The story has long since been part of claret and blue folklore. Four gentlemen stood under a gas lamp in Heathfield Road in 1874 and engaged in a discussion which would create one of the greatest clubs in the world.
In different circumstances, Aston Villa might have become a rugby club. The four members of the Male Adult Bible Class at the Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel had just watched one of their colleagues, William Mason, in action with an oval ball at Heathfield Park.
But John Hughes, William Price, George Matthews and William Scattergood concluded that rugby was too physical a game, deciding instead that Association football was the best option in their quest for a winter sporting activity to complement their thriving cricket section.
That gas lamp conversation resulted in the birth of a football institution.
Five years later, under the guidance of secretary George Burrell Ramsay, Villa entered the FA Cup for the first time, even though their interest ended in bizarre fashion. Having beaten Stafford Road in the first round, they withdrew from the competition after being paired with a powerful Oxford University team in round two, presumably because it was felt they would be overwhelmed. Instead, they went on to win their first trophy closer to home, beating Saltley College in the Birmingham Senior Cup final.
By the 1886-87 season, Villa were taking the FA Cup far more seriously. In October, they romped to a club record 13-0 win over Wednesbury Old Athletic and the following April they were Cup winners for the first time, goals from Dennis Hodgetts and Archie Hunter clinching a 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion in the final at Kennington Oval.
At that stage, most of the team’s games were friendlies but, a year later, committee member William McGregor wrote to several other leading clubs to suggest a more structured competition. The outcome was the formation of the Football League, Villa finishing runners-up to Preston North End in the inaugural 1888-89 campaign.
The club’s first League title was secured in 1894, marking the start of the club’s golden era. By the first months of the 20th century, they had been champions on four more occasions (1896, 1897, 1899 and 1900) and had enjoyed two more Cup triumphs, beating Albion again in 1895 and Everton two years later – on the same day that results elsewhere meant Villa became only the second club to achieve a League and Cup double.
The first two decades of the new century brought further success in the form of Cup glory in 1905, 1913 and 1920, while the club were crowned League champions for the sixth time in 1910.
In 1930-31, Villa finished the season with an English record of 128 League goals – including a club record 49 for Tom 'Pongo' Waring – although they still had to settle for runners-up spot behind Arsenal.
There was a significant move in 1934, when the club appointed a team manager for the first time. Sadly, former Scotland international Jimmy McMullan was dismissed after 11 games of his second season in charge, and Villa remained managerless as they were relegated for the first time.
That initial stay in the Second Division was relatively brief. Two years later they were guided back to the top flight by Jimmy Hogan, who had earned a reputation as one of Europe’s leading coaches during his time in charge of the Austrian and Swiss national teams.
In 1939, the season was suspended after just three games following the outbreak of the Second World War, and Villa spent the next six years playing in various local competitions, although there was an important success in 1944 when they beat Blackpool 5-4 on aggregate to win the Football League North War Cup.
It wasn’t until 1946-47 that the Football League resumed, although the Cup returned the previous season, a record crowd of 76,588 packing into Villa Park for a quarter-final against Derby County. The Rams went on to lift the trophy, with Villa having to wait another 11 years for their seventh Cup triumph, Peter McParland’s brace securing a 2-1 Wembley victory over favourites Manchester United in the 1957 final.
Following another relegation two years later, Villa bounced straight back to the top flight. And apart from returning to the First Division they also entered the new League Cup, winning the inaugural competition with a two-legged victory over Rotherham United in the final.
But the Swinging Sixties was very much an era to forget. Less than 12 months after England’s World Cup glory, Villa were relegated for a third time, with worse to follow. 1970 was the nadir of the club’s history as they went down to the old Third Division.
For all that, life in the third tier is fondly remembered by those who experienced it. Travelling supporters helped to set record attendances at many of the grounds they had never previously visited, while 62,500 were at Villa Park for an epic League Cup semi-final as Vic Crowe’s men beat a Manchester United side which included George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law.
Villa also gave a good account of themselves before losing 2-0 to Tottenham in the final, and in 1972 the club began their journey back to the top by winning the Third Division title.
The centenary season of 1974-75 could hardly have been celebrated in better fashion. Ray Graydon’s penalty rebound goal clinched a League Cup final victory over Norwich City in March, and the following month Villa secured promotion to the First Division.
For the next seven years, Villa simply got better and better. In 1977, Brian Little’s extra-time goal in a second replay at Old Trafford secured another League Cup final triumph and in 1981 Villa were champions for the seventh time.
They then savoured the most iconic moment in the club’s history. In May 1982, Villa were crowned champions of Europe thanks to Peter Withe’s winner against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam. As a bonus, the UEFA Super Cup was added to the trophy cabinet in January 1983 with a 3-1 aggregate success over Barcelona, but Villa then went into a decline which culminated in relegation just five years after their European Cup triumph.
Thankfully they spent just one season in the Second Division, and in 1992 the club became founder members of the FA Premier League, finishing runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season.
More League Cup glory was also on the horizon, in the form of a 3-1 win against United in the 1994 final and an emphatic 3-0 victory over Leeds United two years later.
There was a minor European success in 2001 in the form of the Intertoto Cup, while Villa reached both the 2010 League Cup final and 2015 FA Cup final, only to be beaten by Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.
A year after losing to the Gunners, supporters had to endure another relegation, but at least there was something to celebrate at Wembley in May 2019, when a play-off final victory over Derby County took Villa back to the Premier League.
The Villans secured top-flight survival on a dramatic final day in 2019-20, having also reached the League Cup final just months earlier before losing out to Manchester City.
Successive 11th, 14th and seventh-placed finishes followed, with Villa, under head coach Unai Emery, enjoying their fifth campaign back in the Premier League in 2023/24 alongside a return to European competition in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
And it was certainly one to cherish as Villa celebrated a memorable campaign, rewriting history books along the way to finish fourth in the Premier League – the club’s highest position since 1995/96.
The top-four spot secured Champions League football for the first time in the club’s history, on the back of having reached the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League.
Excitement levels have rarely been higher ahead of 2024/25 as Villa prepare to compete among Europe’s elite once again in what is the club’s 150th anniversary season.
