Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dave.woodhall on May 05, 2025, 09:33:57 PM
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A few more words.
https://heroesandvillains.info/2025/05/05/peter-mcparland-and-lesser-mortals/
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Before my time but that's a wonderful tribute. Well done.
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Beautiful DW.
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Lovely tribute
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Brilliant tribute. Last 2 sentances gave me a lump in the throat and I never saw him play
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Great write up.
Regarding the ‘boasting’ paragraph. That generation didn’t know that word.
I was at the Nigel Simms book release and I was speaking to Jimmy McEwan. I said they were all heroes to us. ‘I don’t know why’ he replied ‘We were only playing football’
I told Nigel that I was named after him (my surname is pretty close too) and he seemed quite privileged, yet I was the one who was privileged.
All the former players who were there were so humble, and loved to talk
Different times back then
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What a wonderful tribute Dave.
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I have a clinical lack of empathy but that still touched me, RIP I will add to to our prayers this week in St Anne’s Woodplumpton.
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That's a great tribute, Dave.
The Sports Argus headline after the 1957 cup final was simply "Peter the Great". Richard Whitehead describes his first goal that day as “a flashing diving header of awesome power which ranks among the greatest of Cup Final goals.”
Many have commented on the great man's modesty. I met Peter a few years ago and told him that my two all-time favourite Villa players both came from Ireland, Paul McGrath and Peter himself. I wanted to hear about his time at Villa, the cup final and his goals, but he spent the next few minutes saying what a tremendous player Paul McGrath was; barely a mention of himself.
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Wonderful words Dave. I’ve got something in my eye again, the same thing that got me today at the match.
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Done. Brilliant article. I remember that evening at the races well.
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‘They were legends, he was Peter McParland’ brilliantly put DW.
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Lovely words, Dave.
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Wonderful tribute Dave.
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That's a great write up. Nice one.
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‘They were legends, he was Peter McParland’ brilliantly put DW.
Agreed
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That’s a fitting tribute, reading it brought me out in goosebumps. I’m too young to have seen him play but if my heroes (Shaw, Cowans, Bremner etc) looked up to him then he has my respect as a man and one of the greats of our club.
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It's a piece to be proud of. If I was a family member I'd absolutely treasure that.
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Great article, Dave. Generated a few tears.
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Brilliant article, lovely words Mr Woodhall.
Although he was just a tad before my time I had the good fortune to meet Peter a couple of times, the best just last July when he chatted with me very patiently and signed my 1957 Cup Final replica shirt.
He played with my cousins Frank Moss Jnr and Amos in the 50s and I have a great photograph of Amos scoring one of his rare Villa goals v Preston in 1955. The photographer's note on the back reads:
"Moss's header entering the Preston net for Villa's second goal after he had received a beautiful pass from McParland the Villa right winger."
That last line says it all Dave.
Thank you.
RIP Peter the Great!
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Thanks Dave that was a lovely tribute to the great man.
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Dave that is brilliant, the best yet and brought a tear to my eyes.
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Excellent.
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Enjoyed reading that Dave. Thank you for writing the piece