Villa face Gravesend & Northfleet for the first time in competitive football, Gravesend & Northfleet become the 135th team that the Villa first team has played in League or Cup football.

Villa were originally drawn away however Gravesend & Northfleet forfeited home advantage in order to play the fixture in front of a bigger crowd at Villa Park cue Doug Ellis deciding money trumped loyalty as he had season ticket holders forcefully moved from their allocated seats to make way for new paying customers.

Mark Bosnich’s goals conceded per game ratio drops below 1 for the first time since his 71st appearance. Now, on his 119th appearance in a Villa shirt Bosnich has a record of W52 D29 L38, 118 Goals Conceded at a rate of 0.99 goals per game and 42 Clean Sheets (35%) so far in his Villa career.

Dwight Yorke secures his 75th win in a Villa shirt on his 179th appearance (139 Starts) and make it W75 D46 L58, 47 Goals, 26 Assists and 2 Bookings at a goal involvement rate of one for every 2.45 games he has played so far in his Villa career.

Andy Townsend secures his 50th win in a Villa shirt on his 106th appearance (105 Starts) to make it W50 D23 L33, 8 Goals, 14 Assists, 17 Bookings and 4 Red Cards so far in his Villa career.

Mark Draper makes his 25th appearance in a Villa shirt to make it W14 D6 L5, 4 Goals and 5 Assists so far in his Villa career.

Riccardo Scimeca makes his 10th appearance in a Villa shirt (4 Starts) to make it W7 D1 L2 so far in his Villa career.