European Throwbacks

European Journey

In 1985, Football was in crisis with the European ban, low attendances, crowd trouble and television blackouts. Villa were also about to begin a time of crisis- lack of scoring, poor defending, star players leaving and the inevitable at end of 1986/87 season, relegation.

We take a look at what happens next and how we began the road back with some big names that would spearhead the proud name of Aston Villa Football club.

Difference In Style

The first thing we had to look for in the 2nd division, was who was going to take charge? The two main candidates had started to build their name through lower leagues and had taken their respective clubs to the higher reaches of the Football pyramid, despite using an unfashionable long ball game.

Dave Bassett had enjoyed a decent Semi-Professional career before joining one of his previous teams, Wimbledon, on the coaching setup. They had only just been elected to the Football League in 1977 before Bassett took the job of manager four years later. He took Wimbledon from the fourth to the first division in just 5 years. In his only season in the top flight, they finished in a credible 6th place. Bassett resigned at the end of the season and was strongly linked to the hot seat at Villa Park.

His wasn’t the only name in the hat though as another Manager who had done something similar was already a household name. Graham Taylor enjoyed a playing career at Grimsby Town and Lincoln City. He had his first managerial success at Lincoln, winning the 4th division in 1976.

He moved the next year to Watford, which had just been bought by lifelong fan (and Rock Star!) Elton John. Taylor took Watford to the first division in 5 years. Watford were competing with the best and had finished runners up to Liverpool in 1983, and lost 2-0 to Everton in the following year’s Cup Final.

Elton John had big ambitions for the club, and for whatever reason, Taylor resigned. In a weird twist of fate, Bassett ended up going to Watford, leaving Taylor to take over at Aston Villa. Would he be a success?

Tough Start

Times were turbulent up in Birmingham 6, lots of star players leaving but lots of youngsters coming through, and this churn meant that things were always going to be tough from the beginning. So it proved as we only won 1 league game out of opening 7.

A 2-0 win at West Bromwich Albion would prove to be the turning point as this would see Villa win 6 games out of 11 game unbeaten run.

New Heroes

Some new faces to spearhead the promotion drive included another tough Scottish Striker who replaced Andy Gray, after his 2 years of an unsuccessful return to Villa Park. Alan McInally, joining from Celtic, was a team player with an eye for goal. He would make a bigger name for himself in the following season.

Ironically Aston Villa had signed two players called Gray (no relation). Stuart, a reliable left back from Barnsley and Andy, a battling midfielder from Crystal Palace.

A true Villa hero would join at the beginning of 1988. A young David Platt was beginning to make name for himself at Crewe Alexandra and was attracting attention from other clubs. One of those was Taylor’s former employers Watford, who were now managed by his ex Villa assistant Steve Harrison.

After a bit of battle, Taylor convinced Platt to join for £200k and the push for promotion was on.

Touch And Go

During the Saunders/Barton years, Villa had enjoyed strong seasons of home form. That had been missing since and things didn’t improve too much in 87/88 under Taylor. Villa were beaten 6 times as they were battling for promotion, with plenty of twists and turns of fate.

So much so, it went down to the final day. Millwall were surprise 2nd division champions, leaving one automatic place left to avoid the promotion/relegation playoffs.

Aston Villa were a point behind Middlesbrough, who were chasing a second successive promotion under ex Villa player Bruce Rioch. Bradford City also had a chance of getting automatic promotion, leaving a 3 way battle.

Aston Villa were away at Swindon Town and were desperate for 3 points. In the end, we had to settle for a 0-0 draw. As it turned out, both Middlesbrough and Bradford City were beaten at home, meaning Villa had achieved automatic promotion by scoring 5 more goals than Middlesbrough, who won through against Chelsea in the playoffs.

Villa were back in the 1st division! Now they had to stay there.

Welcome Home Sid

Naturally the squad needed strengthening and Defenders Chris Price and 2 time title winner at Everton Derek Mountfield were added. However, with all respect to them, this wasn’t the standout Summer signing.

Gordon Cowans was part of the team that had won the league title in 1981 and European Cup a year later. He left with Paul Rideout for a spell in Italy with Bari in 1985. There was a buy back clause included in the deal and 3 years later, Taylor activated that and Sid was back home in the midfield to play with Platt and Gray alongside another exciting player from the youth setup, Tony Daley.

Aston Villa Story

In step with the team’s improving, this would be the beginning of improved television coverage. ITV had bought the whole package of television rights of the Football League, which included a season review tape, which I’m sure most older Villa fans would have had a copy of! A new thing indeed for 1988.

As for the season itself,  McInally would find his touch, scoring 20 goals by the end of the calendar year in all competitions. We found ourselves in mid table after a 2-1 Boxing Day win over QPR and were looking good for survival.

Fading Touch

This wouldn’t last going into 1989. Aston Villa could only win 2 games from the beginning of the year to Easter as McInally would only find the net twice for remainder of the season.

Two wins against Luton Town and Newcastle United (both 2-1) made it look possible to achieve survival. However the league was tight and no further wins up to the final day of the season meant a nervy end for Villa. 

The final game was at home against Coventry City and Platt gave us the perfect start. However the game ended 1-1 and there would be an anxious wait as the season was slightly extended, due to unforeseen circumstances.

By now, Newcastle and Middlesbrough were goners, and Villa could now be caught by West Ham United, who had put together an end of season run of wins. A 2-1 win at Forest, meant if West Ham could win at defending champions Liverpool, it would be immediate return for us to the second division. 

After going in at 1-1, Liverpool turned on the style, chasing a second double in four seasons. Liverpool won 5-1 which mean West Ham took last relegation place and Villa survived. The next season had to go better. Still, at least West Ham went down. 

