Insignificant Villa players in history

[saunders_heroes]

Did we not sign Johnsen and Leonhardsen because SGT was trying to strengthen the squad on a limited budget and they were both free transfers? They were a step up from Steve Sims and David Hunt to be fair. Jim Walker once said that Steve Sims was the only footballer he ever dealt with who had worse knees that Paul McGrath. Almost certainly the only time Sims and God have been seriously compared with each other.

Sims and Hunt did their bit in the promotion season though (well Sims more than Hunt anyway)

Sims gave us experience at the back for the first half of the season while Alan Evans was injured. Unfortunately, my main memories of him are taking all our free kicks that were awarded deep in our own half, kicking the ball out for a throw, then examining his boots to find out why this had occurred.

I'll always have a soft spot for the players that did their bit to get us back up in '87. They've been almost forgotten over the years but Christ did they help get us out of the hole we had dug ourselves into.

[E I Adio]

Geoff Vowden did indeed play for us around the same time,but he did play 97 games and score 22 goals .I use to like him as i can remember he use to get some awful stick from a lot of the Villa fans just for having come from the noses

We had Vowden and Beard towards the end of their careers, both of whom, especially Beard, were past their best, but I liked them both before and after they joined us. Malcolm Beard later became our youth coach.

Yes I liked Malcom Beard he was a class act one of the two they had. The other being Terry Hennesey

Agree about Hennessy. He probably was too good for them. Silly sods sold him to Forest. They did have a class forward around that time though that they bought from Tommy Doc's Chelsea, who only cared to score goals if he could do so in a thrillingly spectacular style, but his name escapes me at the moment.



*Got it! Barry Bridges.

[Damo70]

Did we not sign Johnsen and Leonhardsen because SGT was trying to strengthen the squad on a limited budget and they were both free transfers? They were a step up from Steve Sims and David Hunt to be fair. Jim Walker once said that Steve Sims was the only footballer he ever dealt with who had worse knees that Paul McGrath. Almost certainly the only time Sims and God have been seriously compared with each other.

Sims and Hunt did their bit in the promotion season though (well Sims more than Hunt anyway)

Sims gave us experience at the back for the first half of the season while Alan Evans was injured. Unfortunately, my main memories of him are taking all our free kicks that were awarded deep in our own half, kicking the ball out for a throw, then examining his boots to find out why this had occurred.

I'll always have a soft spot for the players that did their bit to get us back up in '87. They've been almost forgotten over the years but Christ did they help get us out of the hole we had dug ourselves into.

To be fair to Steve Sims, after the wait for other results to be confirmed that all of us who were in the corner of The County Ground in Swindon that day will remember very well, SGT said he had bumped into a player in the dressing room area who was pacing up and down and praying it would be OK. That man was Sims, who had barely played since Christmas and was only in for the last two games because Keown was injured and must have known he wasn't part of the future plans. So fair play.

[Matt C]

Fabio Ferrassi

[Ron Manager]

Billy Kellock

[Damo70]

Billy Kellock

Now there's a name! Didn't he play loads of games for a lower league club like Halifax or Peterborough and then have a spell at Wolves? And then you hear or read that he started at Villa. I think there was a bloke called Campbell who played for Bradford who followed the same path.

[Dave Cooper please]

Billy Kellock

Now there's a name! Didn't he play loads of games for a lower league club like Halifax or Peterborough and then have a spell at Wolves? And then you hear or read that he started at Villa. I think there was a bloke called Campbell who played for Bradford who followed the same path.

Bobby Campbell. A Bradford legend and I believe he is there all-time top goalscorer.

[Ron Manager]

Billy Kellock

Now there's a name! Didn't he play loads of games for a lower league club like Halifax or Peterborough and then have a spell at Wolves? And then you hear or read that he started at Villa. I think there was a bloke called Campbell who played for Bradford who followed the same path.

Billy Kellock went to Cardiff. I lost track of him after that.

[SirSteveUK]

Remember who played alongside BL in the 1972 Youth Cup ??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Betts

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

From the Mail - Villa's one game wonders!

