Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on March 27, 2026, 04:52:54 PM
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Hibernian Football Club
@HibernianFC
5m
Everyone at Hibernian FC is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Hibs legend Alex Cropley, at the age of 75.
A member of the Hibs Hall of Fame, Alex made 199 appearances for the Club and was an instrumental part of the iconic 'Turnbull's Tornadoes' side that won the League Cup in 1972.
Cropley scored 49 goals for Hibs, including the fourth in our 0-7 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle on New Year's Day 1973.
Rest in peace, Alex 💚
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(https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/MczbEcz7Naj6g540NjQ2Ng==/alex-cropley-aston-villa-197778-440nw-3117139a.jpg)
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https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2026/march/27/news-tribute-to-alex-cropley
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God bless Alex and thanks for the memories.
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Great player. Don’t know of one person who saw him play that didn’t say the same
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One reckless
tackle assault and his career was all but open. Such a shame. Such a talent.
HEITS
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Very sad great player RIP
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Alex was an excellent player fierce in the tackle and a tremendous distributor of the ball. Condolences to his family.
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RIP.
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Really sad news. One of my all time favourites, a lovely footballer on the ball with the heart of a lion but fair with it.
Condolences to his all his family and friends.
HEITS
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RIP.
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One of my indelible sporting memories is not a sight but a sound. I'm watching Aston Villa play West Bromwich Albion one grey day in 1977. The derby is always intense, but today there seems a kind of malevolence to the match, and to the crowd; you would not want to be out there. In the Villa midfield is a slight figure called Alex Cropley, a Scot who is in the form of his life. The previous season he had inspired Villa to a 5-1 win over Liverpool, the champions , and this afternoon he is making the Albion side - the team of John Wile and Len Cantello, one of the most uncompromising ever to take to a football field - look like park players.
There is nothing of Cropley, he is in that mould of footballer that is quick and wiry, playing in spaces, seeing gaps, but he is fearless, too, never stepping back from a challenge. The Villa fans have a favourite song, through which, in the company of my dad, I tend to mumble, though I appreciate the sentiment: ' Five-foot eight, not much weight, Alex Cropley's fucking great, la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.'
In my memory, I'm half-humming this and straining to see the pitch when a ball falls from the sky exactly between Cropley and an Albion player named Ally Brown , both running at full pace from opposite directions about 10 yards apart; an instant later Cropley meets the ball and Brown meets Cropley with all the force at his will, a force that seems to have built up steadily with each challenge in the match , and is looking for a way to escape. It is then I hear the sound, an other-worldly noise, easily loud enough to silence 35,000 people in a state of high excitement, like the gunshot that starts a race. This is not a start, though; it's an ending of sorts. It is the sound of Alex Cropley's breaking leg, a sharp crack that snaps tibia and fibula and leaves the lower portion of his shin skewed at a vicious angle to the upper part.
I can still hear it now, that crack that seemed to echo in an absolute chill quiet . I don't remember any of the goals of that game, or of that season, but I'll never forget that sound; it was the first moment in my life as a spectator, I suppose, when sport suddenly seemed like mortality. Major injuries always announce themselves immediately; teammates know the worst has happened, so do fans, so does the player. The suspension of disbelief that surrounds the match is punctured, the injury allows a different, messier register of understanding back into a stadium. What has seemed play, suddenly is real; where all before was speed and recklessness, now all is care and slowness.
Cropley, who was 26 , played a few times more, but not with any of his previous grace and pace; what had once looked wiry about him and his legs now looked as if it would easily snap. The more heartless Albion fans developed a chant about the incident : 'Alex, Alex Crippley.' Cropley drifted out of the game; he had played for Scotland twice
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/jan/06/features.sport20
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I can't add to Rudy's post.
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RIP Alex Cropley, thanks for some fantastic memories.
I think his son has occasionally posted on here, so I extend my deepest condolences to him and his family.
#HEITS
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His son posted on this thread about Alex
https://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=51261.0
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I didn’t see him but I believe the people who did. Go well.
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One of my favourite ever Villa players.He offered us a real different class and guile allied to fearless tackles. A driver in our upward quest to greatness.
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My favourite player of that era. Loved him. Remember listening to Tony Butler as the news came in. I keep asking my dad how long broken legs took to heal, a long time he said and he was right. RIP Alex
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Before my time , but the generation above me talk fondly of him so that's good enough for me.
