Interesting Villa Facts

[Brazilian Villain]

We were the first team to concede a league goal on Christmas Day. Preston's Nick Ross (not the Crimewatch bloke) scored against us after 6 mins on Dec. 25, 1889.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

Not so much a stat but shared a drink in my local this weekend with a great niece of Villa legend Joe Bache.

[pablo_picasso]

Ever since our inception, there has only ever been one decade where we didn't at the very least compete for, or win a trophy or a title.

It was after World War 2.

Every other decade we have either won a title or trophy, or at the very least, competed in the final two of either league or cup.

Which is an incredible level of consistency over the course of 150 years...

[PeterWithesShin]

We were joint winners of the 1943/44 War Cup.

"With the score in the final tied at 1–1 and, due to transport restrictions and bombing threats, a replay not an option, the game ended a draw. Charlton Athletic and Aston Villa shared the 1944 trophy, an event that had not happened before and did not happen again."

[Bernie]

We were joint winners of the 1943/44 War Cup.

"With the score in the final tied at 1–1 and, due to transport restrictions and bombing threats, a replay not an option, the game ended a draw. Charlton Athletic and Aston Villa shared the 1944 trophy, an event that had not happened before and did not happen again."

Loving these stats, but I hope we will never need to compete for this honour ever again.

[PeterWithesShin]

Apparently Ian Wright played for us...

The Sun Football
41 minutes ago

Ian Wright tells amazing Dwight Yorke story: 🗣️ “I was at Aston Villa at the same time as Dwight Yorke and he was such a great player.
“Whenever I lifted my head up he was always there, giving me an option. One day I pulled him aside and asked him how he was always so open. He told me that when he first came over, Graham Taylor had told him that no matter where the ball was on the pitch he should be available. He was so easy to play with.
“He had a ridiculous amount of skill. He used to stand in a small bin in the dressing room, and any time a new player came in, he would bet them £100 that he could do 50 keep-ups with his head without falling out! Obviously everyone took the bet because it seems impossible – but I never saw him fail to do it!"

[Jean Quereue-Quereue]

Villa won the only professional baseball league in 1890-91 and are still the current holders of the title.

[nick harper]

Tommy Ball centre half for Aston Villa, still the only active professional footballer to be murdered, shot by his landlord, George Stagg in Perry Barr in Nov 1923, just over 100 years ago.

[Brend'Watkins]

Villa won the only professional baseball league in 1890-91 and are still the current holders of the title.

🎵 you’ll never sing that, you’ll never sing that, ets, etc…

[algy]

You can get from Villa's first match to the present day with 14 degrees of separation, using players whose playing careers at the club have overlapped:

1874 - 1883 - Teddy Lee (12+Games/? Goals)
1878 - 1890 - Archie Hunter (73/42)
1889 - 1902 - James Cowan (356/27)
1900 - 1914 - Joe Bache (474/184)
1914 - 1929 - Frank Moss (255/9)
1927 - 1947 - Eric Houghton (393/169)
1946 - 1961 - Johnny Dixon (388/132)
1959 - 1976 - Charlie Aitken (561/14)
1975 - 1985 - Gordon Cowans (414/49)
1979 - 1996 - Nigel Spink (361)
1995 - 2006 - Lee Hendrie (300/32)
2005 - 2018 - Gabby Agbonlahor (391/86)
2013 - 2021 - Jack Grealish (213/32)
2019 - present - Jacob Ramsey (108/13)

[Bad English]

These players have all donned the claret and blue. What else do they all have in common?

Jean II Makoun,
Idrissa Gana Gueye,
Joe Cole,
Lucas Digne,
Anwar El-Ghazi
Kenza Dali.

[Dave]

Also played for Lille.

[Dick Edwards]

I thought Stas never played for the first team.

He may not have played but I vaguely recall him being an unused substitute for a first team game and seeing him warming up on the Trinity Road touchline.

[pablo_picasso]

That time we stuck two fingers up to the Nazi's.

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2012/11/27/from-the-archives-villa-say-no-to-the-nazis

I fucking love this club...

[dr.chekov]

Slightly different (and longer) take on the same incident.

“The careful diplomatic efforts which had preceded the England fixture were put into disarray twenty-fours later following the Aston Villa game. While the second match also attracted a crowd of 110,000, the atmosphere though was in marked contrast to Germany versus England, which one British press report claimed had been played in silence. Before the game the Villa players had given the Nazi salute as instructed and would go on to win 3-2. However, this match itself was marked by “a continual chorus of cat-calls and shrill whistling”. During the match Villa had stirred the fans’ ire by successfully employing an offside trap. This tactic was unfamiliar to German football at the time and had the effect of frustrating fans and players alike. Tensions were raised further after Villa’s Alec Massie brought down Germany’s inside-left, Camillo Jerusalem, with players from each side needing to be separated by the referee.

The jeering intensified after the final whistle, when the Villa players this time failed to give the Nazi salute demanded by protocol. This was later claimed as a misunderstanding: most of the Villa players had been near the dressing rooms and had simply walked off at the end of the game. Nevertheless, their actions sparked some frenetic diplomatic activity on both sides. Goebbels suppressed hostile press coverage as well as photographs of the Villa players walking off the pitch, on the grounds that it might have affected Anglo-German goodwill. The FA then put pressure on Villa via Fred Rinder, an FA councillor and long-serving Villa director, to ensure that protocols would be followed for Villa’s next game a few days later in Dusseldorf.

While the Dusseldorf game – against another German Select XI – passed without incident, Villa players dutifully saluting, tensions resurfaced at the team’s third match, this time in Stuttgart. Ahead of the game, attempts had been made to placate German spectators, who were informed that Villa’s offside trap was in accordance with the laws of the game and warned against making hostile demonstrations. This had no effect, and after every offside decision the crowd rose as one to boo and hiss the English side’s tactics. It was a rough game, with Villa playing for much of the game with ten men due to an injury to one of their players. After the game the Villa players were given protection by SS guards and Stormtroopers.

While some post-war accounts sought to claim that English players had been unhappy at having to give the salute, there was little indication of this at the time. Indeed, the policy of appeasement was generally accepted in Britain until after the Munich Conference. Nevertheless, the Villa games of 1938 provide an insight into the fragile nature of diplomatic relations at the time, as well as the increasing importance of international sport as a form of soft power.”

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/sport/aston-villa-the-offside-trap-and-the-nazi-salute/