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-special-feature-mat-4389097

IF Derrick Williams completes his move away this summer the rookie defender will join the elite Aston Villa ‘One- Game Wonders’ club.

Williams, who is in line for a switch to Bristol City in League One, has made a solitary appearance for Villa, playing 24 minutes as a substitute in the Premier League draw at QPR last December.

But he is not alone. Since World War II 21 players, including Williams, will have departed after competitively pulling on the famous claret and blue colours just once.

Here we remember the One Game Wonders and offer them this consolation – at least you played more times than homesick here-today-gone-tomorrow David Unsworth!

The list kicks off with a player who played the very first game after the war, but never kicked a ball for Villa again, TOMMY DODDS.

The inside forward, from South Shields, started the 1-0 opening- day home defeat to Middlesbrough on August 31, 1946, but left to join Swansea the following January as part of the deal which brought prolific scorer Trevor Ford to Villa.

A debut against Leicester at Villa Park on November 6, 1954, put the ‘proud’ in ARTHUR PROUDLER, but the 5-2 Division One defeat under manager Eric Houghton was to be the former Halesowen Town wing-half’s only action for Villa before he left to join Crystal Palace.

JOHN WILLIS tasted disappointment in his only appearance in a Villa shirt, losing 4-0 at Wolves on September 17, 1958, in the season they were relegated to Division Two. He returned to former club Mossley.

Also that year BILL BEATON was heavily beaten when his claret and blue career lasted just 90 minutes.

With regular goalkeeper Nigel Sims unavailable, the Scottish stopper let in six goals in his one and only appearance for Villa during a 6-3 defeat at Leicester on November 15, 1958. He then joined Airdrie.

RALPH BROWN’S first game turned out to be his final game in two senses of the word.

His debut came in the first leg of the League Cup final in its inaugural year in 1961 but, having started the 2-0 defeat to Rotherham, ‘Bomber Brown’ bombed. He was dropped for the return leg as Villa won 3-0 to clinch the trophy with an aggregate win and he never played again, moving on to Notts County.

There was another one-game wonder that season, ALLAN JONES, who played in a 3-1 Division One defeat at home to Fulham on October 7, 1961, as Villa went on to finish seventh under Joe Mercer.

It was a similar story for winger JOHN MARTIN, who appeared in a 3-1 Division One loss at Blackpool on September 12, 1964, but never appeared again and was allowed by Dick Taylor to join Colchester.

BARRY ANSELL can claim to have played alongside European Cup winning legend Peter Withe – but not at Villa. The Small Heath-born left-back’s one game for the claret and blues was a 3-0 Division Two defeat at Cardiff on Boxing Day 1967, long before Withe arrived.

In fact, the former Waverley Grammar School pupil was a team-mate of Withe’s at Arcadia Shepherds in the early 1970s after moving to South Africa to kick-start his career.

BRIAN ROWAN’S one and only Villa game must have put him in the shop window because even though they lost 3-0 at Watford on September 13, 1969, he subsequently joined the Hornets, with the Glaswegian left-back going on to play for Toronto Metros and New York Cosmos.

Villa’s next fleeting first-teamer was out of Africa – FREDDIE MWILA. The Zambian midfielder impressed Tommy Docherty when he played against Villa for Atlanta Chiefs during the tour to the United States in the summer of 1969.

Mwila became the third black player to play for Villa following Emment Kapengwe, who arrived with him, and Stan Horne, who made his debut in 1963.

Mwila’s one appearance came in a 0-0 draw at home to Blackpool in Division Two on 15 November, 1969. He left Villa after nine months and was named Zambia’s youngest player-coach at the age of just 24 for a friendly series.

STUART RITCHIE could not even get a game in Villa’s relegation season of 1986-87. Until, that is, their demotion to Division Two was confirmed, Billy McNeill was sacked and caretaker boss Frank Upton handed him a substitute cameo in the 3-1 last day defeat at Manchester United on May 9, 1987.

He replaced Andy Gray in the Scottish striker’s final game for Villa. Until recently Ritchie was combining managing non-league AFC Totton with driving for Parcel-force.

