Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Brassneck on February 09, 2018, 06:11:29 PM
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Not wishing to detract from the subject in the recent Forest thread, can someone help clear this up for me?
He was one of the first batch of signings that BFR made yet fell out of favour very quickly and soon left the club.
What was the story there? I don't think I've ever understood what went on. I seem to remember a mate telling me that he had run up to the Holte End after scoring and sticking his fingers up or something along those lines. I was at the game in question but was sat in the Trinity.
I can never remember him being a "boo boy" or the crowd doing anything that would be deemed to be getting on his back.
What went wrong?
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I believe he thought he was better than he was, and wanted adulation. But when it was not forthcoming to the degree he hoped for he lost interest & conviction which led to his transfer as I recall
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Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mortimer)
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Not wishing to detract from the subject in the recent Forest thread, can someone help clear this up for me?
He was one of the first batch of signings that BFR made yet fell out of favour very quickly and soon left the club.
What was the story there? I don't think I've ever understood what went on. I seem to remember a mate telling me that he had run up to the Holte End after scoring and sticking his fingers up or something along those lines. I was at the game in question but was sat in the Trinity.
I can never remember him being a "boo boy" or the crowd doing anything that would be deemed to be getting on his back.
What went wrong?
Sure it was after he scored his first & only goal for us, he then gave the Holte End the middle finger .
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Did he score against us after he left?
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He scored the 4th against Luton, ran to the Holte with his arms open for adulation and when he didn't get it he turned away with a dismissive wave of his arm. No middle finger or anything.
That was his last league game for us, although he did play in the LC when Grimsby knocked us out in the 2nd round 2nd leg at VP.
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Found footage of it, 28mins in.
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Found footage of it, 28mins in.
Good goal to be fair. Also, the fans at the front were celebrating so what did he expect for a goal against Luton, a pitch invasion and being mobbed for his shirt?
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Both Cyrille and Dalian in that brief footage of Mortimer’s goal.😢
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All very strange. I'm still none the wiser. I can't believe that he came here expecting to be the superstar, given the players we had at that time.
I went to most of those early season games, home and away and can't remember any negative comments from the crowd towards him. I just looked at our results for that season and note that we played at Coventry just before the Luton game. I don't remember that game and probably wasn't in attendance. I note that Mortimer was substituted in the game and wonder if he was having a bad game which prompted the Villa fans to get on his back a bit? There must have been some underlying animosity to prompt him to make that gesture after scoring. I can't for the life of me think what it could have been.
Thanks for all the replies.
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Perhaps he's a bit of a loon?
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He nearly tarnished the sacred name Mortimer at this club.
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I think BFR said in his book that he was a bit of a punt as much as anything else. He soon clocked he wasn't up to it and went for Garry Parker at Forest.
As upgrades go, not a bad one.
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He nearly tarnished the sacred name Mortimer at this club.
It wasn't that bad mate it was only a slight temporary blemish, instantly forgettable, just like Paul who........
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He scored the 4th against Luton, ran to the Holte with his arms open for adulation and when he didn't get it he turned away with a dismissive wave of his arm. No middle finger or anything.
That was his last league game for us, although he did play in the LC when Grimsby knocked us out in the 2nd round 2nd leg at VP.
Another one of the great Villa myths debunked then. I've always heard it said that he 'flicked the v's' at the Holte after that goal.
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Yes, I was there and have seen the replays since and at no point thought he gave the finger or fingers. I just recall it being a trudge over to the Holte with arms out as if to say look at me aren't I great, followed by an indifferent shrug and a wave away type gesture as he turned his back. What quite happened in between is anyone's guess.
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He scored the 4th against Luton, ran to the Holte with his arms open for adulation and when he didn't get it he turned away with a dismissive wave of his arm. No middle finger or anything.
That was his last league game for us, although he did play in the LC when Grimsby knocked us out in the 2nd round 2nd leg at VP.
Another one of the great Villa myths debunked then. I've always heard it said that he 'flicked the v's' at the Holte after that goal.
It was odd. I don’t think we know the full story.
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I was at a Q&A with Big Ron a few months ago where there was a question from the floor asking what his worse Villa signing was. He said he never made one and when someone shouted out Mortimer, he defended him saying he made a profit on him.
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Someone earlier mentioned the Coventry game before Luton and it deffinetley kicked off there. Having had enough of years of chaos in the away standing area, I decided to pay a bit more (earning £8k a year back then) and go in the away seats on the sideline.
I was about 4 rows back. 2 things stick in my mind from that day, 1 being the heavy handedness verging on assault being carried out by the special constables and stewards to anybody that gave them a sideways glance, the 2nd being Paul Mortimer totally giving up on a poor but chasable ball played down the line to him. Quite rightly the crowd got into him, stupidly he gave it back so the crowd got into him some more and he got subbed off.
The next week against Luton he acted like a churlish twat again and the rest is history.
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He nearly tarnished the sacred name Mortimer at this club.
For years I actually thought he was a brother or relative of Dennis!
He's just a footnote player in our history, I do remember him playing for Charlton though, He was in their squad when they came up in 1998.
He did play pretty much all his career for London clubs so maybe he was a bit homesick which often happens with short lived spells.
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Just caught up with this thread - bit late - but wasnt the Everton match at Goodison (the one after Mortimers goal against Luton) the one that featured 7 black players - and wasn't that some sort of record at the time??
McGrath/Yorke/Regis/Atkinson/Daley/Small/Blake
One hell of a forward line WOW
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Yes - I thought it was the season after but I've just checked and you're correct.
I actually thought it was 9 black players, not 7. No wonder I've never been able to name them all.