Financially and in general, matters were very favourable at Villa Park regardless of the fact they were still in Division Three. In fact, the club’s financial success enabled the club to acquire and develop a new training ground in 1972, at Bodymoor Heath. The club had been without such a facility for seven years, and at last amends had been made.

But the mistake of not concentrating on the League the previous season was not to be repeated. In fact, the determination of Villa’s management to make better progress quickly came to light in the summer, when Brian Godfrey—a hero to many Villa fans—was allowed to move to Bristol Rovers in a deal that brought winger Ray Graydon to Villa.

The fact was that Villa would not have got Graydon had Rovers not been allowed to take Godfrey, and Graydon proved over and over again in the next six years what an asset he was. He was by no means big except in his heart, yet he had the wonderful combination of speed, ball control, accurate centres and lethal on-the-run shooting. He finished as Villa’s second highest scorer that season with 14 League goals, and probably supplied as many to his colleagues, particularly Andy Lochhead, who finished with 19 League goals. Willie Anderson (with 10), Geoff Vowden (with 10) and Bruce Rioch with 9 from his new wing-half position, added to the goal glut.

It was a steam-roller of a season, with the work really done between October and March. In that spell of 18 League games, Villa won 15, drew 2 and lost just the one.

It has to be said, though, that sometimes Villa’s play was ‘Route One’ stuff. One particular example was a huge kick out of the area by Jimmy Cumbes that caused all kinds of problems in Shrewsbury’s defence with the big Lochhead capitalising on it and scoring his side’s third goal. But Villa’s play, it has to be said, was very flexible. With the quality of the players they had, they could mostly play the game any old way in the Third Division to get the results that were needed.

One of the great games was in early February against promotion competitors Bournemouth, whose play was often worthy of the top division, let alone the Third Division. In Boyer and McDougall they had two star forwards, and in a highly-charged match, Villa won through, 2-1. The match was rightly selected for the BBC’s Match Of The Day.

Only a few days later, the enterprise of Eric Woodward and the Club brought the famed Brazilian side Santos for a friendly at Villa Park, though Santos went on to further matches in a European tour. More famous was one of their players, a certain Pele.

We have to pinch ourselves to be reminded that Villa were still in the old Third Division at this stage, yet were operating with the ambitions of a much higher club. The previous season Villa were tangling with the mighty Manchester United and Spurs—and impressively so—and now it was Santos and Pele.

The Villa thought they were doing well when indications were that 20,000 spectators would turn up, but the actual attendance turned out to be more than 50 thousand! Coincidentally, however, it was the time of the miners’ strike and consequential electricity failures, and Villa was affected by all of that. The Club had brought in a generator, but during the match there was a dispute about the efficacy of the generator and the lighting.
Good diplomacy paid off and the match was finished; despite sublime moments from Pele, Villa won, 2-1.

During March, Villa lost their way a bit for about three matches, but then finished the season on a wave of success and top place in the division. I recall being at the ground of Villa’s challengers’ Brighton in March when they gained a 1-2 win during Villa’s temporary blip, but my main memories of the day are getting a parking ticket and witnessing another Rioch special for Villa’ s goal.

Further foundations for the future were the acquisition of keeper Jim Cumbes from West Brom in November, and then midfielder Ian Ross from Liverpool and centre-half Chris Nicholl from Luton, both arriving in March and providing that extra class for the final push. Villa’s promotion was finally confirmed by a rare Charlie ‘Mr. Reliable’ Aitken goal at Bradford, four games from the end of the season.
Hamilton, Graydon, Cumbes, Ross and Nicholl stayed with the Villa through the next few seasons and played a huge part in the Villa’s return to the First Division. As far as this season was concerned, though, first team journeys to the likes of Halifax, Doncaster and Gillingham were now over.

But the Villa youth team were not to be outdone that season. For the first time in Villa’s history, they won the FA Youth Cup. Their players included the likes of John Gidman, Bobby McDonald and Brian Little, names that would soon be much talked of in Villa supporters’ homes and on the terraces.

© 2010 John Lerwill

Next week: A Temporary Hold-up