Another one-game wonder to have carved out a new career after giving up the day job at Villa is DARRELL DUFFY.

After coming through the ranks as an English schoolboy player at Lilleshall, the Brummie defender’s only Villa appearance was a 2-1 Division One defeat at Derby on May 6. 1989. He joined Moor Green and also turned out for West Midlands Police, among other non-league clubs, after becoming a copper and rising to the rank of Detective Constable.

Playing for Villa was the zenith of ALAN McLOUGHLIN’S playing days – kind of. The Republic of Ireland international midfielder’s only appearance of a loan spell from Southampton was in the Zenith Data Systems Cup win at Coventry on October 23, 1991. He could hardly be described as a career fly-by-night though, playing more than 300 times for his next club Portsmouth.

CHRIS BODEN appeared for just seven minutes in the 1-1 Premier League draw at Leicester on December 3, 1994, after coming off the bench to replace Phil King. Boden was sold to Derby for £150,000 and went on to play for Hereford, Barnsley and Shrewsbury before injury cut short the Wolverhampton-born utility player’s career.

The 1998-99 season produced a record number of OGWs (that’s one-game wonders, to you and me!).

First up was FABIO FERRARESI, the 19-year-old Italian ‘wonderkid’, who had supposedly snubbed AC Milan to join Villa. Apparently he had starred in Cesena’s promotion push the previous season, but it transpired he had been an unused substitute and hadn’t kicked a ball.

Such inactivity was common for him at Villa too – a 20 minute run out as a replacement for Ian Taylor in a 3-0 UEFA Cup win at Stromsgodset on September 29, 1998, was his only action before he returned to Cesena.

TOMMY JASZCZUN might score highly as a word in Scrabble, but he didn’t score highly at Villa, replacing Alan Wright for the last 16 minutes of a 4-1 League Cup defeat at Chelsea on October 28 before carving out a career at Blackpool, Northampton, Rochdale, Cambridge and Kettering.

The heartening tale of many of the one game wonders is that they left Villa and made plenty of appearances elsewhere. Goalkeeper ADAM RACHEL left Villa and played just one game at his next club Blackpool too, although did go on to play regularly at Moor Green after that.

His taste of Villa action was as a sub for the last 35 minutes of a 2-1 loss at Blackburn on December 26, 1998, after Michael Oakes got sent off. He conceded a late winner.

Villa have often been linked with Joleon, but his big brother AARON LESCOTT enjoyed just 24 minutes of action for the claret and blues.

The former Four Dwellings School pupil from Quinton came on as a substitute for Lee Hendrie in the 3-0 FA Cup win over Hull at Villa Park on January 2, 1999. Lescott then left to play for Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport, Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Halesowen Town.

Goalkeeper NEIL CUTLER’S love affair with Villa was restricted to a brief Valentine’s Day date at Middlesbrough in 1999. Villa won 4-0 and Cutler kept a clean sheet for six minutes after replacing David James as an 84th minute substitute.

Last but not least – well it is least, actually. In terms of time on the pitch, anyway, as JONATHAN BEWERS surely boasts the shortest playing career in the club’s history.

Bewers was once hailed as the new Gareth Barry, but whereas Barry made 422 starts and 18 substitute appearances for Villa, Bewers played for less than a minute.

His cameo came as a last gasp substitute for Mark Delaney in Villa’s 4-2 victory over Spurs at White Hart Lane on April 15, 2000. Bewers’ career fizzled out with unremarkable spells at Notts County and Walsall before turning to non-league.

[Ger Regan]

Carl tiler would be one for me.

[peter w]

Ray Walker
Richard Walker
Paul Kerr
Dean Glover
David Norton
Pat Heard
Terry Bullivant
Tommy Craig
Malcolm Allen
Adrian Heath
Lee Butler
David Farrell
Simon Dawkins
Steve Foster

[Damo70]

From the Mail - Villa's one game wonders!

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-special-feature-mat-4389097

IF Derrick Williams completes his move away this summer the rookie defender will join the elite Aston Villa ‘One- Game Wonders’ club.

