Villa's Fab 50 Top Players

[Zhong Yi]

My 'who I've seen in the flesh' top 5 would be:

1.Sid
2.Little
3.McGrath
4.Platt
5.Yorke

McGrath
Platt
Yorke
Staunton
Cowans

[Zhong Yi]

Post-war only. Sorry Pongo fans.

George Cummings made the list.

Surely a 'fab 50' must include the guy who holds the club single season scoring record...

[Legion]

He was Villa's skipper from 1945 to 1949. He played 237 times for Villa between 1935 and his retirement in 1949.

[cdbearsfan]

I agree, I would do an all-time list. But the list is only post-War. George Cumming was a Villa player from 1935-49 so some of his career was post-War.

EDIT: Legion checked Wkipedia more quickly than me!

[Legion]

2: Dennis Mortimer

Villa's Fab 50
2: Dennis Mortimer
Career: 1975-1985
Appearances: 406
Goals: 36

The image is one which remains etched on the mind of any Villa supporter, even those too young to remember it.

Dennis Mortimer stood proudly at the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam on the night of May 26 1982, holding aloft the European Cup, football's most prestigious club trophy.

Mortimer was captain of the team which achieved a feat that even the most ardent Villa supporter could not have envisaged.


He was also skipper of the side who, 12 months earlier, had become Football League champions for the first time since 1910.

Those achievements alone make him one of the greatest players in Villa history, although he served the club for rather longer than two glorious seasons, having made more than 400 appearances during a decade in claret and blue.

Signed from Coventry City for £175,000 on Christmas Eve 1975, the forceful midfield made an immediate impact on his debut against West Ham on Boxing Day, helping Villa to a 4-1 victory over West Ham.

Over the course of the following two seasons, the midfielder played more than 100 games, and was a member of the Villa team who beat Everton in the marathon League Cup final of 1977.

And although Jimmy Rimmer and Peter Withe were older, Morty was also the father figure of the team who were crowned champions and European Cup winners in consecutive seasons at the dawn of the 1980s.

He was the longest-serving member of that all-conquering team and was the undisputed driving force, making great demands on himself and his colleagues as well as producing powerful runs which struck fear into the hearts of opposition defences.

Surprisingly, he never played for the full England team, having to settle for youth, U23 and B caps.

Mortimer left Villa to join Brighton in 1985 and by the time he retired two years later he had amassed more than 700 appearances for his various clubs.

All profiles courtesy of Rob Bishop and Frank Holt's comprehensive book: Aston Villa - The Complete Record.

Cowans at Number 1?

[Archie]

Surely Syd n.1.
But what I can't understand is that players like Ford and Dixon are in the top five and Billy Walker, Hampton and Pongo Waring are out of the top 50, whereas reading every historical book you realize that they would  have deserved the top five.

[Legion]

It's because it is post-war only.

[Archie]

Aaaah, now I have understood. Thank you mate....

[Rudy Can't Fail]

1. Cowans
2. McGrath
3. Little
4. Yorke
5. Platt
6. Gray
7. Rimmer
8. Gidman
9. Withe
10.Shaw

[garyshawsknee]

Is Mark Walters on the list?

[Legion]

No.

[PaulTheVillan]

Was Gareth Barry on the list?

[Louzie0]

No Mark Walters? I'm disappointed.

Think Gareth B was in there a few numbers ago. 

It just confirms my suspicion that the list is being put together by somebody under 21 - like a work experience lad or girl let loose on the office computer.

I'm used to visiting work experience students, but one lad still sticks in my memory.
He managed to wipe all of the databases off the computers in a betting shop.

[Legion]

1: Gordon Cowans

Villa's Fab 50
1: Gordon Cowans
Career: 1974-1985, 1988-1991, 1993-1994
Appearances: 527
Goals: 59

Few players throughout Villa's history can match the sheer quality of passing displayed by midfield ace Gordon Cowans.

Over 15 yards or 50, the midfielder's delivery of a football oozed poise and precision, and invariably set a dangerous attack in motion.

Indeed, David Platt went on record as saying he wouldn't have been the player he was without the immaculate service he received from the man popularly known as Sid.


Gordon Sidney Cowans will also be remembered as Villa's Prodigal Son.

He left the club three times - and on each occasion he returned, latterly as a youth coach and then first team coach.

He was always destined to wear claret and blue, having been on schoolboy forms at Villa Park from the age of 12, which probably explains why he was always tempted back.

On leaving school, he graduated through Villa's youth and reserve teams before being handed his first taste of senior football in 1976, when he went on as a substitute against Manchester City at Maine Road.

By the end of the following season he was a first team regular as well as winning a League Cup medal following a dramatic victory over Everton in the second replay of a marathon 1977 final.

Between 1979 and 1983, he didn't miss a single match as he became an integral figure in the most successful period of the club's history, adding league championship, European Cup and European Super Cup medals to his collection.

His long unbroken appearance run came to an end when he broke his leg in a pre-season friendly, causing him to miss the whole of the 1983-84 campaign.

In 1985 he joined Italian club Bari, but was brought back to Villa Park by Graham Taylor three years later.

Once again, he excelled, helping Villa to finish runners-up to Liverpool in 1990.

Later that year Taylor, having been appointed England manager, handed Cowans his 10th and final cap, but in 1991 the midfield man was sold to Blackburn Rovers.

In 1993 he returned for a third spell before joining Derby County.

He is now first team coach to Alex McLeish, having come into the fold under previous manager Gerard Houllier.

All profiles courtesy of Rob Bishop and Frank Holt's comprehensive book: Aston Villa - The Complete Record.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

It's all in the name:-)