Today I'm going back 29 years to 1993 and Tottenham's visit to Villa Park, Birmingham to play Aston Villa in a Premier League fixture attended by 32,498.
Today's programme cover star, signing autographs for young fans, is Villa's Republic of Ireland international "Ooh Ah" Paul McGrath. Few players seem to thrive after leaving Manchester United but McGrath is one of the exceptions. He left Old Trafford in 1989 after 203 appearances for United (scoring 16 goals) to join Aston Villa where he would put in several seasons of excellent service (323 appearances and 10 goals) before moving on for a season at Derby County and then another at Sheffield United. McGrath was born in London to an Irish mother and his Nigerian father disappeared shortly after conception. McGrath was given up for adoption and also spent time in an orphanage despite having a mother. Despite such a challenging start to life, McGrath progressed well with his football and was spotted playing for St Patrick's Athletic by United. He succeeded in dislodging Gordon McQueen in the United side and remained in the side when Alex Ferguson took over from Ron Atkinson. Sadly McGrath was well known for having "dodgy knees" as well as a drink problem and missed too many games for Ferguson's liking but he went on to play some of his best football at Villa and was voted as PFA Players Player of the Year for 1993. McGrath was also a hero in the Republic of Ireland and he made 83 appearances (8 goals) for Eire, playing in the World Cups of 1990 and 1994.
King of the TV commentators John "Motty" Motson pointed out at kick off that Villa had lined up from numbers one to eleven which, in these days of squad shirt numbering, is a truly rare event indeed within the professional game. It is only once you get into the semi-professional ranks that the once traditional use of one to eleven can be found to be still alive and well. In fact 1993/94 was the season in which squad numbering was introduced into the Premier League so the featured game was literally one of the first games that used such numbering. Given their one to eleven line-up, I suspect that many Villa supporters must have wondered what all the fuss was about that day. I have to say that the use of allocated squad numbers consistently throughout a season is an idea that I thoroughly approve of. In the old days you simply couldn't be certain that the players wearing numbered shirts were actually the ones listed in the programme and you had to rely on the matchday tannoy announcer to confirm any team changes. Then there was the dilemma of whether to deface your programme by writing in the team changes. Personally I have never done that because handwriting dramatically decreases the value of a programme and so, unless you took notes on separate pieces of paper, you had to rely on your memory to work out who was who. Then along came squad numbering and player identification issues were gone at a stroke. You could be confident that the player wearing number 25 was the player listed at number 25 in the programme! Simple and yet brilliant eh?
Squad numbering has also permitted players to select some very high numbers indeed which is more akin to the shirt numbering in American Football. I have seen the odd player wearing 99 but never anything in three figures although there are examples of players who have worn milestone numbers like 100, 200 or 300. 69 also seems to be popular with players with a somewhat infantile sense of humour. But did you know that Eden Hazard wore number 50 at Real Madrid to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing (I kid you not!)? Also, the use of squad numbering permits a new concept: that of retiring specific shirt numbers in honour of a legendary player. Examples of this include the number 6 short at West Ham (Bobby Moore), 23 at Manchester City (Marc-Vivien Foe who died whilst playing for Cameroon) and 10 at Brescia (Roberto Baggio, club legend). But what about the retirement of Jude Bellingham's number 22 shirt at Birmingham City? He's hardly a legend and if shirt numbers are going to be retired in honour of a club's youngest ever goal scorer then maybe some clubs are going to eventually run out of two digit shirt numbers?
The key moment in the featured game came in the second half when Kevin Richardson siezed on the ball in the Spurs penalty area but was brought down by Dean Austin before he could get a shot off and, despite Ray Houghton slamming the loose ball home, the referee had already blown for a penalty. The spot kick was expertly dispatched by Steve Staunton with what proved to be the match winner.
1993/94 season proved not to be a good one for Spurs under the management of Ossie Ardiles and they ended up finishing 15th (of 22) just three points clear of the relegation positions which were occupied by Sheffield United, Oldham Athletic and Swindon Town. Aston Villa had a much better time of things, finishing in 10th place as well as winning that season's League Cup to earn themselves a place in the following season's UEFA Cup. Champions that season were Manchester United with 92 points, a comfortable 8 points clear of runners-up Blackburn Rovers.
CRB Match No. 847
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