Williams, who is in line for a switch to Bristol City in League One, has made a solitary appearance for Villa, playing 24 minutes as a substitute in the Premier League draw at QPR last December.

But he is not alone. Since World War II 21 players, including Williams, will have departed after competitively pulling on the famous claret and blue colours just once.

Here we remember the One Game Wonders and offer them this consolation – at least you played more times than homesick here-today-gone-tomorrow David Unsworth!

The list kicks off with a player who played the very first game after the war, but never kicked a ball for Villa again, TOMMY DODDS.

The inside forward, from South Shields, started the 1-0 opening- day home defeat to Middlesbrough on August 31, 1946, but left to join Swansea the following January as part of the deal which brought prolific scorer Trevor Ford to Villa.

A debut against Leicester at Villa Park on November 6, 1954, put the ‘proud’ in ARTHUR PROUDLER, but the 5-2 Division One defeat under manager Eric Houghton was to be the former Halesowen Town wing-half’s only action for Villa before he left to join Crystal Palace.

JOHN WILLIS tasted disappointment in his only appearance in a Villa shirt, losing 4-0 at Wolves on September 17, 1958, in the season they were relegated to Division Two. He returned to former club Mossley.

Also that year BILL BEATON was heavily beaten when his claret and blue career lasted just 90 minutes.

With regular goalkeeper Nigel Sims unavailable, the Scottish stopper let in six goals in his one and only appearance for Villa during a 6-3 defeat at Leicester on November 15, 1958. He then joined Airdrie.

RALPH BROWN’S first game turned out to be his final game in two senses of the word.

His debut came in the first leg of the League Cup final in its inaugural year in 1961 but, having started the 2-0 defeat to Rotherham, ‘Bomber Brown’ bombed. He was dropped for the return leg as Villa won 3-0 to clinch the trophy with an aggregate win and he never played again, moving on to Notts County.

There was another one-game wonder that season, ALLAN JONES, who played in a 3-1 Division One defeat at home to Fulham on October 7, 1961, as Villa went on to finish seventh under Joe Mercer.

It was a similar story for winger JOHN MARTIN, who appeared in a 3-1 Division One loss at Blackpool on September 12, 1964, but never appeared again and was allowed by Dick Taylor to join Colchester.

BARRY ANSELL can claim to have played alongside European Cup winning legend Peter Withe – but not at Villa. The Small Heath-born left-back’s one game for the claret and blues was a 3-0 Division Two defeat at Cardiff on Boxing Day 1967, long before Withe arrived.

In fact, the former Waverley Grammar School pupil was a team-mate of Withe’s at Arcadia Shepherds in the early 1970s after moving to South Africa to kick-start his career.

BRIAN ROWAN’S one and only Villa game must have put him in the shop window because even though they lost 3-0 at Watford on September 13, 1969, he subsequently joined the Hornets, with the Glaswegian left-back going on to play for Toronto Metros and New York Cosmos.

Villa’s next fleeting first-teamer was out of Africa – FREDDIE MWILA. The Zambian midfielder impressed Tommy Docherty when he played against Villa for Atlanta Chiefs during the tour to the United States in the summer of 1969.

Mwila became the third black player to play for Villa following Emment Kapengwe, who arrived with him, and Stan Horne, who made his debut in 1963.

Mwila’s one appearance came in a 0-0 draw at home to Blackpool in Division Two on 15 November, 1969. He left Villa after nine months and was named Zambia’s youngest player-coach at the age of just 24 for a friendly series.

STUART RITCHIE could not even get a game in Villa’s relegation season of 1986-87. Until, that is, their demotion to Division Two was confirmed, Billy McNeill was sacked and caretaker boss Frank Upton handed him a substitute cameo in the 3-1 last day defeat at Manchester United on May 9, 1987.

He replaced Andy Gray in the Scottish striker’s final game for Villa. Until recently Ritchie was combining managing non-league AFC Totton with driving for Parcel-force.

Another one-game wonder to have carved out a new career after giving up the day job at Villa is DARRELL DUFFY.

