Villa are held at Villa park for the second successive game to make it five wins, four draws and six defeats in their fifteen division one games so far this season. Meanwhile Villa’s legendary full back Howard Spencer made his final appearance aged 32 before retiring from football. Howard had accumulated 294 appearances over his fourteen seasons with Villa since joining from Birchfield Trinity, winning the League Championship in 1895-96, 1896-97, 1898-99 and 1899-00 and the FA Cup in 1894-95, 1896-97 and 1904-05. Making their debut was forward George Reeves aged 23 after joining from Barnsley earlier this month for a fee of £1,000.