Lionel Martin

[Ron Manager]

Anyone remember that fantastic goal he scored against Blackpool in the middle to late sixties. He chipped Tony Waiters(I think it was) at what is now the North Stand end from fully 30yards right by the touchline down the Witton Lane Stand. Lionel had a great body swerve and sent four Spurs players the wrong way in a magnificent  performance at VP in the league cup which somehow we lost 4-1!!

[ADVILLAFAN]

A bit before my time. Frank tells me that at about that time we had as bad a record against Spurzzz as we have against Manure now and never seemed to beat them.

[dave shelley]

I posted on here some time ago on the greatest Villa goal you ever saw thread and I said that one of my favourites was one Lionel Martin scored in the league cup in and around 1970 versus Carlisle.  First he swayed one way then the other completely wrong footing the entire defence and then chipped the ball over the crossbar, or so I thought until I saw it nestling in the bottom corner of the net.  You had to witness it to realise just how good a goal it was.  Lionel could have been a truly great player but he had that irritating habit of not knowing the best time to release the ball to a team mate better positioned than himself which led invariably to him losing possession of the ball.

[levico]

I remember him well. He was a great little player in many respects. He had clever feet and without too much pace he could turn defender with ease. His big problem was he would calve his way virtually to the goal line but lacked the killer touch, often under hitting his shot.

[Ron Manager]

I remember him well. He was a great little player in many respects. He had clever feet and without too much pace he could turn defender with ease. His big problem was he would calve his way virtually to the goal line but lacked the killer touch, often under hitting his shot.

Yes that sums up Lionel very well.

[E I Adio]

Memory isn't what it was, but my recollections of Lionel Martin are of a limited player who failed to secure a permanent place in a very poor team. Sorry.

[Brend'Watkins]

My only memory of him is as a service receptionist at Startins (Vauxhall) dealership in Erdington.  "Are you the Lionel Martin who played for the Villa"....."Yes I am".

[Ron Manager]

Memory isn't what it was, but my recollections of Lionel Martin are of a limited player who failed to secure a permanent place in a very poor team. Sorry.

No need to apologise many would agree with you but for me he had skill like Stan Bowles and I like skilled players.

[ClarrieBlue]

More or less everything written here is true I reckon. At times he would produce fantastic pieces of skill that really made you think there was a hell of a player in there somewhere. I remember around the time of that Spurs game he was in a really rich vein of form and looked like becoming something. However it is equally true that he never achieved any consistency in what was - as someone has already said - a very poor time for Villa. Just checked and he only played 36 games for us even though he was with us for 10 years starting as an apprentice. Spent most of his time as a reserve covering injuries I think.

[Ron Manager]

Im fairly sure he scored the winning goal against Southampton in that famous cup game which attracted nearly 60,000 to Villa Park for a floodnight match months after Doug took over.

Dave Rudge raced down the wing towards The Holte End  that ale house centre half McGrath stormed over to dispatch him into the top of The Trinity Rd stand. Rudge skipped over his vile lunge and crossed.

 Brian Godfrey threw a dummy the ball reached Lionel and he swept it gloriously into the net . God what excitement 60000 erupted
The Villa were rising like the proverbial phoenix The Doc was a genius Doug was a saint and I got very drunk that
night (in The Golden Eagle Hill St since you ask) the greatest FA Cup game I ever attended.

[ClarrieBlue]

I remember that goal Lionel Martin scored against Southampton. This was a midweek replay and we also played at home on the following Saturday. The marks from John McGraths missed sliding tackle on Dave Rudge were still clearly visible in the turf from my seat upstairs in the Trinity Road. I reckon Peter Broadbent scored the second with a header.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

When I see Lionel Martins name I always think of that Southampton cup game. For me, the best FA Cup game I have ever seen at Villa Park. I think there was a thread last year which said he worked at Startins in Erdington and somebody saying he had happily reminisced with them about his days at Villa and that goal.

[SarkGrime]

Im fairly sure he scored the winning goal against Southampton in that famous cup game which attracted nearly 60,000 to Villa Park for a floodnight match months after Doug took over.

Dave Rudge raced down the wing towards The Holte End  that ale house centre half McGrath stormed over to dispatch him into the top of The Trinity Rd stand. Rudge skipped over his vile lunge and crossed.

 Brian Godfrey threw a dummy the ball reached Lionel and he swept it gloriously into the net . God what excitement 60000 erupted
The Villa were rising like the proverbial phoenix The Doc was a genius Doug was a saint and I got very drunk that
night (in The Golden Eagle Hill St since you ask) the greatest FA Cup game I ever attended.

Hear hear (except that the 2-2 draw at The Dell was just as epic, with Villa holding on for dear life and all four sides of the ground doing different Villa chants at one point.

Lovely description, John. Southampton were then 5th or 6th in the old First Division and Villa hadn't long been off rock bottom in Division 2.

I also remember a goal Lionel Martin didn't score down at Charlton later on in the 68/69 season. Big Dave Simmons had just been signed from Arsenal and was making his debut for us. The two of them were racing down to the covered end at The Valley, Lionel with the ball and Simmons (R.I.P.) simply shoved him off the ball, shot and scored, the cheeky bugg*r.

Just like the "Andy Lochhead in the Air" song there was also a rarely heard song to the same tune for Lionel Martin.

We've got Lionel Lionel Martin on the wing on the wing;
We've got Lionel Lionel Martin on the wing on the wing;
Lionel, Lionel Martin; Lionel Martin on the wing;
Lionel, Lionel Martin; Lionel Martin on the wing.

(not that he played as a winger very often)

[Steve R]

The chipped goal at the Witton End - from an impossible angle - was against Burnley in a 2-0 win in the league cup in 1970. Tony Waiters was in goal, he'd moved from Blackpool by then.

Burnley themselves were a pretty good Div 1 team at the time and included players like Ralph Coates and Steve Kindon.

Martin may not have scored many, but he got quite a few important ones. In addition to the Southampton goal he also got the winner in the previous round against QPR.

Very skilled and good to watch, just annoyingly ineffective a lot of the time. I seem to remember he was included in the team that played Santos, presumably to show Pele he didn't have the field all to himself.

[Ron Manager]

God yes it was Burnley its all coming back now. I know this sounds ridiculous but I got far more excitement out of the 1969 Southampton Cup game and the semi final legs against Man Utd in the 1971 League Cup run and the Santos game than I did at The European Cup Final. It was a half empty stadium and we were in the German end so when Withe scored with that thrilling volley (off his ankle!) we couldnt really celebrate in case we got killed!

I suppose the red hot atmosphere with a packed Villa Park  and taking on Charlton Best  Law and Crerand from the third division in the league cup makes that my favorite match But I will never forget when Pele received the ball in the Santos match after about two minutes . He swayed past Pat McMahon and then came face to face with George Curtis who kicked him about ten feet in the air.!  As Ron Manager would no doubt say...Marvellous!!