November 1994 was not going well at all for us. We were knocked out on away goals by Turkish side Trabzonspor in the Uefa Cup and Ron Atkinson had been sacked as Manager after losing 8 out of 9 games, leaving us in the relegation zone.

Two former Villa favourites were strongly linked to one of the most wanted jobs in the country, to revive the fortunes of this famous club.

The Contenders

One of the names that was mentioned was former Midfielder Bruce Rioch. After joining the club for 100k in 1969, the next 5 years had been successful for the Scottish Midfielder, reaching the League Cup Final in 1971 and winning the old 3rd division title a year later.

After a excellent playing career, he made himself a big name in Management. He took over at Middlesbrough in 1986 when they just dropped down to the old 3rd division and the club was having financial problems. With a new owner and successive promotions to the first division, his time there was a success.

Now at Bolton Wanderers, he took them up to the first division and was responsible for several giant killing exploits in the FA Cup, including knocking the defending holders out on their own patch in successive years (Liverpool in 93 & Arsenal a year later). 

Despite the Rioch rumours, there was another Villa favourite who was destined for the job. Brian Little had joined our youth setup shortly after Doug Ellis had first become Chairman in 1968. He enjoyed a glorious playing career which included 2 League Cup titles before being forced to retire through cruel injuries at just 26 in 1980. That was a tragedy for Brian, and for the club – and even for England too, as players of his creativity and flair only come along once in a generation. 

After working a few years at the club in the youth setup, he went into management, ironically after working as Assistant to Rioch at Middlesbrough. He enjoyed successive promotions at Darlington before taking the Leicester City job in 1991.

He finally managed to take them to Premier League at the 3rd attempt in the play-offs after defeating Derby County 2-1.

The Premier League had been tough for the Foxes and with the Villa job being hard to resist, Little eventually parted ways with Leicester,  and the Villa job was confirmed on 25th November 1994, his 41st Birthday.

Tough Start

Little eventually brought all his backroom team over including former favourites- Allan Evans who had been part of the team that won both the league title and European Cup for us,  and ex midfielder John Gregory.

The first game was against Sheffield Wednesday and after taking the lead through Dalian Atkinson, Villa had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Villa also failed in their defence of the League Cup at Crystal Palace (4-1). Little had to wait for a victory till his 7th game in charge, a 3-0 home victory over Chelsea. Still with the team in the relegation zone by the end of 1994, the playing squad would go through a lot of changes before the end of the season.

Out With Old, In With The New

The Chelsea game saw a debut goal for lifelong Villa fan Ian Taylor who has arrived in a swap deal from Sheffield Wednesday for Guy Whittingham.

The squad would go through a lot of changes before the end of the transfer window at the end of March. Coming into the squad were double signings from Derby County in full back Gary Charles and Striker Tommy Johnson, plus Blackburn Rovers left back Alan Wright – possibly one of the shortest players we’ve ever had. 

Going out were a lot of old favourites including Earl Barrett to Everton, Garry Parker to Leicester City, Kevin Richardson rejoining his old boss Ron Atkinson at Coventry City and Ray Houghton leaving on deadline day, joining Crystal Palace.

At first, the new changes had the desired effect. An upward turn of results in early part of 1995 saw Villa as outside contenders for a place in Europe. However with only 1 goal scored (an own goal) and 1 win in March and April, Villa were back in trouble.

Touch And Go

With the Premier League being tight and four teams going down for there to be 20 clubs the following season, half the league were still looking over their shoulders to avoid a place in the Football League.

Ipswich Town and Leicester City had gone down by Easter, leaving 2 more places to be filled. After a controversial 1-0 defeat at Leeds United, we were staring at the drop with just three games to go.

A midweek 1-1 draw at home against Manchester City followed before the final home game, against League Cup winners Liverpool. Aston Villa were as superb as Liverpool were bad and with a sign of things to come, Dwight Yorke was our man in the spotlight, with his two goals sealing a precious 3 points.

The final day of the season had arrived and we were just 2 points ahead of Crystal Palace in the relegation zone. We were playing away at Norwich city, who were relegated the previous weekend whilst Crystal Palace were away at European hopefuls Newcastle United.

The first 45 minutes went really well, a Steve Staunton goal giving us a half time lead whilst Crystal Palace were losing 3-0 at Newcastle. The second half saw a few nerves with Jeremy Goss equalising for Norwich whilst Crystal Palace pulled 2 goals back.

