I am in the act of writing a book on the Villa that has called upon a great deal of newspaper research on-line, and the downloading of many articles in their pristine state, requiring scanning and processing through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, and subsequent correction. Many of these articles will not be included ‘verbatim’ […]
I have the pleasure of knowing John Flanner, a remarkable Villa fan. And a fan whose published story will appeal to all other Villa fans, I’m sure. The official press release goes: Peter McParland MBE, who scored the two goals in Villa’s memorable 2-1 triumph over Manchester United in the 1957 FA Cup Final, will be […]
Where once alchemy was regarded as the means towards the creation of gold, the invention of football generated a new means of obtaining gold: the football hero! Yes, for one game at least, Gabby has achieved cult status with his near-cameo appearance and the destruction of the auld ‘enemy’. In a game where mediocre was […]
Randy Lerner physically departed less than 12 months ago, but he was spiritually absent well before that. Even though he left so recently we appear to be somewhat impatient that the club is not already showing signs of transforming itself back into the kind of force it was in the mid-70s to early 80s. But […]
In these days of gnashing of teeth and of wondering when Villa’s next triumphs are going to arrive (if ever!), I’ve been thinking back to days of yore when Villa fans of the time were wondering the same thing. Past times that have been mostly forgotten with the passing of generations, when fans had not […]
