Peter McParland 82 today.

[curiousorange]

A superstar before there were superstars. Happy birthday, Sir.

[Villa in Denmark]

He'd been gone from Villa Park for 8 years and was winding down his career in Ireland by the time I was born.

And he was still one of the first Villa players I knew anything about, other than the 78-79 squad. It was the dad and granddad of a school mate that started taking me with them. The granddad would pass the journey from Smethwick to Villa Park talking mainly about McParland, Johnny Dixon and Charlie Aitken.

[MorrisNielson]

Happy birthday Peter.

[Billy Walker]

The first man to score in and win both domestic cup finals, I think?  Happy Birthday to a genuine "great".

[peter w]

A bright light in a very dark time.

[brian green]

We have been blessed with some fabulous players.  In 1951 Johnny Dixon, our inside left, scored 28 goals, Tommy Thompson scored 14 from inside right, Billy Goffin on the wing scored 10 and our centre forward Dave Walsh got 8 (I think) in half a season with us.  It really puts our current pathetic efforts in perspective.