September 2009 Archives

Here's a little clip to cheer up Villa fans after former Bluenose David Dunn wrecked their team's six-game winning streak with his late penalty for Blackburn. Even Dunn himself admitted that Saturday's last gasp winner made up for this shameful show-boating in the Second City derby.

AS A Villa fan I'm a bit of strange mix.

My dad's old school, as cynical as they come and I'm sure has been for the 70-odd years he's been a supporter.

My mum on the other hand is to total opposite. A cockney by birth - though not of the cheating variety - she was evacuated to the Midlands during the blitz but didn't discover football until in her 50s.

REGARDLESS of what he says about that incident on the Bodymoor Heath training pitches on Thursday, all the evidence suggests that Martin O'Neill was guilty of grappling.

Not necessarily with Nigel Reo-Coker, because if the Aston Villa boss maintains that the angry "contretemps" with the midfielder was verbal rather than violent then I daren't argue, especially after his revelation that he once tried to chin former Nottingham Forest team-mate Sammy Chapman in a training ground scuffle, albeit more than 20 years ago.

No, it seems O'Neill was guilty of grappling with his past.

For his handling of Reo-Coker throughout their time at Villa bears many hallmarks of his own struggles with the boss during his playing days at Forest.

O'Neill regularly remarks upon his relationship with Brian Clough during the City Ground glory years and how he always perceived himself to be the legendary manager's scapegoat.

Even now the Irishman will look back and complain about being shunted out to the fringes while Clough's Forest favourites, like O'Neill's current assistant John Robertson, could do no wrong.

O'Neill still talks about being forced to play right wing when personally he felt he was much more effective in central midfield. He still remembers the occasions he was dropped or subbed by Clough when he was convinced he should have started and finished every game.

He still bangs on, to anybody who will listen, about feeling victimised, expendable, replaceable.

Listen to O'Neill whinge about his persecution at the hands of Clough and it's almost as if it happened yesterday rather than during the late seventies and early eighties.

But, nowadays his gripes are voiced with a glint in the eye and with his typical self-deprecating wit because, with the benefit of hindsight, O'Neill recognises that his old manager was right all along.

Join Mat Kendrick and Lisa Smith as the cover Aston Villa's Carling Cup clash against Cardiff

THERE was an amusing case of mistaken identity during Villa's transfer deadline-day dealings.

A satellite channel, which shall remain nameless, got slightly muddled by the arrival of James Collins, amidst all their excitement about the window closing (blimey, anyone would think it's Armageddon they're counting down to, not the end of football's wheeling and dealing for a few months).

Anyway, the Wales defender was still crossing the t's and dotting the i's on his contract when the TV station reported that he was due to line up for Villa's reserves that very night.