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Game #3567

Aston Villa

7-9-4, 23 PTS

Wednesday, 19 December 1979

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Won

5th (+2)

Last 5: 🟨 🟨 🟥 🟩 🟩

Division One

Coventry City

Villa Park

Attendance: 24,446

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

Aston Villa

3-0

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Coventry City

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Assist(s) | Gordon Cowans | 8' | 60' | Terry Bullivant | 51' |

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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MATCH TIMELINE

Wednesday, 19 December 1979

🟢 | 1’ Debut, Terry Donovan
⚽ | 8’ Goal, 1-0, Terry Donovan, Assist by Gordon Cowans
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 1-0 Coventry City
⚽ | 51’ Goal, 2-0, Brian Little, Assist by Terry Bullivant
⚽ | 60’ Goal, 3-0, Brian Little, Assist by Gordon Cowans
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 3-0 Coventry City

Match Statistics

Not recorded

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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ON THIS DAY

Wednesday, 19 December 1979

  • Villa record consecutive wins and have now lost just once in fourteen Division One games.

  • Villa make it seven wins, nine draws and four defeats in twenty League matches this season under Ron Saunders.

  • Villa climb to fifth in the table.

  • Centre Forward Terry Donovan makes a goalscoring debut in a Villa shirt after joining from Grimsby Town in September 1979 for a fee of £90,000 to become the 610th player to play for Villa in first team League or Cup football.

  • Gordon Cowans contributes a brace of assists to make it 31 goal involvements in 131 appearances in a Villa shirt (116 Starts) and W55 D38 L38, 16 Goals and 15 Assists at a goal involvement rate of one for every 4.23 games he has played so far in his Villa career.

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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DEBUT APPEARANCES

🟢 CF Terry Donovan | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

FINAL APPEARANCES

None

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Aston Villa

League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1976-77

Coventry City

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League Champions: ❌
FA Cup Winners: ❌
League Cup Winners: ❌
Last Trophy: ❌

Aston Villa

Coventry City

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FIXTURE HISTORY

Villa v

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Coventry City

Previous 5 vs. Coventry: 🟩 🟨 🟩 🟨 🟨

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

FIXTURE DETAILS

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Season | 1979-80 |
Matchday | #24 |
League Match | #20 |
Manager Game | #285 |
Wednesday, 19 December 1979

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🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

MATCH SUMMARY

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Manager: Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Birkenhead, 1974-1982
Referee: Joe Worrall | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Warrington, 1976-1995
HT Score: 🟩 1-0
FT Result: 🟩 Won
FT Score: 🟩 3-0
Last 5: 🟨 🟨 🟥 🟩 🟩

Scorers
Timeline
On This Day
Trophies
Matches
Fixture

MANAGERIAL RECORD

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Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1974-1982

GAMES | WINS | DRAWS | LOSSES | POINTS PER GAME

🕒 285 | 🟩 | 125 🟨 | 82 🟥 78 | 1.60

Villa Career Form:

Top 6

ALL THE MATCHES LED BY:

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Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1974-1982

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

MATCH OFFICIALS

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Referee: Joe Worrall | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Warrington, 1976-1995
Matches Officiated: 2
🟩 : 2
🟨 : 0
🟥 : 0
🆘 : 1
Previous 5: 🟩
Last Match: 🟩 5 April 1977, Villa 1-0 Middlesbrough, Villa Park.
Cards: 🟨 🟨

ALL THE MATCHES REFEREED BY:

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CARDS

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None

🟨 🟨

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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TEAM NEWS

TEAM STATS

Terry Donovan makes his debut in place of David Geddis.

Starting XI Average Age
| 23.76 |

Oldest Player |
GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 31.88 |

Youngest Player |
F Gary Shaw | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 18.09 |

Referee
Manager

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

MANAGER

Ron Saunders | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1974-1982

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Aston Villa

GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Kenny Swain | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Ken McNaught | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
CB Brendan Ormsby | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Colin Gibson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Gordon Cowans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 | 🔥 |
M Des Bremner | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Terry Bullivant | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 |
F Brian Little | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ | ⚽ |
F Gary Shaw | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Terry Donovan | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟢 | ⚽ |

MANAGER

Gordon Milne | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

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Coventry City

GK Les Sealey | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Brian Roberts | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Jim Holton | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | 🟨 |
CB Gary Gillespie | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
LB Bobby McDonald (ex) | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Ray Gooding | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Tommy Hutchison | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Andy Blair (ex) | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
W Steve Hunt (ex) | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟨 |
F Ian Wallace | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
CF Mick Ferguson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |

Line Ups

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

SUBSTITUTES

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No Substitutions Made

SUBSTITUTES

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🔁 | CF Mick Ferguson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | (W Steve Whitton | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |)

Substitutes

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

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W Tony Morley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

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None

Player Positions:

GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half


M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward

Match Symbols:

⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution

🟨 | Booking

🟥 | Sending off

🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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MATCHDAY SQUAD BIOGRAPHIES

STARTING XI

* This Game

Game
Start
Goal
Assist
Win
Draw
Loss
Goal Conceded
Clean Sheet
Yellow
Red
GK Jimmy Rimmer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

SUBSTITUTES

Game
Sub
Goal
Assist
Win
Draw
Loss
Goal Conceded
Clean Sheet
Yellow
Red

UNUSED

Unused
Squad Bios

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

SQUAD STATS

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1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 11/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 12/12

SQUAD STATS

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1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 11/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 12/12

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

MATCHDAY SQUAD

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MATCHDAY SQUAD

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🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

UNAVAILABLE

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Injury | 5 |
M Alex Cropley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
M Frank Carrodus | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
LB Mike Pejic | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF David Geddis | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Allan Evans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |

UNAVAILABLE

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Not Recorded

Unavailable

LEAGUE TABLE

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MATCHDAY PROGRAMME

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Tables & Programmes

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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MATCH QUOTES

Quotes

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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MATCH REPORTS

Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. With thanks to Reach PLC. Digitised by Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited. All rights reserved. Source: British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

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*Birmingham Daily Post*
Thursday, 20 December 1979

​Brian Little scored two magnificent second half solo goals to carry Aston Villa through to a handsome victory over West Midland rivals Coventry City at Villa Park last night. Little, whose £600,000 transfer to Birmingham City fell through in the summer because of a back complaint, was in devastating form. He completely destroyed Coventry's square defence. running determinedly into the penalty area before finishing in the classical style. Little might well have rounded off the evening with a hat-trick, producing a brilliant save from goalkeeper Les Sealey in the 72nd minute after yet another penetrating run. His first goal, after 51 minutes, was a typically individual effort. He collected the ball from midfield after Terry Bullivant had won a challenge with Tommy Hutchison and he rifled his shot under Sealey's body as the 'keeper advanced off his line. Little's second goal, which doubled his scoring tally over the last fourteen months, was even better. Challenge Gordon Cowans beat Hutchison in an aerial challenge in the centre circle and the diminutive striker then raced clear for 45 yards before again hitting a right. foot shot past Sealey into net. Villa, who moved into fifth place in the First Division table by virtue of this impressive win, had the best possible start against their local rivals with Terry Donovan scoring a smart eighth minute headed goal on his debut. Donovan's goal. from a leftwing corner by Cowans, set the seal on a quite magical night for Villa - a night when they did everything right. They might well have doubled the score, but for some inspired goalkeeping by Sealey, who somehow contrived to keep the score down when his side were in danger of being over-run. The Sky Blues were just not in Villa's class, often looking very pedestrian as they were beaten to the ball in almost every incident. The key to Villa's victory, forgetting Little's opportunism, was in midfield, where Bremner, Bullivant and Cowans dictated the pattern of play. It was a game which Coventry will want to forget quickly. Young defender Gary Gillespie was the only player to emerge with any credit. He at least endeavoured to stem the tide, but his colleagues were hopelessly in disarray as Villa convincingly commanded the proceedings. Late tackles Steve Hunt and Jim Holton were both booked for late tackles and Holton's caution means that he will now have to race an F.A. disciplinary commission for exceeding 20 disciplinary points. Villa could not be faulted in any department. The whole team played with purpose and positive determination which augers extremely well for the New Year. Donovan did exceptionally well on his First Division debut causing Coventry's defence all manner of problems with his powerful challenges. It was difficult to pick out Villa's best player because all 11 played extremely well. But both full-backs, Colin Gibson and Ken Swain, contributed to Villa's all-out attacks to cause panic in the Coventry defence every time Villa had possession. It was really Little's game, however, as the exciting Geordie turned in one of his best performances for at least three seasons.
Reports

🟩 19 Dec 1979, Villa 3-0 Coventry, Villa Park.

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MATCH VIDEO

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