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There are a series of pictures stamped on a long brick wall that runs down from the Trinity Road Stand towards the ticket office at Villa Park.
In pride of place, there is an image of Peter Withe and Gary Shaw balancing the European Cup on the head of Tony Morley, who is standing in between them. The year, the wall tells us lest we have forgotten, was 1982.
The wall tells more stories. There are pictures of the club’s seven top flight league titles, most of which came when Aston Villa were the most powerful and successful team in England in the closing years of the 19th century, and its seven FA Cup final victories. The last time they won a major trophy was in 1996 when Brian Little was manager and they lifted the League Cup.
Steven Gerrard celebrates with Tyrone Mings after the game following Aston Villa’s late show to secure a 2-0 win
Watkins lets fly with a shot that saw Villa finally open the scoring following a low key affair in Gerrard’s first game in charge
Ollie Watkins (right) celebrates Villa’s breakthrough goal against Brighton in the Premier League in the 84th minute
Sometimes, Villa fans stop to gaze at the wall and the past glories reflected there. An hour before the game against Brighton, a man and his son, third and fourth generation Villa fans, fell to reminiscing about Villa’s European Cup game against Juventus here in March 1983 when Michel Platini, Zbigniew Boniek, Paolo Rossi and the giants of the Italy World Cup winning team of the previous year put on a show.
Everything about Villa’s history bears witness to the fact that they are one of the grand old teams of English football. They are too big a club to be a stepping stone for anyone. And even though this match may have been about one man and his stature and his ambition, it was also about Aston Villa and their ambition and the beginning of the next stage of their attempt to reclaim their long lost place among the elite of our game.
If that ambition had been…
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Source : dailymail
