50 The beautiful name

There are loads of Uniteds, lots Citys and Towns, a goodly sprinkling of Wanderers and Rovers and even a few Albions. But there is only one Villa – the greatest name in football in every sense. John Gregory, our former manager, had an eye for the populist quote and never more so than when he said: “There’s an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical, with five letters in each word.” He’s right, too. Just try writing it down now in upper and lower case. Aston Villa – heartstoppingly lovely.

49 The lads of the lamp

One Birmingham day, early in 1874, legend has it that four young men stopped under the flickering light of a Victorian gas lamp and discussed the idea of forming a football club. They stood on the junction of Heathfield Road and Lozells Lane, near a large town house called Aston Villa and opposite the imposing red-brick bulk of the local Wesleyan Chapel where all were regular attenders. They already played cricket for the chapel team but wanted to find some winter exercise. Much impressed by a game of football they had just watched on a nearby meadow, the lads decided to start a team, taking the name by which the area – thanks to the house a few yards away - had come informally to be known – Aston Villa. Within a quarter of a century, the club they formed was the most famous in the world – how’s that for “growing the brand.”

Now there are TWO ways to feed your fantasy

We have built on last year's success of PlayTheGame by offering fantasy football managers double the fun this coming season

BACKGROUND

• The world's top 50 footballers

• The 50 worst footballers

• 50 top football transfers

• The 50 worst transfers

BACKGROUND

• The top 50 managers of all time

• The top 50 football kits

• Football's 50 hardest men

• 50 most important goals

BACKGROUND

• The 50 defining moments of 2007-08

• The soul of Man Utd in 50 moments

• The soul of Liverpool in 50 moments

• The soul of Leeds in 50 moments

BACKGROUND

• The soul of Arsenal in 50 moments

• The soul of Chelsea in 50 moments

• Glanville's top 50 greatest hits

48 Defying Hitler

Brummie Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was not great at standing up to the Austrian with the little moustache, but his hometown football team did a better job. On tour in Germany in May 1938, Villa – unlike England the previous day – refused to give the Nazi salute as the teams lined up before the kick off. And, just for good measure, the Villa beat a Germany XI packed with German and Austrian internationals.

47 The Holy Trinity

In May 2000, in the week that Villa prepared to meet Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, the air around Aston was filled with the sound of bulldozers as the demolition men got to work on our beloved and beautiful Trinity Road stand. Since 1923 the mighty red-brick structure with its stained glass windows and gorgeous Italian marble mosaics had come to represent Aston Villa and was for many the most globally recognised symbol of the club. It wasn't just the outside that was wonderful either, remember the delicately curved claret and blue wall at the front of the top tier – I’m looking at a picture of it now and getting a bit tearful – or the majestic gable that boomed out the importance and stature of the Villa. All this meant nothing to Doug Ellis, though. Rangers, with their equally majestic main stand at Ibrox, had shown that a sensitive update was possible, but Doug preferred complete demolition and replacement not with an iconic, modern statement of equal architectural merit but with a complete carbuncle. A bit of Aston Villa died when the Trinity came down and for some of us things have never been quite the same since.

46 Billy Walker

Discussions about Villa’s greatest ever player tend to begin and end with the one and only Billy Walker. A Black Country lad, he made his debut at the start of the 1920 FA Cup-winning campaign and stayed until the end of 1933, making 531 appearances and scoring 244 goals. An inside forward, Walker was blessed with extraordinary ball skills and created just as many goals as he scored. As Roland Allen wrote: “As near as does not matter Billy could make a football do parlour tricks, sit up and beg, and follow him if he whistled.” Villa full back Tommy Smart was wont to put it more succinctly. When asked by fan or journalist to name the Villa team for the next game he would reply, “Billy Walker and ten others.”

45 The Double in a day

The list of clubs who have won the Double – like the bijou list of English clubs who have won the European Cup – retains a small, elite feel. However, Villa boast one distinction that will never be matched – we won both trophies on the same day. On April 10, 1897, Villa beat Everton 3-2 at the Crystal Palace in what is still the greatest FA Cup Final (forget the propaganda about 1948 or 1953). The Cup was by far the more important event in those days – the Victorians had a proper sense of priorities – but as the celebrations got underway it emerged that, 230 miles away at Gigg Lane, Bury had defeated our nearest rivals in the table Derby County and we were also League champions.