Steve B****** Hodge

[eastie]

Was a long time ago , was a stunned silence around me at the time before the abuse began to really fly -a dreadful day in dreadful season.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Caretaker manager at Notts County, I hope we withdraw Grealish from that club and never deal with them until he's gone

Time is a great healer, life is too short to hold grudges my friend.

FUCK THAT..Wanker

[Phil from the upper holte]

The most half hearted display in a Villa shirt you could ever imagine (and yes that includes Yorkies at Everton and Paul Mortimer's at Coventry) culminating in a leisurely or deliberate (depending on whether your a conspiracy theorist) half hit back pass that resulted in a Norwich goal right in front of the Holte End.

The place went mental whilst Hodge trudged off looking to all the world like he just didn't give a fuck.  Don't think he played for us again but I could be mistaken.

Was that really 27 years ago - holy shit!!!

I can't remember Mortmer's performance, what did he do?
I do remember him scoring the 3rd or 4th goal of a thrashing of some team at Villa Park where he took offence at the Holte End because they didn't celebrate the goal like it was a last minute winner. I always thought that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Atkinson dropped him afterwards and he was soon out the door.

Didn't he score the 4th against Luton?

[saunders_heroes]

The most half hearted display in a Villa shirt you could ever imagine (and yes that includes Yorkies at Everton and Paul Mortimer's at Coventry) culminating in a leisurely or deliberate (depending on whether your a conspiracy theorist) half hit back pass that resulted in a Norwich goal right in front of the Holte End.

The place went mental whilst Hodge trudged off looking to all the world like he just didn't give a fuck.  Don't think he played for us again but I could be mistaken.

Was that really 27 years ago - holy shit!!!

I can't remember Mortmer's performance, what did he do?
I do remember him scoring the 3rd or 4th goal of a thrashing of some team at Villa Park where he took offence at the Holte End because they didn't celebrate the goal like it was a last minute winner. I always thought that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Atkinson dropped him afterwards and he was soon out the door.

Didn't he score the 4th against Luton?

Could be. I remember him turning to the Holte to celebrate then he waved his arm at them in a dismissive kind of way because it wasn't loud enough. He was then booted out not long after. Obviously a bit more went on behind the scenes.

[eastie]

Paul Mortimer always seemed a prickly character to me , not sure if he missed London but something wasn't quite right during his time here.

[fbriai]

The most half hearted display in a Villa shirt you could ever imagine (and yes that includes Yorkies at Everton and Paul Mortimer's at Coventry) culminating in a leisurely or deliberate (depending on whether your a conspiracy theorist) half hit back pass that resulted in a Norwich goal right in front of the Holte End.

The place went mental whilst Hodge trudged off looking to all the world like he just didn't give a fuck.  Don't think he played for us again but I could be mistaken.

Was that really 27 years ago - holy shit!!!

I can't remember Mortmer's performance, what did he do?
I do remember him scoring the 3rd or 4th goal of a thrashing of some team at Villa Park where he took offence at the Holte End because they didn't celebrate the goal like it was a last minute winner. I always thought that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Atkinson dropped him afterwards and he was soon out the door.

Didn't he score the 4th against Luton?

Yeah, I think so. The day we won 4-0.

I might be wrong, but didn't we beat Forest 3-1 early on the season that year, with Shaun Teale putting them in the lead with an own goal right at the beginning of the game? If so, I can remember Mortimer getting stick during that game for letting the ball run out of play down in front of the Holte, when it would have been easier to keep it in and cross it, and so keep them on the back foot.

[Grande Pablo]

We beat Luton either 4-0 or 4-1 - Mortimer waited at the Holte for total adulation.  That didn't come, so he did a sort of 'so what' hand gesture & trudged off.  Never to be seen again.

[saunders_heroes]

We beat Luton either 4-0 or 4-1 - Mortimer waited at the Holte for total adulation.  That didn't come, so he did a sort of 'so what' hand gesture & trudged off.  Never to be seen again.

That's exactly what happened from what I remember.

[OzVilla]

The Coventry game I was referring to was late September, about the same time as that Forest match. 

We were in the seats on the side of the pitch at Highfield Road - pretty sure we drew 0-0 with plenty of the usual shenanigans that was common at Highfield Road back in those days. 

You know, trouble around the ground, death trap of a standing away end (I told myself the year before that I'd not go in there again hence being in the seats), Villa fans getting thrown out left, right and centre by the Special Police officers for absolutely nothing (one guy near us actually got thrown out for catching the ball that went into the crowd for a throw in and holding it up!! - I kid you not).

Anyway, Mortimer was basically sulking around the pitch all game give a typically "i couldn't give a fuck" performance when he gave up totally on a through ball that was played down the line on our side of the pitch.  He gave us one of those cocky gestures when we got on his case about it - got substituted almost straight after and we all gave him pelters. 

We can probably all think of certain players who we wondered why they ever bothered joining the Villa as they never seemed interested in playing here at all - Paul Mortimer sits near the top of that list for me.

[Damo70]

People always talk about Hodge's behaviour at Villa. They need to look at the big picture. He left his boyhood idols Forest for Villa because they didn't play him in his favourite position. I'm sure he made no extra money from the move. He left Villa when we played him in his favourite position and that got him into the England team because we were struggling and he wanted to play for a top club like Spurs. Again he probably was no better off financially from the move. He left Spurs to go back to Forest because he was single and lonely in London and wanted to move back home. I'm sure he was so keen he probably took a pay cut. He then left Forest again to go to Leeds because they offered him more money when his contract was up. Ok, so maybe money was involved here and there. Maybe he was a tad disloyal here and there. Maybe he always found an excuse to move on whenever he fancied. But apart from all that, what's not to love and admire?

[Chris Harte]

Paul Mortimer always seemed a prickly character to me , not sure if he missed London but something wasn't quite right during his time here.

He was interviewed in FiveLive last week and introduced as the "former Charlton Athletic and Aston Villa player..." to which I muttered something along the lines of "barely."

[Chris Harte]

People always talk about Hodge's behaviour at Villa. They need to look at the big picture. He left his boyhood idols Forest for Villa because they didn't play him in his favourite position. I'm sure he made no extra money from the move. He left Villa when we played him in his favourite position and that got him into the England team because we were struggling and he wanted to play for a top club like Spurs. Again he probably was no better off financially from the move. He left Spurs to go back to Forest because he was single and lonely in London and wanted to move back home. I'm sure he was so keen he probably took a pay cut. He then left Forest again to go to Leeds because they offered him more money when his contract was up. Ok, so maybe money was involved here and there. Maybe he was a tad disloyal here and there. Maybe he always found an excuse to move on whenever he fancied. But apart from all that, what's not to love and admire?

THAT pack-pass.

[willywombat]

The only reason he should be invited back is to be hung drawn and quartered at half time. Or at least to be given a really painful Chinese burn.

and a dead leg

[Damo70]

The only reason he should be invited back is to be hung drawn and quartered at half time. Or at least to be given a really painful Chinese burn.

and a dead leg

If you invited him back for a game he would have found a reason to go to another game before half time.

[edgysatsuma89]

I have no idea who he is (interesting middle name) as I'm 24, but I imagine that middle name will be used for Mr Ireland for my generation.