MY WORST EVER ASTON VILLA TEAM
On 31st August 1987 I attended a match at Villa Park against Manchester City. Villa were bottom of the second division and City hadn't won away for a couple of years, which explains why the attendance that day was only 16,282 despite the match taking place on an August Bank Holiday afternoon. The relevance of the game is that it contained the worst Villa side I have ever seen:
| Warren Aspinall | Simon Stainrod | Mark Walters |
| Mark Burke | Steve Hunt |
| Bernard Gallagher | David Hunt | Steve Simms | Martin Keown | Kevin Gage |
| Nigel Spink | ||||
Pausing for a moment only to take stock of this rabble's ineptitude I will now use artistic licence to remove some of the better players and replace them with others who were also in Villa's squad that season.
| Warren Aspinall | Simon Stainrod |
| Mark Lillis | Paul Kerr | Andy Blair |
| Bernard Gallagher | David Hunt | Steve Simms | Dean Glover | David Norton |
| Kevin Poole | ||||
What a stomach-churning sight they were - clad appropriately enough in the worst Villa kit ever. I am still amazed that we actually got promotion that season. Perhaps the true awfulness of the time can be summed up by the fact that in the programme for the game in question, Bernie Gallagher was pictured receiving a man of the match award.
If there has ever been a more motley collection of individuals gathered together in a Villa team at the same time, please don't let me know about it. The human body can only take so much punishment.
Mark Mullally.
Taken From Issue 30