However that would be it – Aston Villa had survived and now had the opportunity to continue the rebuilding in the Summer.

New Strategy 

We were once more active in the transfer market with Crystal Palace skipper Gareth Southgate (whatever happened to him?), Leicester City Midfielder Mark Draper and Serbian Striker Savo Milosevic joining.

More big names were leaving the club, with Dean Saunders and Dalian Atkinson starting new careers in Turkey at Galatasaray and Fenerbahce respectively. Defender Shaun Teale joined Tranmere Rovers and John Fashanu retired through injury.

The team not only had a fresh look with personnel but also a change of formation with a 3-5-2 being introduced and it worked to great effect.

Desired Effect

Aston Villa defeated Manchester United 3-1 on the opening day and apart for occasional blips, were going well up to Christmas, chilling at the top end of the table and reaching the Quarter Finals of the League Cup.

The last game of 1995 was a disappointment, a 1-0 defeat at QPR but it did see one star name taking to the pitch for the last time in bizarre circumstances. Goalkeeper Nigel Spink came on as an outfield player right near the end of the match and this was the last time a member of 1982 European Cup team played for the club, 4,959 days since the victory over Bayern Munich!

Up For The Cup!

The positive form continued into 1996 and a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the League Cup, set up a mouth watering 2 leg Semi-Final with Arsenal, now managed by Rioch.

The first leg being played at Highbury, the game was played at a fast pace. Dennis Bergkamp scored two well taken goals to give Arsenal a 2-0 lead before Villa struck back. Dwight Yorke was the top goalscorer for Ron Atkinson in 1991/92 season before being moved out to be a winger.

Now he was our main man and got a crucial goal back before half time. Villa pressed on and were rewarded with a second Yorke goal to take away a 2-2 draw and hold away goal advantage.

The second leg at Villa Park was a completely different match. Arsenal were desperate to get that crucial goal with Villa trying to hold on, the game wasn’t a classic. After extra time, Villa held on to a 0-0 draw and a place at Wembley, where they would play Leeds United on 24th March.

The Final gave Villa an opportunity to win a second league cup in three seasons and a place in Europe. Two years before, we won the cup against a really good Manchester United side. By contrast, the Leeds United team were starting to stutter under Howard Wilkinson after some glory years and that showed in the Final.

Savo Milosevic silenced some of the boo boys with a wonder strike to give us a half time lead. Further goals from Ian Taylor and that man, Yorke again sealed a 3-0 win and our place in Europe was confirmed.

We were also going great guns in the FA Cup and had a Semi-Final at Old  Trafford against Liverpool a week after the League Cup Final. Liverpool had been our bogey team that season, scoring 5 goals in two Premier League games without reply and this sadly would be a similar story.

Two goals from Robbie Fowler and a strike from Jason McAteer meant we missed out on a second trip to Wembley that season. Still we secured a 4th place finish in the league, meaning Brian Little had managed a season where we did our best performance in all 3 domestic competitions since his 2nd League Cup trophy as a player in 1976/77 season. Things were looking promising.

All Change (Forever)

Aston Villa were not the only victors in the 1995/96 season. In the European Court Of Justice, Belgian Footballer Jean Marc-Bosman won his case to be able to move for free when contracts expired. This ruling changed the scene of the game, which is still there 30 years.

English clubs in European competitions had strongly suffered by only being allowed to play 3 non British players in the team.Now there was no limit and this would be reflected immediately in the Premier League after a successful European Championships in England. Remember that man Southgate?

European Challenge Ahead

Aston Villa brought in more foreign players in the Summer of 1996 with Serbian Sasa Curcic joining from relegated Bolton Wanderers and Portuguese right back Fernando Nelson joining as cover for long term injury victim Gary Charles. 

After a solid start to the new season, Aston Villa spirits were high ahead of the opening Uefa Cup tie against Helsingborg from Sweden. The first leg being at Villa Park and Villa were expecting to comfortably win against the part-timers. Tommy Johnson scored early on but as the game progressed Villa were unable to score further goals.

This would prove costly as Helsingborg scored an equaliser late on to take a precious away goal back to Sweden.

Despite the best efforts of the team, we couldn’t find the net in Sweden and for the second successive time in Europe, we would exit due to the away goals rule.

What Might Have Been

Despite this disappointment, the league form was going well despite again losing the defence of the League Cup at Selhurst Park, this time to Crystal Palace’s tenants Wimbledon.

