Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dorsetvilla on July 11, 2011, 06:01:13 PM
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I went to the annual BBQ for the Bournemouth Villa Supporters Club yesterday and the special guest was Villa legend Ken McNaught.
What a gentleman he was and to think he had given up a whole weekend to come down to Bournemouth from his home in Brum with his wife just to attend. Ken gave a really interesting talk about his time with the villa, which of course concentrated on winning the League, European Cup and Super Cup.
He ended by telling a story about how Peter Withe at a recent awards dinner had approached Darren Bent and had asked him about being the next Villa player to score 20 golas in a season. Apparently Darren Bent had absolutely know idea who Peter Withe was!!!
Anyway thanks to Ken McNaught and of course I look forward to seeing Darren Bent visting us in Bournemouth in 30 years time?
Dorset Villa
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Think Darren Bent need a good history book to read about Aston Villa. :)
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I didn't know Ken was back living in Brum. Great player, great man.
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We have the pleasure of meeting Ken Mcnaught at north walsall lions and he did not duck any questions that came his way. Also he some tails about deadly.
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We have the pleasure of meeting Ken Mcnaught at north walsall lions and he did not duck any questions that came his way. Also he some tails about deadly.
Share please. Excellent player Ken Mc. Played against us for Everton in the league cup final if I remember and signed him up after.
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We have the pleasure of meeting Ken Mcnaught at north walsall lions and he did not duck any questions that came his way. Also he some tails about deadly.
Share please. Excellent player Ken Mc. Played against us for Everton in the league cup final if I remember and signed him up after.
Sure did. Took him a while to get the fans on-side too, though replacing Chris Nichol was always going to be a tough gig
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Do players go through an induction when joining the club,players should be made aware of our history.
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Top man Ken McNaught. As Willy says,it took a while for him to get going when he arrived from Everton and replaced most fans favourite Chris Nicholl. I remember one of his early games for us against Arsenal at Villa Park where he could'nt put a foot right and was taking a lot of stick and most fans wanted him dropped,but Ron Saunders stood by him and i am glad to say he won us over and went on to become a rock in that defence that won them trophies in the early eighties. I often see him in the press box at Villa park and he is always ready to stop and have a chat about the game.
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Ken did the Villa tour the other Sunday which my Dad went on (paid for by us as part of his 80th birthday) and he commented that Ken was an absolute gentleman happy to spend time answering loads of questions and signing autographs etc. Great ambassador for the club.
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I saw him play for the old stars a couple of months back so I guess he still lives in the area.
He left the Villa to join Albion in 1983, as I understand he would have stayed but wanted more money than the club was willing to pay. The figure I heard was an extra 50 quid a week.
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McNaught said that the Villa team earnt just over ₤1000 each, as a win bonus for winning the European Cup. How times have changed!
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Always remember him taking a ball full in the face during one match (and bear in mind how hard the balls were then).
He just shook his head briefly, like a dog sneezing, and carried on as normal.
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I heard he left because Doug wouldn't match Albion's offer, then six months later he was so unhappy at Albion he wanted to take a wage cut to come back. Tony Barton wanted him back but Doug wouldn't have him back on principle. He preferred paying twice as much for Steve Foster.
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He was just about to sign a new contract with the villa but deadly decided to sell him.
Ken thinks it was because he was close to his testimonial.
Deadly would also after a game go to the players lounge after the game to see what was left and would count any thing that was not eaten and the next game they would be that short.
Ken also said that b-lose where better paid than Villa players but Villa had a much higher win bonus which deadly cut.
And you all know about no league or cup winning photos in the ground when he became chairman.
The money he paid for the club he got back in no time by making himself the first paid chairman.
Ken thinks deadly was winning the lottery every year.
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Sounds like KM is a great Villa man, as for Ellis I will let you make your own mind up!
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Ken McNaught indeed very slow to prove his worth. Replacing Chris Nicholl was not easy - from a popularity view as much as from a playing perspective - and several of his early performances were borderline awful. I remember his first Saturday home game against Everton and my mom said to me afterwards - "that McNaught is really gawky isn't he?" For a few months she was right too.
