Sports Calendar

46 NIGEL SPINK

(1979-1995) 460 apps, 0 goals

It seems remarkable in retrospect that Nigel Spink should end his career at Villa Park with more than 450 appearances to his credit because he always seemed to be fighting with a rival to prove himself worthy of the No 1 shirt. First of all he had to wait patiently while Jimmy Rimmer established his claims to be the club’s finest postwar goalkeeper. But later challenges came from Mervyn Day, Kevin Poole and Les Sealey. Stoically, he saw them all off and it was not until the emergence of a brilliant and brash young Aussie called Mark Bosnich in 1993 that he knew the game was up – not that he would have admitted it for a second. The fact is, however, that Spink would make this list even if he had not gone beyond his second first-team appearance, his sensational and nerveless denial of the mighty Bayern Munich forward line in the 1982 European Cup final. For that game alone, his name is writ large in the proud history of Aston Villa.

45 TONY HATELEY

(1963-66) 148 apps, 86 goals

The well worn football saying “more clubs than Jack Nicklaus” might have been coined for Tony Hateley and perhaps it was because he followed the hugely talented Gerry Hitchens and the populist showman Derek Dougan that he was never loved by the Holte End in the way of many so many other Villa No 9s. Yet, controversial though it will be, Hateley’s statistics demand inclusion on this list. In a stay lasting a little more than three seasons he scored 86 times – all of them in a team struggling for first division survival. In fact, final confirmation of his worth to the team was delivered when Villa were finally relegated in 1966-67 after he had been sold to Chelsea early in the season.

44 HARRY PARKES

(1946-54) 345 apps, 4 goals

Like Ian Taylor before him, Harry Parkes makes it on to the list through the qualities of dedication to the cause and character as much as what he could do with a ball at his feet. Parkes joined the club in the spring of 1939 and although he was a regular during the war years his first-team debut in proper competition was not until the FA Cup was restarted in January 1946. Thereafter, when the Football League resumed the following season, he made up for lost time, playing in all but a handful of games in the next eight seasons, usually at full back although his cheerful versatility meant he was deployed in a variety of positions. It was as club comedian that he is perhaps best remembered, his talent for mimickery and love of a practical joke enlivening many a long railway journey through the drab landscape of postwar England.

43 VIC CROWE

(1954-1963) 351 apps, 12 goals

Vic Crowe was in the crowd on that momentous day in March 1946 when a record 76,588 crammed into Villa Park to see the FA Cup quarter-final against Derby County. As a 14-year-old schoolboy he could not have known that this was to be a symbolic moment for a man who was to serve the club with unswerving loyalty as player, manager and, finally, supporter again. He made his debut in October 1954 and, during the next ten years, became an admired and respected performer who assumed the captaincy in the early 1960s. But he was injured early in the 1956-57 season and so missed out on the FA Cup win that was the one notable success the club enjoyed in that period. He became reserve-team coach in 1969 but after the sacking of Tommy Docherty in January 1970 he found himself occupying the manager’s office. He steered the club to a League Cup final and promotion from the third division but was sacked in 1974 after failing to deliver a return to the top flight. Nevertheless, his legacy was a club run along much more professional lines and when, in the early 1980s, Villa won the league championship and European Cup he deserved recognition as the man who had put the foundations in place.