Aston Villa Football Club (/ˈæstən ˈvɪlə/; nicknamed Villa, The Villa, The Villans and The Lions)[3] is a professional football club in Aston, Birmingham, that plays in the Championship, the second level of English football. Founded in 1874, they have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888 and of the Premier League in 1992.[4] Aston Villa are one of only five English clubs to be crowned champions of Europe, having won the 1981–82 European Cup. They have also won the First Division Championship seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the Football League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. They have a fierce local rivalry with Birmingham City and the Second City derby between the sides has been played since 1879.[5] The club's traditional kit colours are claret shirts with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and sky blue socks. Their traditional badge is of a rampant lion.[6][7] The club is owned by Recon Group Limited, a company chaired by Chinese businessman Tony Xia, and managed by Steve Bruce. Off to the West Midlands to take on high flying Villa, having won a shed load of games on the bounce Villa lost at Fulham on Saturday however they way Fulham are playing at the moment no disgrace in that result. Villa have moved through the gears this season hitting second place last week before their defeat dropped them one place in the table. They won 2-0 at Deepdale putting in a professional performance on the night although has to be said we were badly hampered by defensive absences on the night and didn't really give them a gane although expect that to be different tomorrow night. They have a squad of depth and experience, John Terry at the back is no mug and it is no coincidence that his return from injuury has led to an improvement in results. Whelan, Samba also have vast experience in the top league plus the very useful Adomah who always seems to score against us, Snodgrass is a danger as is Hogan. Grealish seems to be now showing his full potential although both him and Adomah missed the defeat on Saturday. Tough opposition whoever they put out in front of about 30000 will be good experience for our younger players. Drew there last season even though Andy Madley gave possibly the worst penalty decision in the history of the game against us. Pearson and Cunningham available after enforced holidays whilst Welsh now out for one game after expulsion on Saturday. Perform like we did on Saturday then we may get something from this game, as with Saturday it's a free game not expected to get anything but on the night you never know what will happen. With Brizzle self destructing the last play off place is up for grabs. Roller Coaster time is just about to begin let's see were it takes us. Finally it is the last scheduled night away game of the season, the last time we will have to put up with night time road works on the M6, have absolutely no idea which country lanes they will be sending us down on the way home so expect a match report some time Wednesday also for me the road between the M55 and where I live is also shut so down even more remote potholed roads will be negotiated, the joy. Ref Watch: Aston Villa please log in to view this image For the third time this season, the Lilywhites will have Darren England as match official for Tuesday night’s clash with Steve Bruce’s Aston Villa at Villa Park. please log in to view this image TThe referee for the tie is in his first year on the Select Group Two list and was the match official for our game at Middlesbrough in August and the 2-2 draw with Fulham in October. That means he has taken charge of three PNE games overall in his refereeing career, all of them being away from Deepdale, the first of which being the final match of the 2016/17 season, and it was his first Championship game, in the fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. This will also be his first visit to Villa Park this season, having refereed Villa once so far in 2017/18, their 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers in November. So far this season, he has officiated in 28 games, issuing 103 cautions and two red cards, his last game being Millwall’s 1-0 win at Birmingham City at the weekend. This Tuesday he will be assisted by Nick Greenhalgh and James Mainwaring and the fourth official will be Mark Heywood. Stat Attack: Aston Villa please log in to view this image One of the oldest rivalries in professional football resumes on Tuesday between two teams who met numerous times prior to the establishment of the Football League in 1888. Our first competitive visit away to Villa came eight months before the league was inaugurated, when we won an FA Cup fifth round tie at their Wellington Road ground 3-1. Indeed our first ten league games were held at the same venue before Villa moved to their new home in the Aston Pleasure Grounds in 1898. Wellington Road was not a rewarding venue for North End as we only won twice in the league, losing the other eight although we did draw a third round FA Cup replay there on our last ever visit. Our record didn’t improve at Villa Park, where we have played 40 league games prior to today, winning only seven times whilst last season’s 2-2 draw was only our fourth at the ground. Between 1920 and 1954, we lost 14 consecutive league games to our hosts, one of worst league runs in our history. Highlights have been few and far between, with 4-2 victories way back in 1909 and 1919, whilst we have conceded five goals on three occasions, although the most recent was in 1935. The highest scoring game saw us lose 5-3 in September 1889, the first time we had conceded five times in a league game and the only time in our first 182 matches in the competition. Last season’s game was the first league fixture between the clubs at Villa Park for 44 years as we went our separate ways from the early 1970s onwards. Jinking Jimmy Brown moved north to Deepdale in 1975 having made almost 80 appearances for Villa as a combative midfielder. He turned out in 72 games for North End at a time we were in the third division before becoming something of a football nomad with spells in Greece, Portmouth, Belgium and his native Scotland before moving into non-league football in the 1980s. Tony Morley became a European Cup winner with Villa in 1982 when they overcame Bayern Munich in the Final. Tony started