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

McInally was a wanted man and a £1.1M move to Bayern Munich materialised leaving Taylor the opportunity to build the team. He choose to strengthen the defence.

This meant selling Martin Keown to Everton and giving a free transfer to another hero from one night in Rotterdam, Allan Evans.

Danish International Kent Nielsen joined from Brondby for half a million pounds and yet another International, this time an Irishman, would arrive at Villa Park.

Paul McGrath had made his name at Manchester United, enjoying an 8 year spell there. Alex Ferguson was looking to sell this wayward genius and £425K changed hands. McGrath was at Villa Park.

Surprise Title Charge

Taylor’s 3rd season like the previous two, would be surprising and was full of moments. Unlike the previous season, Villa had made a poor start,  and matched Taylor’s first season, only winning 1 game out of 7.

What would happened next, would be simply astonishing. Villa won 5 games on the bounce which included a 6-2 demolition of Everton at Villa Park.

In fact, we only failed to win 3 of next 12 league games and the league title was a real possibility. Then we were competing with Liverpool, who were looking to reclaim their title from Arsenal.

Party Poopers

February 24th 1990 and Aston Villa faced Wimbledon. Wimbledon were managed by Bobby Gould, who had taken them to a FA Cup win two years before. They would be tough opposition.  

This meeting would prove to be challenging. At 0-0, Villa won a penalty. The usually reliable Platt had it saved, and then Wimbledon scored from their own penalty through Fashanu. Wimbledon went on to win 3-0 and Villa’s defeat the following week at Coventry City saw the momentum switched back to the Reds.

Final Piece Of Jigsaw

Where had we used this one before?! In 1980, when Peter Withe had joined from Newcastle United before 1980/81 title success to helped Ron Saunders achieve his title dream.

Now in March 1990, Taylor had jumped in transfer market to purchase Republic of Ireland international Tony Cascarino. Cascarino, who had joined Gillingham for a pack of tracksuits, had made a fruitful partnership with Teddy Sheringham at Millwall, who had made it to the First division two years before.

Now heading out of that division, Taylor snapped him up, not just for goalscoring but to hold the ball and bring others into to play. History however would not to repeat itself.

Too Big An Ask

Villa had worked wonders and miracles, just to be in the title conversation. However, it wouldn’t be enough. Three more further defeats in the run in and a 3-3 draw in the final home game against Norwich City gave the title to Liverpool.

Villa finished 2nd with Platt scoring 24 goals in all competitions and winning PFA player of the year award. Not only were things looking up for the Villa, but also for English Football.

Long Road Back

1990, saw World Cup in Italy with England taking part in Bobby Robson’s final tournament as head coach. Not only was a lot attention was focused on the team but also the 

but also the behaviour of the fans, sadly that didn’t show too much improvement after the European ban.

Platt was part of the squad as well and he came on to score the winner against Belgium in the last 16. He scored again in 3-2 Quarter Final win over Cameroon. England’s brave bid was ended on penalties against West Germany in the Semi-Finals but this had been one hell of a Summer for English Football.

Better news was that the European ban was finally lifted and Villa were be one of just two English sides to play in Europe for the 1990/91 season. We would play in the Uefa Cup with FA Cup winners Manchester United playing in the European Cup Winners Cup. Liverpool would serve an additional year’s ban.

European Flavour

Of course, the end of the World Cup meant that a New England Head Coach to be announced. Taylor would beat off stiff competition to be named as Robson’s replacement. So Taylor would leave Villa after 3 years but what a 3 years it had been.

Promotion to the top flight, survival battles and a title charge. Big shoes to fill and Doug Ellis would pick a big European name.

Josef Venglos had managed Czechoslovakia in the World Cup, losing out to West Germany in the Quarter Finals. He came with 24 years management experience. Despite this, the appointment was massive gamble especially in the English game, which wasn’t as open and diverse as it is now. 

We’re Back!

Like the previous season, Villa had a troublesome start but achieved back to back wins over Coventry City and Derby County before their first test in the Uefa Cup.

It would be ironic, that Venglos’s first European game as Villa Manager was against Czech opponents in Banik Ostrava. The first leg was played at Villa Park and Villa made a poor start, falling behind.

However we struck back and goals from Platt, Mountfield and Ian Onley sealed a 3-1 win and confidence going into the 2nd leg.

Villa once again fell behind but Mountfield found the net before Stas scored an own goal for Villa and lead to him getting signed! Basically he scored for us, was signed by us, got injured and left having never making an appearance in the Claret and Blue!

The 2-1 win sealed a 5-2 win on aggregate and won us a massive assignment in the next round.

Inter Milan were one of the favourites for the tournament and included 3 West Germany players from World Cup team- Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsmann. 

With our league form continuing to be inconsistent, the first leg at Villa Park was a welcome distraction. This would prove to be a glory night for Aston Villa. A 2-0 win with goals from Nielsen and Platt to give Villa a 2-0 win going into the return at San Siro.

Confidence was high but as it turned out it would be misplaced. A good start was needed for the 2nd leg and this was exactly what we didn’t get. Klinsmann struck  early and the Inter heads were up. Two further goals sealed a 3-0 win on the night and a 3-2 win on aggregate for Inter. They would go on to win the trophy, whilst the struggles of Villa and Venglos continued. 

Not To Be

Despite Platt scoring another 24 goals this season, it would be a very disappointing one for all involved. Although not in any real relegation struggles, Villa finished 17th and Venglos departed at the end of the season. It would be said that lots of players didn’t like his style of coaching and management but and one could say he might have been likened to many European head coaches that have graced the Premier League.

So in just 10 years since the title success, Villa would be having their 7th different Manager. Venglos would be described as quiet, introverted character, his eventual successor would be anything but!

Next Edition- Big Ron