Rather strangely, the first time I ever heard his name sung was the home game following the West Ham 1980 cup quarter final (may have been a night game v Wolves but I am not sure of this), where he had handled in the box in the final few minutes to concede their winning penalty, and he ended up being an absolute rock for us.
My favourite memory of Ken was during the infamous Super Cup Win v Barcelona in 1983. The ref finally awarded us a penalty after some prolonged brutality and the Spaniards were up in arms and gesticulating wildly at Villa players like wannabe Danny Dyers, before the kick could be taken. One of them was frothing at McNaught and he simply grinned broadly and adopted a cocky boxer try-and-hit-me-if-you-can pose. He would have eaten the dirty Barca player alive.
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He always had a funny little run for such a big man, a bit 'a la Pires' in looking a bit tippy toed and slightly flat footed, that's what I always remember about him.
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Yes I remember that barcalona game - what a disgrace they were that night , wasnt it Sid who was booted in the net after scoring a pen?
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and here it is enjoy
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Yes I remember that barcalona game - what a disgrace they were that night , wasnt it Sid who was booted in the net after scoring a pen?
Correct, it was!
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and here it is enjoy
Dirty Barca Bastards, I love Walter's gesture to the keeper after the 3rd goal!
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loved big ken as a player but have never forgot how he was the only one to refuse me and a mate an autograph when we biked to bodymoore heath as kids. It's funny how u remember things.
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Cheers for that flybo. Am in Singapore for work for a few days and have the rare luxury of being able to access youtube which is banned in China.
I had forgotten McNaught's header, but remember the sparring - strange how minds work eh? And I don't think I have ever seen footage of us receiving the trophy that night. Can anybody oblige?
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We have the pleasure of meeting Ken Mcnaught at north walsall lions and he did not duck any questions that came his way. Also he some tails about deadly.
Share please. Excellent player Ken Mc. Played against us for Everton in the league cup final if I remember and signed him up after.
Pleased to read that someone who I thought was a really good player for us is also a top man.
Did I read somewhere that one of the reasons we signed him was because Andy Gray was asked who he found was the most difficult centre half to play against?
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I managed to get the whole game uncut from a friend at the BBC archives , it was only shown on tv as highlights on sportsnight I believe and although the video quality is not up to today's standards it's a game I enjoy watching back on occasions.
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We have the pleasure of meeting Ken Mcnaught at north walsall lions and he did not duck any questions that came his way. Also he some tails about deadly.
Share please. Excellent player Ken Mc. Played against us for Everton in the league cup final if I remember and signed him up after.
Pleased to read that someone who I thought was a really good player for us is also a top man.
Did I read somewhere that one of the reasons we signed him was because Andy Gray was asked who he found was the most difficult centre half to play against?
SteveN, I have similar recollection to you. Mine is that Ron Saunders had his eye on Ken McNaught and asked Andy Gray what he thought of him, and his reply was that he was a really difficult opponent, one of the toughest in the league. I think that cemented Saunders' belief, rather than him simply asking Andy Gray who was his most difficult opponent.
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and here it is enjoy
Dirty Barca Bastards, I love Walter's gesture to the keeper after the 3rd goal!
That was a great night - was the year of my first Villa season ticket, that and the Juventus game that season, memory failing but seem to remember Boniek and Platini scoring for them with Sid getting ours - sure H&V statos will put me right if i'm wrong :-)
Happy days!!
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I managed to get the whole game uncut from a friend at the BBC archives , it was only shown on tv as highlights on sportsnight I believe and although the video quality is not up to today's standards it's a game I enjoy watching back on occasions.
I bought it on DVD off e-bay about a year ago. Full game and trophy presentation. Decent enough quality.
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We have the pleasure of meeting Ken Mcnaught at north walsall lions and he did not duck any questions that came his way. Also he some tails about deadly.
Share please. Excellent player Ken Mc. Played against us for Everton in the league cup final if I remember and signed him up after.
Sure did. Took him a while to get the fans on-side too, though replacing Chris Nichol was always going to be a tough gig
. He eventually did it in such emphatic style - great great player.....