We are dancing into 1999, top of the league with a real chance of winning the title (where have we heard this before?!). A top 3 finish will be enough for a place in the Champions League under the stewardship of John Gregory. A bright vibrant British team, Stan Collymore doing well, with plenty of goals up front and a mean defence. What could possibly go wrong?

The Rot

The answer to the previous question was all of it. After beating Hull City 3-0 in the 3rd round of FA Cup with Collymore scoring twice, a 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough saw us knocked off the top, a position we would never return to that season.

A 3-0 win at home against Everton followed before a 4th round tie at home to runaway 2nd Division leaders Fulham. Collymore was on the bench and stormed off, effectively ending his time at the club. Fulham won 2-0 and we would lose the next league game, a  2-1 reversal of fortunes at Newcastle United with Ugo Ehiogu picking up an injury.

This was the start a run of 7 defeats in 8 league games. We went from title contenders, to Champions League hopefuls, to trying to get a place in Europe. The best we could finish now was 5th, which in most previous seasons would have been enough for a European place but due to cup performances from other teams, this left us with just one other possible route to Europe.

Intertoto Cup

The Intertoto Cup actually started in 1961 as a pre season competition with cash prizes which English sides never competed in.

It was then taken under the stewardship of Uefa in 1995, with the chance to win 2 places to get entry into the Uefa Cup. Three English sides took part- Sheffield Wednesday, Tottenham Hotspur and Wimbledon. None of them qualified with the two London sides getting fined for fielding weakened teams.

Crystal Palace were the next team to try and fail to make it in 1998 and now one English side would be taking part in 1999-2000 season, would it be us?

Close Finish

As well as us, West Ham United and Middlesbrough were interested in taking part. Having finally won a league game after 11 attempts, a welcome 3-0 home win over Southampton, we made a timely return to form which gave us 3 wins in a row.

The final 3 games saw us making an impact at events at both the top and the bottom of the table. Away trips to title contenders Manchester United and Arsenal, with a final home game against relegation threatened Charlton Athletic in the middle.

A 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford started the rot ahead of the final game at Villa Park. Charlton, battling for their lives, took the lead three times with us then finding a reply. With both teams down to 10, Charlton were looking straight down the barrel until Danny Mills smashed a free kick in to give them a 4-3 victory.

This left us in a straight battle with West Ham United for 5th place with them playing Middlesbrough at home. They won 4-0 leaving us needing to get a win at the defending Champions, who needed their rivals Tottenham Hotspur to get a result at Man Utd. In the end, we lost 1-0, lost the battle for that Intertoto place and they lost the title. It was a sad end in a season full of highs and lows. Now for the first of the 21st Century.

Plenty Optimism

Despite missing out on a 4th straight season in Europe, there was plenty to look forward to with some exciting signings such as David James replacing the outgoing Mark Bosnich in goal and George Boateng, a box to box midfielder who had helped Coventry secure their first league win at Villa Park (4-1) in February.

Five wins out of the first 8 games gave us a decent start to the season but the optimism was starting to fade. John Gregory had enjoyed a successful 1998 but 1999 was less kind and he was under pressure. A couple of cup runs would be handy.

Lucky Losers

The draw for 3rd round of FA Cup, always an exciting time for most fans, took an unusual twist this year. With an early start to Euro 2000, the 3rd round would be taking place in the middle of December but this wasn’t the big news.

Manchester United who won an historic treble last season, decided not to take part in the FA Cup to take part in a new World Club Championship which would help England to host the 2006 World Cup. Naturally, it didn’t work!

This left us getting drawn against a side who were beaten in the previous round, in this case 3rd Division Darlington. We were professional enough and a 2-1 win put us in round 4.

4 Days later (15th) we faced West Ham United in the Quarter Finals of the League Cup. A exciting game saw us draw 2-2 and heading to penalties. Gareth Southgate had his penalty saved and West Ham United won 5-4 on pens and through to Semi Finals. Or so we thought?

A few days later it become public notice that West Ham had fielded an ineligible player and we were rightly asking to be awarded the game. Not only did EFL say the game should be replayed but back at West Ham!

We were back in form, four games unbeaten in the league and through to 5th round of FA Cup before the replayed game in the League Cup.

An Ian Taylor strike level the game at 1-1 and it went to extra time. West Ham had a penalty saved and Julian Joachim gave us the lead. With West Ham chasing, we broke out with Taylor scoring again, a 3-1 win and justice was done. Now to the Semi-Finals against that team led by that Manager.