RIP
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As a little kid my favourite player was Brian, followed by Alex. I was there when that scum broke his leg with an assault rather than a tackle and heard the snap of his leg. I'll always believe they set out to injure our players that day.
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A wonderful, classy player whose physique belied his tenacious tackling ability.
RIP.
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This is such sad news. Alex Cropley was a wonderful footballer whose courage in the tackle belied his slight frame. Ì was at that game with Albion, and agree with PWS that Albion set out to injure our players that day. I was also at many of the other games in which Alex Cropley established himself as one of our greatest players in that never to be forgotten era. I remember particularly our League Cup Semi Final ties with QPR, and Frank Mclintock trying to throttle Cropley. What a player he was.
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One of the first eleven Villa players I ever saw live. Even at a young age I could appreciate his passing and his wholehearted approach to tackling. A great player.
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Absolute fabulous player. He was core to that late 70s side.
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Absolutely gutted with this news. My all time Villa hero, I was 11 when he signed and obviously very impressionable but I’ve not seen a better midfield player than him in my time watching us. John McGinn has proven to be a fine successor to the “wee fella” but no one surpasses Crops in my eyes. Slots into a midfield 3 with Sid and Dennis Mortimer in my ultimate Villa Xl
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RIP to a great player.
I was at the match described in the Guardian article on page 1 of this thread. Brown’s “tackle” was worse than described, it was a lunge from behind as Cropley brought the ball forward from his own half. The attendance was in excess of 43,000, not 35,000 as described.
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Agree with all the sentiments above, fantastic player who could do everything. I loved him.
From my book, Gangsters, Geezers & Mods:
In those pre-Sky Sports days, Saturdays were for watching football and Sundays were for playing it, and I would rise with the sun to don the replica Villa shirt that served me so well. The number 10 on the back was ironed on in praise of Chico Hamilton and remained contemporary throughout Alex Cropley’s reign as my favourite player. It was his identity I adopted during our impromptu kickabouts and, as my admiration grew, I aspired to pass as accurately and tackle as ferociously as the diminutive Scot. With my claret and blue caser at my feet, I’d set off for the rolling acres of Aston Park where about twenty playmates in Villa colours would be waiting, along with a couple of bluenoses. One of them was Jeremy, whose obsession with his hero Trevor Francis rivalled mine with Cropley. From the laughable cheap blue kit to the troubled complexion, he WAS Francis, his boils and pimples so numerous he looked more like the picture of his hero I kept on my dartboard than the not-so-great man himself. Half-time coincided with Sunday dinner and Star Soccer, then it was back out for the second half.
When the ball became invisible in the fading light, the match, by now a twenty-a-side affair, would reconvene under the brightness of street lights until bedtime.
All was well with the world. The Holte End was never louder, the Villa were never better, and Blues? Well let’s just say they never change. My happiness was unbounded until the fateful day when Ally Brown broke Cropley’s leg and my heart in an unspeakable act of thuggery, the mere memory of which has me reaching for my old shin pads. A 3-0 win over West Brom in no way compensated for the loss of such a player, and it was with a heavy heart that I trudged on to Aston Park the next morning. There before me was Jeremy and his Blues mate. As everybody knows, children can be cruel, and as I approached I could tell from their smirks and whispers that they were about to prove it.
“It’s Alex Cripple-y,” said one twat. “Alex, Alex Crop-er-ley,
“Can’t play football properly,” sang the other one.
Defiantly I sprinted towards them. That day, for once, I was not Alex. They were Alex. I was Ally Brown.
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Emblematic of our rise through the seventies. RIP, Alex.
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Another Villa player whose career was ended far too soon, nearly 27 when that injury happend and was never the same after and hardly played again before retiring at 31.
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RIP Alex
Used to love watching him play a real
class act a great player , definitely one
of my favourite players , a very sad day
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RIP My dad is struggling at the moment , dont think I will tell him this news as he bloody loved him , probably his fave player.
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There's nothing more to be said. A magnificent player, a modest man.
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Before my time, but have heard the stories and always have time to listen to those who have seen a legend play in the flesh. Alex Cropley is always described, to everyone I've heard talk of him, as if he belonged in the very top tier.
RIP.