Your first?

[Godfrey Brian]

I played against Charlie Aitken in a Sunday league game. He could give us all a decade or so but was still the fastest player on the pitch! During the game I couldn't get near enough to meet him (unless futile slide tackles six feet behind him count) but shook hands and had  a chat afterwards. He was a nice guy.

[dave.woodhall]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

Did he cop off? I imagine he rarely didn't at parties.

Did Shaw ever do an auto-biog? He must have a few stories. Also, for those old enough to see him regularly in the flesh - how good could he have been without the injuries? From highlights, it looks like he had a really good football brain to go with the natural talent.

a) That season we won the league I had more women than I scored goals. I scored 23 goals."

b) God knows, he's been asked enough times but he says he wasn't around long enough.

c) As Terry Weir put it, "To watch Gary Shaw was to look at England's main forward for the next ten years."

Proof I guess that everyone likes to exaggerate about their exploits. He scored 21 goals in 1980/81.

Plus a couple for England under-21s.

[dave.woodhall]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

Did he cop off? I imagine he rarely didn't at parties.

Did Shaw ever do an auto-biog? He must have a few stories. Also, for those old enough to see him regularly in the flesh - how good could he have been without the injuries? From highlights, it looks like he had a really good football brain to go with the natural talent.

a) "The season we won the league I had more women than I scored goals. I scored 23 goals."

b) God knows, he's been asked enough times but he says he wasn't around long enough.

c) As Terry Weir put it, "To watch Gary Shaw was to look at England's main forward for the next ten years."

[dcdavecollett]

Sammy Morgan came round my parents' house in late summer/autumn of 1974 to present me with a TS (Subbuteo) trophy I'd won the previous season.

Seemed like a decent fellow; didn't much like what then passed for the modern game.