Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Chico Hamilton III on March 18, 2016, 10:29:49 AM
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We sat in the Derby end for this - apeshit when we scored
The Guardian (London)
March 19, 1990
Daley's speed can swing the final hole - First Division, Derby County 0, Aston Villa 1
BYLINE: By DAVID LACEY
THE DECISIVE moments of League championships seldom have Michael Thomas's sense of theatre. The title is usually won long before injury time.
It might not make good television but teams sometimes become champions by doing little more than twiddle their thumbs on the day in question. Derby County were relaxing in the Scilly Isles in 1972 when word came through that Leeds United had blown the Double at Wolves and Liverpool had failed to get the result they wanted at Arsenal.
In 1981 Aston Villa lost dully on a sunny afternoon at Highbury but came off the field to learn that because Ipswich had also been beaten at Middlesbrough they were champions for the first time since 1910. A sense of anti-climax at the moment of triumph is not uncommon. It is bit like a match-play championship in golf when the decisive hole is conceded rather than putted out.
This, of course, is the essence of League football. The prize goes to the team which has proved itself over nine months. The FA Cup is the place for melodrama.
ITV, tinkering with the First Division fixture list in the hope of another grand finale, appear to have got the two confused. As a result the match between Arsenal and Liverpool, originally scheduled for February 24 when both were in serious contention, will now lack the promised impact when it is screened in the middle of next month.
Arsenal's first home defeat of the season has more or less left the present contest to be decided by Aston Villa and Liverpool, who have already shared two 1-1 draws. Villa's 1-0 win at Derby County on Saturday began an eight-day exercise which will go some way towards deciding whether or not Graham Taylor's team have the stuff of champions.
Tomorrow Villa visit Queen's Park Rangers, resurgent under Don Howe, and on Saturday they will be at Crystal Palace, unlikely FA Cup semi-finalists and reportedly awful at Goodison but capable of raising their game if men such as Andy Gray, a former Villa player, fancy the challenge.
Should Villa get, say, seven points from these three away matches they will probably have crossed the line which distinguishes true title contenders from teams such as Norwich City who were attractive pace-setters last season but blew up going round the final bend.
Much will depend on whether or not the advantages gained by signing Tony Cascarino from Millwall for Pounds 1.5 million to add weight and experience to the attack will outweigh the loss of Derek Mountfield from the defence with an injury which could keep him out for half a dozen games.
The evidence provided at the Baseball Ground on Saturday was encouraging but inconclusive. Cascarino fitted easily into a playing style which is not that much different from the one he left at The Den, just a little more refined.
He was often kept in check by Wright but still held Villa's front line with aplomb, chesting down balls played up to him and keeping possession while other players came up in support. Apart from any he will score himself, Cascarino should give Platt more opportunities for important goals.
Cascarino was entitled to believe he had marked his arrival with a goal when he met Platt's centre from the right with what appeared to be an unstoppable header, the ball directed downwards inside the left-hand post. But to Peter Shilton all things are stoppable and somehow the old boy made a superb save.
However, Villa went on to win a low-key game and in a manner which may have persuaded Taylor that the gods are on his side. He had recalled his forgotten winger, Callaghan, who proved such a minimal influence on the left that the gangling Ormondroyd was restored to the position after half-time.
With just under 20 minutes remaining an imaginative pass from Nielsen released Daley on the right and from his low cross Ormondroyd swept the ball past Shilton. Nielsen, though Danish, is a centre-half in the classical English mould. McGrath, born in Ealing, plays for the Republic of Ireland. All very frustrating for Bobby Robson.
In Mountfield's absence Villa's championship chances are going to rest on the durability of this pair along with the attacking qualities of Cascarino and Platt. More than anything, however, they may depend on the number of times Cowans wrests the ball from a tight situation on the left to find Daley in space on the right.
No defender can catch Daley and this may be the principal reason why even Liverpool are unable to catch Villa. But first Taylor has to get his team over the hump and QPR will be more of a test than a Derby team which was severely weakened by injuries.
SCORER: Aston Villa: Ormondroyd (71min).
Derby County: Shilton; Sage, Forsyth, Williams, Wright, Blades, Patterson, Saunders, Harford, Ramage (Briscoe, 69), Pickering (Francis, 82).
Aston Villa: Spink; Price, Gage, McGrath, Gray, Nielsen, Daley, Platt, Cascarino, Cowans, Callaghan (Ormondroyd, h-t).
Referee: A Gunn (South Chailey).
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I was at this game, used to love going to the old Baseball Ground. Remember the anticipation of Cascarino being the final piece of the jigsaw....oh well.
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Had forgotten about that save by Shilton. It was a stunning stop. Even more amazing when you consider he was 40.
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I was there too. Jam packed in the away end, and unseasonably warm too if I recall? Happy days
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Great day out in the sunshine. Massive Villa following that day
A few days before we had the cup debacle at Oldham which I also went to.
After Derby our form nose dived and Liverpool won the league at a canter
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I was at this game, used to love going to the old Baseball Ground. Remember the anticipation of Cascarino being the final piece of the jigsaw....oh well.
Likewise on all points. I remember the weather always being good, even the cup game midweek in February was unseasonably warm.