2. From 1956/57
I was born in 1944, just before Villa won the wartime League Cup! After that, 1957 was the first year of any issue of importance directly related to me (other than Villa winning the F. A. cup!) followed by 1961. In 1967 (relegation from Div 1!) I got married. That marriage had more downs than ups, and ended in...1975 (promotion to Div 1!).
1975-1979 were upward years for me, including a move to London and then a business startup in 1979, followed by marriage (again) in 1980 just in time for the League Championship! ... though it had started promisingly, that marriage crashed by 1984, in line with the demise of Villa towards relegation. Having survived a really difficult personal and business period during 1985 to 1989, fortunes again started improving, including marriage #3 (1989)! Villa started picking up about that time.
The 1990s until 1998 were reasonably good, but not without business problems. My business ceased in 1998. Since and including 1999, matters have been very (and below) average. Like Villa!
This brings us to recent days. Even in the days of takeover rumours and talks, the same sort of thing went on in my own life concerning financial transactions.
And what did I discover that links me so closely to Villa? I was born on 18th April. Villa Park was opened on 17th April. The ARIES astrological sign is what links us!
Coincidence? Of course!
But, P.S. Although I was officially born 18th April, double summer time in those wartime days actually meant that under normal conditions my birth would have crept backwards into the 17th April! The club and I are indeed closely wedded!
My grandfather (bn. 1871, and brought up in Perry Barr) was around in the earliest of Villa's glory days, and he created a family tradition of support for the Villa that lasted over 100 years. I say 'lasted' as now the family has moved further afield, the support is no longer there. Although I do not think that football is the be all and end all of everything, the finality of the end of the tradition is a little hard to think on, sometimes, when the memories are recalled.
By 1900, my grandfather and his family had moved (via Aston) to the very edge of south Birmingham, but, amazingly (considering the communications of those days), the family support lived on. My grandfather's younger brother, after many years in the army, returned to live in Alum Rock after WW1, and he remained an avid Villa fan. It is said that he was a close friend of Arthur Dorrell, a raiding winger of that era, and Frank Moss Snr. was also well known. So, my grandfather knew the real glory days of the 1890s and the opening of Villa Park (1897). I never did get to talk with my grandfather before he died, but I think he must have seen the great Archie Hunter, John Devey, and all.
My father, born at the end of 1910, missed virtually everything in terms of the great trophy-winning period !! But he was around in the 20s and 30s to see some of the great players of that period. My father purred when talking of the half-back line of Talbot, Tate and Gibson. Then there was goalkeeper Sam Hardy, the legendary Billy Walker, and 'Pongo' Waring (still the club's record goalscorer after the club's near-miss runners-up season of 1930-31 when they scored a league-record 128 goals). But, in the mid-30s, a decline started. Relegation to the 2nd Division for the first time was indeed a sorry tale after several heavy defeats, notably Arsenal's 7-1 win at Villa Park, when my father saw Ted Drake score all his side's goals (still a league record for one match). Then, promotion back to Division 1 after two seasons, and some great players again adorned the old stadium. Then...the War intervened.
The end of the War, and my era started. My father saw Villa lose a 1948 cup match 4-6 at Villa Park to the first of the post-war great Manchester United sides, and remembered that as one of the great matches at Villa Park. My father did his best with me. He took me down to see them play a couple of matches in around 51/52, but he was not able to go often because of his working hours and our distance from Aston. Like many boys of that period, I experienced the days of large crowds and being passed down to the front at the Holte end. A little-'un still couldn't see the game properly, even so !! But, oh, those baggy shorts were a sight to behold !
The first match that I can actually remember was on August Bank Holiday Monday, 24th August, 1953 v. Manchester City. Villa won 3-0. The records show that this was George Martin's last week as manager - but I don't remember anything about that as a 9-year-old! It seems that a week later, Eric Houghton took over the job and eventually led Villa to cup success (in 1957). Neither do I remember much about the match except some of the players' names, including the great servants Harry Parkes and Peter Aldis as full-backs, the Moss brothers in the half-back line and Johnny Dixon up front. There were also big money signings that attracted big attention from other clubs: Danny Blanchflower and Tommy Thompson, who both scored in this match.
It was with great glee that I discovered in much later years that my father's paternal first cousin had married the great player of the 1920s, Frank Moss snr., and that the above-mentioned 'Moss brothers' were their sons! Therefore they were my father's cousins.
It seems that it was later in the 1953/54 season that Houghton started bringing through the youngsters into the Villa team - notably Peter McParland, and also Derek Pace, who scored 6 goals in the 6 games he played at the end of the season.
My biggest problem about supporting Villa was at school. EVERYBODY else there supported the 'Blues' (Birmingham City). After all, we were on the south side of Birmingham, and that is where 'Blues' support lay !! After a while, I weakened - what sacrilege !! And by the time the Blues got to the Cup Final in '56, I had changed allegiance ! But they lost the final, and I was then reminded that the real glory team (even though they'd not won anything in 36 years), was the Villa ! So, my allegiance QUICKLY reverted to the Villa !...and when THEY won the Cup in '57, THAT WAS IT ! My allegiance WAS confirmed !
One further little development - it was in about 1959 or 1960 I saw Kings Heath-based Villa full-back Peter Aldis out running in my own local Kings Heath streets, and just that event started me off on my own training schedule!