The Aston Villa Legacy Numbers initiative is shining a light on every single player who has represented the club competitively as part of our 150th anniversary celebrations this season.
The list began with the line-up from Villa’s first official match in 1879, an FA Cup tie against Stafford Road of Wolverhampton, with every player assigned his own unique number, denoting his place in the club’s long and illustrious history. View the full list here.
Delving further into the stories of some of our former players, we'll be regularly shining a light on a number of ex-Villans as we move towards the end of the current campaign.
Ahead of Villa's quarter-final tie against Preston North End on Sunday, in this edition, we take a closer look at five players who've made their mark for the club in the FA Cup...
144: Joe Bache
One of the great Villa careers appeared to be drawing to a close when the signing of Clem Stephenson (Legacy Number 220), an inside-left of vast potential, seemed to indicate there was no future for Joe Bache.
But Bache was having none of it. At 32, he recast himself as a left winger, formed a terrific partnership with Stephenson, and resumed the club captaincy. By the end of 1912-13, he was stepping up to lift the FA Cup after Villa’s 1-0 win over Sunderland. In fact, he came close to emulating John Devey and leading Villa to a second Double.
Bache was born in Stourbridge and arrived at Villa Park from the Black Country non-league club in February 1901. It took him only until the start of the following season to nail down a regular place. He was a highly skilled ball-player and much-loved by a Villa Park crowd who were prepared to forgive his occasional selfishness in possession.
He won his first FA Cup winners’ medal in 1905, playing in all six games in the campaign and scoring four goals. In the final victory over Newcastle United, he provided the assist for Harry Hampton’s opener and was involved in the move that led to Hampton’s second goal.
He made two contributions to the extraordinary Cup final win over Sunderland, attended by a vast crowd of 121,919 at the Crystal Palace. First, he calmed his players when Sunderland were losing their heads and threatening to turn the showpiece into a brawl. “Now lads, play the man not the ball,” he called out.
Then, in those pre-manager days, he made a key tactical tweak, ordering the half-back line to mark their opponents more closely. Bache calculated, correctly, that although the Villa forwards might be starved of possession for a while, it would be worth it to nullify Sunderland’s threat.
It is a measure of his stature in Villa history that only Charlie Aitken, Billy Walker, Gordon Cowans and Allan Evans have played more games for the club.
Span: 1900-01 — 1914-15. Appearances: 474 Goals: 184
708: Gareth Southgate
There was a photograph of Villa’s 1982 European Cup-winning team pinned over Gareth Southgate’s peg at Bodymoor Heath. “It was a statement both to myself and to the rest of the lads.” he recalled, “Forget everything else, this is the team we have to emulate.”
Southgate had arrived at Villa Park from Crystal Palace during Brian Little’s rebuild in the summer of 1995. At £2.5 million, he was briefly a record signing, but that fee was eclipsed when Savo Milosevic arrived shortly afterwards.
At Palace, Southgate had been employed in midfield and initially that is where Little intended to play him. But the capture of Mark Draper necessitated a rethink and Southgate was shifted back to a reconstructed defence.
He soon looked completely at home in the role – playing alongside Paul McGrath might have helped – and in an outstanding first season, he became a League Cup winner and an England regular. Later, he succeeded Andy Townsend as captain and led Villa out in the 2000 FA Cup final.
He was an immaculate defender whose commitment was absolute, even when he later became disillusioned with the club. At the start of this year, he earned a distinction some may have missed: the first Villa player to be awarded a knighthood.
Span: 1995-96 – 2000-01. Appearances: 242 Goals: 9
39: Dennis Hodgetts
It fell to Denny Hodgetts to score Villa’s first goal in an FA Cup final and create an indelible mark in the club’s history. The goal came in the second half of the 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion at The Oval on 2nd April 1887. It was not a difficult chance – the Albion defenders all stopped, thinking he was offside, and were furious when the goal was given.
Hodgetts had been with the club for just over a year after signing from Birmingham St George’s and quickly became a favourite with first-generation Villa supporters at Wellington Road.
At 13st 10lb, he was sturdily built for a winger but it did not impact on his deft ball control. He was also able to bend crosses into opposing penalty areas, using a technique he developed as a champion billiards player. On occasions, this skill enabled him to score directly from corners, in the same manner as Douglas Luiz (Legacy Number 935).
Hodgetts collected another FA Cup winners’ medal in 1895 and was also a member of two title-winning squads (in 1893-94 and 1895-96), but he lost all the mementos of his career – he also won six England caps – in a burglary at the pub he ran in Birmingham in 1909. They were never recovered.
Span: 1885-86 — 1895-96. Appearances: 218 Goals: 90
452: Les Smith
Not to be confused with Leslie Smith (Legacy Number 393), Les Smith – a winger like his namesake – arrived at Villa Park from Wolverhampton Wanderers amid the desperate relegation struggle of 1955-56. He made his debut at home to Arsenal on the same day as another new boy, Jimmy Dugdale. Both contributed to Villa’s skin-of-the-teeth survival.
Short, sturdy and determined, Smith had deep reserves of stamina, a prerequisite for any footballer who played for Wolves in the 1950s. “He was very fast and he had a thunderous shot in his right foot, cutting in from the wing at speed,” wrote Larry Canning, the former Villa player who became a broadcaster. “When Les Smith went past defenders they never saw him again.”
With Smith on the right wing and Peter McParland on the left, the Villa team that lifted the FA Cup in the season after the great escape had two wingers of similar disposition.
In the third-round replay victory over Luton Town, Smith created both of Johnny Dixon’s goals and his contribution was summed up by Rod Davies in the Evening Mail. “He works like a slave every minute of the game,” he wrote. “He was felled more often than a tenth-rate heavyweight but he dashed back into the fray where it was thickest.”
Span: 1955-56 — 1958-59. Appearances: 130 Goals: 25
396: Johnny Dixon
It cost Villa a £10 signing-on fee to acquire the services of Johnny Dixon, which must qualify as the best investment the club ever made. He had played wartime football for Newcastle United in his native northeast, but only as an amateur and was therefore not liable for a transfer fee. He came down to Birmingham for a trial and stayed for the rest of his life.
“Villa have not had a better servant in post-war football,” said his former manager Eric Houghton. “He was a credit on and off the field. He should have been a director – he was just the right type.”
It was Houghton who, recognising Dixon’s leadership qualities, made him captain seven games from the end of the 1955-56 season when Villa relegation looked inevitable.
They survived – “by the skin of our teeth,” said Dixon – and the following season trailed clouds of glory all the way to Wembley and an against-the-odds FA Cup final triumph against Manchester United. “It was the happiest day of my life – that wonderful day,” Dixon told Leon Hickman in his book Aston Villa Greats. There was one black mark on Dixon’s career: like Dennis Mortimer he was bafflingly overlooked for international recognition. “Of course he should have played for England,” said Houghton. “There have been many worse who have.”
Span: 1946-47 — 1960-61. Appearances: 430 Goals: 144
Legacy Numbers Initiative