With the real possibility of a title challenge, we faced a tough run of fixtures against other teams at the top over Christmas and the new year. The first being home at Wimbledon, who were going great guns in the league.

However they were no match for us as we swept them off the park for a 5-0 victory. However this was as good as it got as 3 defeats and several draws later until a 1-0 home win against Sunderland in February saw us once again just chasing for a place in Europe.

It was touch and go throughout but we were able to get over the line after winning 1-0 at home to Southampton on the Final day of the season to finish in 5th place. Now it was time for a title challenge in Little’s 3rd full season at the club.

Stan The Man

Almost Immediately after the season was finished, there would be a new Striker as £7M changed hands with Liverpool for Stan Collymore. Collymore, a childhood fan who made his name at first Southend United and then Nottingham Forest was a strong, powerful striker with eye for goal.

He moved to Liverpool in 1995 and eventually struck up a promising partnership with Robbie Fowler. The previous season been tough for him, ill discipline, being in and out of the team, plus the pending arrival of youth prodigy Michael Owen, meaning Liverpool were willing to let him go.

We had our man, now could we go on for a title challenge?

In Title Race?

Basically by the end of the first month of the 1997/98 season, the answer was no. We lost our first 4 games of the season in the league before two morale boosting wins over Leeds United (1-0) and newly promoted Barnsley (3-0). There was now some confidence going into Uefa Cup,  against this time, a much bigger and harder opposition.

European Comfort

The opening game was against Bordeaux of France at theirs. We came away with a credible 0-0 draw but with three home exits on the bounce in Europe, we still had work to do.

The 2nd leg went into extra time before we finally got the breakthrough. Savo Milosevic whose form was still patchy score the crucial goal to seal a place in the 2nd round.

The next team were indeed no strangers to Brian Little. Skillful opposition in the Spanish side Athletic Bilbao, who we played in the same competition 20 years before, when Little was playing.

Another 0-0 draw in the first leg followed what was an exciting game at Villa Park. Goals from Ian Taylor and Dwight Yorke sealed a 2-1 success and the Uefa Cup was indeed proving some comfort to our inconsistent form in the League.

The next opponents was Romanian side Steaua Bucharest, with the first leg again being on the road. Things were not looking good as the Romanians took a 2-0 lead before Yorke scored what proved to be a vital away goal.

The second leg was challenging but we turned it around with goals from Milosevic and Taylor to give us a 2-0 win, 3-2 on aggregate. We found ourselves in the Quarter Finals in Europe for the first time since 1983 and in the Uefa Cup, for first time since 1978.

Things indeed were looking good in Europe and of course those memories of 1982 were flying back. However as in 1982, a huge managerial twist was to follow before the Quarter-Finals would commence.

End Of An Era

Going into 1998 now and our league form was proving to be a concern for all fans. In February, we would be dumped out of Fa Cup in the 5th round by Coventry City, who recorded their first ever win at Villa Park (1-0).

League defeats to Manchester United and Wimbledon would follow, as in Ron Atkinson’s final two games. We found ourselves 15th in the table, with 11 games left to play but there was no immediate threat to Brian Little’s job or outrage from the fans.

However, mainly due to personal reasons, Little had enough. He resigned after just over 3 years in charge which saw a League Cup win and two of his full seasons in the top 5. This was indeed a massive shock but he will always be regarded as a legend, as a player and manager. And it was his choice to leave, many claret and blue hearts would have been broken if we had sacked one of the most exceptional players to wear our badge. Another shock would then come a day after his resignation.

Born To Manage

With Little and Evans departing, one of the trilogy would remain in the hot seat. John Gregory, who played for Villa in the seventies and had joined Little’s management team in 1994.

After nearly two years, Gregory had left to take over at 2nd Division team Wycombe Wanderers. He performed well enough, to be given a chance to manage the Villa. However, his first three games could not have been much tougher- Home against Liverpool and return to Uefa Cup sandwiched in between of away match at Chelsea.

Things got off to a bad start. Mark Bosnich conceding a penalty which Michael Owen easily converted. Stan Collymore had been very inconsistent that season but this would prove to be one of his better days. Two goals against his old club gave us a 2-1 win and left us full of confidence against more Spanish opposition, this time against Atletico Madrid.