Bogey Side

After suffering relegation in 1995, Leicester City bounced back at the first attempt under the new man Martin O’Neil. Before the big 2 leg match, Aston Villa faced Leicester 7 times in the league with Leicester winning 4 times to Villa 0. This was the first time in the cup competition and the 1st leg took place at Villa Park.

We were unable to beat them, with Leicester leaving with 0-0 draw. A tough 2nd leg and things got off badly with Matt Elliott scoring to give them a lead. We had it all to do and despite the return of our top goalscorer Dion Dublin, they were victorious again. Leicester would go on to win the trophy, defeating Tranmere Rovers 2-1.

Long Awaited Return

All was not lost as we were making progress in the FA Cup. A thrilling 3-2 win over Leeds United in round 5 followed by a 2-1 win at Everton in Quarter Finals saw us in the Semi-Finals at Wembley, in the final season of the historic twin towers. A new Wembley would be built at the end of the year.

Our opponents with 1st Division Bolton Wanderers, who were looking to rejoin the elite. This was a hard watch and lot of scary moments., The game finished 0-0 and penalties would decide. We scored four of four with James saving two and the final place was booked. Our first FA Cup Final in 43 years. Only Chelsea to beat now for the long wait to be finally over.

What Might Have Been

Once more, we finished 6th in the Premier League but all focus was on the FA Cup Final. A win would see some more silverware and a place in Europe. A defeat and it would see an early start in the Intertoto Cup.

Four days shy of my 15th Birthday and it’s still painful to describe now. A poor game and poor Villa performance. Roberto Di Matteo scored the only goal and a great opportunity wasted. Intertoto Cup it is!

Rivals Den

Wembley was not the only stadium to get a rebuild, Villa Park was too. Well, the Trinity Road Stand, which meant that our home games in the Intertoto Cup would be played at The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion.

This had been a Summer of changes with players coming in such as David Ginola and Luc Nilis with others leaving or wanting to leave. John Gregory had just about kept control of things.

The first game in the Intertoto Cup was against Czech side Marila Pribram. This was a far cry from playing the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Inter Milan. Still Europe is Europe.

A 0-0 draw in the first leg set us up nicely at West Brom! Nilis scored his first goal for the club with Taylor and Dublin rounding up a 3-1 win. The next round saw familiar opposition, Celta Vigo from Spain, who knocked us out in our last European campaign 2 seasons ago.

A error right at the end from James gave us a 1-0 defeat in Spain. Like at Villa Park, Celta Vigo outplayed us and again won 3-1. We also went down to 9 men with 3 red cards in the match from one of the most unconfident performances from a referee I have ever seen.

Second Attempt

The Intertoto Cup gave us the springboard to have a rather uninspiring season. We finished 8th with no decent run in either domestic cup competition. This finish though was good enough to have another stab at the Intertoto. Oh joy!

Starting on 14th July 2001, a Ginola goal gave us a useful away goal in 2-1 defeat at Croatian side NK Slaven Belupo. A Lee Hendrix double a week later at Villa Park gave us the 3-2 win on aggregate.

In the next round, we faced French side Rennes and like the 1st leg of the previous round, we lost 2-1 with Darius Vassell scoring for us. We progressed at Villa Park through a Dublin strike on away goals rule.

Now we had the Final (of three) against Swiss side Basel. This time we got a draw away from home in first leg with Paul Merson scoring. The second leg was one sided. A 4-1 win with Vassell and Ginola scoring with a Juan Pablo Angel brace. We were back in Europe after an absence of three years.

Home Discomfort

The 1st round of the Uefa Cup saw us matched up with Croatian side NK Varteks. We were expecting to do well but we were to be proved wrong. An Angel brace was not enough as we lost 3-2 at Villa Park, with it all to do in Croatia.

The second leg saw us trying to avoid embarrassment but despite a late goal from Mustapha Hadji, we once again succumbed to the away goals rule, that saw us exit this way in Uefa Cup in 4 out of 5 campaigns.

What Might Have Been

This would prove to be the story of the season and to John Gregory’s period in charge. A strong start to the season, before results started to go too much against us and we trailed away. We were in 6th place in January 2002 after back to back wins against Derby County and Charlton Athletic, when Gregory made the shock announcement that he was leaving.

Relations with our Chairman Doug Ellis had been frosty at best and he decided to have a break. Like Ron Saunders 20 years before, these words would be as reliable as pop singer’s wedding vows and he quickly rocked up at another former club of his, Derby County.

Despite this, Gregory’s reputation is still held highly, and rightly so. Some consistent seasons in the league and those two strong cups runs in 2000, although sadly no silverware. Now what we had to get a new face with new style to push the team further.

