The Alex Cropley Story

[JD]

Crops, welcome to the site and thanks for sharing news of your Dad.
He was and will always be a Villa legend and one of the best players I have ever seen. 

[Villan For Life]

I want to take a trip to Edinburgh just so I can have a journey in his taxi.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I want to take a trip to Edinburgh just so I can have a journey in his taxi.

Oi! There's a queue, mate!

[cdbearsfan]

Welcome to the site Crops10, my dad says your dad was fucking great (as the song goes!)

Come to think of it, any Villa fan I've ever heard mention him has said the same!

He must be having a rough time of it at the moment though with Villa and the Hibees both being useless!

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Loved Alex Cropley, perfect blend of skills and nails. I always thought Cowans took a lot from his style, as Sid never shirked a tackle either.

[class-of-82]

Ross Cropley
Tell your dad he was my all time favourite villa player even now after all the great players we have had at the villa that my son goes on about in his time like yorke mellberg McGrath Taylor etc.
Then I say let me tell you about a slim blonde little scot we had called Alex Cropley and I go on about his goals and performances and he sits there like a little kid having his bedtime story and he's 29 now.
Biggest compliment I can pay him is that if he was never crippled by that west brom shit we would of won the league 2/3 years on the trot.

[barrysleftfoot]

 Still my favourite all time Villa player.

 He was wonderfully unassuming, a fiercesome tackler, with a lovely left foot.

 He was at the start of a wonderful era to be a Villa fan, and he was one of the founding fathers of that, best wishes to your Dad, he'll never be forgotten by me.

[papa lazarou]

I haven't looked at Villa Memories for a week, so to move away from our current predicament and see the respect and emotion on this thread is just wonderful.
Like others, there wouldn't be many games Alex played that I missed, and it was some of the best times I've had and some of the best football I have seen our great club play.
Alex Cropley was a committed, creative and inspirational footballer.
Welcome Ross, stay with us and tell dad he's loved and held in the highest esteem by those who saw him play.

[villan from luton]

I know I said it before on here, but the day after Alex's goal at roker park, I did a similar chip with my not so similar left foot and felt so great. Ross, your Dad was a brilliant footballer and will always be remembered by fans from that era. He was a hard man, but fair, and the tackle that did him was a cowards challenge. I was at Norwich when he was making comeback and scored and it was a credit to the man, he did his best but that shocking challenge ruined his career. So wrong. Gordon Cowans saying that is the biggest tribute your Dad could have

[clash city rocker]

Don't think we have player today who is fit to lace cropley ' s boots..cropley must look at the players we have today and despair at the money that they earn when they have so little talent compared with him.

[The Laughing Policeman]

Here you are Ross, look out for the third goal. That's how good your dad was.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Alex Cropley, a fabulous, fabulous footballer and I mean footballer.  A player you were always happy to pay money to see.

That's Alex Cropley's lad and a while back we had Sammy Morgan's son on here.  Can anyone recall the progeny of any other former favourites posting on H&V?

A relative of Tommy Ball's posted on here many years ago.

[Crops10]

Cheers to everyone who has commented on the thread. I have just printed it off and i will send it up to my Dad, he hasnt quite grasped the whole computer thing as of yet! Im sure he will enjoy reading it!

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/arriving-at-arsenal-from-hibs-i-felt-like-id-joined-a-team-of-lesser-ability.22958489

"They really liked me at Villa," says Cropley. "I was typically Scottish: I had skill but I knew how to tackle, I got stuck in. The Villa fans were great to me and I love having that memory. But then it all ended with my really bad leg break."

"We were playing West Brom and the guy [Ally Brown] came in late and high and went right through me. Everyone in the ground heard the crack of my leg breaking. It was a terrible incident and it finished me as a player. I was in a plaster for six months and out for more than a year. I was never the same player again. I was 26 when it happened.

[JD]

Totally right Alex, but we didn't just really like you, we loved you. It is nice though that Alex appreciated us as much as we appreciated him.