Unlucky Villa

Another credible performance away in the first leg was overturned by Atletico being awarded a dodgy penalty which Christian Vieri scored to give them a 1-0 lead going into the 2nd leg.

Two league wins out of three including a 1-0 victory at Chelsea followed before the 2nd leg. Playing in a gorgeous white kit, we fell behind before a mighty effort in the second half. Ian Taylor once again scoring a precious goal before Collymore hit the roof of the net with a wonderful goal to give us hope. The Spanish side held the away goal advantage. We needed one more. Despite lots of golden chances including a save from Lee Hendry, it was not to be. Once more, we exited out of Europe on the away goals rule. Now we had to focused on putting on another unlikely surge up the table to get into Europe.

The Mighty Touch

As mentioned earlier, after the Wimbledon defeat, John Gregory had 11 league games left of the 1997/98 season. Amazingly we took 9 wins out of 11 with home defeats to relegated Barnsley (1-0) and Bolton Wanders (3-1) being the only exception.

Still, we surged up the table from 15th to finish 7th and still chance to qualify for Europe. This would now depend on Chelsea winning the European Cup Winners Cup, so we could qualify for the Uefa Cup.

A Gianfranco Zola goal was enough for Chelsea to beat Stuttgart 1-0 to give them victory and us a place in Europe once again. Now John Gregory had a full season ahead of him and just needed to keep the team of the players he wanted together. However there were wanted man; wanted by Manchester United.

Gunned Down

As a 13 year old lad at the time, I picked up the paper that had been delivered to my family home and as always flicked it over to see what made the news on the back pages. There I saw that Manchester United wanted Dwight Yorke and I knew there would be trouble.

Yorke had made such an impact in his 9 years at the club, however his head had been turned by a club who won 4 of the 6 Premier Leaguer titles and had got a place in the Champions League.

The club wanted to keep him but it would prove a vain hope as Yorke was clearly unhappy; he gave a lacklustre performance in the opening game, a 0-0 draw at Everton.

In the 12th hour before the Champions League deadline, United finally got their man, A record departure at £12.6M and now we had to make a response and to move on from this saga.

Positive Response

We certainly got it, as four straight wins in Premier League saw us top the table for the first time since 1993. This settled us up nicely before the opening tie of Uefa Cup against Norwegian outfit Stromsgodset. We got off to a shocking start, as the visitors raced into a 2-0 lead in the opening half an hour.

The game looked over until Gary Charles gave us hope in the 83rd minute. Then young Striker Darius Vassell scored two quick fire goals to give us a 3-2 victory ahead of our tricky away game in Norway.

Then Collymore had made the headlines again, those this time for the right reasons. A superb hat-trick, the first in Europe since Peter Withe in 1983, gave us a 3-0 win and 6-2 success on aggregate.

More Spain Pain

We were still unbeaten and still top of the league going ahead our 2nd round match against useful Celta Vigo side from Spain. Julian Joachim who had been at the club for two years but was now making a name for himself, scored the only goal and we looked good to finish the job at Villa Park. Indeed we hadn’t lost a home game in Europe for five years.

The last time was by Deportivo La Coruna and like their league rivals, Celta Vigo were superb on the night. They took the lead before Collymore scored from the spot. This was good as it got, as they scored two more to seal a 3-2 win on aggregate.

Spending Wisely

Despite another exit from Europe, things were looking good after the sale of Yorke. Paul Merson from Middlesbrough and Striker Dion Dublin from Coventry City came into the side and fitted in perfectly as we made it 13 games in the league without defeat, a club record.

Dublin scored 7 goals in his first three games but then form started to slip a little, as Liverpool took a 4-2 win at Villa Park with Robbie Fowler scoring a hat-trick.

3 games without a win followed which included a last minute 2-1 defeat at Chelsea before a top of the table clash at Villa Park against defending Champions Arsenal.

Dennis Bergkamp scored twice before Villa pulled off a remarkable turnaround in the second half. Julian Joachim started the comeback before Dublin scored twice to sealed a 3-2 win.

Two league wins out of three followed and then this part ends as it started, a home game against Sheffield Wednesday. A 2-1 win meant we were top of the table at the end of 1998 and indeed in a title challenge, with an opportunity of being the last top division champions of the 20th century. Can we do it?

Merry Christmas

As this will be the last piece of European Throwbacks of the year, I would like to thank all the Lions that have supported me and to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy 2026.

Next Edition- The Intertoto Cup Years.