Familiar Face

Lots of name were mentioned including Louis Van Gaal, Lothar Matthaus and Luis Felipe Scolari. None of these came but an old face would return to Villa Park after a gap of 12 years. Graham Taylor had taken us up in 1988 and to runners up in the old First Division two years later.

He took the England job after the 1990 World Cup but suffered bad results and bad press. England struggled in Euro 92 and fail to qualify for 1994 World Cup at the hands of Norway and Holland. Taylor resigned in November 1993 and took over at First Division Wolverhampton Wanderers the following year. He took them to play-offs a year later, missing out and then resigning before going back to Watford. Here, he achieved two successive promotions (98-99) before going straight back down in 2000. After he left the following year, that was expected to be it and a quiet life was beckoning, but no, he returned to Villa Park.

He steadied the ship at the club as we once more finished 8th and we’re now facing a 3rd straight campaign in the Intertoto Cup.

What Ambition?

Like two years before, there was nasty negative vibes around the club with big names like Boatang and Merson leaving and not such glamorous replacements coming in.

The Intertoto Campaign looked to be over at the first attempt as well as we suffered a 2-0 defeat to FC Zurich. We recovered in the 2nd leg, one of Taylor’s better results of that season, winning 3-0 at Villa Park.

By contrast, in the next round against Lille of France, we picked up a valuable 1-1 draw with Ian Taylor scoring. The second leg though saw just one of many disappointments that season with a 2-0 defeat at Villa Park.

The season went badly due to our poor away form that only saw us win once. The season saw our lowest finish since 1995 and the first time out of the top, down to 16th. Graham Taylor, a man of pride, walked away at the end of the season, Like Gregory his record at the club during his two spells will never be forgotten.

The Pupil

Now for our 3rd Manager in just over a year. George Graham was linked but instead it went to someone who played under him at Arsenal and worked as his assistant at Leeds United. David O’Leary took over him at Leeds in 1998 and had built an exciting team who finished strongly in the table during his four years. He was unable to bring them silverware and or consistent Champions League qualifications and was surprisingly sacked by the club. Their dire financial problems signalled the beginning of the end of a 14 year spell in the top division.

To begin with things looked equally bleak at Villa, as we started December 2003 in relegation places. However he turned things around in the League and got us to Semi-Finals in the League Cup for the first time in 4 years.

We faced Bolton Wanderers and lost there 5-2 in the first leg. We couldn’t overturn this in the 2nd leg although we won 2-0 on the night but lost 5-4 on aggregate. The league was still going well and now we were in contention for the fourth and final spot in Champions League.

We just missed out on that to Liverpool,  and another campaign in Europe on goal difference to Newcastle United but 6th was credible for a first season.

Sadly this kind of form wasn’t sustained. We finished 10th the following season and then another poor season, 16th in 2006. Despite his best efforts and bringing through lots of exciting youngsters, O’Leary (by then known as O’Dreary) knew his time was up. A change was needed both on and off the pitch.

Changes

Ellis in his 2nd tenure of Chairman had been in power for 14 years. Now at 81 years old, he wanted to stand down to spend more time with his money.. One of his last tasks before that glad day was to appoint a new Manager.

This was the man who worked wonders at Leicester City and been outstanding at Celtic, Martin O’Neil.

With Randy Lerner taking over the club, there was fresh optimism. A strong start of 9 games unbeaten before a poor run of form had us looking nervy over our shoulders.

In the end, a strong finish saw us finished 11th with new signings like John Carew and Ashley Young settling in well. The next season promised much.

Bright Future

That momentum followed on in the following season and possible Champions League placing, come the Spring. This would start a familiar pattern, poor form didn’t see us get there but 6th place was still a great finish and this was enough to put in the Intertoto competition for a final time.

One Last Time

This was different look to the previous campaigns.

One win and we would enter the 2nd round of qualifying for the Uefa Cup. Standing in our way was Danish side Odense. A 2-2 draw in Denmark with Carew and Martin Laursen scoring and then an Ashley Young strike finishing the job at Villa Park.

We faced FH in Iceland and won empathically 4-1 with Gareth Barry, Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor and Laursen scoring. A Craig Gardner goal in a 1-1 draw at Villa Park completed a 5-2 win on aggregate. We were back in the Uefa Cup for the first time in 2001.

Everything is in place. A strong Manager, great players, strong squad and some exciting talent. Everything is starting to look rosy at Villa Park.

Next Edition- Proud History, Bright Future?