Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dave.woodhall on October 28, 2024, 11:39:58 PM
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Dave Collett, for when you've a spare day or two.
https://heroesandvillains.info/2024/10/28/cult-heroes-of-our-time-brian-godfrey/
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Excellent article. on top of managing Exeter he was also a very successful manager at Gloucester city gaining them promotion and their best ever cup run (second round painful late goals to deny a win at Cardiff) and late goal heartache when on the cusp of promotion to the Conference. Villa came for his testimonial IIRC. A cult hero of the old school. I remember him being interviewed for local radio once pre season asking him who would be skipper for the forthcoming season and he said "I want 11 captains out there".
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A very evocative piece for people like me who were at most of those matches mentioned. Bristol Rovers away and the first leg at OT live long in the memory but the other games and of course the second leg and final were not far behind.
Brian Godfrey was a 100% player that rarely disappointed, a real tough nut too. If Brian was playing today I'm sure there would no doubt be a fairly large queue of suitors. Brian Godfrey, a very much underrated player who this fan will never forget. Thanks for posting.
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Hear hear, and also for properly recognising the significance of Ray Graydon's signing.
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Great post
These really were my formulative years.
I could not understand why, as we were the best team in the world why we were getting relegated. The penny dropped.
As for the Grader , absolute legend. Any update on his condition.
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Done.
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Removed again for spam.
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Lovely piece Dave. As reflected by my username Brian Godfrey was my first Villa hero. He was in the first Villa team I saw as they slid down the divisions. They were all superstars to me as a kid though- I didn't know just how poor a side they really were. But amongst them Godfrey stood out, totally committed, bawling out instructions and scowling constantly - he was terrifying. He'd sometimes run over to collect the ball from just before us at the front of the terrace , then you could see the thick smear of vaseline he rubbed across his eyebrows to keep the sweat from his eyes. I thought it was the coolest thing ever until I tried it myself! I was very sad when he left for Bristol Rovers but Ray Grayson quickly became another hero and Godfrey will always hold a place in our history as a driving force in the side that started to turn the club around.