his career with North End before moving to Burnley in 1976 and then Villa three year later. He went on to become one of a very select group of players to appear for both Villa and their arch-rivals Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion before ending his league career back at Turf Moor. He too was something of a globetrotter, playing for teams in Hong Kong, Holland, America and Malta at the end of a career that began with 99 games and 20 goals in a lilywhite shirt. On This Date North End great Alan Spavin, who sadly died in 2016, was born on this date in 1942. A member of our FA Youth Cup Final side of 1960 that produced a crop of talented players, Spav made his debut at the start of the following season aged just 18. Over the next 19 years, he went on to reach third place in our all-time appearances chart, his 484 games just three behind Willie Cunningham and only 28 between team-mate, great friend and business partner Alan Kelly senior. Spav’s time at Deepdale as a midfield general was interrupted for three years from 1974 to 1977 when he moved to America to play for Washington Diplomats and set up a soccer school with Kelly and he also played for Morecambe and Dundalk before returning to North End in 1977. He only made ten appearances in his second spell, but he was as important on the training field as on the pitch as he passed on his wealth of experience, which included playing in our 1964 FA Cup Final side, to the club’s younger players. Pavel Pergl made the first of his six appearances for North End on 20th February 2007. The only Czech Republic player to represent North End to date, he made a goalscoring debut in a 2-1 home win over Norwich, but was released at the end of the season having filed to establish himself in the side. He is currently appearing for FC Chur in Switzerland – the seventh country he has played in. Frank O’Donnell scored a hat-trick on this date in 1937 in a 5-3 home win over Exeter City, his second treble in three weeks. North End were a First Division side whilst Exeter were from the third division south so an easy win was expected but it turned into a real battle before we emerged victorious. Hugh O’Donnell and Jimmy Dougal also scored as we made progress towards the final, where we lost 3-1 to Sunderland. Last Five Games At Villa Park Aston Villa 2 (Adomah, 2 (1 pen)) Preston North End 2 (Hugill, 2), 21st January 2017 Aston Villa 5 (Vassell, 2; Dublin, Angel, Hitzelsperger) Preston North End 0, 4th December 2002 Aston Villa 2 (Hockey, Aitken) Preston North End 0, 25th August 1973 Aston Villa 1 (Aitken) Preston North End 1 (Bruce), 17th February 1973 Aston Villa 2 (Lochhead, 2) Preston North End 0, 19th September 1970
Aston Villa 1 Grabban pen Preston North End 1 Barkhuizen Aston Villa line-up: Johnstone, Chester, Snodgrass (Grabban, 46), Hogan, Hourihane (Davis, 46), Jedinak, Onomah, Bjarnason, Hutton, Terry ©, Tuanzebe (Elmohamady, 85). Subs not used: Bunn, Taylor, Whelan, Lansbury. PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Cunningham ©, Pearson, Huntington, Davies, Bodin (Harrop, 90), Browne, Robinson, Moult (Horgan, 83), Barkhuizen (Simpson, 90). Subs not used: Maxwell, Woods, Spurr, Earl. Attendance: 30,134 (972 PNE fans) Referee: Mr D England Another disputed decision cost North End two points in a game which I though we really deserved to win, when Barkhuizen was adjudged to have pushed Davies the referee gave nothing however his assistant started to flag at a rate of knots that Barks had committed a foul. Seemed very soft the kind of decision away sides would not get. Grabban dispatched it down the centre and Villa were level. Up to then North End had more than matched the home side after an initial strong start by Villa which saw Rudd make two good saves from Bjarnason and Chester. The North End stopper also saved well after Hogan had down the byline before firing in a shot which Rudd saved with his feet. From then North End took control, Robinson failed to hit the target when let in by a mistake by Terry. Pressure was piled on by a series of corners and about 8 minutes from half time Villa made a complete hash of trying to clear a Robinson inswinger and Barkhuizen hooked the ball home to give us a deserved lead. Half time two substitutes by Villa made no difference, North End forced Johnstone, Robinson was then denied by a fine block by the Villa keeper when 10 yards out and if we had got a second then we would have won but we didn't and then came the penalty and Villa were lifted, a couple of headers went wide before Hutton blitzed one inches wide from 25 yards. Back came North End and looked the more likely winners but we just couldn't find a way through with Robinson being denied by a fine block by Chester. So all square at the Villa and we have picked up two points against Villa and Wolves which I would have settled for however it could have so easily have been six points. We have a chance time to start turning draws into wins starting with the Tractors on Saturday. Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce told BBC Sport: "We found it difficult. They've only lost one in 17 and you can see why. They have a fantastic work effort with good players and, in this league, they're a threat for anybody. "We've given them a goal. They got a break with their first attempt which was a mistake by us. Then Snoddy (Robert Snodgrass) was sick at half time and we had to change fit. "If I'm being brutally honest, when I first saw it, I thought our penalty looked a bit soft, but having seen it again on the video, it was actually a ridiculous challenge. He just jumped into him. The referee and linesman have got it spot on. "It might not have been fair but we might even have won it in the end. The best ball of the match and Keinan Davis couldn't quite get on the end of it." Preston manager Alex Neil told BBC Sport: "We were the better side viewed over the 90 minutes, in every facet of the game. We've come here and dominated. "It's just disappointing that it was a really soft penalty that got them back into it. It was the linesman that gave it, not the referee. "Whenever you come to a big away ground, you hope that it will be a level playing field and that you get a strong referee and I didn't think that was the right decision. "But we created enough chances to have won it. And we only scored one goal and that leaves you susceptible."
