Southampton (H) 29th March 1981

[PeterWithesShin]

[JD]

Great game this one. David Geddis always seemed to step up when Peter Withe wasn't playing this season.

[Holte132]

Two things that struck me while watching this - how fast and free-flowing the football was, and the very short shorts!

[PeterWithesShin]

Makes you wonder a bit, they should have gone 2-0 up, if they had I wonder if things may have ended differently.

[Villa in Denmark]

That was my only game of the championship season as a 10 year old.

Things I remember.
Being disappointed  that Withe wasn't playing.
Being excited that I'd also see England captain Kevin Keegan.
Being excited to see the BBC broadcast vans so it would be on MOTD later that night.
The rush of 2 goals in a minute.

Things that I'd forgotten until  I watched that.
That Alan Ball was still playing for them.
Mortimer hitting the post twice.
My mates dad muttering about  Rimmer "looking creaky on his line"

[Damo70]

That was my only game of the championship season as a 10 year old.

Things I remember.
Being disappointed  that Withe wasn't playing.
Being excited that I'd also see England captain Kevin Keegan.
Being excited to see the BBC broadcast vans so it would be on MOTD later that night.
The rush of 2 goals in a minute.

Things that I'd forgotten until  I watched that.
That Alan Ball was still playing for them.
Mortimer hitting the post twice.
My mates dad muttering about  Rimmer "looking creaky on his line"

I was also 10 in the title winning season and I also only attended one game. The 2-1 win at the sty.

[dave shelley]

Watching that again made me feel very sorry for the stick I sometimes handed out to David Geddis.

[Flamingo Lane]

The thing I will always remember about that game is being deliberately and violently headbutted by a fellow Villa fan on the Holte End, following the celebration of our equaliser.  The fella who headbutted me apologised afterwards, saying the reason he did it was because he thought (wrongly) that I'd bumped into his son when celebrating the goal.

[Big Dick Edwards]

Watching that again made me feel very sorry for the stick I sometimes handed out to David Geddis.

I never rated David Geddis at all. He offered workrate and physicality in spades but technically he was lacking. Having said all that there's no disputing when he was called in to fill in for Peter Withe that season he always produced the goods for the team.

[Flamingo Lane]

I did rate Geddis.  Obviously he was no Peter Withe but in the season before we won the league I thought he was a great help and influence in the development of Gary Shaw in particular, and also in the style of play that the 1980/81 championship team was able to evolve; which I'd say was very well illustrated by how easily he fitted into the side in those few games he played in, in the championship season.

[PeterWithesShin]

He only made 8 starts and 1 sub appearance but still managed 4 goals and at least 2 assists, all of them vital.

[Damo70]

He only made 8 starts and 1 sub appearance but still managed 4 goals and at least 2 assists, all of them vital.

I was going to post something similar. Also, when Ron Saunders took him from Barnsley to Small Heath in the middle of the '84/'85 season he helped them to promotion with 12 goals in 18 games.

[villan from luton]

I remember Geddis standing in for Peter Withe v Blues at home in December 1980 and scoring a couple of goals. Had a crap start for us but was an able deputy in that season for sure. 

[dave shelley]

I think if David Geddis hadn't taken so long to get started on goalscoring, his Villa career would have been far more noticeable than it was.  IIRC, he took an absolute age to get his first missing chance after chance that came his way, some of them absolute sitters.  One I recall of almost Ronny Rosenthal proportions.

Things that Geddis cannot be accused of were his work-rate and his seemingly unflinching attitude to not letting missed chances stop him trying.

[Rudy65]

A decent Southampton team who created some good chances. Seem to recall this was close to the Manchester City one nil home win when we were fortunate to win.

Agree that Geddis was hampered by his poor start when it took something like 15 games for him to score in the 79/80 season. He was never an out and out CF though and was better playing of a target man