Your first?

[algy]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

[Richard E]

Savo or Ian Taylor, can't remember which way round it was.

[Damo70]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

Gary Shaw in the Championship winning season when I was ten. I think we had played at home against Coventry earlier that day. He was a guest at my next door neighbours 21st birthday party at some venue in Solihull and somebody told him there was a Villa mad youngster in the room and introduced us. He asked me if I would look after his jacket while he danced so I sat and guarded it with my life until he came back for it. He then collected it and thanked me for looking after his coat,shook my hand and told me I was his friend for life. As a ten year old Villa nut that made me feel ten feet tall.

[WarszaVillan]

Dennis Mortimer, 1981. He came to speak at the boys club I was in (Bournville Beavers - yes really) and he signed my poster. Quite shy as I remember.

[Damo70]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Tommy Docherty. FA Cup 4th round replay in 1969 v Southampton.
11 years old and I'm sitting 6 rows back in the Witton stand with my Dad. I don't know if it was the 1st or 2nd goal but I've run down the aisle jumped over the wall and run up to The Doc to hug him. The Doc picks me up and hands me back to my Dad with them both laughing while a 59k crowd erupts.

[Exeter 77]

The first manager I met was SGT when he was impressed by a completely fluke goal I scored in a five-a-side competition at the Villa Leisure Centre.

[Rory]

I've said this elsewhere, but I met the whole '96/'97 squad after my Dad won a competition. As I remember, Tommy Johnson, Ian Taylor and Andy Townsend were lovely blokes, Dwight Yorke was a twat.

The person who gave me the most of their time was MON, managing Leicester. I was 7 and had no idea who he was, but my Dad told me to ask for his autograph and he was really friendly. Asked me about my favourite players, laughed when I said I didn't know who he was, told me what a great manager we had and how Villa Park was his favourite away ground when he was a player. Probably all bullshit, but he still took the time to talk to me.

I technically met Saint Brian, but he's my Dad's favourite ever player and after about 12 pints of Guinness (my Dad, not Brian), he wouldn't let anybody else get a word in.

[eamonn]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

Did he cop off? I imagine he rarely didn't at parties.

Did Shaw ever do an auto-biog? He must have a few stories. Also, for those old enough to see him regularly in the flesh - how good could he have been without the injuries? From highlights, it looks like he had a really good football brain to go with the natural talent.

[Deano's Mullet]

Saw loads in the Villa Park car parks through the gates but first I properly remember speaking to was Garry Parker. He had not long scored a fantastic double at Sheffield United  and he was sound, he signed my programme and said he was loving life at the Villa.
My missus hasn't been to many games but her first player encounter was Ian Taylor outside the Trinity Road before the Brighton home game, last day of the first Championship season.
I brought a neutral up with me from Sussex before the Blackburn  game in the promotion season and he got to see JPA and Martin Laursen pulling out of cars outside the Trinity before the game.

[dave.woodhall]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

Did he cop off? I imagine he rarely didn't at parties.

Did Shaw ever do an auto-biog? He must have a few stories. Also, for those old enough to see him regularly in the flesh - how good could he have been without the injuries? From highlights, it looks like he had a really good football brain to go with the natural talent.

a) That season we won the league I had more women than I scored goals. I scored 23 goals."

b) God knows, he's been asked enough times but he says he wasn't around long enough.

c) As Terry Weir put it, "To watch Gary Shaw was to look at England's main forward for the next ten years."

[dave.woodhall]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

Did he cop off? I imagine he rarely didn't at parties.

Did Shaw ever do an auto-biog? He must have a few stories. Also, for those old enough to see him regularly in the flesh - how good could he have been without the injuries? From highlights, it looks like he had a really good football brain to go with the natural talent.

a) "The season we won the league I had more women than I scored goals. I scored 23 goals."

b) God knows, he's been asked enough times but he says he wasn't around long enough.

c) As Terry Weir put it, "To watch Gary Shaw was to look at England's main forward for the next ten years."

[Scratchins]

Johnny Dixon in his shop, I was with a friend who knew him but I was too overwhelmed to say much. He called me smiler because that's about all I did.

[WarszaVillan]

Who was the first Villa player or manager you met in person?

My first 4 got increasingly better ...
1. Mark Blake
2. Tony Daley
3. Tony Morley
4. Dennis Mortimer

I went Villa Park to get my season ticket just before the 1989 season started. At the time I was driving a ten year old Porsche 924 with a private plate and when I parked outside the ticket office half a dozen youths who had been kicking a ball around the car park surrounded me and asked me if I was a Villa player. On the spur of the moment I said yes and when they asked me my name the first name I could think of who wasn't well known yet was Mark Blake. Quick as a flash the lads all produced autograph books for me to sign, which I duly did. When Mark Blake finally made his debut shortly after those kids must have been a bit confused because the Mark Blake they had met that day was a white lad.

Did he cop off? I imagine he rarely didn't at parties.

Did Shaw ever do an auto-biog? He must have a few stories. Also, for those old enough to see him regularly in the flesh - how good could he have been without the injuries? From highlights, it looks like he had a really good football brain to go with the natural talent.

a) That season we won the league I had more women than I scored goals. I scored 23 goals."

b) God knows, he's been asked enough times but he says he wasn't around long enough.

c) As Terry Weir put it, "To watch Gary Shaw was to look at England's main forward for the next ten years."

Proof I guess that everyone likes to exaggerate about their exploits. He scored 21 goals in 1980/81.

[luke95]

Paul Birch at the 1993 Ryder cup , final day at the Belfry.