After coming through the ranks as an English schoolboy player at Lilleshall, the Brummie defender’s only Villa appearance was a 2-1 Division One defeat at Derby on May 6. 1989. He joined Moor Green and also turned out for West Midlands Police, among other non-league clubs, after becoming a copper and rising to the rank of Detective Constable.

Playing for Villa was the zenith of ALAN McLOUGHLIN’S playing days – kind of. The Republic of Ireland international midfielder’s only appearance of a loan spell from Southampton was in the Zenith Data Systems Cup win at Coventry on October 23, 1991. He could hardly be described as a career fly-by-night though, playing more than 300 times for his next club Portsmouth.

CHRIS BODEN appeared for just seven minutes in the 1-1 Premier League draw at Leicester on December 3, 1994, after coming off the bench to replace Phil King. Boden was sold to Derby for £150,000 and went on to play for Hereford, Barnsley and Shrewsbury before injury cut short the Wolverhampton-born utility player’s career.

The 1998-99 season produced a record number of OGWs (that’s one-game wonders, to you and me!).

First up was FABIO FERRARESI, the 19-year-old Italian ‘wonderkid’, who had supposedly snubbed AC Milan to join Villa. Apparently he had starred in Cesena’s promotion push the previous season, but it transpired he had been an unused substitute and hadn’t kicked a ball.

Such inactivity was common for him at Villa too – a 20 minute run out as a replacement for Ian Taylor in a 3-0 UEFA Cup win at Stromsgodset on September 29, 1998, was his only action before he returned to Cesena.

TOMMY JASZCZUN might score highly as a word in Scrabble, but he didn’t score highly at Villa, replacing Alan Wright for the last 16 minutes of a 4-1 League Cup defeat at Chelsea on October 28 before carving out a career at Blackpool, Northampton, Rochdale, Cambridge and Kettering.

The heartening tale of many of the one game wonders is that they left Villa and made plenty of appearances elsewhere. Goalkeeper ADAM RACHEL left Villa and played just one game at his next club Blackpool too, although did go on to play regularly at Moor Green after that.

His taste of Villa action was as a sub for the last 35 minutes of a 2-1 loss at Blackburn on December 26, 1998, after Michael Oakes got sent off. He conceded a late winner.

Villa have often been linked with Joleon, but his big brother AARON LESCOTT enjoyed just 24 minutes of action for the claret and blues.

The former Four Dwellings School pupil from Quinton came on as a substitute for Lee Hendrie in the 3-0 FA Cup win over Hull at Villa Park on January 2, 1999. Lescott then left to play for Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport, Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Halesowen Town.

Goalkeeper NEIL CUTLER’S love affair with Villa was restricted to a brief Valentine’s Day date at Middlesbrough in 1999. Villa won 4-0 and Cutler kept a clean sheet for six minutes after replacing David James as an 84th minute substitute.

Last but not least – well it is least, actually. In terms of time on the pitch, anyway, as JONATHAN BEWERS surely boasts the shortest playing career in the club’s history.

Bewers was once hailed as the new Gareth Barry, but whereas Barry made 422 starts and 18 substitute appearances for Villa, Bewers played for less than a minute.

His cameo came as a last gasp substitute for Mark Delaney in Villa’s 4-2 victory over Spurs at White Hart Lane on April 15, 2000. Bewers’ career fizzled out with unremarkable spells at Notts County and Walsall before turning to non-league.

I was at Highfield Road for Alan McLoughlin's appearance. I think we won 2-1 and Coventry player manager Terry Butcher got sent off. I remember watching the Boxing Day Adam Rachel appearance at Blackburn in the pub. I had no idea Aaron Lescott played for us. The Cutler and Bewers appearances totally passed me by too.

[Pat McMahon]

Ray Walker
Richard Walker
Paul Kerr
Dean Glover
David Norton
Pat Heard
Terry Bullivant
Tommy Craig
Malcolm Allen
Adrian Heath
Lee Butler
David Farrell
Simon Dawkins
Steve Foster

There is a very inept team in there but Pat Heard should be excluded purely because of his absolute stunner of a winner at the Hawthorns in 1982, a couple of weeks before Rotterdam.

[not3bad]

Michael Bradley
Phil Bardsley