Dean Smith’s Villa hammer League Two Barrow in their first ever match against the Cumbrians thanks to a hat-trick from under 23 striker Cameron Archer as a youthful line up delivers an exciting glimpse of the future. 

Villa face Barrow for the first time in competitive football, Barrow become the 162nd team that the Villa first team has played in League or Cup football.

Cameron Archer scores a hat-trick on only his second appearance for the club (First Start) to make it W2 D0 L0 and 3 Goals so far in his Villa career.

Aaron Ramsey makes his sole appearance for Villa having graduated from the Villa youth teams before moving to Burnley for £14,000,000 in August 2023

Caleb Chukwuemeka makes his sole appearance for Villa before being released in June 2023.

Frédéric Guilbert made the last of his 32 appearances for the club (28 Starts) since joining from Caen in January 2019 to leave with a record of W11 D6 L15, 3 Goals, 3 Assists and 6 Bookings.

Conor Hourihane made his 151st and final appearance for the club since joining in January 2017 to lave a record of W67 D35 L49, 29 Goals, 22 Assists and 25 Bookings.

Anwar El Ghazi contributes his 40th goal involvement and scores his 25th goal for the club on his 110th appearance (85 Starts) to make it W40 D25 L45, 26 Goals, 15 Assists, 11 Bookings and 1 Red Card so far in his Villa career.

Jed Steer keeps his 10th clean sheet in a Villa shirt on his 34th appearance (33 Starts) since arriving at the club 8 years previously to make it W21 D3 L10, 33 Goals Conceded and 10 Clean Sheets so far in his Villa career.

The opposition, Barrow, didn’t feature a single homegrown player in their squad of 18 but fielded fourteen players from the home nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.