Villa 2 Stoke 1 17th November 1979

[Charlie8182]

Not the best quality footage (appears quite dark) but a game from just a few weeks after the boardroom battles/EGM, including a dog on the pitch, a rare sending off for those times, and a winner where the ref should have just given the goal instead of a penalty.

https://youtu.be/Yu-PMoN6Rok

[dcdavecollett]

Great post!

Thanks a lot, Charlie.

[GXVilla]

Brilliant Charlie! All I can remember was the dog coming on and the Holte chanting Andy is back!
(Andy Gray had just left for Wolves).
A very rare sighting of Mick Pejic as well!

[Flamingo Lane]

That's an excellent find, and very interesting (and relatively rare) footage of the side in 79/80 evolving into the one that would become champions the following season.  It's especially interesting to see Brian Little and Gary Shaw playing together.

[dave shelley]

Every time I look at these clips from back then, I always ask myself the same question...How the hell did Denis Mortimer not play for England?  That goal he scored there was just typical of the way he played, what a build up for it too; Sid's skill in taking the ball past the Stokie and then the exquisite pass.

Another question I ask myself is, how much better would those Villa players (and others to be fair) if they had pitches to play on like there are today?

[geolex]

any one else notice Garth Crooks (no:10)  around 5.40mins  in to video..like myself he was a lot thinner in those days

[Oscar Arce]

Brilliant.
Thoughts:
This must be the only recorded footage of Mike Pejic in a Villa shirt.
What a player Denis Mortimer was.
What a beautiful flick from Sir Brian of Littlehampton.
A disallowed goal for Kenny Swain, a rare occurence.
The fledgling brilliance of Cowans and Shaw.
Geoff Scott playing for Stoke, he passed away recently.
Allan Evans and Ken McNaught: Rocks in defence