdale.

Smethwick Rangers F.C.

As a predominantly Asian team, they have competed in the UK Asian Football Championships, and in 1994 they played at Villa Park in the final of the Aston Villa Cup, a tournament for local teams hosted by the Premier League club.

Stark's Park

Most of the cost of the above work was covered (as had become the norm) by the sale of assets, the most notable of those being Jackie Stewart to Birmingham City, Jim Baxter to Rangers and Jimmy MacEwan to Aston Villa, the latter deal also leading to Villa travelling north to play in the first match under the new lights.

Terry Fleming

Halesowen Town signed Fleming in 2007, along with two other former Football League players in the form of Stephen Cooke (who also played in the Premier League for Aston Villa) and Duane Darby.

The Green Bus

In August 2010 it began operating services during Aston Villa and Birmingham football clubs home matches.

Tony Chapron

Prior to 2008, the only international matches he had refereed were qualifying matches, but in October 2008, Chapron took charge of the UEFA Cup first round second leg between Aston Villa and Litex Lovech; he showed two yellow cards – both to Litex players – but also awarded Litex a penalty kick.

Will Devey

He was one of five brothers who all played professional football, Ted and Will for Small Heath and Jack, Harry and Bob for Aston Villa.


see also

1897 FA Cup Final

Aston Villa won 3–2, with goals by John Campbell, Fred Wheldon and Jimmy Crabtree.

1960–61 Football League Cup

In the second leg at Villa Park, Harry Burrows and Peter McParland levelled the tie on aggregate and Alan O'Neill scored in extra-time to win the cup for Aston Villa.

1979–80 Aston Villa F.C. season

3 May 1980: Liverpool clinch the league title in their penultimate league game of the season by beating Aston Villa 4–1 at Anfield.

Alan O'Neill

Alan O'Neill (footballer born 1937), English footballer, played for Sunderland and Aston Villa, see 1960–61 Football League Cup

Alan Wright

To date, Wright is currently in third place in Aston Villa's European appearances list, having made 26 appearances between September 1996 (a draw with Helsingborgs IF) and July 2002 (a 2–0 loss to FC Zürich), behind Gordon Cowans and Dennis Mortimer on 29.

Brad Guzan

On August 1, 2008, Guzan was granted a work permit by the Home Office, allowing him to complete his move to Aston Villa.

English football bribery scandal

He was the key participant in the 1905 scandal, where he allegedly tried to bribe Alex Leake, a rival football player for Aston Villa, £10 to throw the final match of the 1904-1905 English football season.

Fabian Delph

Delph had a successful start to the 2012–2013 Premier League season, leading Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert to call for his inclusion in the England squad.

Football programme

Aston Villa were one of the first clubs to publish a programme with their The Villa News and Record which from the outset almost encouraged collecting as it was in the form of a journal with a different number and volume for each season and week respectively; by 1946 for instance it was up to number 33.

Herbert Ellis

Doug Ellis (Herbert Douglas Ellis, born 1924), British entrepreneur, chairman of Aston Villa Football Club

Hong Kong English

(e.g. "Vector" and "Aston Villa"; "Vince" is read as "Whince"; Louis Vuitton, unpronounceable to Chinese, is universally referred to as "LV", pronounced "E'llo-Wee")

Juan Pablo Ángel

After an indifferent start to his Aston Villa career, and family difficulties, Ángel settled down and started to reproduce the form that had persuaded chairman Doug Ellis to spend the large transfer fee.

Keith R. Harris

He represented American billionaire, Randy Lerner, in the acquisition of Aston Villa football club, one of the oldest clubs in the world.

Kilsyth Rangers F.C.

Some famous players to have played for the team are Drew Jarvie (Airdrieonians, Aberdeen, St. Mirren), William Wallace (Heart of Midlothian, Celtic), Frank McGarvey (St.Mirren, Liverpool, Celtic), David Stewart (Leeds United), Pat McMahon (Celtic, Aston Villa), George Mulhall (Aberdeen, Sunderland), Jim Storrie (Airdrieonians, Aberdeen, Leeds United), Gary McStay (Falkirk) plus many more.

Kitwood Boys School

Noted school attendees: Julian Joachim (Professional Footballer - Leicester FC, Aston Villa).

Luke Moore

Moore travelled to the USA to undergo surgery in October 2006, with Cleveland Browns' head team physician Anthony Miniaci carrying out the procedure, following advice from Aston Villa chairman Randy Lerner.

Marc Albrighton

Marc confirmed to the Birmingham Mail that his dreams have come true in playing for Aston Villa, the team he has supported since a young age.

Nathan Delfouneso

Delfouneso made his competitive first-team début as a substitute in the away tie of the UEFA Cup second round match against Icelandic opponents FH Hafnarfjörður, this in turn made Delfouneso the youngest player to represent Aston Villa in European competition, at the age of 17 years and 195 days.

In February 2008, Delfouneso signed his first professional contract with Aston Villa, a few days after he was given the number 14 shirt for the first team – it was later reported in French magazine Onze Mondial, that the number was chosen due to Delfouneso's admiration of striker Thierry Henry.

North Shields F.C.

Anthony Woodhouse was replaced by former Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa player Graham Fenton in April 2012.

Premier Reserve League

In the 2009–10 play-off match, held again at Old Trafford, Manchester United beat Aston Villa 3–2 in a penalty shoot-out after the game ended 3–3.

Thomas Bowman

Tommy Bowman (1873–1958), Scottish footballer who played for Aston Villa, Southampton, Portsmouth and others in the 1890s and 1900s.

Walter Price

Walter H. Price, one of the 'Four Founding Fathers' of Aston Villa Football Club

Witton railway station

Aston Villa's former CEO, Bruce Langham, has said that the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (Centro) are amenable to the idea as long as it is done at the expense of the club.